Chapter 17

Walker

“That’s it?” I confirm with Agent Kelly and the Captain. “The Governor and AG gave permission and the funds for this?”

“They’re fully on board.”

“Great, finally, something we agree on.”

“Scott,” Captain sends me a warning.

“Walker, I don’t always like the way decisions come down, but you’ve made a compelling argument. They had no choice but to listen.”

“It was a team effort,” I give him some of the credit.

“Besides Agents Collins and Ross, who else are we reading in on this?” I direct my question to the Captain.

“Oliver.”

“No shit, you think he’s ready?” I sit back in surprise. I halfway expected the Captain to request another detective, someone with much more experience.

“Yeah, I do. He’s young, but he’s hungry. He’s proven himself as valuable. This will be a good test of his ability to think on his feet. He obviously can’t go undercover, but he can be your eyes and ears.”

I nod my agreement. “Let’s bring him in now. I got shit to do tonight.”

Captain twists in his chair and opens the conference room door, yelling for Oliver.

“Lazy,” I utter until his eyes aim fire at me. I smile for the first time since leaving Emi this morning.

Oliver comes in and looks around at us curiously. Kelly, Ross, Collins, and I all sit in silence as Captain explains our case and asks if he’s interested in joining the team.

I’ll give it to him; he does a good job of controlling himself, but his excitement is evident on his face. Kelly shoots me a sideways look, knowing we’ve just picked up the newest member of our task force.

I slide a thick file down the table for Oliver to review.

“Agent Kelly and I got together this morning and outlined a new plan for the Attorney General and Governor. Our goal is national security and to stop these drugs, but there’s a bigger picture. We need to cut off the operation at the roots, not strictly stop the transfer. As a result, we’re going into this with long-term intentions. Find out what we can, get a lock on the plans, learn the players, and then spread the intel among the agencies involved. The car theft was petty and simple, a way to see if we were competent. Now that we’ve put a stop to that way of transport for the time being, we have to take advantage of the disruption. That’s where you come in. This weekend, Kelly and I are going into a nightclub under the ruse of possible investors. Ross, Collins, and you will be running information as we pass it through.”

“Got it.” He thumbs through the folder.

“I need to know you can separate yourself, Oliver. We’re looking at a long-term win here. No matter what, even if we find out about a local delivery, our goal is to locate and follow the drugs.”

This gets his attention. “We’re going to let drugs roam through our city?” Disgust rolls off his tongue. “You’re shitting me.”

Kelly shuffles beside me uncomfortably.

“This is where you make a decision, no hard feelings and no judgment. You’re essentially wearing a new badge. Our end game is total wipe out. We’re going to have to appear weak and lazy. Let a few things go, but underground, we’ll be following the trail. If these drugs are truly traveling up and down the coast, we’ll track them. Once they cross state lines, Kelly has an action plan with SLED. But if we bust the first lead we have, we might as well kiss our chances of slaughtering this thing goodbye. It’s going to take patience and a lot of restraint.”

He seems to think about what I’ve said, the realization of the big picture dawning on him. Slowly, he nods. “I’m in.”

“Have a seat. We’ll bring you up to speed and go over our angle for Saturday night.”

He sits down, and for the rest of the day, we go over every detail from the last weeks, explaining how SLED became involved, and leading up to where we are now. By the time I leave the conference room, my body is buzzing with energy. I chose to come to Charleston because of the easy-going lifestyle and the low crime rate, but it’s proving to be so much more. And damn if the feeling doesn’t excite me.

My phone dings with an incoming text.

Emi- Going to spin my thighs and butt off… wish me luck. If I get hurt, blame it on Maren. She lied. It’s not a spin class. It’s a SoulCycle class.

“What the fuck is SoulCycle?” I ask out loud to no one in particular.

“It’s an intense cycling class, a new craze. People are raving about it.” Nina pops up from her desk, grinning at me proudly. “And we don’t think Emi can injure herself. Maren checked it out.”

“Crazy fucking women,” I mutter under my breath and text her back.

Me- I love your thighs and ass the way they are. You try to spin them off, we have problems.

Her reply comes almost immediately.

Emi- Don’t worry, my ass isn’t going anywhere.

Me- You want to ride something, you ride me.

Emi- Think we can make that a formal exercise? Gotta go! (hope you are remembering what I am)

My dick grows hard at the memory of this morning, and I drop to my seat to cover the arousal. There’s a giggle across the room, and I know I didn’t conceal it well enough.

“Fucking crazy women,” I repeat, shaking my head.

When I click on my email, there’s a string of messages from Marcus. I absentmindedly open one, and the unmistakable sounds of sex blasts through the speakers.

I’m going to kill him…

“Tell me again why I shouldn’t be punching the shit out of you for sending that x-class porn to my computer?” I swing and jab, connecting with the weight bag Marcus is holding.

“I had to get your attention.”

“You got it and about half the station’s when I opened it up to the moaning.”

