Chapter 24 #2
“Two separate situations there,” Riley remarked.
“Drew and her team will sort the moonchild and her games out, although I’m not personally convinced any of what she’s involved in will be a direct issue for APS in the end.
Reflex, however? Their sleazy con with embezzlement and money laundering is finally coming to a head.
When law enforcement arrests them, with help from the mountain of evidence APS and Infinity have collected, they will cease to be our concern. ”
?ω?ω?ω?
“I feel so bad for Indi’s client,” sighed Brooke as she gave Blake one last kiss before they left their apartment.
India was already waiting for them at the front entrance to the apartments so that she and Brooke could head over to Cask & Canvas.
“She told me that asshole Rob Kilgore had taken everything from Marion. Ask me if I feel bad that fucker’s dead.
But,” the corner of her mouth lifted as she smirked, “although she hasn’t said much—because she and the Forrester sisters are about as closed-mouthed as APS—I have a sneaking suspicion Indi is hanging around because she plans to raid Kilgore’s assets and recover as much as she can for Marion before she goes back to Tallahassee. ”
“Good for her, although you have to wonder if Kilgore actually kept the stash of stolen goods and cash that belonged to the victims he fleeced up in North Florida, like Marion, hidden up there.” Blake escorted her out of the apartment.
“The vast majority of his grifts took place offline, which means he had a fuckton of stolen physical goods and cash lying around. Hauling the entirety of that shit everywhere he went wouldn’t have been practical.
He probably has a stash in every location he hit. ”
They reached the front entrance, where Indi was waiting for them.
“Take care of my woman, Indi,” Blake said after giving Brooke one more kiss.
The three of them headed across the street so Brooke and Indi could get Brooke’s car, and Blake could head back to Utopia.
“Better yet, make sure you stay the fuck out of the way if someone pisses her off,” she advised, grinning.
“This is not a temper you want to detonate on any level.”
Indi laughed in her quiet way while a small smile crossed Brooke’s expression. “I think I’ve already figured that out, Blake.”
After Blake, Drew, and the twins had finished with their impromptu update in Bryn’s office, Bryn had summoned the rest of the APS management team to the Bunker, where Blake had filled the rest of them in.
“We don’t keep secrets from each other,” she had said, uncharacteristically grave.
“Never have, never will. The reason I wanted to run all this by the twins and Drew first before bringing it to you was because it’s such a tangled clusterfuck of shit, the last thing I needed to do was babble like a goddamn lunatic trying to explain everything before I had made sense of it myself. ”
“You act as though that’s not behavior we’re used to from you,” Casey had smirked as the management team had burst out laughing.
Shooting her the finger, Blake had relaxed, shaking her head.
“Seriously, cuz, we get it. The whole Reflex deal is a fucked-up mess, plus we’ve had Infinity involved on top of it.
Right now, though, it sounds like we’re in a pretty good position to kick their asses to the curb and neuter them. ”
Now, Brooke and Indi climbed into Brooke’s car and left the APS complex to head to Cask & Canvas.
“When I finally heard back from Gene, I told him I had my key, so there was no reason for him to come down unless he wanted to. He didn’t feel that was necessary, he said.
I think I know exactly where I left the art piece, unless those skanky fuckers messed with it, which I doubt.
We should be in and out. Although,” she grinned at Indi with a devious side-eye, “I may feel a teensy, weensy compulsion to snoop around the office for a minute or five before we take off.”
Indi burst out laughing, her eyes alert to the scenery around them, even as she raised an amused brow at Brooke. “I’m armed with a revolver loaded with a full moon clip, my friend. As long as you keep your chaos to a minimum, we should be just fine.”
The drive to the microbrewery passed quickly.
“It’s weird I haven’t heard a peep from Reflex.
I mean, I had them blocked because they were getting on my nerves, but they haven’t tried to call at all this afternoon, according to my blocklist. Maybe they finally got the hint to leave me alone.
I have my gun on me, too, by the way,” Brooke said as she pulled in front of Cask & Canvas.
“Admittedly, being armed in public all the time sucks, but I’ve learned that’s part of life when you’re either dating or married to an APS badass. ”
“You sound just like Shae’s wife,” Indi told her, holding out her hand for the microbrewery key.
Before she opened the car door, she said, “Stay right behind me, Brooke. I’ll be moving fast to the entrance.
After we go in and I relock the front door, move to the side and stand right by the front door while I clear the space.
” She handed Brooke a small but powerful penlight.
“No overhead lights, please. I don’t want to advertise that anyone is in here.
“The fact that the blocklist on your phone is empty because none of them have attempted to call you even once in the last six hours or so—after constantly blowing up your phone—is giving me the heebie-jeebies. Let’s do what we need to do so we can get out of here, okay?
Something tells me our friends from Reflex still aren’t done playing their games. ”