22. Dallas
DALLAS
Marcia Joanna Dickerson.
There she was, in all her glory, pulled up on Dr. Agemon’s screen with every single piece of evidence brought forth that we needed to sink that bitch.
No one moved, not even me. I looked around with my eyes as much as I could, because I sure as hell wasn’t going to be the first one to break the tension.
I stood there, waiting for someone to pop off.
Waiting for Commander Hadley to absolutely erupt.
Waiting for something, anything, to happen.
Even if it was just the shaking of someone’s head.
Or someone storming out without another word spoken.
But nothing happened. It was almost like everyone collectively held their breath, waiting for the right person to speak.
We should have known that Marcie would’ve had the absolute ballsack to speak first.
“Commander, I can expla?—”
He held up his hand. Right in her face. I mean so close to her face that his fucking palm almost grazed the tip of her fat fucking nose. I slowly looked over at Deacon, who I found already looking at me. My eyebrows rose softly, and that was enough for Deac to grin.
She tried again. “Hadley, I really can expla?—”
That’s when the commander finally spoke. “You don’t talk until you have one of our lawyers present.”
I nodded. “Good. Then we can hand over the videos we have to whoever that may be.”
“Videos?” Hadley and Marcie asked in unison.
“What videos?” Marcie asked.
“You mean these videos?” Dr. Agemon asked.
With a few more clicks of his rubber-gloved fingertips across the keyboard, up came a separate screen with a big-ass play button in the middle of it. Marcie gasped, and the second I saw those warehouse corridors pop up, I knew we had her.
We had this in the fucking bag.
“What is this?” Commander Hadley demanded. “What are we about to watch?”
Dr. Agemon pressed the space bar. “Just watch and tell us what you think.”
The second the footage rolled, I tilted my gaze toward the ceiling.
I sure as fuck didn’t want to watch Doc’s murder all over again.
I felt someone pat my shoulder, but I shrugged off their touch.
I drew in a few deep breaths before I leveled my head back out, and I watched as the black and white video rolled across the screen.
Marcie came into frame and Commander Hadley hunched his shoulders.
She tugged Doc into view, and Commander Hadley’s eyes ignited with fury.
We watched as she tossed Doc into that room, stepping into the shadows of it, and the muzzle flashes alone made some of my men flinch.
Including Commander Hadley.
“Jesus,” Mace murmured.
“Fucking Christ,” Plug whispered as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
And when Marcie came out of that room, leaving Doc’s body behind, the commander himself reached out and rewound the video.
He played it again.
And again.
And again.
“Three gunshots,” Hadley whispered to himself.
“Can you handle another video?” Dr. Agemon asked.
Hadley slowly straightened his back. “You mean to tell me there’s more?”
And still, Marcie just stood there. Surrounded by all of us. Staring blankly at the screen with a vacant look on her face.
Dr. Agemon didn’t answer the commander however.
All he did was pull up yet another screen with a massive white play button in the middle before pressing the space bar.
The commander dipped down, pressing his hands into the desk as he watched the screen.
Some of us had to pivot around him to watch what unfolded before his eyes, and we watched the replay of what happened in our mechanic shop.
We watched as figures cloaked in all black stormed the place.
We watched as they made a beeline for Bait, beating him to high hell while someone dragged Rat out of the room, kicking and screaming.
My stomach curdled as I watched Bait fight for his life. A life he wouldn’t be able to save.
A life we wouldn’t be able to save.
“You good?” Gauge asked as he leaned toward me a bit.
I shoved my hands into my jean pockets. “I’ll be fine once this nightmare is over.”
Marcie’s shoulders sank as Hadley replayed the video. Everyone was silent as the commander’s body vibrated with the fury that finally tainted his face. He paused the video and rewound it. Paused the video and rewound it. We must’ve watched Bait nearly get knocked out at least half a dozen times.
Hadley stood and pointed at the screen. “What is that?”
“What is what?” Nielson asked.
Dr. Agemon squinted as he readjusted his glasses and leaned into the screen.
“Do you see that?” Hadley asked.
“Huh,” Agemon said as his fingers started typing away, “yes, I see what you’re talking about.”
“See what?” I asked.
“Oh shit. Right there. Look,” Deadlock said as he pointed over my shoulder.
While the footage from the warehouse was rudimentary at best, the video feed we had at our businesses was anything but.
The colorized images paused at the exact moment where Bait was about to be knocked unconscious.
His legs flailed in the air. His face was contorted with anger.
The picture was so crisp as Agemon zoomed in that we even saw the fact that he tried to reach for a gun on one of the assailant’s hips.
Then I saw it with my own eyes.
“Is that a tattoo?” I asked.
Dr. Agemon blew up that portion of the video for us and ran it through something that somehow made the image even crisper. And right there, on the inside wrist of the person holding the gun about to knock our brother out cold, there was a marking.
Nielson leaned in. “That’s a fire flame.”
Before any of us could even ask more questions, the commander whipped around.
Marcie stumbled backwards into me, but all I did was shove her toward the man.
