9. Dax
DAX
“I’m impressed, guys. This is a good plan.
Now we just need to find the best way to make it happen,” I said, taking a break from stuffing my face with the dinner Eagle made.
“I feel like the mole in the Phantom Saints might actually be harder to figure out because anyone who’s a member can be on the compound, right? ”
“That’s true, and Tilly is a known member and fairly easy to keep track of,” Sprocket agreed.
“Since she does work for us, a fair amount of people have her number too. Not that it wouldn’t be hard for some hacker to find it.
Since Gator and Mutt aren’t really prominent members, they don’t take the same precautions as we do in guarding our information. ”
Tapping my fork against my plate as I thought, I met Cam’s gaze.
“This might be the perfect situation to bring your dad in on. He can infiltrate the crew and get to the bottom of it while we’re dealing with the matters in the Empire.
My goal is to have this shit handled in the next week so we can start dealing with the bigger matters at hand.
If we don’t get rid of these moles, then any plan we come up with and share outside of this room will be a bust.”
“You know my dad would be thrilled to help you. He loves a good roleplay moment,” Cam answered, pulling out his phone.
“It would be best for me to just tell him what’s going on and let him come up with his backstory.
The more room you give him to play, the faster this will get done.
He can’t help himself when he’s having fun. ”
I leaned back in my chair, looking at Eagle still cooking omelets. “You cool with that, Pres?”
“As long as he doesn’t fuck shit up that I have to fix later, I’m down for whatever needs to happen,” he answered as he flipped the omelet out of the pan only to brandish it at Cam.
“If I find out this is a plan to get inside my compound for the FBI or someone else to take over, I don’t give a fuck if Dax gets mad at me, I’m killing you. ”
“Oh, you wouldn’t be in trouble for that. He’d deserve it,” I offered with a smile.
Cam’s response was to hit the call button, and the sound of ringing filled the room. “Good evening, dear boy. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you again so soon. Oh, hello, Dax, is the rest of your harem there? If so, hello to you too!”
“Dante, we need your help,” I called out, beating Cam to the punch.
“Well, isn’t that just delightful music to my ears? Now, tell me, sugar, how can I be of assistance to you?” Dante purred.
Cam held up a hand, stopping me from talking with a shake of his head—let me—he mouthed.
“It seems there’s a mole in the Phantom Saints.
Someone had been keeping an eye on Dax and her men, reporting their movements to either the Mad Dogs or the De León Cartel.
Trouble is, we’re working on a bigger plan to take down both groups, and we can’t have any leaks. ”
“Sounds positively delightful. Do you have a cover story for me, or do I get to make that up myself?”
“Dad, if we let you come in and do this your own way, there needs to be certain rules set in place,” Cam warned.
I could hear the pout that Dante was giving to the phone. “Son, it’s not nice to play your darling father like that. You know I won’t be able to resist the offer to play this the way I want to… what are the terms?”
“The mole is your mission. Don’t take this as an opportunity to get more information on any of Dax’s men or their operation.
There will also be no bugs or cameras placed without consent from Eagle or Dax, and they must be removed when the job is done.
Finally, you’re not allowed to tell anyone you’re connected to Dax or me.
Any other story is fine, but we’re too close to this.
I can’t risk they’ll believe you, and you get wrapped up in the middle of this,” Cam instructed.
“It does my heart good to hear you say such sweet things, child,” Dante gushed. “Fine, I’ll agree to all your fussy rules since you’re allowing me so much creative freedom. How do you want me to report what I find back to you?”
At this question, I waved over Wes who had a slew of burner emails for us to use for things like this. Rolling his eyes, he pushed away from the table and grabbed his laptop and returned.
“This is a dead-drop email, Dante. We can receive information but not send from this email. We’ll reach out to you through Cam or Dax. Anyone else who contacts you isn’t to be trusted, even if it’s me or the others of the Saints’ leadership,” Wes directed as he gave the email.
“Weston, you wound me, making it sound like this is my first job.” Dante tutted. “Trust me, if you called me, I’d know it wasn’t by choice. Although if that day ever did happen, I would happily enter into negotiations with Dax for shared time.”
Wes clenched his jaw as Dante perfectly got under his skin.
Before either of us knew who Dante was, he’d managed to trick Wes into thinking he was a businessman wanting to work with us, but his condition was to go on a date with Wes.
When it came to light who and what Dante was, Wes was furious about the advances he let slide to secure the man’s business.
“Now, now, Dante, play nice. We’re giving you a dream job,” I cut in. With a click of his tongue, Dante hung up, letting me know the matter was settled.
The rest of the guys just looked at Cam and me in confusion. “That’s it?” Picasso asked, his brows scrunched.
“Welcome to working with Dante. He had everything he needed for the job. He was just lingering to get under Weston’s skin. It seems to be an inherited favorite pastime,” Cam answered with a smirk. “My dad will reach out to me or through the email if he needs more information.”
“Does he even know where the compound is or who any of us are?” Cognac questioned, rubbing his buzzed head.
This made me laugh. I’d just taken a large gulp of orange juice, and it started to come out my nose.
I quickly swallowed the rest and started to mop up my face with the napkin Sprocket handed to me.
“Sorry, I wasn’t laughing at you, Cognac.
It was more of the idea that if Dante has been helping Cam keep tabs on me, then he knows far more about you and the Phantom Saints than you want him to.
Remember, he’s a con artist and thief, so he knows how to get in and out of places unnoticed and convince people to tell him things they normally wouldn’t.
