Chapter 25
I retrieved the DVR boxes from the reinforced gun safe I kept in my garage with the other lockers and money boxes and hooked them up to the television in my bedroom in a haphazard daisy chain of cords with the control unit set on the dresser.
Jenna came with me, still wrapped in her towel as she immediately started operating the device to the specified timestamp where Alistair Gaines had been on site surveying a delivery exchange.
We stood in front of the TV side by side, where I watched the video rapidly shift as she sifted through the footage.
“There it is!” Jenna exclaimed as she paused the frame.
A segment where Alistair Gaines was not only shaking hands with a man who checked in the back of a caged truck full of Mutables. Money changed hands, and some of those men were the ones I’d killed.
“Got you, you bastard…” Jenna growled, but then her gaze fell from the screen to directly ahead, like she was disappointed.
“Not quite the smoking gun you were looking for?” I asked.
“It would be…” Jenna’s looked away with a frustrated sigh.
“Even if I could make the arrest, it could be years before a trial, let alone a fair conviction. Plenty of time to kill witnesses, or me. His lawyers could come up with a million excuses. And if he’s under a federal contract, they could stop discovery dead in its tracks over ‘national security’ concerns. ”
“Either way, justice will be done,” I stated, meeting her gaze with my own intensity. “Does he still own that property where your father was killed?”
“No. He ‘donated’ his stake to the city a year after that.”
“What other holdings does he have?”
“That I know of? Hold on,” Jenna left the room for a hot minute, then came back carrying her box of evidence, plopping it onto my bed. “Pinning down his whole network is tricky since he uses a lot of dummy corporations, but I did manage to get a route on one of his trucks.”
“You put a tracker on his truck without a warrant?” I asked with grinning eyes of accusation.
“Nooo,” Jenna rolled her eyes with slight amusement. “I spent weeks reviewing traffic cam footage to piece it together.”
“Almost had you,” I smirked.
“No, you didn’t.”
“I was talking about a smile.”
She narrowed her eyes at me in clear suspicion. “And why are you trying to get me to smile?”
“Why not? Everyone else here smiles.”
“Yeah, but men only do it when they’re flirting.”
“You literally walked around in the nude.”
“Girls do that.”
“You’re not gonna win this argument.”
“Yes I am.”
I matched her competitive glare with one of my own, turning my body to rest my hands on my hips. “If smiling means I’m flirting, then flashing your whole body means you’re down bad.”
Jenna matched my posture. “I didn’t flash you.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Flashing means I let you see it for a second, you got a full peep show.”
“That’s even more egregious.”
“Whatever. You tried to make a naked woman smile.”
“If you can get me hard, I can make you smile.”
Jenna got dimples trying to keep her face straight, then turned toward the bed and spread her papers out. “Anyway, I made a map of all the areas it stopped. The biggest one is a distribution center Gaines specifically owns.”
She pointed at a spot on the map that I recognized, but I was skeptical.
“Hmm… seems too easy,” I said.
“Easy?” Jenna recoiled with a frown. “It’s the largest hub in the lower metropolitan area!”
“Largest, but not the busiest,” I said, pointing at another spot on her map, more removed from the densely populated city center.
“Mutables can’t stay in one place for too long—won’t stay in one place for too long.
They’re the most docile right before they transform, and then small arms fire doesn’t do shit. Did your truck ever go here?”
“Actually, yes,” Jenna nodded as she flipped over another page. “It was a daily stop, but Gaines wouldn’t be caught dead there. It’s too far out of his way. But wait…”
“What?” I asked in vested interest.
Jenna had a face of ebullient epiphany. “The vehicle I was tracking was an armored cash transit truck! It always ended its run after that one,” —she indicated a massive fleet garage smack dab between the busiest locations— “That’s where we need to go.
It’ll be full of cash; no whack a mole. We get that, we get him. ”
I smiled at her deduction, then nodded in return.
“Alright. We follow the money.”
“Ugh… Too much security, though,” Jenna shook her head. “Gaines is greedy but he isn’t stupid, and he’s paranoid. What if…”
She looked at me with a reticent imploring gaze.
“What do you need?” I asked.
“What if you jacked the driver right after its last pickup?”
“Rob all of his locations at once and draw him out with the motherload… I like it,” I said, licking my lips in anticipation. “Never thought I’d hear you suggesting highway robbery.”
