Chapter 4 Brutus
brUTUS
Lying to Anna made me feel like shit. But I had to speak with Cap without her around.
I just got an email back from our DOJ contact.
“Cap,” I barked as I stormed into the common room.
His head whipped to face me. “What’s up?”
I just held up my cell phone and wiggled it.
“Let me up, beautiful,” he said as he patted Ariel’s thigh.
“Awww, do you have to go?” she whined.
I just slowly looked up at the ceiling while the sounds of kissing could be heard.
I grew tired of all the public displays of affection.
“All right, come on,” Cap said.
I nodded and returned my head back to a normal position before I followed next to the man that led us.
“Anything bad in the email?” he muttered as we wove our way through the safehouse.
I just stayed silent, peering over my shoulder to make sure no one was following us.
Like Anna, for starters.
I swear to God, that woman could’ve had a hell of a career as a stealth operative.
The instant Cap closed the door behind me, I handed him the phone. I watched his gaze scan the screen while I waited with my arms crossed over my chest. His lips quirked into a grin, which I knew was coming, but when he got to the important part, there was a downright shit-eating smile on his face.
“Oh hell yeah,” he said as he handed me the phone.
“Do you want a copy?” I asked.
He crooked an eyebrow. “You’re not forwarding me on all of these?”
“This one was sent to me. Not part of the original email chain.”
He furrowed his brow and held his hand back out, wiggling his fingers.
He studied the email one last time, clicking around on some things. His eyes flickered back to me every once in a while, and the question that I knew he was going to ask dropped from his mouth.
“Are we sure this is our contact?”
I just nodded. “Same email. Same tone. Same canter of words. This is our contact, just reaching out to us first.”
His nostrils flared before he looked down at the email one last time.
I knew what he was thinking: we couldn’t afford to misstep again.
Because of what I left behind at the house.
I’d do it a million times over with no one’s permission, though.
I sure as shit wasn’t leaving that woman behind.
Not that I thought Cap would have left her behind, but he questioned his steps. Questioned his ways.
I figured protecting Ariel had something to do with that.
“Captain,” I said.
His eyes whipped up to me. “What’s up?”
I held out my hand. “We’re a go, Cap.”
He looked at me for a second before he nodded. “Yeah right.”
I furrowed my brow. “You don’t look pleased.”
He handed the phone back to me again. “Just… been a long road.”
“You can say that twice,” I grumbled.
He grinned. “Just… been a long road.”
I shot him a look. “I hate that Dad joke shit you do.”
He shrugged. “Gotta practice, you know. Never know.”
I froze. “What?”
He didn’t quite meet my eyes when he said his next set of words. “I don’t know, just been thinking.”
“About…?”
He drew in a deep breath before his attention returned to me. “About what’s happening after all this.”
“You mean, how we go back to all of our businesses in Redd Valley and keep trucking as a crew?”
He shot me a look. “You can’t deny that life has changed for a lot of us around here.”
Translation? Everyone’s no longer lonely except me.
“So?” I asked with a shrug.
Cap sighed as he peered over his shoulder as if he checked to make sure no one was around. And then, he patted my shoulder as he stepped closer.
“One day, you’ll understand.”
I blinked. “Understand what?”
But he just chuckled as he backtracked from the room. He pointed at the phone in my hand. “Copy me on the email response, and make sure Ranger has access to print out hard copies. I want to create a file of everything now that we’re moving forward with things.”
“Yeah, yeah, I can do that. But—”
“Thanks, Brutus,” he said as he raised his hand.
He practically darted down the hallway.
One day, you’ll understand.
These men were insufferable when they got their dicks wet.
“Whatever,” I muttered as I looked at the email one last time.
The email from our contact was simple: we gathered enough evidence for them to start opening up files.
I needed to tell them about our latest surveillance efforts.
So when my fingers danced over the keyboard, that’s where I started.
