24. Gauge
GAUGE
“It’s taking him a while to get down those stairs,” Mace said.
“No shit,” Deac murmured.
“You think he went into her bedroom?” Dallas asked.
“Can it,” I said flatly.
We listened in the dining room, having moved our little pow-wow just for a change of scenery. Rat came around the corner and grumbled beneath his breath, to which I cupped my hands over my mouth.
“Dining room, my guy!” I called out.
“Warn a man first, will ya?” he grunted as he dragged ass into the room.
“Well?” Deac asked. “What did she say?”
He tossed the picture down onto the dining room table. “That’s the woman. That’s our ATF agent.”
Plug leapt up from his seat. “Time for me to do some more digging now that we’re headed in the right direction.”
“I wanna know where the fuck this woman is sleeping, Plug!” Deac called out. “Names, aliases, the works!”
Plug waved his hand in the air. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m on it. Give me the day and I’m sure to have it.”
While Plug sounded certain, I was less so. And one glance around the guys at the table told me they felt the same way.
“Don’t say it,” Rat murmured as he dropped down into a chair next to me, “we all need our strength. Just let him be confident going into this. He’s gonna need it.”
“Yeah,” was all I had to say about that.
The silence was deafening. Sitting there was torturous. I wanted to be out on the streets, patrolling them with an uzi in my fucking hand. I wanted to feel her blood dripping down my knuckles. I’d never strung a woman up for torture, but the idea sounded better and better with each passing day.
One strike of my fist for every single mark she left on Bait’s body.
So long as I lived, I’d never forget that scene. The busted lip. The bruised eyes. The stoic stare. The acceptance of his fate. Knowing he was about to die, and still trying to help us out.
“You good?” Deac asked as he clapped my back.
“He was braver than all of us,” I murmured.
“Damn right, he was,” Rat said.
“You know,” Char said as she came around the corner and into the dining room, “there’s one other theory I haven’t heard you guys talking about.”
I didn’t want to move. Holy hell, she emerged from her room, and I didn’t even want to breathe incorrectly in her presence.
She looked dazzling in her new dress, with swirls of white intermingled with the yellow and purple.
The colors suited her. The dress clung to her curves as she studied the pictures we shifted from the kitchen table with us.
And as she walked around the entire table, taking them in from all directions, she chewed on that plump lower lip of hers.
I found myself jealous of her teeth.
“Well?” Deac asked.
Char snickered. “Patience, young padawan.”
“Hah-HAH!” Mace barked. “Tell me she’s got a sister.”
“Can’t say that I do, handsome,” she said playfully before tossing him a wink.
“Char,” Deac said curtly.
All she had to do was flash him that smile, though. That pearly white smile that lit up those impossibly beautiful icy blue eyes of hers. When she was angry, she looked damn near maddening. But when she smiled? Those icy blue orbs of hers held more warmth than I’d ever felt in my entire life.
God, I loved it when she smiled.
“What are you thinking, beautiful?” Dallas asked.
Her smile faltered as she looked over at him. “You owe me an apology.”
He nodded. “I do.”
I furrowed my brow. “Why does he owe you an apology?”
“No reason,” Dallas said.
But she answered in time with him. “He told me to eat up and shut up.”
“You did what?” Deac growled.
“Not my finest moment, I’ll admit,” Dallas said as his gaze stayed locked with the table in front of him.
“Obviously,” Char said, “Excuse me, Rat.”
“No problem,” he said as he inched to the side.
Char reached over his shoulder and pivoted a picture toward her before she chewed on that lip of hers again. If she wasn’t careful, she’d leave marks behind that I’d be more than willing to kiss away.
“So we’re sure she’s not an ATF agent?” Char asked.
We’re. She said we are. We, as in a team.
“Yes,” I said, almost relieved in a sense, “we know for certain she’s not an ATF agent.”
“Can I ask what you’re thinking now?” Deac asked.
Char giggled. “Yes, you can.”
He paused. “Well?”
Char stood tall with a cheeky smile on her face. “You didn’t ask.”
“Goddamn it,” Rat said as he shook his head, “Bait would’ve liked you.”
“You think so?” she asked.
Rat nodded. “Yeah, he really would have.”
Char cleared her throat, and I noticed her blinking ticked up a bit. “And she’s not a government employee at all? Or does she just not work for ATF?”