Jenna looked up with a guilty smile, shaking her head disapprovingly. I pointed at her face.
“Aha! I got you,” I teased.
“Oh, whatever,” she said, then pulled her towel off and threw it at my face, which dropped to the floor as she walked away toward the door, swaying her ass and matching my teasing expression with one of her own.
I watched her nude backside as she went to my bedroom door, placing her hand on the threshold and leaning her head out to glance down the hall before looking back at me.
“You’d better get back to your girls before it gets too late. We’ve got a big day tomorrow,” she said, before glancing at my crotch. “And a big night, apparently…”
Then she walked out and went on her naked way.
“Hey!” I shouted after her. “You forgot your box!”
Jenna returned with a sultry catwalk, her face completely unbothered as she smugly came back for a full frontal reveal, crossing the room to come to the bed and bend over slowly as she picked up the box.
“Thanks for the help, by the way,” she said with calculated smoothness.
“Okay, now you’re just showing off,” I stated, having no shame about checking her out, leaning my head to the left to check out the circumference of her ass.
“Now that you’re listening…” she replied with an alluring simper as her red ponytail draped down her right shoulder. “I’ve gotta keep you paying attention.”
“Nice ass. Nice tits. Now you have ten seconds to get out of here before I go from flirting to fucking.”
Jenna clicked her tongue as she hoisted the box up beneath her breasts. “You might as well get used to this, because you’re gonna be seeing a lot more of it, roommate…”
And then the sexy detective made her way out of the room. Thankfully, the urge to rub one off was countermanded by the immediate arrival of Cassie, Mimi, and Monica.
“Hi, Jax!” Mimi greeted as she bouncily darted toward the bed and hopped onto it, patting the mattress invitingly as Cassie and Monica soon followed.
“Done already, eh?” I asked, flicking off the overhead ceiling fan so that the string lights could cast a dim warmth throughout the room.
“We got the scoop,” Monica replied, sitting to my left with her closed knees toward me, with Mimi reclining across and Cassie snuggling on my right.
“I told them what we did,” Cassie said with a smile, staring at me with genuine surprise. “You guys cured a Mutie?”
I locked eyes with Mimi. “Yeah. It was our good deed for the day.”
“Bein’ a whole hero in secret,” Monica shook her head in feigned disapproval. “Daddy’s about to be all the spoiled.”
I chuckled. “I’m not a hero. I’m too petty for that.”
“And self-aware!” Monica looked at Cassie in frustration while gesturing at me. “Girl, we hit the jackpot!”
“Speaking of…” I trailed off.
Cassie locked in. “Is everything okay?”
“All good. Jenna and I went over some things.”
“Mmm hmm,” Monica voiced. “Missus Redhead looked happy. Did ya’ll…?”
“We made a plan to clean dude’s clock tomorrow,” I replied. “I’m gonna need you three to get somewhere safe while we handle it.”
“No worries,” Mimi smiled with a girlish giggle. “We’re going with you.”
“I said somewhere safe.”
“It is! Barry’s good at what he does but he’s still just a plush,” Mimi reasoned. “We can help you.”
“You’re gonna have to explain that one to me,” I said.
Cassie and Monica exchanged a knowing smile, then turned their heads toward me at the same time.
“Sorry, Daddy. We can’t tell you,” Monica replied.
“What?”
Mimi interjected. “I can use the secrets I collect in a different way. If the reason is to treat, and not to trick, I can make a little… mischief.”
“You gotta give me more than that.”
“Do you trust me?” Mimi asked with a direct gaze.
A pause.
“Yeah… I guess I do,” I said with a begrudging sigh.
“Sweet!” Mimi cheered as she grabbed my head and shoved it against her bikini covered bosom, lying down on the bed with a satisfied giggle. “Bed time!”
“Bmmm tmmm?” I breathed, my words muffled by her chest.
“We can have sex after to celebrate,” she happily stated.
“Afftmm? Ymm mnn tmmrmm?”
“Yup! Tomorrow!”
This girl was really cranking up my desire.
At this point, she was probably enjoying it.
Cassie clicked off the TV and pulled the sheets over us as Monica spooned me from behind. Okay, I was fine with that.
If Mimi wanted me to sleep with her goth mommy milkers in my face, I was going to channel that excitement into getting shit done the next day so I could finally get in her guts.
Alistair Gaines was fucked.
And Mimi? She was getting fucked twice.