Chapter 15 #2
“How?” I asked, looking at Eric who was now leaning back against the bar wall with his hands folded over his chest.
He shook his head like the information he was about to part with didn’t matter.
“I took a trip to Dallas to visit Clint’s family.
They send their love, by the way.” He paused, taking in my reaction and seeming somewhat pleased with himself.
“They gave me Clint’s old letters. I even got the ones mentioning Harry in them.
I took them to Jon Taylor’s house. Jon’s widow was very accommodating in getting me the key to their place via Howard Sutton. ”
“Sutton’s been in on this?” I scowled.
“Not really,” Eric answered. “But the guy loves you, too, and he was happy to help. So I got the key, planted the letters in Jon Taylor’s house, along with some of the evidence Ayda pulled from Owen’s place and Harry’s files.
Evidence that made it look like Taylor was confiscating the letters from the prisoners before they were sent, and keeping them in safe hiding for Mayor Walsh and Sinclair. ”
I blinked hard, trying to keep track of it all, but Eric’s voice was soon taking over the room again.
“Mix that with the evidence I left in the back of the repo truck I dumped in the water just off his land, there was enough to suggest some shady shit has been going down between those three men. Shit that was done in an attempt to pin murders, corruption, drug deals, and money laundering on The Hounds of Babylon.”
“Fuck,” I whispered, looking back at Jedd. “How did all this get back to ATF?”
“When Sutton was on shift, he came to visit me in the cell. He told me whenever Eric had a message, and he passed those messages on.”
“Messages telling you the evidence was in place, and you could give the ATF your suspicions?”
“Something like that.” He beamed, clearly proud of himself.
“And she bought it? Winnie trusted you?”
It was Jedd’s turn to swallow, a look of bashfulness creeping over him for a split second before he smoothed down his long, black beard and cleared his throat. “Let’s just say that a bond was forged in there. One I think Winnie actually believes exists mutually.”
I raised my brow in question.
“It never hurts to have people in high places wanting to fuck you.”
“You fucking snake,” I forced out through a proud smile.
I had no idea if there was more going on with Jedd and Winnie than he was letting on, but right now, I couldn’t think about that.
“Okay, so what about Walsh? Where does Rubin tie in with all this? I know you said he’s working for us on the inside, but how? ”
“He’s getting ready to set his father up as we speak.”
“Just like that.” I shrugged sarcastically. “No remorse, no guilt, no questions?”
“Apparently not.”
“And how does he plan on doing that? How does he plan on going against someone with Walsh’s obvious experience of being a two-faced triple threat?”
“You need to have more faith.”
“I need to have more facts.”
“Fine. Rubin has the laptop Ayda grabbed from Owen’s place…” Eric interrupted, dragging my attention to him. “Once I got it unlocked by some guys I used to know down in Corsicana… I guess that’s when I really knew we were going to be okay.”
I found myself leaning closer, desperate to put myself nearer a definite happy ending that was being dangled in front of me like a fucking carrot.
“Cut the shit, Eric. Give it to me straight. Tell me what we’ve got on him.”
“Yeah, man, spit it out. I’m fucking dying over here,” Slater grumbled behind me.
“It turns out Owen really did have a lot of insurances in place of his own: taped meetings between him, Jon Taylor, and Mayor Walsh. Photographs of warehouses filled with guns, drugs, and a basement or two that showed pictures of safes being stuffed with money by guys dressed in black. Owen knew he was running a dangerous gauntlet, and that fucker wanted crash mats all around him if anyone from the other side ever decided to turn.”
My blood boiled at the thought of one of our own deceiving us that way, but then my mind went to something else. “Which meant he had all those insurances on us, too.”
“He had a fucking lot of shit on us, Drew.”
“What kind of shit?” I asked, my heart picking up speed.
He tilted his head to one side, his sympathy pouring out of him in the form of a sigh. “Owen had cameras all over The Hut. In cars out in the yard, on bikes.”
“My fucking bike?” I asked in a rush. “How the fuck wouldn’t I have seen those?”
“They make them the size of a needlepoint now. You’d have to be looking, and since we didn’t expect a rat…”
“We didn’t see shit.” I slammed my fist down angrily, pushing my fists into my forehead as the rage built up inside of me.
“Tell me what he had,” I ground out, too furious to look up.
Memories of random kills in the nights with Eric taunted me, where grief provided too much of a blinker on any consequences, and rage was the fuel that kept us hurting people.
Flashes of Hernandez and The Emps. Nights where Ayda and I had ridden out and…
My head shot up at once. “Did he have pictures of Ayda?” I growled. “Did that sick fuck have pictures of my girl?”
“Drew, you—”
“Tell me, Eric, or so help me...”
He blinked twice before he answered. “He had pictures of everyone. Videos, too.”
I found myself jumping from my stool, needing to burn off the energy by pacing back and forth.
“Jesus Christ,” I hissed.
“Brother,” Jedd said as he tried to reach for my arm, but I shrugged him off. Sinclair had seen my girl naked, hadn’t he? He’d seen us… both of us… doing… what? Everything. Every fucking thing. What had he seen? What had he heard? What had he passed on to Walsh and Taylor?
Placing my hands on my hips, I came to a stop, closed my eyes and let my head hang.
“If he wasn’t already dead, I’d rip that man to pieces all over again. I’d tear his tongue from his mouth and feed it to the sewer rats. I’d spoon his fucking eyeballs out and then shove them down his raw, bleeding throat.”
“What’s done is done, Drew,” Eric told me firmly, no emotion in his voice.
I looked up slowly and met his gaze, sadness coating my eyes.
“And everything he ever had on us is gone,” he added.
“Tomorrow, we’ll get Kenny and Slater to sweep every building we own.
They can make sure there are no more cameras in place. ”
“Did you see it?” I asked sharply, not caring about tomorrow, just needing to know. “Did you see the shit Owen had on my girl?”
“I’m not that sick to watch.”
“And where is it all now?”
“It’s like it never existed,” Eric confirmed, his confidence shining through with the slight lift of his chin.
“How do we know he hasn’t, you know…” I waved a hand around flippantly. “Whatever Tate and Rubin always say they’re doing with their cells. Backed stuff up or whatever?”
“The guys in Corsicana helped me delete all the accounts it could be connected to. If any of it is in cyberspace, it’s a million light years away.”
“And you can trust those tech guys?”
Eric narrowed his eyes. “Never work with anyone you don’t have a hold over. I’ve got my own shit on them. Don’t you worry. They’re too afraid to look me in the eye, never mind cross me.”
“You’re a real shady motherfucker, ain’t you?” I asked in absolute seriousness.
“When it comes to those I love, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to protect them.”
And despite all his years of absence, I was beginning to struggle to find any hint of a lie in his statements.
Running my hands through my hair, I blew out a breath and held them at the back of my neck. “Okay, so now what do we do?”
Eric glanced at Jedd, and Jedd turned to me, holding my gaze. The baton had been handed back to my VP.
“Now, we wait for Winnie and her crew to raid Walsh’s house. Once they’ve got him, all of this is over, Drew.”
“Nothing is ever that easy for The Hounds of Babylon, Jedd.”
“Well, there is one more thing we need to take care of before all this is set into motion. Something that we can’t overlook now I’m out of custody.”
I frowned harder. “Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like what you have to say?
Jedd’s smile could have outshone the sun, and his eyes twinkled with delight.
“One of our men just died, pres. It’s time for us to dig out the black outfits and turn on the crocodile tears.
We’ve got an entire town to convince, not just the law.
If we don’t mourn that son of a bitch, we’re back under the spotlight of suspicion.
Whether we like it or not, we have a funeral to arrange. ”