I looked over at Deac and Dallas before I asked the question we were all thinking.
“Why do you ask?”
She picked up another picture before placing it down. “The badge and I.D. that she showed me? I mean, I’m not an expert or anything?—”
“You’ve helped us get this far, don’t shit on yourself now,” Rat said.
Char giggled as she nudged him playfully with her hip. Was Rat… making a new friend?
Geez, it was weird to see him so open with someone.
“I’m just saying,” she said as she reached out for another picture and turned it to face her, “I don’t know what fake ones look like, but it fooled me just fine. So either she’s got a forger on speed dial, or?—”
“Unplug everything!” Plug bellowed.
We all leapt to our feet, Rat included, and I watched Char help him as she took his arm.
“Now! Unplug it all! Turn it off! Get your cell phones in water! All of you!”
Deac roared as we all scrambled. “Plug! What’s going on!?”
“Televisions! Radios! Laptops! Lamps! All of it! Hurry!”
“Plug!” I exclaimed.
“Just fucking do it!” he practically shrieked. “GET OFF YOUR FUCKING ELECTRONICS!”
Deac pointed at us. “Mace, Gauge, get the sinks going. Dallas, come with me. We need to make sure all of the guys hear Plug.”
“Noooooooow!” Plug bellowed.
It was absolute mayhem. We stampeded through the clubhouse like a fucking herd of elephants, unplugging every single shred of electronics we had, including shit like lights and appliances.
The sinks got filled with water before laptops and backup cell phones got submerged, never to be used again.
Rat smashed laptops as people brought them out onto the back porch, one by one, just to get out some of his frustrations no doubt.
And through it all, Char stood there in the dining room, still poring over those pictures.
“What was your theory, Char?”
I grabbed her arm and yanked her toward me, pulling her flush with my body.
“Start talking, Angel.”
I had to shake her a bit to rip her out of her trance, and when her eyes finally met mine, my gaze dropped to her mouth as she spoke.
“What if she’s an agent, but not with ATF?” she said breathlessly.
Just as she said the words, the world around us came to a grinding halt.
Rat stopped smashing laptops, the water from the sinks ceased to exist. Electronics floated around, tinkering into one another on all levels of the house.
Everyone froze. Everything stood still as if daring someone to speak.
There was no whirring of laptop fans in the gathering room.
No ticking of phone screens while we tried to busy ourselves while we sat around waiting for shit to pop off.
No one said a word. No one sneezed. No electronics buzzed softly in the distance.
All was quiet before everyone gathered back around the dining room table.
I still held Char closely against me.
“Explain yourself, Plug,” Deac growled. “Now.”
“Since we had her face,” Plug said after he swallowed hard, “I ran it through facial recognition. You know, the usual.”
“Oh boy,” Char whispered.
“It’s okay, just stay put,” I murmured as I turned both of us toward Plug.
“What happened?” I asked.
He shook his head, with his eyes still wide as the sun. “Within seconds of the program scanning her face and uploading it, it started a lockdown wipe on my laptop.”
“A what?” Dallas asked.
Plug raked his hands down his face. “I couldn’t save my laptop. I tried. I did everything that I could, but there was still so much to consider. We have so much on the electronics in this place, and I knew that if she could get into my laptop?—”
“What! Happened!?” Deac roared.
Char lurched against me, and I wrapped my arms around her, turning her away from the sound. She shook atrociously, and even I saw the guilt that dripped behind Deac’s eyes when he peeked over at her. If she wanted information, however, this was what she needed to do.
She needed to stick around, no matter how scary it felt.
“It’s okay, you’re all right,” I whispered.
“Everything is gone,” Plug said breathlessly.
“What do you mean, everything?” Rat asked.
Plug cleared his throat. “Whoever she is, running her face through recognition software kicked back to my own, and it pinged my laptop. Locked me out of my own system.”
“It pinged us?” Mace asked. “Does that mean she knows where we are?”
“So,” Plug said as he held up his finger, “for precautionary measures, we have to destroy all of our technology that we’ve got. Start fresh. Every single bit of it.”
“You said it pinged your laptop, though,” Mace said.
Plug shook his head. “It would’ve scrambled her ping, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t try.”
“And you’re sure about that?” Deac asked.
