Page 39 of Lethal Justice

Chapter Twenty-One

Malco came awake in a rush,pain slamming into his side as he sat up quickly, making him feel lightheaded and nauseous.

“Hey, slow down.” His eyes moved to Emme, who was seated beside the bed doing paperwork. She placed it aside and assessed him. “How do you feel?”

Malco frowned. “Like you fucking drugged me,” he accused angrily.

“We had no choice, Malco. If we hadn’t, you’d have gone running off half-cocked to JaKheel with Frida and gotten yourself hurt even worse.

“Frida is with JaKheel? Are you fucking insane?” His anger was hitting altitude now as fear mixed with the pain.

“Watch your fucking mouth,” Shane growled from the door. His voice was low with anger as he glared at Malco. Malco was instantly contrite for speaking to Emme that way. She was a good boss and an even better friend, and the rational part of him knew that. Unfortunately, the rational Malco had taken leave, and the worried one was in residence.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. I’m worried about Frida. She thinks she can save the world, and while I believe in her, I can’t let anything happen to her.”

Malco saw understanding flash across Shane’s face, and the anger from moments ago take a back seat.

“I understand, I do, but don’t let that shit happen again or bullet wound or not, I’ll punch you in the face.”

“Nothing to apologize for,” Emme said with a glare at Shane.

“Who’s with her?” The fog from the drugs was wearing off now, and with a clearer head, he knew Shane would never have let her go alone. His team was more than competent, but that didn’t change the fact that nobody would be able to protect her better than he could because he loved her, and they didn’t.

“I’ve been where you are, Malco, and it fucking sucks, but you have to trust your team to keep her safe. Mercy and James are with her, and Nicholas is at the safe house.” Shane pulled up a chair beside the bed as Malco swung his feet off, testing his legs and luckily finding them firm beneath him. Emme couldn’t have given him a large dose.

“We have a bigger problem right now.” Malco had a horrible feeling he knew where this was going.

“We have a leak.”

He’d known the second the bullet hit that something was wrong. There was no way that anyone should’ve known they were responsible for the raids on the Blood Razors.

Shane nodded. “We have a leak.”

“Any thoughts on who it might be?” Malco asked carefully.

“I have full faith in the Alliance Team. No doubt whatsoever. However, I’d be a fool not to investigate, and there are only two people that aren’t part of this team and had access to our plans.” The way the words were said so carefully, Malco knew exactly who one of those two were. Malco clenched his fists, his jaw hard as he tried to contain the fury.

“No fucking way.”

“Malco, hear me out for a second. I’m not accusing Frida. Fuck, she was my friend before she was your woman. But it’s either her or Ward. Now, my money is on Ward because I know Frida, and I don’t believe she’d knowingly betray anyone, let alone us. That said, she and Ward are the only two people it could be. So, if you trust Frida and for the record, so do I, then we have a big fucking problem because Ward knew our plans, and he knows about the kids being here, and JaKheel being somewhere else.”

“Does he know where they are?”

“I don’t believe so, no. I put Caitlin and Alex on him as soon as my suspicions were raised. He’s still with Danie, but that, in its own right, isn’t great. We need to get him away from her, Tycen, and his mother without arousing suspicion.”

“But we still don’t know it’s him,” Malco said, not wanting to believe the man he’d worked with these last few years to rehabilitate so many kids was on the Blood Razor’s payroll.

“No,” Shane said carefully, “we don’t, but at this point, my priority is keeping my team safe.”

Malco nodded and slipped off the bed, moving for the door. “Where the hell are you going?” Emme asked with her brows in her hairline.

“Alex is busy, so I’m going to dig into Ward’s finances to see if we can find anything to prove or disprove your theory.” Emme and Shane followed him toward the tech room, where he sat heavier than he intended, jarring his side. He grimaced but bit back the pain in case Emme went full mother hen on him again.

His fingers began to fly over the keys as he used software to hack the computer system, hating that he was so slow at it.

“We need a fucking hacker on the team.” He knew he grumbled, but couldn’t help it.

“I know, I have it in hand,” Emme said.