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He walked up the back stairs to the office, hoping to avoid any of the other guys that might be there and found Spider sitting at the desk in the corner. He seemed to be studying some papers and Myles almost hated to interrupt him. “Hey, man,” Myles said.
“You wanted to talk?” Spider asked.
“Yeah, if you have a minute,” Myles said.
“I do, but it’s not safe here. How about we go outside?” Spider asked.
“That works,” Myles agreed. He followed Spider down to the parking lot and they both jumped into Myles’s truck.
“Mind if I smoke?” Spider asked. “My nerves are on edge.”
“Sure, just roll down the window, man,” Myles said. He waited for Spider to settle before giving him the bad news.
“So, what’s up?” Spider asked.
“I have to report back to base. I’m needed back at work,” Myles said.
“When—how much time do I have?” Spider asked.
“I hate to tell you this, but you’re out of time. My commanding officer called me this morning and told me to report back to base. I’m out of time, man,” Myles said. “Maybe Savage could pull someone else in to help you out.”
“No,” Spider said. “It was hard enough to get Chains to accept you coming on board. If you bail and I bring in someone else, he’ll get suspicious. I can’t have that—not now that I’m so close to bringing down this whole ring. Is there anything else you can do to get some more time off?” Spider asked. The poor guy sounded desperate, and Myles hated leaving him high and dry like this, but he was looking forward to getting back to his regular life and routine.
“I’m afraid not,” Myles said. “I’m really sorry about all of this, but I need to go home to change, and get to base. My CO is waiting for me.”
“I understand, and I appreciate all of the time that you’ve devoted to helping me out with this case,” Spider said. He put his cigarette out in an empty soda can he was holding and held out his hand to Myles. He shook Spider’s hand and felt a bit worse about just leaving him alone to handle the Ghosts.
“I’m sorry to cut out on you like this, Spider. I hope that you find what you’re looking for,” Myles said.
“Me too, man, me too,” Spider said. He got out of Myles’s truck and looked around, making sure that no one was around watching them. Myles waited for Spider to go into the back door of the warehouse before starting his engine. He was torn between heading back to work, as ordered, and helping his friend. Spider had become that to him—a friend and leaving him like this felt wrong. But orders were orders and there was no way that he’d disobey a direct command.
For now, all he could do was head back home and change. He was going to drive Gen to work and then he’d meet up with his commanding officer, as ordered. After work, he’d head over to Savage Hell to see if anything could be done to get someone else in place to help Spider. If anyone could help Spider, it would be Savage.
* * *
“Come on,” Gen shouted up the stairs at him for the third time. “You’re going to make me late, Myles.” He had hit traffic on his way home and he always drove a bit out of his way in case anyone from the warehouse was tailing him. Today, he didn’t take as many precautions because he didn’t want to be too late, but the traffic in town really slowed him down.
“I’m coming,” he shouted back. “Just two more minutes.”
Her growl of frustration rang up the stairs, making him chuckle. “We don’t have two minutes,” she shouted back.
“Okay,” he grumbled, lacing up his left boot. “I’m coming.” He hurried down the stairs, grabbing his wallet and keys that he had left by the front door. “Ready,” he confirmed.
“It’s about time,” Gen mumbled. “You act like this is your first day at work.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve had to put on my uniform and I guess I was just out of practice,” he admitted. He pulled open the front door to find Chains standing on the porch, gun in hand, and mean smile on his scruffy face.
“What the fuck,” Myles shouted. A million thoughts ran through his mind, including slamming the door in Chains’ face, but it would do him no good. The guy would just shoot his way in and then what? No, his only way out of this mess might be to talk his way out.
“Isn’t that my line?” Chains asked.
“What are you doing here?” Myles asked.
“Well, I was hanging around the warehouse this morning and I saw you and Spider talking. I’ve always suspected that you weren’t on the up and up, but hearing you tell Spider that you couldn’t help him anymore because your commanding officer called you back to work, well, that just confirmed it for me. You’re military, I take it,” Chains said, looking his uniform up and down.
“I am,” he admitted. How could he lie about that while wearing the evidence? He couldn’t. “What exactly do you want, Chains?” Myles had used the distraction of Chains talking to put Genesis behind his body. He didn’t want her in the path of any bullets. She wasn’t a part of any of this, not that Chains would care about that.
As if he had just noticed Genesis, Chains looked around Myles and smiled at her. “Who’s your girlfriend?” Chains asked. Genesis looked scared out of her mind as she looked the guy over.
