Chapter 14: Claire

Ed was sitting across the little coffee shop table, glaring at me as he stuffed half a powdered donut into his mouth. He shook his head and spat crumbs as he spoke.

“I can’t believe you,” he said. “What the fuck are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I’m getting into Sean O’Connor’s inner circle pretty fucking quickly,” I said, leaning in and lowered my voice.

“By fucking him?” He picked up his coffee cup and shook his head before taking a sip. “Unfucking believable, Claire. You have compromised the entire operation because you can’t keep your fucking hormones in check.”

“I haven’t jeopardized a fucking thing,” I said, forgetting to control the level of my voice in the small shop. Several customers glanced my way, then shook their heads in disgust at the girl with the muck mouth and went back to their coffee and donuts.

The truth was, I may not have jeopardized the operation, but I’d certainly added a new level of difficulty to it. Now we needed iron-clad evidence to convict the O’Connor crew, but the Catch 22 was that we would have probably never found such evidence if I hadn’t, to quote Ed, “fucked my way to the inside”.

Circumstantial evidence would get us nowhere now.

Then again, nowhere is where we had been for months.

“Look, he trusts me now,” I said. “He will let me into his apartment and into his office, and eventually into his confidence.”

“And into his bed,” Ed growled. His nostrils flared like an angry bull’s. “I don’t like this, Claire. I don’t like it one goddamned bit.”

“Relax,” I said, picking up my coffee cup and holding it between my hands. I smiled at him. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

“What? No, fuck no,” he said, scolding me with his eyes. “You’re free to fuck whomever you like, Claire. I would just prefer you not fuck someone we’re trying to put in jail.”

“I hear you, Ed,” I said, giving him a nod. “I won’t fuck this up.”

“Just don’t let the lure of Sean O’Connor’s cock blind you from the fact that he is a fucking criminal. He is breaking the law and needs to be in jail.”

“I have not been blinded by his cock,” I said. I took a little sip of coffee and sighed happily. “Although, there was one point there when his cock did almost hit me in the eye.”

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ will you shut the fuck up,” he said, making a face that looked like he was about to puke. “I don’t need to hear this.”

“What’s wrong, Ed,” I asked, lips pouting. “Doesn’t Greta suck your cock?”

“She sucks my cock just fine,” he said. He reached across the table and took the sugar donut that was sitting untouched in front of me. He tore the donut in half and shoved one-half into his mouth. He licked the powdered sugar from his lips.

He asked, “So, what’s your plan?”

“My plan is to go to work on Monday and see what I can find,” I said with a shrug. “If there is a trace of evidence in the place, I intend to find it.”

“I’d like for you to plant bugs in his apartment and at the office,” he said. “I’ll get them to you on Monday.”

“You’re such a pervert,” I said, scolding him with my eyes.

“And you’re such a slut,” he shot back, grinning. “I’ve heard you cum before. I won’t be shocked.”

“No, but the rest of the team will be,” I said. “Can you imagine what Danzig would do with that little sound bite?”

He shoved the rest of the donut into his mouth and grinned. “True. Maybe you should learn to cum quieter.”

“Maybe you should forget the idea of putting a bug in his bedroom.”

“Oh, that reminds me… I brought you this.” He reached inside his jacket. His hand came out holding what looked like a small USB drive the size of a postage stamp. “Plug this into his computer and we can get access to everything on the computer and anything stored on their network.”

I took the USB drive and held it between two fingers. “How does this work exactly?”

“When you have the opportunity, call the office and get on the phone with Robby, the IT guy. He will have you stick this in O’Connor’s computer, type in a code, then he can connect to the computer remotely and install a piece of software that will let us have unlimited access to all files on their network.”

“Ah, okay, I can do that,” I said, slipping the USB drive into my purse.

“Just be careful,” Ed said seriously. “You may think you have an in with Sean, but don’t forget his old man and his goons hang out at that office, too. If you get caught doing something by Sean, you can probably fuck your way out of it, but if Patsy or the goons catch you, well, your life could be in danger.”

“I know,” I said, a little too casually for Ed.

“Claire, listen to me. This is serious.”

“I know that.”

“These are violent felons. They have hurt people. Maybe even killed people. I doubt they’d hesitate to do the same thing to you.”

“I know,” I said. “Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”

My burner phone buzzed and danced across the table. I picked it up and looked at the number. I waved the phone at Ed and took a deep breath.

“It’s him.”

“Okay,” Ed said, pushing himself away from the table. “Be careful, Claire. I don’t wanna lose you.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” I said. I held up the phone. “Now fuck off. I have to take this call.”