He chuckles right as I hit hard, catching him off-guard. He stumbles back, releasing the bag, which swings into his lower abdomen. There’s a loud groan and I flinch when he cups his balls.

“Sorry,” I offer.

“Son of a bitch,” he spews, his mouth twisted in pain.

I wipe the sweat from my face, waiting for him to recover.

“Was that for the porn or interrupting this morning?” He grimaces, still clutching his nuts.

“Both. Lucky for you, this morning, you didn’t show up two minutes earlier.”

“Two minutes? That’s all you’re offering now? Poor Emi, she’s fallen in love with a two-pump chump?” He fully recovers, looking proud of himself.

“Don’t confuse me with yourself.”

“Oww, someone’s touchy. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to slip Emi a note with the name of the pill they make for that.”

“Are you having fun?”

“Yes, fucking with you has always been my favorite pastime.”

“Well, I can assure you there are no problems where fucking is concerned.”

He slants his head and narrows his eye, then nods slowly. “Denial.”

“You asshole.” My jab connects with his stomach.

“Shit!” He doubles over again.

I can’t stop my grin as I start to unfasten my gloves.

“All kidding aside, what’s going on? For someone who’s got a beautiful woman christening his closet in the morning, you seem stressed.”

I scan around, noting the gym is pretty cleared out from when we first arrived.

“We’ve got a lead on a drug ring, and I’m working the case. Local PD being kept out of the loop. We’re working with SLED.”

He blows out a low whistle, his face growing serious. “SLED?”

“Yeah.” I fill him in on some of the details, giving him just enough to understand the levity of the situation. He crosses his arms, his face going blank as he listens to every word, the wheels turning in his mind.

“That’s some heavy shit.” He rolls his bottom lip repeatedly through his teeth, soaking it all in.

“Imagine the classified details.”

“You got men on your back?”

“Yeah, they all seem solid. Well trained, into justice and safety—that sort of thing. If and when we bring this to a head, I doubt I’ll even be in the mix. At some point, I think they’ll shove me back in a box and take the lead. DEA is being read in.”

“They’d be stupid to cut you out.”

“We’ll see. It won’t surprise me if we get to the core of the drug operation and the AG brings in his task force.”

“Like I said, they’d be stupid.”

“Thanks. Now that we got that out of the way, want to fill me in on why you showed up at my door this morning with a flimsy excuse about wanting coffee and then send snippets of an orgy to me?”

“I was hoping you’d look into something for me. Thought the pieces of the video would be the best way to pique your interest.”

“Marcus, orgies aren’t my thing.”

“Remember the two clients that fell in my lap a few weeks ago? The irrefutable evidence… the videos… the infidelity?”

“I take it those were the husbands in the video?”

“Yes.”

“Why’d you show me? Doesn’t that break the lawyer-client code?”

“I have permission from my clients.”

“Again, why?”

“I need you to find the source behind the video.”

“You employ an entire firm of people and have a PI on your staff. I asked you before if this shit is credible. You said it was. What the hell is going on?”

“Call it professional curiosity. It got me to thinking, do you know how exactly Maren found out Carlton was cheating on her?” The way he says it makes my hair stand on end. I study him closely, getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“That’s why you were there this morning. You were going to question Emi.”

“No, I’d never do that.” He has the decency to look guilty. “It truly is curiosity. The other night at the bar, when you were lip-locked with Emi, Nina mentioned something about Maren having an anonymous source when she broke things off with Carlton.”

“So, you want me to find out from Emi about this source?”

“My clients are staying tight lipped. They say the video came to them anonymously.”

The word anonymous rattles in my brain, and I understand his sudden interest.

“You think there’s a link?”

“Maybe, it doesn’t matter for my case, but it almost looks like we have a vagina vigilante running around our city. After Jean Wills famously and publicly threw her husband out of the house, men have been scrambling. John says his office is slammed with requests to review prenups.”

“For the love of God, do we have that many adulterers in this small town? How can anyone get away with it? The gossip runs rampant. I take my ass to church and the whole town knows. How can anyone get away with slipping their dick into anything other than their hand or their wife?”

“Now you’re seeing things from my perspective.” He grins triumphantly, knowing he’s got my attention.

“Leave my girlfriend out of this, Marcus. Emi doesn’t know shit.”

“Okay.” He raises his hands in a defeated motion.

“What are you going to do if you find out who was behind the video?”

“Nothing right now. It’s for my eyes only. If you ask me, and it is the same person, they’re doing the women of this city justice. Putting my law career aside, I still believe in the sanctity of marriage.”

I regret my decision before I speak the words. “Send me the videos—to my personal account. I’ll check on anything unusual. No promises, but I’ll look. And if I think the time is right, I’ll question Emi about Maren. Carlton wasn’t her favorite person, but she loves Maren.”

“Got it.”

“And Marcus, if I do this for you, you have to make me a promise.”

“What’s that?”

“Never use the term vagina vigilante again.”