22. Dallas
DALLAS
“You good?” Rico asked.
Deadlock came up to my other side. “They’re fine.”
“I know,” I grumbled as I watched the screen.
Plug was kind enough to pull up the two cameras in the precinct, and I didn’t like what I saw. I hated seeing Deac and Rat in handcuffs. I fucking couldn’t stand the fact that they were behind bars. But my heart broke watching Char pace up and down that hallway with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Every single time that Marcie bitch wrapped her arms around the woman I loved, I wanted to break every single one of her fucking fingers.
“You know this is all fake,” Deadlock said.
“You think I don’t know that?” I snarled.
He shrugged. “You’re mean-mugging that projector screen like you don’t know.”
“I got it!” Plug exclaimed. “I got it, you guys! I know how to do it!”
He scrambled back into the room and I hoped to God whatever the hell he was talking about got us one step closer to bringing everyone home.
“What?” Gauge asked as he came out of his hidey-hole corner. “What do you know how to do?”
I expected him to come running in with that laptop of his. Or another hard drive. Something like that, anyway. But instead, he rushed to the table with a plastic grocery bag and turned it over.
He dumped all of those little black cameras everywhere.
“I can prove that these cameras were purchased personally, and not officially,” Plug stated with pride.
“How?” Mace asked.
“Here,” Plug said as he reached into his leather cut’s breast pocket, “take a look at these.”
“Let me see those,” I glowered as I snatched them out of his grasp.
“Well, okay then,” Gauge uttered.
It didn’t take me long to see what they were, though. “Holy shit, Plug, these are bank documents.”
“Let me see those,” Gauge said, ripping them out of my hand.
“How the fuck did you get those?” Rico asked.
Plug smiled from ear to ear. “Well I figured since she’s preoccupied with our lovely distraction that I’d poke around and take a look at things.”
I peered over at him. “I take it that laptop is no longer airgapped?”
He held up his hands in mock surrender. “Don’t worry, I offloaded everything and factory reset the entire laptop before I hooked it up and got going.”
“And you’re covering your tracks still?” I asked.
Plug’s smile fell from his face, giving way to a blank stare. “Do you really have to ask at this point?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
He rolled his eyes as he turned to Gauge. “Anyway, those documents?—”
Gauge handed them back to me. “Goddamn, Plug, great work.”
He even highlighted what he wanted us to see. “A bulk purchase and everything.”
“Yep,” Plug said as he popped the ‘p.’ “I figured she wasn’t at a point when buying those cameras where she thought about covering her tracks, so the bulk purchase is very sloppy.”
I looked up at him. “I wonder if?—”
He held up his finger. “Already ahead of you, I called the business where she purchased them, and they don’t hold their security footage for that long.”
“Fuck,” Deadlock groaned.
“But she did pay with a card, and I have copies of that receipt since they use Square instead of a cash register,” Plug said.
I chuckled as I shook my head. “Great fucking work.”
Plug nodded his head in punctuation. “It’s about damn time, too.”
“Did someone hear that?” Mace asked.
I held up my hand as Vice President, commanding the attention of the guys in Deac’s absence.
It felt weird, to stand where he was supposed to be.
Watching over the guys. Sending them in all sorts of directions.
All of them, looking to me for reactions and plans and ideas.
It made me want to get them out of there even quicker.
Knock knock knock knock knock.
“The door,” I said.
“I’ve got it,” Deadlock said.
“I’ll go with him,” Rico said.
I pointed at them. “Don’t let anyone in here unless they’ve been sent by Nielson!”
The guys both gave me a thumbs up before they disappeared around the corner, and we all just stood there. With that red dot blinking at the precinct and the two camera angles running in the background for us to witness, I listened as the guys’ footsteps fell silent.
The footsteps struck up again, moving at lightning speed down the hallway.
“Deputy Carlyle comes with plans from Nielson,” Deadlock said as he stuck his head in through the wall’s opening. “Want him to come in?”
I shook my head as I pointed at Plug. “Keep digging while we’ve got her distracted. Just… do what you do, but be careful about it. This might be our only shot at getting our fucking town back.”
“You have my word,” Plug said.
“Gauge, with me,” I beckoned.
And after I shuffled everyone into the kitchen for some fucking caffeine, we all sat down with our mugs.
Deputy Carlyle spoke. “She’s taking everything we’re throwing at her.”
“Who is?” Gauge asked.
Carlyle waved his hand in the air before he sipped his coffee. “Ugh, thanks.”
“No problem,” I said. “Now who’s taking what and why?”
The deputy cleared his throat. “Marcie is trying to pin Murphy’s death on you guys.”
“What?” Gauge growled.
I reached my hand over and placed it on his forearm before I drew in a deep breath. “That’s how she intends to wash her hands of his death while also getting us away from Char.”