This is why Cam set the rules he did with his dad. ”
Eagle slammed his plate on the table as he finally joined us. “Are you telling me that man has been watching us since we took you?”
“That’s a definite yes,” Cam answered. “He was the one who told me you took her from the party. If Wes didn’t already know where she was being taken, then I’d have found a way to let him know.”
“What did I just let into my compound?” Eagle muttered as he aggressively started in on his meal.
Reaching over, I gripped his arm, getting him to look at me. “Better the devil we know than the one we don’t. Dante might be unpredictable in some ways, but he won’t do anything to harm Cam or me in the process.”
“Guess that’s something,” he grunted as he shifted his arm back, so he was holding my hand. “Now what about the plan for the Empire?”
“The idea of busting a drop of inventory is good. We just need to learn enough about the real thing so we can fake one. I don’t want to risk if the person or persons are really part of the Mad Dogs or the De Leóns, and we fuck this up.
We’ve got one shot to do this, and we can’t afford to take risks that will blow it.
Once we get the information, then I’ll reach out to people and let them know the story we come up with along with the meeting place.
I’ll let them know they’re the person I trust, and we aren’t making this plan public just in case there are ears we don’t want to hear.
My guess is that whoever the rat is will either tell the person they really work for and have them show up, or the mole won’t be able to make it for some reason.
It depends on if they want to keep them active or if they think their cover is blown,” I strategized out loud.
“There are a lot of things that could go wrong,” Void pointed out.
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, which is why we need to gather more information. Tomorrow, I need to head back to the main office at the warehouse and deal with some business that will help us in the long run.”
“Are you sure that’s wise? What if Marco takes you going back to work like business as usual as a slight?” Sprocket cautioned.
“It doesn’t matter, I need to go. I’m sending the Wright brothers on a mission, and I need to get information.
This contact will only speak to me through a secure video conference connection at my office.
In exchange for what the Wright brothers will be doing, we get the weapons we need to make this battle happen.
I didn’t see the need for them before, but now I know this is the smartest move to make.
More firepower is better than not enough any day. ”
“Guys, I think this will help our plan for them to see us working because then when we do break the news about the exchange, they’ll think we’ve been planning it.
Which we are. It adds validity to our story, and that’s something we’re lacking,” Wes reasoned.
“All of us will be there. It would be foolish for them to attack the same place twice. Marco put his ball on the court, and it’s now our turn to decide what to do with it. He’s waiting for our move.”
“A move we need to make at the perfect time, I might add,” Cam piped up. “A man like that won’t let us sneak up on him more than once.”
Shoving my chair back, I stood, placing my hand on my hips, staring the others down.
“Let me make one thing perfectly clear… I’m not going for subtlety.
Marco needs to know we’re coming, and shitting in his pants because he regrets all his life choices coming after me and mine.
Any questions?” Cognac lifted his hand like a kid in school. “What?” I asked.
“Are you going to finish that?” he asked, pointing to the half-eaten omelet.
“Touch my food, and you die,” I answered with a smile. “Does that answer your question?”
“Not really.” He pouted but kept his hands to himself.
“Tonight, we’ll relax, watch a movie, and pretend nothing has happened because starting tomorrow, it’s gonna be war. I have zero chill when it comes to that,” I informed them as I sat back down in my seat and continued to eat my food.
“Is that the only thing you have zero chill about?” Picasso taunted, trying not to laugh. “I feel like your whole life is one big moment of zero chill.”
“You saying you can’t handle it?” I shot back.
He burst out laughing. “Oh, spitfire, that’s the last thing I’m saying. It’s nice to finally have met a woman I think can actually handle me.”
“Okay, this whole sexual tension thing is getting out of hand. Would you two just fuck and get it over with already?” Cognac said, getting up from the table to wash his dishes.
“If my tracking is right, I think you’re the last one for her to fuck.
Guess you shouldn’t have been such an asshole in the beginning. ”
“Yeah, well, when it happens for us, it won’t be in some diner bathroom for a quickie,” Picasso snapped, chucking a balled-up napkin at Cognac who caught it easily and tossed it in the trash.
Seeing that things were going to get out of hand very quickly, I let out a shrill whistle.
“Alright, everyone to their corners. There will be no more fighting about anything to do with having sex with me. I get it’s a thing you men do together, but I’m not really interested in being around when it happens, or else I’m gonna need to get involved, and you don’t want that. ”
This caused everyone to stop and look at me, questions clear on their faces.
“Wait, are you saying you rank us or something?” Cognac asked as he walked back over to the table. “Okay, what rank am I? I have to be in the top two, right?”
“When I said I’d be involved, that wasn’t what I meant…”
Picasso pointed a finger at me and looked over at Cognac. “She didn’t deny it, though. She totally ranks us.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned, sliding down in my chair.
“I think it might be best to tell them or do something else that will distract them,” Cam whispered not so quietly.
Glaring at him, I stood up, grabbed the bottom of my shirt, and lifted it to expose my chest. “Look, boobs!”
All eyes snapped to my chest before I took off running out of the kitchen and through the door into the hallway.
I could hear feet pounding after me, but I knew my way around this place.
If they wanted to play stupid games, then games we shall play.
I didn’t know how many of them were after me, but my best guess was at least three if not four of them, knowing Eagle wouldn’t want to be left out of this and Void would just to make sure I wasn’t going to get hurt.
The real threat was Picasso and Cognac, who I’m sure would view this as a way to get a higher ranking I wasn’t even giving out.
Now the question was, do I stay on this floor or risk going to another?