19. Deacon
DEACON
“Is she okay?”
“She’s just sitting there.”
“She doesn’t look all right.”
“Shut up,” Gauge quipped. “She’s got her own plan she’s running, remember?”
And yet, that didn’t stop me from being pissed off as fuck.
Watching her so deadpan and lifeless boiled my goddamn blood.
I hated it. I hated seeing her with that frown on her face.
With that dead look in her eyes. She didn’t move.
She didn’t budge. She didn’t even talk to herself.
There was nothing as she sat there, staring at that goddamn cinderblock wall. Unflinching. Unwavering.
She was stronger than all of us.
“Who helped you get those cameras up, Plug?” Dallas asked.
“Carlyle.”
I nodded slowly. “Good job, both of you.”
“Yeah, it’s nice seeing our girl on screen,” Gauge said.
That sentiment made me grin. Damn straight, she was our girl. Our precious, voluptuous, sensuous girl.
A girl I wanted to make my queen.
“At least she gets time away from Marcie,” Rat glowered.
I pointed to him. “Bingo. At least that bitch isn’t climbing down her throat all damn day.”
“Really,” Dallas said as he stood, “great job, Plug.”
He shrugged. “I know it’s not much?—”
I held up my hand before he continued that stupid statement. “It’s great. It gives us peace of mind.”
“Thanks,” Gauge said.
Rat slid his hands through his hair. “Don’t worry about it. Least we can do.”
Then a shadow emerged onto the screen. I slowly leaned forward, watching the frame with Char in it change, even though she didn’t move.
I watched those boots come into view. The thumbs in the belt loops told me who it was before the man ever faced the camera.
And as we all watched Nielson escort Char out of the holding cell room, Plug typed away.
He pulled up more camera angles as we watched the sheriff escort Char into an interrogation room.
My brow ticked with confusion. “Maybe not.”
“What?” Dallas asked.
“What’s up?” Mace asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“No, no,” Deadlock said as he pushed himself off the wall. “Spit it out. What did you just see?”
I watched Nielson slip back out of that interrogation room, but without Char.
“Must be in there with her lawyer,” Rat muttered.
I shook my head. “I really think that’s the room.”
“What room?” Gauge asked.
I pointed at the screen. “There’s a room they’ve got in the precinct that was once not set up to record anything. You know, looks like an interrogation room, but really isn’t.”
“Is that the room?” Dallas asked as he pointed to the screen.
I cleared my throat. “I mean, they could’ve reset the room back up. But…”
“But?” Plug asked.
I shook my head. “If he’s taking her into a room that isn’t set up to record, it could mean that our plan is working.”
And just the insinuation of it brought grins and smirks to the faces of the men around me.
Men that gathered to fight for Char.
I owed my crew a great deal after this shit was all said and done.
We watched the screen, and for a while nothing really happened.
In fact, it was almost an hour later before people rushed around on the screens.
We all had plates of food that Rat threw together and there were drinks abound as we cracked open cans and chugged glass bottle beers by the gallon.
And as we stuffed our faces with what felt like the most delectable food on the goddamn planet, the commotion kicked up.
Rat chuckled. “Must’ve heard from Dr. Agemon.”
Gauge’s voice fell flat. “I wish we’d hear from Dr. Agemon.”
“Sh,” I hissed as I pointed to the screen, “look at everyone. Watch them.”
Even though there was no sound to the videos, I made everyone shut the fuck up.
Just reading their faces told me about the panic rushing through that precinct right now.
I wanted to lay eyes on Char again. I wanted to read her face.
I wanted to know what she was thinking. How she felt.
What she needed. God, when I got her back into my arms, I wouldn’t be able to?—
“Are they fighting?” Plug asked.
As I watched Commander Hadley and that cunt of a special agent stop in the hallway, I relished the sight unfolding.
That man towered over that woman by at least a foot, cloaking her in an angry shadow, as evident by the furrow of his brow.
