We peppered the town with the flyers. We didn’t leave a place untouched. Restaurants, stores, gas stations. Every business in town, every residence. We left flyers in mailboxes, stuck in the corners of doors, and in stacks on counters. Everywhere we could think of. Within twelve hours, it was the talk of the town. I drove through town and stopped to check the mail, just to listen to the gossip. The flyers were the center of the gossip. Some of it was on our side. Not all, but enough.

I took Ruth and went to Walmart. We’d managed to raid her apartment and get her some clothes, but she needed things we—as men—hadn’t thought to pack. Going back to her apartment was something of a risk, so Walmart it was. I should have known that was a risk, too.

We were walking out of the store when several of the blue-banded bastards showed up. One moved behind me and tried to grab my arm. I was prepared for him this time. I jerked to the side, moving out of his reach before he could even grab my wrist. But one of the other guys grabbed Ruth’s arm. She wasn’t as quick as I was.

Smythe himself stepped out from around a parked car, his beady eyes moving up and down the length of me just like before. Like he was checking me out for some sort of later use.

“What’s the matter, Smythe? We touch a chord?”

Smythe’s eyes narrowed, but he couldn’t pretend he didn’t know what I was talking about. He had one of my flyers in his hand.

“Clever, Mr. Stone. Very clever.”

“I thought so.”

He held the flyer up and looked at it as though it was the first time he was seeing it. “What makes you think it was my men who defecated in Miss Collins’s store?”

“We have security camera footage. Those blue bands,” I said, gesturing at the one he wore on his sleeve, “come through bright and clear.”

Smythe nodded. “If you have this footage, why haven’t you taken it to the police?”

“So the sheriff can turn his nose up at it? No, thank you. We’ve been down that road too often already.”

“You make all these accusations, claiming we have the sheriff in our pockets and that we killed your friend, but I’ve yet to see any definitive proof.”

“What do you want, Smythe? A smoking gun?”

“That would be nice.”

I took a step toward him, and he backed up. A titter of laughter came from behind me. When I glanced over my shoulder, I realized we were beginning to draw a crowd. Where were these people a week ago when he was beating the shit out of me in this same parking lot? But I didn’t suppose it mattered. They were here now.

Smythe had noticed the growing crowd, too. He gestured to his man holding Ruth. They began to move forward, the man pushing her hard toward a waiting van.

“Where are you taking her?”

Smythe moved closer to me, whispering so only the two of us could hear. “None of your fucking business.”

“Let her go,” I demanded as loudly as he’d been quiet. “She doesn’t want to go with you.”

Ruth glanced at me over her shoulder as I spoke the words, a look of desperation in her eyes. I reached for her, but Smythe’s man pulled her out of my reach before I could touch her.

“Let her go!” someone in the growing crowd called.

“Yeah, let her go,” someone else said.

“This is none of your concern,” Smythe announced. “It’s church business.”

“Let her go!”

I pushed past Smythe to get to Ruth. He stuck out his foot and tried to trip me, but I saw it coming and managed to avoid it. I grabbed the man holding Ruth and jerked him from her. Ruth immediately turned to the crowd and was welcomed into the arms of a woman I’d never seen before. The man who’d been holding her wasn’t pleased with the sudden change in events. He turned and swung, trying to hit me, but missed. I stepped back, holding up my arms to show that I wasn’t planning on becoming violent. The man moved into me, his hand balled into a fist, but Smythe touched his arm, stopping him.

“We’ll go,” Smythe said. “But this isn’t over, Mr. Stone.”

“No,” I agreed. “Not until you hand over the men who killed Harry. And the asses who have been harassing Alli.”

Smythe’s eyes narrowed. “You have no proof that it was my men who did those things.”

“When I get the proof, I will make sure you and your men pay the price.”

“Are you threatening me, Mr. Stone?”

“No.” I smiled a little sardonically. “I’m making a promise.”

 

 

Ruth was still shaking as we walked through the door of the warehouse. Quentin saw from the look on her face that something was wrong. He came over immediately, carrying a chair that he set down for Ruth.

“What happened?”

“Smythe and his people were waiting for us outside the Walmart.”

“What did he do?” Quentin glanced at me. “Not a repeat of the last time, I hope.”

“No. They backed down pretty quickly when a crowd began to form.”

“Good.”

“Seems our flyers are having an effect.”

Quentin nodded, his eyes moving to Ruth. “She okay?”

“She has a voice,” Ruth reminded him. “And, yes, I’m fine.”

“Good.”

I went to her and knelt in front of her. Exhaustion was clear in her eyes. We were up all night after the mess at Alli’s store, then again last night for…other reasons. She needed rest more than anything else.