“On my fucking life, Deacon. I would’ve never even attempted something like that if I thought it would put this place at risk.”
“How the hell are we still playing right into her fucking hand?” Rat glowered as he sat back down. “It’s gonna fuck us over if we can’t get out ahead of her.”
“We need to clean everything. Wipe everything. Destroy all of it and start fresh,” Plug said. “It’s the only way to ensure that she’ll also have to start from scratch in order to get to us. At least, electronically.”
“God fucking damniiiiiiit!” Deac exclaimed.
He slammed his fists into the table, and we all heard it crack.
Char jumped against me again, burrowing her face into my chest as I squeezed her even tighter.
I watched a splinter part the wooden table, shooting out from beneath Deac’s balled-up fists.
And as he hung his head, he drew in a few deep breaths.
“Room by room,” Deac said as he slowly lifted his head. “We go room by room, starting with the lowest level. If it’s not unplugged, unplug it. If it’s got any sort of a memory bank, we dispose of it. We go in crews of three, so nothing is missed. Gauge?”
I bent forward and kissed the top of Char’s head. “Rat, you go back out onto the porch. Anything that can’t be submerged but has to be destroyed gets taken out back and pounded to bits.”
“Fantastic,” he said as he stood, “my favorite.”
“Plug, Mace, you guys take the upper most level and work down. The guys and I will go down and work up. We meet in the middle, then we’ll scramble the teams and go again before we all go as a crew a third time around the clubhouse.”
“What can I do?” Char muttered against my chest.
“What was that, beautiful?” Dallas asked.
She picked up her head and I crooked my finger beneath her chin. “You need to go and rest. You’ve done enough today.”
But she shook her head. “I want to help. I need to help. I can’t just stand around and do nothing, especially if Rat’s right.”
“Right about what?” Deac asked.
She turned out of my grasp and faced him.
“Rat said that because I’m involved, DeShawn and M.J.
could be on her radar as well. Rat made a comment that she might use me to get to you guys, which is why she always wanted to talk with me.
If that’s the case, I’ve got two best friends in a crossfire they’re completely unaware of. I want to help.”
Dallas came over and crouched down to get into her field of vision. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Never been more sure of anything in my life.”
His eyes danced along her face. “Stay with Rat out back then. Get some of that aggression out by smashing some things. Might make you feel better.”
“Hell yeah,” Rat said as he reached his hand out for hers, “let’s go see how well you can swing a baseball bat.”
She took his hand, but she didn’t take it, per se. Instead, she moved closer to him and wrapped his arm around hers. Almost as if she were escorting him.
“No,” Rat said.
Char quirked an eyebrow. “Have you seen the way you’re walking right now? Have you even looked in a mirror today?”
“She’s got a point,” I said with a shrug.
Rat tilted his head. “You’re not escorting me anywhere.”
“No, I’m not,” she said as she started walking, which really gave him no choice but to move with her. “I’m just making sure that if you stumble, I’ve got leverage to help.”
“Just shut up and get outside, Rat,” Deac said.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Rat grumbled beneath his breath.
“Besides,” Char said as they exited the room, heading for the back porch, “now you get to tell me all about Deac’s little secret you mentioned earlier.”
“What?” Deac asked.
Rat’s back straightened and he peered over his shoulder. “Oh yeah. Completely forgot I mentioned that.”
“You promised, you know,” Char said as a grin spread across her cheeks.
“Wait a second,” Deac said, “what secret? What are you telling her, Rat?”
“Man, he’s so testy sometimes,” Char said with a giggle.
“You should see him when he’s hungry. It’s a nightmare,” Rat said.
And as Deac tried to follow them, I reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Do you know what he’s about to tell her?” he asked as he thumbed over his shoulder.
“God, you’re so fucking easy to rile up, you know that?” Dallas asked as he patted him on the shoulder.
I chuckled. “There’s no secret, Deac. They’re just having some fun at your expense.”
He scoffed. “Well fuck that. We need to focus. Come on, we all have a job to do.”
But I couldn’t get over how quickly Rat and Char became friends. He needed a friend right now. And maybe, Char’s friendship was exactly what he needed to keep himself afloat.
You know, until we got that woman in his clutches.
“All right everyone!” I exclaimed as I clapped my hands. “Let’s get to work!”