Chapter 10
Ten
Dime
"Are y'all gonna be okay here?" I ask Allison and Dani as Devil and I stand in the doorway of my house.
"We're gonna be fine." Allison grins over at me.
It's been a couple of days since Principal Harrison brought Whiskers over, and each day Allison is getting better than she was before. Which is why Devil and I are leaving them together tonight.
"If you need anything, you know how to get a hold of us." I throw her a wink as I hold up my cell phone.
"Y'all go do whatever it is you need to do," Dani yells toward them. "We'll be perfectly fine without you."
"Oh I'll remember that shit," Devil laughs, lifting his eyebrows up.
Dani blows him a kiss, and the two of them basically shove us out the door.
I can hear them laughing as we walk to our bikes, and it makes the tightness that's been in my chest ease.
Allison's laugh has been rare these last few days, and hearing it now reminds me of why I'm doing all of this.
Why I've spent years undercover, why I'm willing to risk everything to bring down the Rebels and whoever's helping them.
"She's doing better," Devil says as he swings his leg over his bike.
"Yeah, she is." I pull on my helmet. "Thanks for giving us the space we needed."
"That's what brothers do." He starts his engine. "Now let's go handle this shit so she can keep getting better without worrying about what's coming next."
The ride to Saint's Outlaws garage takes about fifteen minutes. The streets are quiet this time of night, most of the town already tucked in for the evening. But the garage is lit up, and I can see Lee's bike parked out front.
We pull in and kill our engines. The garage is closed to the public, but the lights in the back office are on. Lee's waiting for us there, and from the look on his face, he's got something.
"Dime, Devil," he greets us as we walk in. He's got a notebook in front of him, and he looks tired. Kid's been putting in serious hours on this surveillance.
"Lee." Devil nods at him. "What've you got?"
Lee flips open the notebook, and I can see pages of notes, times, locations. The prospect's been thorough, I'll give him that. "I've been tailing Logan like you asked. Kid doesn't go many places. School, home, sometimes to his buddy's house on the east side."
"But?" I can hear the 'but' coming.
"But three times in the last four days, he's gone to a warehouse on the south end of town. You know the old Strather place?"
I exchange a look with Devil. The Strather warehouse has been abandoned for years, or at least that's what everyone thinks. It's in a part of town where nobody goes unless they're up to no good. Back in the day, they used to store Moonshine in it.
"I know it," Devil says. "What's he doing there?"
"That's the thing. He goes in, stays for maybe twenty minutes, then leaves. But he's not the only one going in and out of that place." Lee flips a page in his notebook. "I've seen at least four different guys that match the description of Rebels members going in and out over the last few days."
My hands curl into fists. "You sure they're Rebels?"
"Pretty sure. One of them had the patch on his back. The others, I couldn't see clearly enough, but they rode in together, parked their bikes behind the building where they can't be seen from the road."
"What else?" Devil asks, leaning against the desk.
"There's been shipments. At least two that I've seen. Trucks pulling up, unloading crates, then leaving. I couldn't get close enough to see what was in the crates without blowing my cover, but whatever it is, they're being careful about it."
"How big were the crates?" I ask.
Lee holds his hands about two feet apart. "About this size. Not huge, but not small either. Could be anything from weapons to drugs to fucking electronics for all I know."
Devil runs a hand over his face. "And Logan's going in there on the regular?"
"Three times in four days, yeah. Always around the same time, too. Between seven and eight at night."
"That's not random," I say. "Kid's got a schedule, which means he's involved in whatever's happening there."
"That's what I figured." Lee closes the notebook. "I got pictures too, if you want to see them."
He pulls out his phone and starts swiping through photos. They're grainy, taken from a distance, but they show exactly what he's been describing. Logan's car parked outside the warehouse. Bikes I recognize as Rebels rides. Trucks with out-of-state plates.
"Good work," Devil tells him, and Lee straightens up a little at the praise. "Real good work. You did exactly what we needed you to do."
"What's next?" Lee asks.
Devil and I exchange another look. This is the moment where we have to decide how far to take this. We could go in ourselves, do our own recon, maybe even confront whoever's in that warehouse. But that would be risky, and it could blow everything we've been working toward.
Or we could do this the right way. The legal way.
"You head home," Devil tells Lee. "Get some rest. You've earned it."
"You sure? I can keep watching," he offers.
