Chapter 10
As he surveyed the street out the front window, standing at an angle hidden by the vertical blinds, Dane was surprised to see Joe return not an hour after he’d left.
He heard the garage door open and the car pull inside.
When he turned to meet Joe and Tillie at the door from the garage, he almost bumped into Shana.
She gave him one of her brilliant, heart-stopping smiles and he wondered if he’d ever get over the effect she had on him.
Equal parts of him hoped he did and hoped he didn’t.
Before they opened the door, Tillie came bursting through. She saw Shana first and flung herself into her daughter’s arms, shoving him aside. Dane smiled in spite of himself, in spite of everything. Joe followed inside and he and Dane joined Billy in the living room.
“Anyone try to follow you?”
“Yes, I lost them. But I’ll need to get rid of the rental car and get a different one.”
“And use a different name,” Dane said. “Better yet, I’ll get one too with my new ID.”
“Good plan.”
“Any new identification in your bag of tricks for me or am I doomed to sit in this hovel for the duration?” Billy said
“You’re here guarding your mother. I assume you know how to handle a weapon?”
Billy scoffed. “Sure. What weapon?”
“I brought a few of those along,” said Joe.
Billy blew out a whistle. “How the hell did you manage that?”
Tillie spoke up. “I know where a person can buy their guns and ammo.”
Dane looked at her. She was a pip.
“Mum, really?” Shana shook her head. “Let’s make dinner. You remembered the food, Joe?”
Joe nodded and helped her carry the bags into the kitchen. Dane and Billy followed. They all sat in the kitchen and watched Tillie cook. While they ate a meal of burgers and salad, they continued their discussion.
“Now all we need is a plan to do something with all these disguises, IDs, weapons, and cars,” Joe said. He turned to Dane and raised a brow in expectation.
“Why are you looking at me? Do I look like the idea man here?” He missed Cap at that moment. But Joe was a good substitute for his good friend Captain Colin Lynch, who had stayed back home on Martha’s Vineyard. So far.
“Don’t play games, Dane.” Shana scowled and stood, impatience taking over
“Fine. It’s simple and don’t you pretend you haven’t already thought of it.
” He paused a beat for her acknowledgment.
She turned to him. Then she made a rolling motion with her hand to prompt him to continue.
He looked around the room. No one else said a thing, but they all watched him, expecting him to have the plan at the ready.
“All we need to do is get Chancy to confess that the police insider is not Shana, that it’s Wade Grisk.
And while we’re at it, we’ll get Chancy to tell us where all the money is.
He has access to at least part of it or he wouldn’t have taken his prison sentence without squealing on Grisk, and he wouldn’t be lying for him now. ”
No one responded for a beat.
“How the hell do you propose we get Chancy to confess?” Billy asked.
“We set him up. We use the goat on a rope method, with the goat wired for sound.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Billy said, more confused than frustrated.
Joe nodded. Shana ran the plan through her mind, through her protocol of checks for flaws, her face blank while she processed.
Dane smiled at Billy. “The goat is a trap, a sacrificial pawn, bait left out for the wolves to find. Then we ambush the wolves.”
“Damn. Who plays the goat?”
“I do,” Dane said.
At the exact same time Shana said, “I do.”
“Damn,” Joe said.
“Girlie, there’s no way in hell you’re playing the goat in this scenario.” Dane spoke firmly, without raising his voice. All eyes were on him, but he lasered in on Shana’s flashing green stare.
“You know as well as I do the only way this will work is if I’m the goat,” she said. “I’m the one they want.”
“That’s exactly why they’re not getting you. It’ll be game over if they do. They want me too, and they’ll settle for me with the promise of leading them to you. It gives us a chance to get the confession we need without giving away our ace—you.”
She stared at him. At first her face was blank, running through his logic, then he watched it crumble, break down bit by bit, emotions taking over.
Acknowledgment that he was right, anger, concern, then all giving way to full-on fear.
He saw the terror that he would be vulnerable, that he could be lost to her.
“Don’t worry. They won’t do anything permanent to me. They want you, so they’ll use me as a bargaining chip. Or that’s what they’ll intend to do. But we’ll be ready. We’ll create a setup so that we get our intel and expose them before they get very far.”
“Sounds good,” Joe said.
“Where do we find Peterson?” Billy asked.
“That’ll be a job for the team. We’ll need to go where Chancy’s people are to find him.”
“Count me in,” Joe said.
Dane nodded. “You’re first team backup.”
“I’ll be there—” Shana spoke, but Dane cut her off.
“You’ll be here with your mother and Billy.”
“I can wear a disguise,” she said, but her voice faded as she knew it would be a futile effort, wasted energy to talk to him about it.
“No flipping way. You can’t put yourself out there.”
“I can’t sit by and do nothing while you play bait,” she said.
Joe spoke up, “I’ll have his back, Shana. I’m up to it. I’ve done it before. With the governor’s team. I know how this works.”
“If anyone wears a disguise and plays second backup, it’ll be Billy.”
“What about me?” Tillie said. “I can handle a gun if I have to.”
Shana scoffed. Billy looked horrified.
Dane forced himself not to smile, not to be patronizing. Noticing that Joe looked at her with regard, Dane spoke up.
“You can make sure no one gets to Shana, Tillie. She can use the help here in case they find our location.”
“I’ll put together the equipment,” Joe said. Dane knew he was talking weapons. So did Shana. Billy and his mother could only guess and he wanted to keep it that way.
“We’ll go at midnight.”