Marcie kept shaking her head as she balled her fists up at her sides, and it didn’t take a genius to know that her face was red with anger.
Her commander led her into the interrogation room right next to Char, and I would have given anything to be part of that conversation. Anything to hear what she was hearing.
“You don’t have a camera in there by any chance, do you?” Dallas asked with a chuckle.
We should have known better than that, though.
“I mean, come on, you guys,” Plug said as that boyish smile appeared. “There were a lot of little black cameras not to waste.”
And with a flick of his fingers across the screen, we were suddenly in that interrogation room with the commander and his little minion.
“Holy. Fucking. Shit,” Rat whispered.
That man had his finger out and everything.
The way his jaw dropped down told me that the man was practically yelling.
I clapped my hands together and rubbed them.
I stood from my half-eaten plate of food and reached down for my drink.
I picked it up and chugged it back, watching as Marcie’s back straightened.
Her fists unfurled for only a moment, but when Commander Hadley straightened his own back, she caved.
The slump returned. The look of disapproval sank her face.
It was like watching a father chastise a selfish toddler, and I lapped up every fucking second of it.
Then Marcie stormed out of the room.
“Well, damn,” Dallas said breathlessly. “Think I just got hard.”
Gauge barked with laughter. “I think the commander would give us a run for our money on his better days.”
I grinned. “You ain’t jokin’.”
Plug kept typing away, changing up the camera angles so we could continue to follow Marcie. But eventually, she got out of our sight. She stormed down that hallway with purpose in her walk, but it was the look on the commander’s face that gave me pause.
“Go back to the shot of the door for the room they went into,” I said.
Plug didn’t hesitate, and I watched as the commander leaned out into the hallway.
“Look at his face,” I said as I pointed.
“Oh shit,” Mace whispered.
Rico giggled like a damn schoolgirl from the corner where Gauge stood. “Oooooh, he’s putting the pieces togetheeeeer.”
The look on his face was clear as day. The furrowed brow.
The questioning look. The tilt of his head.
The chewing of his upper lip. Commander Hadley was beginning to question some things.
I didn’t want to speak too soon on the matter, but if that man’s wheels were spinning, it meant that our plan was working.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up, though. We had plans that we figured would work in the past. And all of those failed plans led us to this moment. A moment of sheer desperation where we put all of our cards on the table in the hopes that, just once, we were in the right.
It was a situation I’d never put Char in again, so long as she stayed.
Jesus, what if she didn’t stay with us after all this?
It was a thought I hadn’t considered, but the second the question raced across my mind, my heart stopped in my chest. The world no longer existed as I eased myself back down into my chair. Holy fucking hell, what if we got out of all this and she no longer wanted to be around us?
“Deac?” Dallas asked as he placed his hand on my shoulder. “You good?”
I shrugged off his touch as I watched Nielson escort Char back to her holding cell.
I hated the fact that she returned to that den of vipers.
Thank fuck it was only her in there. I watched as he dropped her off.
I watched as he left the room. And just as the man got away from the camera’s eye, a phone rang.
“Who is that?” I barked.
“It’s the sheriff,” Gauge said.
I beckoned to him and pointed to the table. “Speakerphone.”
Gauge did as I asked, and my men immediately fell silent.
“You have us all, Sheriff,” I said.
I even heard that heavy metal door slam behind him, and as I watched the screen, I noticed that Char didn’t even flinch. She got a bit too good with that shit for my liking.
If I had it my way, I’d make sure she never stopped squirming beneath me.
“I don’t have long,” Nielson said as he lowered his voice, “but I wanted to let you know that Dr. Agemon has officially submitted his autopsy reports to the precinct. They’re just now finding out about the bodies, so it’s a madhouse here.”
That explained a lot. “Did anyone know about the bodies?”
“No, not even Commander Hadley. He’s pissed.”
Rat scoffed. “Yeah, so we see.”
“Oh, so you got the cameras working. Good,” Nielson said before he cleared his throat. “I’ll let Carlyle know.”