"We're sure." I clap him on the shoulder. "You've given us what we need. Let us take it from here."
Lee looks like he wants to argue, but he nods. "Alright. But if you need me for anything else, you call."
"We will."
We wait until Lee's gone before we speak again. The garage is quiet now, just the two of us and the hum of the fluorescent lights overhead.
"We need to call Chief Harrison," I say.
"I know." Devil pulls out his phone, staring at it. "But once we do this, there's no going back. If that warehouse is what we think it is, and the Clarks are involved, this whole thing is going to blow wide open."
"Good. That's what we want, isn't it? To shut down the Rebels, stop the drugs from coming into town?"
"Yeah, but it also means putting a bigger target on our backs. The Clarks have power in this town. If they find out we're the ones who brought the cops down on them…"
"Then we deal with it." I cross my arms. "We've been dealing with worse for years. At least this time we'll be doing it to protect people who matter."
Devil's quiet for a moment, then he nods. "You're right. Fuck it, let's do this."
He dials Chief Harrison's number, putting it on speaker so we can both hear. The chief picks up on the third ring.
"Devil. It's late. This better be good."
"It is," Devil says. "We've got information on that warehouse situation we've been working."
I hear papers rustling on the other end. "I'm listening."
"We've had someone watching Logan Matthews. Kid's been making regular trips to the old Strather warehouse on the south end. We've also got confirmation that Rebels members are frequenting the same location."
"How regular?"
"Three times in four days for Logan. The Rebels, we've seen at least four different members coming and going. There's also been shipments. Trucks with out-of-state plates delivering crates."
Harrison's quiet for a long moment. "You got pictures?"
"Yeah. Our guy got photos of the vehicles, the people, timestamps, everything."
"Send them to me. Now."
Devil pulls the phone away from his ear long enough to text the photos Lee sent us over to Harrison. We wait, listening to the silence on the other end as he looks through them.
"These are good," Harrison says finally. "Real good. This might be enough for a warrant."
"That's what we're thinking," I say. "We want to do this right, Chief. No cowboy shit, no going in blind. We want you to secure a warrant, do a legal search."
"And if we find what we think we're going to find?"
"Then you arrest everyone involved and shut the operation down." Devil's voice is hard. "We want the Rebels out of our town, and we want whoever's helping them to pay."
"Even if it's the Clarks?"
"Especially if it's the Clarks," I say. "Money doesn't buy immunity from dealing poison to kids."
Harrison makes a sound that might be approval. "Alright. I'll get started on the warrant first thing in the morning. But this needs to be airtight. I can't go to a judge with just surveillance photos and suspicions. I need probable cause."
"Kids at the high school have OD'd on fentanyl-laced weed," Devil says. "A few of them pointed to Logan being the person they got it from. Now he's making regular trips to a warehouse where known drug dealers are operating. That's not suspicious, that's a pattern."
"It's a start. Let me work on it. In the meantime, you two stay clear of that warehouse. Don't go near it, don't do anything that could compromise this investigation."
"We won't," I assure him. "We want this done right."
"Good. I'll be in touch."
The line goes dead, and Devil and I are left standing in the quiet garage.
"You think he'll get the warrant?" I ask.
"If anyone can, it's Chief Harrison. He wants the Rebels gone just as bad as we do."
I nod, but there's a knot of tension in my gut that won't ease. This is it. We're making our move, setting everything in motion. And once we do, there's no taking it back.
"You worried?" Devil asks.
"About the warrant? No. About what comes after?" I look at him. "Yeah. Because if this goes sideways, if the Clarks figure out we're the ones who brought them down, Allison becomes a target. Dani becomes a target. Everyone we care about."
"They're already targets," Devil says quietly. "The moment Logan walked into that classroom and pointed a gun at Allison, she became part of this. The moment Dani got involved with me, she did too. We're just trying to make sure they're safe in the long run."
He's right, and I know it. But that doesn't make it easier.
"Come on," Devil says, heading for the door. "Let's get back to our women. They're probably wondering where we are."
We ride back in silence, the weight of what we've just set in motion heavy on both our shoulders. But when I pull up to my house and see the lights on inside, see Allison's silhouette through the window, some of that weight lifts.
This is why I'm doing this. For her. For us. For a future where she doesn't have to worry about poison in her classroom or danger at every turn.
And whatever it takes to make that future happen, I'm ready.