“Let me take you to bed.”

“If you plan on staying with me,” she said, with her very innocent attempt at a naughty smile.

I reached up and kissed her softly. “I think you need to get some sleep, babe. I’ll come join you in a while.”

“Promise?”

“Of course.” I kissed the tip of her nose, then the center of her forehead. “When all this is over, I’m taking you out of town. I think we both need a break, don’t you?”

“Where will you take me?”

“Anywhere you want to go.”

She seemed to take a moment to think about it. Then she touched a finger to the tip of my nose. “Memphis,” she said.

“Memphis? Why there?”

“Because I want to meet your family and see where you grew up. I want to know everything there is to know about you.”

“Why?”

She giggled softly. “If you have to ask that question, you are much less intelligent than I always assumed you were. At least, when it comes to the weaker sex.”

“There’s nothing weaker about you, darlin’.” I kissed her again before climbing to my feet and dragging her from the chair. “Go to bed. You need rest.”

“And need lots of things.”

Once again, she tried to appear sexy as she walked away, but there was a heaviness in her limbs that underscored her exhaustion more than her eroticism. But she would have been sexy to me no matter what she’d done or how hard she tried.

I went out to the car to get our bags, digging through them to find a few things I had bought for the warehouse. I didn’t want to take Patrick’s soup or Quentin’s pasta into the office and have to bother her when I went searching for it later. I was just about done, shifting things from one bag to the other, when someone cleared their throat behind me. Assuming it was another of Smythe’s men, I yanked the pistol from my waistband and spun around, already aiming and ready to fire.

A man who looked vaguely familiar, held up his hands.

“Do you point a gun at every potential employee?”

I tilted my head slightly, studying his face. Where did I know him from? And then it hit me. The night of the fire in Alli’s parking lot. This was Officer Sullivan, the man who’d arrived at the scene with Willis.

“What do you want, Officer Sullivan?”

His eyebrows rose. “I wasn’t sure you’d know me.”

I offered a slight shrug, the gun still trained on him. “I learned a long time ago to know my enemy.”

“And you consider me the enemy?”

“You’re with the sheriff’s department. Everyone over there is an enemy until they prove otherwise.”

“Like Willis? You still think he’s one of the good guys?”

That was a good question. I’d gone to Willis and asked for information days ago and had yet to hear anything. Not even over the anonymous email account. It was beginning to make me nervous, but it was none of this man’s business.

“What do you want, Sullivan?”

“Willis turned on you. He went to the sheriff and informed him of what you were up to. Told him you had information that you shouldn’t have had.”

“He wouldn’t do that.”

“He did do that. And, by doing it, he forced my hand. I had to resign before they found out I was the one who sent you the information on the accident investigation.”

“You’re Anon101?”

“Did you really think it was Willis? Do you really think he would put his marriage at risk, his career, to help you out?”

“He was helping me.”

“Only enough to keep you on the line. Just like the sheriff instructed.” Sullivan sighed, lowering his hands even though I still had the gun trained on him. “The sheriff told all of us that you would come around asking questions. Told us to give you enough to make you think you could trust us, but not enough for you to do anything solid with. It was his way of toying with you.”

“But you sent me the entire investigative folder.”

“Because I still believe that a cop’s first job is to protect the public. And the best way to protect the public in this case is to get these crazy idiots off the street before they hurt someone else.”

I lowered my gun, but didn’t put it away. “Why would you send it to me?”

“Because you were the only one who would pursue it.”

I nodded slowly. “The trouble with that is that I don’t have the authority to do anything with the information I have. I came by my only evidence illegally, and the Guardians are tightening the ranks, hiding these guys from plain sight. My hands are just as tied as yours.”

Sullivan lowered his head slightly. “There has to be a way.”

“We need more evidence, evidence that we can take to a law enforcement entity that hasn’t been corrupted by Smythe and his men.”

“I have friends in the Tucson field office of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.”

My eyebrows rose. “You’re just a wealth of resources.”

“That’s why you’re going to hire me.”

“You think?”

“I know.”

I laughed softly. “All right, Officer Sullivan. How do we get more evidence against these guys?”

“We catch them in the act.”

He walked toward me, moving with absolutely no caution at all. He trusted I wasn’t going to shoot him. That impressed me.

“I heard a rumor,” he continued. “They’re planning on hitting your warehouse tonight. Torches. The whole bit. If we’re ready for them, we could catch them red-handed. No police department in the country would turn their noses up at that.”

“But how does that help us get this Tyler Sanders?”

“He’ll be the one leading the way.”

I was beginning to like this guy.