I told them about the distraction we created to set up cameras and microphones that we’re monitoring from a safehouse, and that we rescued another woman from a cage.
I told our contact how we came across dead bodies in the house that we set shit up in, and that we can even go so far as to pinpoint the exact location in the state park where this was taking place.
Apparently, the DOJ really didn’t like the fact that these assholes were holed up in a state park.
But after responding to the email and forwarding everything to both Cap and Ranger, my phone almost immediately dinged.
With another email from our contact.
“What the fuck?” I muttered.
I barely got my other email sent off before another reply came in, so I knew it had nothing to do with what I had just told the fucker. But when I opened the email, I hardly believed my eyes.
“Caaaaaaap!?” I bellowed out.
My eyes widened with every word as I heard him curse beneath his breath.
“Cap!” I barked as my head whipped up.
He slammed the door open. “What?”
“You need to see this,” I said as I held out my phone to him.
He just gave me a shrug and a look before he came over and took my phone back from me. And when his eyes widened, I knew that I had the proper reaction.
“What the fuck? Was this in response to what you sent?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I literally sent off my response seconds before this rolled through. This is new.”
His eyes dropped back down to the email, his gaze scanning it once. Twice. Three, and even four times. He ran his hand through his hair as he dumped the phone back into my hand.
“Jesus fuck, what have we gotten into?” he grumbled as he slid his hands down his face. “I thought the last email said—?”
I went back to the other email and just read the part out loud. “You and your crew have done your country a service, like most of you already have. We will begin the process of opening the proper channels and starting the proper files so that we can come take a look at things.”
Cap dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. “And what does the latest email say?”
I cleared my throat and read the first sentence. “On the back of what I said in our last email, until we can get the necessary files open and have a team assigned to your case, I am deputizing your crew.”
“Oh God,” Cap groaned.
I continued. “You have helped so far, so if you wish to continue helping, you have the full force of the DOJ behind you. Keep investigating, keep me up to date, and keep any kind of log you can.”
“Oh my God,” Cap hissed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
I continued with the email. “And until such time as you hear from me again, keep it above board and legal. Anything you gather, we want to be able to utilize in a court of law. You’ll hear from me again once a team has been deputized and is on their way.
And until the meantime, this email serves as the deputizing of your crew.
Good work, gentlemen. You should be proud. ”
“Oh, gag me,” Cap grumbled as he turned away from me.
I slid my phone into my pocket. “Isn’t this a good thing, Cap?”
He sighed heavily and braced his hands on top of his head, linking his fingers together. “Yeah, it is.”
“You don’t seem happy about it.”
“I’m not.”
I tilted my head. “Why, Boss?”
“Just tired of doing this to the girls,” he groaned as he cupped his hands over his face.
“Tired of keeping them cooped up. Tired of keeping them away from their lives. Jasmine already lost her job over this. Ariel’s isn’t looking too hot, since the school year is about to begin and she’s still not back at work. ”
But then, just like I knew it would eventually, Cap’s brain kicked in. He turned back around to face me, his hands sliding from his face. “In the email, what was that line?”
“Which one?”
He squinted his eyes as he gazed off at the wall. “The one about above board and legal?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, they just need us operating by the book so that whatever we gather, they can use.”
He grinned at me. “You know what that means?”
I blinked. “That we’re officially an extension of the DOJ right now?”
He chuckled and placed his hands on both of my shoulders. “It means we get to fill the police departments in on what’s going on. Every single one that has been touched and governs the state park. How many police precincts reside over the state park?”
“I’m sure Ranger can figure it out.”
He patted my shoulders. “Good. Go take this to him. We need to start opening official files that the DOJ can search in their systems, and that means officially looping the police precincts in on things.”
“Do you want me to gather the guys for a—”
“CHUUUUUURCH!” Cap bellowed as he leaned his head out into the hallway.
Then he looked back at me. “Let’s go. We need a meeting.”
Sure as shit didn’t have to tell me twice.
Because we really fucking did.