Chapter Twenty-Five

Ever

“G reat,” Cash says. “If you spot anything ridiculous or something goes wrong then call the other team but otherwise, we will meet back here at around seven tomorrow morning. We will check in with Trick, crash for the day and then head back out.”

“You know dude, you are kind of good at this leadership thing,” Ezra points out.

Jensen grins, “He used to be a far more hands-on second to Trick.”

Cash shrugs, “I sort of took a step back when everything happened with Atlas and Blackbreak, then Blake. Thought I would step back up again, be less of a background figure.”

Jensen’s smile is sharp, “Good, I fucking missed it.”

“I love it,” I add for good measure.

“It suits you,” Quinn says and then adds, “although I know that doesn’t mean much coming from me since we don’t really know each other that well. Which also seems odd because I consider you family.”

“That kind of got away from you then,” Ezra chuckles, looking at Quinn fondly.

“We consider you family too,” I tell Quinn because I feel like he needs to hear it.

“Thanks,” Quinn replies, his mouth moving up into a soft smile.

“Anyway, as I was saying,” Cash starts and continues to talk about the plan and the logistics of it.

Ezra catches my eye, and mouths thank you at me, confirming that I was right, and Quinn did need to hear that we considered him family. I can’t imagine how weird it has been for him to step back into his family when everything has changed so much. It is going to take him a while to adjust, and there is a baby thrown in the mix, too. I know that they are all over the moon, but that doesn’t mean that it is easy. I know that just from conversations I have had with Lyric.

“What about cars?” Quinn asks, “If we’re going to split up, then we need another car; we came up in the same car.”

“I had someone drop another one off here, one of the organization ones.” Cash replies.

“You really did think of everything,” I mutter.

“I try to.” He replies with a frown, “I don’t like the thought of missing something major and it putting us in danger, or affecting our job to the point where we can’t effectively do it properly.”

“Dude, you are good at this. You always have been. I am sure you have thought of everything, and if there is something that you haven’t, you will know what to do and sort it out,” Jensen replies firmly, not leaving any room for Cash to question himself.

“I brought travel mugs so we can take coffee with us,” I say, “I didn’t know if you guys would, so I brought enough for everyone.”

Ezra grins, “Thank fuck. You would think that since I’m a cop as well and do this sort of thing all the time, that I would remember to bring a travel mug, but I never do.”

“We brought lots of snacks as well,” Quinn adds with a huge grin.

“Alright, you guys split up the snacks, and I’ll make the coffee,” I say, getting up and taking my bowl at the same time.

I make coffee for everyone often enough that I know everyone’s orders.

**********

When they said that they brought snacks, they weren’t lying, and Cash and I have at least three bags of snacks to get through. Not that we have to eat them all tonight, but I definitely get snacky when I have to be on surveillance, so there is a chance that they might all be gone. We have parked up outside the main entrance, our car blending in with the others that are parked here. Fortunately, the streetlights around here are pretty much non-existent, so we should be able to observe without calling any attention to ourselves.

“And now we sit and wait,” Cash sighs, “honestly this is a part of the job that I do not look forward to, just sitting and watching.”

“I don’t think anyone does.” I reply, and then add with a smile, “at least I get to spend some one on one time with you.”

He smiles as he reaches over and takes my hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing the back of it, “That is a definite bonus.”

Jensen

“I ’m bored,” Ezra groans.

I laugh as Quinn gives him a raised eyebrow look, “Dude, we parked like ten minutes ago.”

“Ten minutes too long,” he retorts with a smile.

I reach forward between the seats and hand him a bag of candy, “Here, eat this.”

“Thanks, man, these are my favorite,” he replies.

“What are we doing if I recognize any of the people that are coming or going?” Quinn asks.

“We’re just making a note of who they are and where they are within his organization, if they are high up or more grunts, just so that we have a good idea of how important this place is to Hunt and the likelihood of us being able to corner him here,” I explain.

“Got it,” Quinn replies. “I have a pretty good knowledge of who is in his inner circle and who he keeps deliberately out of it because he doesn’t want people to know just how important they are to him. like Emmerson.”

“Rylie’s slowly working her way through the list you gave her,” I reply. “I think she’s wanting Ever to help her out with one of them.”

Quinn nods, “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. There are some pretty heavy hitters on that list, people that you wouldn’t think of as well.”

“It makes sense. He’s well known in the business world and is very good at making himself seem like an all around good guy,” Ezra replies.

“Exactly,” Quinn replies.

