“Yeah?”
“I’ve been tracking water currents with the department of fish and game and the weather people and the water department—and I’ve got… let’s say I’ve got a theory.”
Joey liked where this was going.
They left the department issue at the fro-yo place (after checking to see if they had pre-packed half gallons first), and then they cruised the warehouse front, noting one that was clean and bustling when much of the activity down that area had been limp and uninterested.
“Who is this?”Gideon asked as they took turns with field glasses from the roof of a building two blocks away.“I mean, which company?Nobody’s this busy in this economy.Who—”
“Doesn’t matter,” Joey said, feeling that feral growl in his throat.
“Why not?”
“I spotted one of my tails.He’s reporting to that woman with the blond ponytail—the one with the Glock tucked in the back of her jeans.”
“Ooh… promising.”Gideon took the field glasses from him and stared for a minute, frowning.“Okay, then,” he said.“I gotta talk to Harding.”
“Over the phones?”Joey asked, surprised.The guy who was putting the screws to Crosby was workingfor NYPD Internal Affairs,and their assumption had been that they could easily be tracked or recorded on their phones pretty much from day one of this whole mishigas.
“No, Joey, in person.You’regoing to stay here and track their movements and try to figure out who in the fuck is onloading what here—Crosby said there were drugs filling the streets.You know where drugs often come in from?Two hints, and the answer’snotthe Rio Grande.”
“Ports, Gideon.I’m not stupid.I see where you’re going.”He might have sulked then, but he realized Gideon was trusting him.“So while I’m here, you’re going back to the office to talk to Harding.”
“And to get a covert vehicle, not the I’m-a-government-official SUV,” Gideon confirmed.“Watch for me.”
“What do you think Harding’s going to say?”Joey asked.
Again, that feral wolf’s smile, the one Joey Carlyle had thought he owned but knew now he hadn’t sharpened nearly enough.Gideon’s smile was as sharp as his chin, his nose, his fierce lethal brain.
Joey felt a lust rising, for blood, for sex, forGideon, that he’d never known existed.
But first….
“See you in an hour,” he said.“And Gideon?”
“Yeah?”
“Bring my crossbow.”
That smile only widened.
AN HOURlater, Joey emerged from the shadows of the alleyway to hop in the front seat of the nondescript sedan, heart thundering in his ears.
“Half a block,” he managed.“Turn left behind that outbuilding.”
“What’s back there?”Gideon asked.
“A great make-out spot,” he cackled.
Gideon scowled.“Now?”
“Did you bring my crossbow?”
“Yeah, yeah, I did.”
“Did Harding agree?”
“As long as we’re defending our lives,” Gideon said virtuously.