She glared at me as she whipped around, rolling her shoulders back like she thought she was something big and bad.
I pinned her with a look that told her that if she moved, she was dead, no matter the consequences.
Commander Hadley picked up her wrist and shoved her sleeve up her arm.
“Hey!” Marcie exclaimed.
She tried to rip away, but Hadley had a vice grip on her.
He turned over her hand, and right there, in front of all of us, was a trail of fire that started from the base of her palm and wrapped all the way up her fucking arm.
It bled into a Phoenix’s tail that looked like it rose up from its own ashes.
How quaint, considering we were about to burn her to the ground.
“Let me go!” she squealed as she finally managed to rip away from her boss. “I’m telling you, Commander, there’s an explanation. No one understands what’s going on right now. It’s why I needed you down here.”
But the commander wasn’t having any of it. “Lay down your badge, credentials, and gun.”
Marcie shook her head. “Hadley, this is me you’re talking to.”
“I know,” he said as he held out his hand, “and that’s the only reason why you’re not currently in handcuffs.”
God, I could’ve popped a boner right then and there.
“Commander,” she said softly, “do you seriously believe them?”
“I believe the evidence,” he said as he took a step toward her, causing her to back up a bit. “Now give me your badge, your credentials, and your gun.”
She hesitated a bit too long, much to my enjoyment, and as I folded my arms across my chest, I watched the most amazing sight unfold. That towering federal agent placed his hands on his knees, crouching down into her field of vision, and allowed his face to fall flat.
“Unless you want me to arrest you right here and right now, Dickerson, I suggest you do as you’re asked. Now give me your badge, credentials, and your gun. You’re suspended until further notice.”
Marcie gawked. “But I thought you said?—”
He reared back up and held his head high. “That’s before you decided to challenge me. Do it again, and you won’t even be on the returning flight to D.C.”
I placed my hand on Deac’s upper arm and squeezed. I couldn’t fucking help it. It was that or laugh so hard that I’d cry.
Holy fucking God, it actually worked.
And still, Marcie did her best to play her hand. “Commander Hadley, just take a deep breath and let’s?—”
He interrupted her by reaching down and yanking her gun off her hip. My jaw hit the fucking floor as Nielson snickered and bowed his head. He slammed that gun and its casing onto a cluttered desk next to him before reaching out and plucking her forward-facing badge right off her hip.
But when he reached for her credentials in her back pocket, Marcie held up her hands in surrender.
“All right, all right. Commander. I’ve got that one, okay?”
She moved slowly, slipping her hand into her back pocket. The commander held his hand out, and watching her slap that shit against his palm made my gut stir with joy. This meant Char could come with us now, right? This meant we could take her home?
I’d never held onto so much hope in all my fucking life.
“Anything else you want to show me?” Hadley asked as he turned to Nielson.
The sheriff shook his head. “Nope, that’s all we’ve gathered in the case.”
“Good,” he said as he gathered Marcie’s things and placed them into various pockets on his person. “Now read her her rights.”
“What!?” Marcie squealed.
“Ha-HAH!” Deac barked as he clapped his hands together.
“Someone go get Rat and tell him to watch the door,” I said as I turned around.
Deadlock smiled with pride. “Don’t mind if I do.”
Marcie backed up as Nielson made his way toward her. “But Commander, I thought you said?—”
Hadley reached for the mouse and toggled back to the screen that housed Murphy’s video. He played it one last time, and I could’ve sworn I saw his eyes glistening.
“Captain Murphy and I ran many of the same ops together,” he said as he pressed the space bar to stop the video just before Marcie plugged him with those bullets. “We trained together. Got our families together for holidays. Memorial Days. Celebrations.”
“Commander,” Marcie whimpered.
“You have the right to remain silent,” Nielson said as he pulled Marcie’s handcuffs off her own fucking belt.
Goddamn it, what a fucking power move. I was almost jealous it was him and not me.
“I put you on this case because I was worried about him,” Hadley said as he turned to face Marcie. “I put you on this case as a personal favor. I wanted to know what was going on with my friend. I wanted to be able to give his wife some answers to questions I didn’t have answers to.”
“Hadley,” Marcie whispered, “please. I swear, you don’t know the whole story.”
“I know enough,” he said curtly. “Nielson? Finish it.”
Nielson wrapped that woman’s arms behind her back, and the sound of the handcuffs shivered me to my core. It was over.
Holy fuck, it was actually over.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to arrest me!” Marcie exclaimed.
“I’m not,” he said coolly, “but I never said that he couldn’t.”
“Anything you say can and will absolutely be held against you in a court of law,” Nielson continued.
And as he read that woman her rights, she cried out.
She fought against him. She complained about the cuffs being too tight and about being held too hard.
But there was only one thing that I could think about.
Even as the guys cheered. Even as Sheriff Nielson hauled that bitch out of the morgue in handcuffs, there was only one thing at the forefront of my mind.
I wasn’t the only one, either.
“Let’s go get her,” Deac said as he placed a hand on my shoulder.
He sure as fuck didn’t have to tell me twice, either.