“That’s our theory, yes,” Carlyle said, “and we’re working under the assumption that if she’s willing to pin Murphy’s death on you guys…”
I’d never heard Gauge growl the way he did until he slammed up from that chair and paced the kitchen.
“God fucking damn it!” he bellowed.
“So what are we doing about it?” I asked.
The deputy peered over his shoulder at Gauge before his stare returned to me. “Is he good?”
“Fuck!” Gauge roared as he projected his fist toward the wall, sinking it into the plaster as if the damn plaster was jelly.
“Yeah, he’s fine,” I said with a sigh.
“Fucking bullshit bitch!” Gauge roared.
“Just keep going,” I urged toward the deputy.
He drew in a deep breath. “Anyway. While she introduced herself with her real name, she’s still using those ATF credentials and introducing herself as ATF. She’s called her superior?—”
“She what?” I asked curtly.
The deputy leaned over and patted his hand against my wrist. “What Nielson wants to do is corner Marcie with the footage of her killing Doc. But to do that, we have to have more feds descend upon us because we need her boss in the room. She called him, informing him that she’s got the men who killed Murphy, and the goal is to make her think she’s winning until we pull out that footage. ”
I nodded slowly as I wrapped my head around things. “Do we have a bailout plan in case this goes south?”
“Nielson says that he’s got something brewing, but he hasn’t told anyone about it.”
Gauge snarled as he came and sat back down. “That means Char’s still plotting with him and she’s told him to keep us out of the loop.”
“I’ve only been around her just today, but that tracks with the little I know about her,” Deputy Carlyle said.
I didn’t like that. The last time she kept us out of the loop with plans, that bitch and Nielson with his cronies showed up on our doorstep.
I wanted to know the plan. I wanted to know what the hell the bailout was, just in case they needed us.
But if there was one thing Char taught me, it was that we needed to trust her.
I forced myself to lean back. “She’s doing okay then? Char?”
Carlyle barked with laughter. “That girl’s brilliant. She’s really putting on a show like she realized how bad you guys are, and Marcie’s buying every single second of it. She’s got a real God complex, that woman. And Char’s playing right into it.”
I couldn’t have been prouder. Even out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gauge’s chest swell with pride. She was a force to be reckoned with. I never met a more stubborn woman in all my life.
If there was anyone who could pull this off, it was her.
“So there’s definitely reinforcements coming, then,” Gauge said.
Carlyle nodded as his smile sank. “Unfortunately, that’s part of the plan. So whatever happens tonight, it’ll be in service of getting that woman’s boss into town.”
And just like that, Gauge and I both deflated.
“This could really bite us in the ass,” I murmured.
“I know,” the deputy said.
“And Char’s right in the middle of it. Again,” Gauge said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I know,” the deputy said again. “But if federal agents do end up down here, there’s a part of the plan we have to discuss with you that you’re not going to like.”
My vision sharpened as I locked eyes with that man. “What?”
“Oh hell no,” Gauge said.
Deputy Carlyle looked over at him. “It’s not as terrible as it sounds. We can still?—”
Gauge launched up from his chair. “Processing them is exactly as terrible as it sounds!”
“Wait, processing them?” I asked. “As in, actually arresting them?”
The deputy simply shrugged like he didn’t have a fucking clue how much that would ruin their lives. “If the agents do end up down here, we’ll have to make the arrest look as legitimate as possible.”
“Over my dead body,” Gauge growled.
“He’s right,” I said as I placed my hands on top of the kitchen table and sank down to that man’s level. “This woman came into our territory. She killed our man. She’s fucking with our woman. We don’t get arrested.”
That’s when the deputy stood with us. “Look, Nielson told me you guys wouldn’t be happy, but it is what it is.
I’m just here to let you in on what’s happening over there.
Char’s great, Marcie’s eating it all up, and she’s called her boss and told him that she’s got Deac and Rat in custody.
If they do come? We have to process them.
It’ll blow everything out of the water if we don’t. ”
I locked my eyes with that man as I stalked around the table.
I slid my fingertips along the treated wood with my head tilted and my back straight.
Carlyle took a few steps back and I followed him every step of the way.
I didn’t stop moving until his back pressed into the wall.
I didn’t stop until I felt his measly, pathetic garlic breath battering my motherfucking face.
“Then,” I said lowly, “make sure they don’t fucking get here.”
Carlyle swallowed hard. “Got any plans on how to make that happen? Because I’m sure the sheriff would prefer that as well.”
“Well,” Gauge said as he placed his hand on my shoulder, pulling me away from the poor guy, “what if we give that bitch a taste of her own medicine?”
Even I cocked my head as Deputy Carlyle stared up at Gauge.
“All right,” the man said, “I’m listening. Hit me with it.”