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hat do you mean we still can’t narrow down the origin of the ads? You have been working on it for weeks now! My kids deserve to go out and be kids. They shouldn’t have to live in fear or have someone always hovering over them!” I kick back from the table.
“I am trying here, Rambo, but they are going through a mixture of VPNs and IP servers. Their signal is bouncing from here to Canada, then to Russia. Once it hits Russia, they encrypt the data and split it into four new lines. I can’t figure out which encryption line is the right one. It’s complicated.” Knuckles explains. He looks defeated and tired as hell.
“There is more to this than it looks. These guys are smart. They know how to cover their tracks well enough.” Copper explained.
“You guys cracked the ads, so we know they are here. Why can’t we just put a tail on the people we suspect are doing this? We tailed the cops and found out who was responsible for the drugs. Why can’t we do that for this?” I suggest.
“No, I found the tape showing it was Connard.” Copper mumbles.
“That doesn’t matter. The point is, we found out. There has to be something that we can do. Someone that we can follow.” I tell them.
“Who do you think is behind this? Honestly? Because right now, it could be anyone. The cops are in the pocket, not behind it. Who else do you think is behind this?” Storm asks, looking fed up with this whole thing.
“I don’t know, why not look back at the Mallory case?” I ask,“She was hurt in Bonnie’s house—”
“—But she was taken in Denver.” Copper finishes.“I have looked that case up and down many times; there is no real connection for her. That was a Denver branch, or the cops were paid off to make it happen this way.”
I lean back and rack my brain. Who the hell would Steffie go to? She didn’t trust the cops. She didn’t like people. Well, people didn’t like her. She wouldn’t offload the kids to just anyone. They would have had to have some leverage over her.
“Can we get Ellie and Audrina to look into social services again? They have to be in on it.” Sever asks.
“The only ones left in that office are Audrina and Ellie.” Copper says.“Scott transferred or something. Ellie didn’t have all the details.”
“What about the bitch at the hospital?” Butcher asks.
“Do we know much about her?” Gears looks around.
“She was the social worker for the ranch for a while, but Elvira wanted to kick her in the box almost daily. Rambo, you had the most recent interactions with her. Do you think she might have something to do with this?” Judge asks me.
“She did the home visit when I tried to get the kids. She picked everything apart. She told me straight up that I was not fit to take care of a cat, let alone children. She told the judge as well. She didn’t want me to get the kids. She wanted them to go back to…. Holy shit, she wanted Steffie to have them back. She has to be in on it. No social worker with a fucking brain would willingly hand over kids to that crazy bitch. She must have made the offer, but then Steffie lost them. Sonya needed the kids to be back with Steffie, so she attempted to derail me.” I feel the rage boiling again.
“Where is she now?” Bigfoot chimes in.
“I would assume that she’s at the hospital. There’s no reason for her not to be.” Cowboy states.“We can start following her. Gears, you and Turd take the first shift. Figure out her schedule and stay on her ass. I want to know everything she does. You don’t leave until she’s in her house for the night. Then Zombie and Sever can take over. We’ll work shifts until we find something.”
We agreed, and Cowboy called church to an end. My blood is still boiling over the lack of information about the ads and who is coming after my kids.
Audrina is just getting home from work when I make my way home. I know she has been overloaded with Scott leaving and Ellie only being part-time. It’s creating more problems in an already problematic system. I roll up on my bike, and she is still sitting in her car. She’s not moving or gathering her things, and from what I can see, she’s making no attempt to come inside.
I walk up to her window and knock on it, making her jump. I give her a questioning look as she takes a couple of breaths.
“Want to open up?”
When she nods, I grab the door and wait for her to hit the unlock button. As soon as I can, I yank open the door and drop to a squat so I’m at her level.
“Amour, what’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
When she doesn’t look at me, I grab her face and bring her eyes to mine. I don’t know what’s happening in her beautiful mind, but something is bringing her down. I don’t think it’s what happened with Clint, Scott, or work. Something darker is going on. Her eyes are clouded, almost like she’s seen the devil and needs to escape him.
“Audrina, what’s happening? What’s wrong? I can’t help if you don’t tell me.”
She looks around and tells me,“We need to talk, but we need to get inside. Please.”
“Okay,” I whisper. I’m unsure where she’s going with this, but something tells me I won’t like it. As we walk inside, I prepare for her to tell me that whatever we’ve started is over. That she can’t do whatever this is anymore.
“Audrina,” I say as soon as the doors shut and she’s put her things down,“what’s going on?”
“Weeks ago, I had a hunch. I looked into it, and what I found tells me I’m probably correct. But then everything happened, and I…. I am ashamed to say this part, forgot about it.”