“Tell him we said thank you for the in,” Dallas said.
“Will do,” Nielson said. “But back to our conversation. Apparently the commander wasn’t told about any bodies at all.”
“Is he reading the autopsy reports as we speak?”
“That’s my assumption. Dr. Agemon came and dropped them off specifically for him. Made sure to pass it off to him and everything.”
“That man needs a goddamn raise,” Plug murmured.
“Does the commander know that Captain Murphy is dead?” I asked.
Nielson actually allowed himself to chuckle with that one. “Let me put this in a way that doesn’t seem so scrambled: Dr. Agemon dropped off the autopsy reports directly to Commander Hadley, who is now sitting in my office reading them. He’s about to figure out the man they’ve been chasing is dead.”
I knew that I needed to be thankful. I knew this was a moment for rejoicing. But we were about to piss off one of the most dangerous women I had ever personally come across, and Char was still in that fucking building.
“Sheriff, do you have any idea what that argument between Hadley and Marcie was about?” Dallas asked.
As Nielson answered questions that Dallas tossed his way a million miles a minute, I simply sat there.
Watching the projector screen. Keeping an eye on Char as she sat there, so still that I almost thought she was a sculpture made of stone.
With the rest of the camera angles around the main one flipping through all of the setups, I kept my stare focused on the larger screen in the middle.
The one that housed the woman my soul had come to enjoy.
But voices yelling over the speakerphone ripped me out of my trance.
“Nielson, you good?” Dallas asked.
I stood to my feet and planted my hands against the wooden table. “Talk to us. What’s going on?”
Mace tapped me on my shoulder. “Look at the screen.”
“Oh no you don’t,” Nielson growled.
“Deac—” Nielson said quickly, his voice dropping low, “stay put. Do not come to this precinct. I will call you the second we have her. You hear me? Stay put.”
And that’s when the call dropped.
“What the fuck?” Gauge asked.
I pointed to the phone. “Try to get him back on the line.”
Dallas shook his head. “No, no. Wait. Watch the screen.”
“Plug?” I asked as I watched blank cameras. “The fuck is happening?”
“I got it, I got it, I got it, hold on,” he drew out as his fingers flew like lightning.
“Come on!” I bellowed.
“There!” Plug exclaimed as he slammed his pointer finger into a key on his keyboard.
“She’s going for Char!” Rat exclaimed.
I watched with wide eyes as Marcie approached the sheriff at the holding cell door.
Her finger was flying and her face was as red as Satan’s asshole, and people rushed up and down the hallways.
Even I saw Char’s head pivot at the commotion, the first real movement she made in her holding cell since we had gotten eyes on her to watch.
Nielson and Marcie continued fighting with one another at the holding cell door before Nielson froze.
Marcie held out her hand, beckoning for something.
And when Nielson swiped his card for the big metal door, I wondered what she pinned him with.
I wondered what rule she rattled off that backed him into a fucking corner.
Because we were going to abolish that rule if we could.
“Come on, Nielson,” I growled, “do something.”
Deadlock placed a hand on my shoulder. “Nielson’s right there. She wouldn’t?—”
There was something in her posture, though.
Something menacing. Something threatening.
Nielson took off down the hallway, running quicker than I ever saw him run.
Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen that man run.
And I knew shit was going down if that man was running up and down his own hallways.
“She wouldn’t,” Gauge snarled.
It was like watching shit in slow motion.
I watched Marcie rip that holding cell door open.
I watched her storm Char as she sat there, still as stone.
That bitch placed her hands on her knees, obscuring her mouth as she got into Char’s face.
And before I knew it, that woman grabbed Char by the back of the neck and yanked her up from the bench.
She tossed her out of the holding cell.
“To the precinct! Now!” I bellowed.
I didn’t give a fucking damn what the hell the plan was.
No one put hands on Char.
And I’d break every single one of that cunt’s fingers if she got in my way this time around.