“You didn’t save Demi, Ox. You pushed her straight into the firing zone.” The knocks keep coming when he removes a final Bureau-certified surveillance image from the breast pocket of his suit jacket. It shows Rocco placing down a pharmacy stamped bag onto the front porch of the cabin. Since the sun is bright and the paper bag is thin, you can see flecks of an orange canister inside. “He may be a ‘nice guy’…” Agent Moses air quotes his last two words, “… but at the end of the day, all paid goons do as they’re told.”
Warden Mattue feels the disrespect in his tone harder than me. I haven’t pocketed a dime of the millions of dollars I’ve earned him the past ten months. The warden can’t claim the same. His hands are so fucking dirty, if the truth ever comes out, he will be a prisoner instead of overseeing them.
My head slants to the side when Agent Moses mutters, “But there’s a way we can fix this.” He twists to face Warden Mattue before jerking up his chin, giving him the go-ahead to speak. It advises who is the head of their operation. Once again, it isn’t Warden Mattue.
After clearing his throat of nerves, Warden Mattue says, “Dimitri’s team called in a favor. They’re requesting your attendance at a ranch in Erkinsvale.”
“What for?” The highness of my tone unearths my unease. Something feels off, but since it’s been one shit storm after another lately, I can pinpoint exactly who my focus should be on.
Before the warden can answer me, Agent Moses slices his hand through the air, cutting him off. “We haven’t been given all the details yet, but we believe it may be in gratitude for the information you gave him this morning.” Even if I couldn’t hear the deceit in Agent Moses’s tone, I’d still know he is lying. If Warden Mattue’s jaw could hang any lower, it would touch the ground, but it’s all forgotten when Agent Moses adds, “Sources say Demi is in attendance.”
“She’s there now, at the ranch?”
I don’t watch Agent Moses’s response. I keep my eyes locked on the warden. He couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag, and his lying credentials are as poor as his fighting skills.
When he bobs his chin, I continue with my interrogation. I don’t trust Agent Moses, but there’s a niggle in my gut cautioning me to slow down and access all the facts. “When is the meet-up?”
I choke on my spit when Agent Moses answers, “Now.”
“Not even my lead foot could get us to Erkinsvale in two hours. We’d never make it on time.”
It dawns on me how desperate Agent Moses is for this meeting to go ahead when he mutters, “That’s why I brought in the big guns.” Just as his sentence ends, the distinct noise of a helicopter circling above grows loud enough to be heard in the underbelly of Wallens Ridge. “If this is a matter of national security, we can’t take any chances.”
“Dimitri wouldneverinvite the Feds for a cup of coffee... unless it was laced with arsenic.”
Agent Moses’s smile is as slick as his dark hair. I discover the reason for his pompous attitude when he switches his suit jacket, vest, and tie for a buttoned-up shirt with a Ravenshoe PD badge pinned to the front. When he adds a dark blue blazer to the mix, he looks like an everyday beat cop. Even the change-up in his gun adds to his ruse.
“Now we have nothing to worry about, do we?”
I lift my chin, incapable of lying with words. There’s more at play here than a chance for him to get his hooks back into Demi. I’m simply lost as to what it could be. Agent Moses is a snake, but he rarely sheds his skin. He’s gotten better with the game the longer he has been playing it. He’s learned from Col’s mistakes, but I still don’t think he’s smart enough to rule the roost just yet, so I doubt today is a takeover bid.
Perhaps he’s looking for a way into Dimitri’s crew? Today’s meet-up presents the perfect opportunity for him to get into Dimitri’s good books. I’ve just got to hope like fuck I get Demi off both their radars before the shoot-out begins.
I drift my eyes from the lights of Erkinsvale to Agent Moses when he attempts to hand me a sandwich from the vending machine in the visiting area at Wallens Ridge. I haven’t eaten in hours, but my stomach is too twisted up in knots to even consider it. That fucked-up, end-of-the-road feeling I experienced when Agent Moses disguised himself as a police officer hasn’t quit the past two hours. I could blame it on the fact this is my first time in a helicopter or that I’m surrounded by FBI agents pretending to be a part of the corrupt Ravenshoe PD team, but I’m done playing stupid. I’ve had my head in the sand the past twelve months. It’s time to take a new approach, and today is as good a day as any.
“When we land, a fleet of Ravenshoe’s finest will take your team the rest of the way,” says a man with thick biceps and a butt-chin face to Agent Moses, his grin indicating finest means corrupt. “If the opportunity arrives, you will be introduced as the newest recruit of the SVU branched off Ravenshoe PD.”
“Why SVU?” I ask, too curious to discount. I watch enough crime shows to know what that acronym stands for. It is a specialized division within Ravenshoe PD that typically investigates crimes of a sexual nature.
Rape and prostitution are part and parcel of the Italian Cartel, so they’d never bring in a specialized unit to investigate either of those things unless it was for someone outside of its realm.
My inner monologue trails off when a disturbing thought smacks into me. The warden mentioned something about Demi blowing some guy’s brains out, and now she’s at a ranch surrounded by law enforcement officers dedicated to victims of rape and sexual abuse.
She couldn’t have been raped, surely.
I would have known if she was hurt like that.
I would have felt something.
Like the sick, twisted feeling my stomach has been facing the past few days.
“How long?” My voice is barely audible. Not only are we landing, so the rotors are extra noisy, but I also can’t open my mouth for the fear I might vomit. That’s how much my stomach is swirling. “How long ago was Demi attacked?”
Realizing his ruse is up, Agent Moses sits on the very edge of his seat. He isn’t assuring his words are only for my ears. He’s reminding me he’s weaponed up and ready to fire if I so much as move an inch in any direction he hasn’t approved. “With the body being disposed of before the forensic team could arrive, we are of the belief the assault occurred approximately three days before Demi was located.”
His reply sends my head into a tailspin.Three days? Three whole motherfucking days Demi was left to fend for herself. Where were my brothers? Max? Where was the protection Ezra promised when he assured me things weren’t as bad as perceived?
I silently warn Agent Moses to get the fuck out of my head when he answers some of the questions bombarding it. “At Caidyn’s request, Landon and Saint gave Demi some much-needed space to get her head straight after her almost overdose on oxycodone—”