The car lapses into silence as we watch the entrance; I don’t know how long passes before something on the opposite side of the street catches my attention. A woman dressed in a waitress outfit, clutching her bag tightly and around the same age as us, is practically running down the street. It takes me a moment to realize why, as two men round the corner, walking quickly and clearly following her.

As she passes the entrance to an alleyway I watch as she gets pulled inside her bag falling to the floor with the force of the pull.

“You see that?” I ask. Already getting out of the car, Quinn and Ezra are quick on my heels.

“Tonight just got a little more interesting; I could use a fight,” Quinn says, violence flashing in his eyes.

“Are we playing this as cops or more violently?” Ezra asks.

“Violently, and then we switch on the cop side.” I reply with a grin.

We quickly follow them, picking up pace as we hear a woman scream. As soon as we turn the corner into the alleyway, it takes me only seconds to take in the situation; the woman is surrounded by six men, all of them taunting her by reaching forward and grabbing at her, playing with her.

It is fucking disgusting.

“Pretty sure you fuckers should play with someone your own size,” I call out.

They all spin, grinning as soon as they realize that there is only three of us.

“You want in on this?” one of them asks.

“You’re going to walk away and leave the woman alone,” Quinn states. Which is the legal bit so that we can say that we did our duty, and the local cops can’t say shit about the condition that they find these men in.

Not that they are likely to anyway, since our badges give us a level of clearance that is high above the local PD.

They all look at each other and burst out laughing.

“The way I see it, there’s six of us and only three of you,” a particularly grimy-looking one with a beer belly says, full of confidence.

I shake my head, “Oh, you poor pathetic excuse for a man, you’ve got it the wrong way around, there’s only five of you.”

They all look pretty confused by my wording, which just shows the level of intelligence that they are working with.

I take a step forward, Quinn and Ezra moving with me.

That is apparently all they need as all hell breaks loose and they charge us. I try to keep an eye on the woman, hoping that she makes a break for it as soon as she can and making sure that none of them have grabbed her.

Quinn and Ezra throw themselves into the fight, both of them grinning, which is clearly putting the fuckers off. I duck a hit and throw an uppercut, remembering to pull my punch so I don’t do serious damage; the guy falls to the floor, and I dodge someone else as I see one of them head toward the woman, the telltale glint of a knife in his hand. She backs up until she hits the wall, and before he can get to her, I move in between them, my hand grabbing his wrist and stopping the downward swing of the knife. It’s clear that he had every intention of killing her, and from the deranged hunger in his eyes, I would be surprised if he hadn’t done it before.

While holding off a struggling fucker, I glance over my shoulder at the woman, her eyes wide and full of fear, “Run.”

She wastes no more time as she sprints out of the alleyway.

He bellows in pain as I turn the knife and drive it into his shoulder; it’s not a serious injury, but probably something that I should have avoided doing since we are getting the local police department involved. I find it really difficult to muster up the regret for doing so though. It is not very difficult to subdue the guy since he is still bitching about his knife wound. I pull out some zip ties and secure his hands, leaving the knife where it is since it is stemming the bleeding currently, and then push him so he is sitting on the floor.

Glancing around, I see that all five of the fuckers are in a similar position, only without the knife wound.

“A job well done, guys,” I grin.

Ezra and Quinn chuckle, still smiling as Ezra says, “Yeah, that was fun.”

“You can’t just leave us here!” one of them says indignantly.

My smile is sharp as I say, “We have no intention of leaving you here.”

“I’ve already called the local police department and explained the situation they’re on their way,” Quinn says.

One of the guys laughs, “You’re going to get arrested along with us, especially after they see what you’ve done to us.”

“We can play victim,” another one grins.

This time my laughter has real mirth in it as I reach into my back pocket and pull out my badge, flipping it open I say, “Oh, did we forget to mention we’re cops.”

“Of sorts,” Quinn adds, his expression devious.

All of them pale, their mouths snapping shut.

“Glad you finally understand the predicament that you’re in guys,” I say with a smile, and then turn to Quinn and Ezra, “I’m going to stand at the entrance to the alleyway and wait for the cops,” sirens begin to sound close by and add, “which will be any moment now.”

“Got it,” Ezra replies.

I get to the end of the alley just as the cop cars pull up and I show them my badge immediately just so that there aren’t any misunderstandings that will do nothing but waste time.

“Agent,” one of them greets me.

I nod my head in greeting, switching over to my professional persona as I give them a run down of the situation.

We walk down the alleyway continuing the conversation. The cop I'm speaking to whistles, “Whoa you boys really did a number on them.”

“Only defending ourselves,” I reply.

