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Steel nodded. “It’s not him, Carter. He obviously isn’t part of this. I mean, he couldn’t have pulled this off by himself. It’s impossible.”
Bozeman blinked. I nodded and picked up the narrative from there. “Even if he was involved, he wouldn’t be the brains of the outfit. Let’s say he somehow managed to know where they were going to drop off the guns. He doesn’t have a crew to do the actual thieving.”
“Exactly.” Bozeman sounded a little nervous again, as though he knew we were up to something.
“Someone else would have to be behind all of this.” I wagged a finger at Steel. “Someone on Archuleta’s side who knew about the shipment and had the manpower to intercept it.”
“That’s right.” Bozeman nodded vigorously. “I don’t know why the captain even suspects someone on his crew. Obviously, it’s someone who works for Archuleta.”
I smiled at him, almost sweetly. “The only problem is Archuleta’s people didn’t know where the shipment would be dropped off. Emerson chose the warehouse without informing Archuleta beforehand. Emerson was going to contact them after getting the guns unloaded. If someone wanted to intercept the shipment, the best time to do it would be at the warehouse before Archuleta’s men were called in for pickup. They might have known the when, but how would they have known where to go?”
Fear was steadily creeping into Bozeman’s eyes and his feet shifted. He moved into a position better suited to standing up in a hurry. He realized he was caught. I knew he could turn violent at the drop of a hat, and I repositioned myself in case he decided to fight. Lashing out with an assassin in the room wouldn’t be prudent, but I doubted this guy was smart enough to turn himself over peacefully.
Steel nodded at me. “That makes sense. Someone on Archuleta’s crew would need to get that one little piece of information from someone on Captain Emerson’s crew. And it wouldn’t have to be someone specifically on the team that took the guns to the warehouse. With a little digging, it would be easy enough to find out where the team was going. It would be very simple to send a message off to someone on the outside.”
“Exactly.” I licked my teeth and made sure Bozeman was looking at me before I continued. “I bet if we checked all outgoing messages, we’d find what we were looking for.”
Bozeman’s eyes jumped between the two of us, as though trying to decide if he should make a move. I hoped he wouldn’t, but I knew he would. He was bigger than both of us, and if he thought he could muscle out of the room then he would try. I don’t know where he would go from there, but I doubted he could think that far ahead with adrenaline racing through his system.
Chances were high that he would go for me. I was closest to the door, and I was the smallest. If he was lucky, he could use me for leverage as a hostage. I knew, logically, that he would go for me. I was already lifting myself out of my seat, ready to fight back. Some people were just that easy to read.
Sure enough, he came up out of the chair like he was on fire. It was still a little jarring to hear his chair crash to the floor while he lunged towards me, but I was trained for this kind of thing. I was already up and moving out of his reach, towards the door. He realized what I was doing and adjusted course, snagging my arm in his left hand. I turned and ducked under his other arm and slammed my heel down on his foot.
Although he grunted, his grip didn’t loosen. Instead, his hand came around my neck. I threw my arm up and leveraged myself out of his hold. He reached for my face, and without much thought I chomped down on his thumb. He roared, jerked away from me, crashed into the table, and fell over.
I stood over him, wiping his blood off my jaw. Steel sat in his seat, arms folded, but he still somehow looked ready to spring. I scowled at him. “Thanks for the help.”
“You definitely had him handled.” Steel smirked. He stood up and eyed Bozeman, who was sliding towards the wall and pulling himself to his feet. “You can take care of yourself. I can see that.”
Bozeman roared something and charged at me again. I sighed and ducked his obvious punch and came up with a quick uppercut to his sternum, using all the force I could muster. It wasn’t enough to knock him down, but it did surprise him. I went to punch his face, but Steel was suddenly there. Quick as lightning, he wrapped his arm around Bozeman’s neck and squeezed. Bozeman tried to jerk out of his hands but failed miserably. After a few seconds, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he crumpled to the floor.
I took a deep breath to force some of the adrenaline away. Steel stood over the body, giving me an almost impressed look. “You handle yourself well. Is biting in the official IPF handbook?”
“That was all me.” I tried to wipe the blood off my chin again. This time I was pretty sure I got it all. “I may be a cop, but I act to survive. If that means fighting dirty, then I’ll do it. Some things go beyond procedure and the law.” I hated to say it, but I knew I was referring to more than just the fight. I hadn’t turned Emerson in because we had an understanding. He had helped me, and I had helped him. I had no plans on turning Ethan over when this was finished, either. Or any of the crew.
There was more to life than the law. Life was complicated, and the unique situation I found myself in was even more complicated. I knew I was breaking laws by doing what I was doing, but I was trying to survive. Maybe not all of it was for survival, but that’s what I was telling myself. I hadn’t always obeyed the law, even prior to being kidnapped. Obviously, I was a drug addict at one point in my life, but it wasn’t just that. Even as a cop, I still sometimes did things I knew I shouldn’t.
Like killing Santiago.
I didn’t often think about killing him. I hadn’t necessarilyneededto kill him. It would have been better for our case if I hadn’t. But I couldn’t stomach the idea of him not being punished for all the people he had killed and tortured. Santiago was a monster. So, I had killed him. And I had made sure it was slow.
Part of me had enjoyed watching him die, which scared me a little. I felt like I should have been bothered more by it. But when I had looked at him, all I could see were the faces of the people he’d hurt. He was sadistic and the world was a better place without him. Given the opportunity, I would do the same thing all over again.
Needing to move on, I cleared my throat. “Now what?”
Steel smirked again. “Now we drag him down to a cell until he wakes up. Then we interrogate him a little harder. And we get a name.”
I stared dubiously down at the body. “I don’t think we can lift him by ourselves.”
He laughed. The sound was surprisingly pleasant. “You aren’t hiding some super strength in your belt?” He grinned at me. He looked relaxed and almost friendly, which wasn’t something I had seen from him before. Without his aloof detachment, he was even more attractive. Of course, his face reverted almost immediately, but I’d caught a glimpse of who he really was beneath his shell. He was a lot more human than he allowed people to see.
Steel looked down at Bozeman and shook his head, not allowing me to dwell on his momentary unmasking. “I think we should get Reuben’s help. He’ll be happy interviews are over. You don’t think Bozeman was working with someone else on the crew, do you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “He was genuinely confused when I said someone else had pointed the finger at him. There’s no way he was working with anyone else on the crew.”
“Good enough for me.” He slapped his com, calling Reuben in to help. “I’m just glad this wasn’t a total waste of time.”
I grunted in agreement. “I wasn’t sure this was going to yield anything, but I think we got lucky.”