His lips tilt up into a smile, “Well, I wouldn’t want to meet you guys in a dark alley.”

Ezra and Quinn are both talking to the other officers about the people nearest to them.

I smile in response to the cop's words and change the subject as we approach the guy with a knife in his shoulder, who is still whining like a little bitch.

"For fuck sake, man, it's only in your shoulder you’ll live.” My words earn me a raised eyebrow look from the cop I'm talking to, and I choose to ignore it as I say, “This one was a bit too intent on murdering the woman. I have dealt with people like this before. I think you should run his DNA against any open cases you currently have.”

“You can’t do that!” He yells, the panic obvious.

The cop's eyebrows hit his hairline, “Well, I’ll be damned. I will make sure that happens.”

I nod, I hand the guy my business card, it’s still weird that we carry official agent cards around, but it definitely comes in handy for instances like this, “If you get any problems, or hit any brick walls trying to get the DNA request approved, give me a call and I’ll pull some strings on my end, it would be a very bad idea to let him walk free.”

He takes my card, “Thank you. I am probably going to have to use this, just so you know, our system will be too slow to let anything through before we can’t hold him anymore.”

I frown, and pull out my phone, “I will see what I can do. Give me a second.” I look at the guy on the floor, and say, “You can either give me your name, or I can search you for identification, and I’m not likely to be gentle, your choice.”

I let the violence in my eyes come forward, my smile sharp, and my face turned out of the way of the cop. Not a good idea to let them know just how much of a crazy fucker I really am.

The guy looks at me, and I smile wider, he knows that I am going to get the answer I want one way or the other, it’s just one of the ways I do it I will make sure that it is going to hurt.

“Thomas Rackenford,” the guy replies somewhat reluctantly.

“Atta boy,” I grin. Turning back to the cop who's watching me slightly warily, although with respect in his eyes, I say, “I’ll just make a phone call, give me a second.”

“Take your time, we’re waiting for an EMT for him anyway.” The cop replies.

I nod and walk further down the alleyway to make sure I am out of hearing distance, although that is pretty impossible in this space.

“Jensen,” Mr R’s voice comes over the phone, “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you today. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, Boss,” I reply, “we ran into a little hiccup, nothing we can’t handle, and nothing related to the case.”

“Got it,” Mr R replies.

“We have got a guy here, Thomas Rackenford. I am almost one hundred percent sure that he is going to be linked to some unsolved cases in the area. The system is a bit slow here, and I was wondering if I could call in a favor and get the order for the DNA, so he doesn’t walk.”

I hear some tapping in the background, “Sure, you’re by the port?”

“Yeah,” I reply.

“Alright, the orders been put through and confirmed, the guy won't be leaving custody, I’ve also put an alert on the case, I’m curious to see how right you are.”

I smirk, “I'm always right in these situations. Thanks, boss.”

“No problem, I want the full story as soon as you’re able,” Mr R replies, curiosity in his tone.

“Absolutely,” I reply, hanging up.

Walking back to the cop who is watching Thomas closely as the EMT deals with the knife wound, I smile.

“I’m hoping that from your smile, it’s good news?” he asks me.

I nod, “Yeah, the permissions all gone through you can do the DNA test on him and he can stay in custody until the results are back, although I’d imagine that he won't be getting out.”

“Damn, I wish you guys were around more often,” he says, with a big sigh.

“Sorry man, I know what it’s like,” I reply, with sympathy because it is something that we have come across so many times before people who are obviously guilty, walking free and the cops not being able to do anything about it. “We’re going to keep an eye on the case, so if we can help out again, we will.”

He nods, “Thank you, seriously. There have been two murders recently, both young women; we had no leads, but I would be willing to bet, from his reaction earlier and from what you have said, that he is the culprit.”

I nod solemnly, “Yeah, me too. We will leave this in your hands now.”

“Yeah, we’ve got this,” he pauses and looks at me with a slight smile on his lips, “is there any point in me asking why three agents are in town?”

I shake my head but smile, “Nothing to worry about.”

“I thought so,” he chuckles, “if, in the unlikely event, you need any help, let me know.”

I clap him on the shoulder as I say, “Thank you, we will.”

He nods, and then moves to talk to the EMT. I walk back down the alley, Quinn and Ezra joining me as we walk in the opposite direction of the car. We don’t want to draw attention to where we are parked and, more importantly, what we are watching.

“Yeah,” Ezra replies, “we can’t go back now. It’s the city, there is bound to be a diner open somewhere, where we can get a coffee.”

“I hope so, we left all our snacks in the car,” I reply.