Ride the Lightning : Sinister in Savannah Book 1

by Aimee Nicole Walker

  “And?”

  “They told me to go fuck myself,” she said with a grin.

  Jonah and Felix didn’t even get that much during their attempt to interview the crotchety bastards later that same day. Milton and Morrissey both slammed their doors shut in their faces before Jonah or Felix could identify themselves.

  Frustration mounted when it seemed like they’d hit a wall, but Jonah pushed on. Giving up wasn’t an option.

  The investigation claimed his days, but Jonah reserved his evenings and weekend for Avery. They cooked together, attended a drag cabaret at The Dive Bar, watched thunderstorms on the front porch, and played a rowdy game of poker with Marla and Amos. Jonah enjoyed watching Avery brew his chai and claiming each new flavor was his favorite. Every moment Jonah spent basking in Avery’s sunny warmth only made him crave it more. He kept going back to touch the sun again and again and again. When Jonah returned from his journeys unscathed, the light inside him expanded, chasing away the shadows. Something new stirred inside him. No, not new. Reawakened. Restored.

  Hope.

  Maybe, just maybe, love didn’t have to burn.

  Jonah could easily list a dozen ways he preferred to start out his first day back to work after his suspension. Walking through the visitor’s front door at the bureau and waiting once again for Trexler to meet him was not one of them.

  Mary, the receptionist, was a quivering mess once again when she paged Trexler. Jonah’s temperament was much improved over the last time he stormed through the door like the thundercloud Avery accused him of being. That didn’t seem to ease her nerves.

  Trexler took his sweet time meeting him. Jonah forced a natural smile on his face, ignoring the smug expression his supervisor wore. “Good morning, sir. My badge, please.”

  “Not so fast,” Trexler said. “Follow me.”

  “Of course,” Jonah said, then smiled at Mary. Just like the previous time, she’d raptly watched their interaction. “Have a good day, Mary.”

  “You too,” she said after a brief hesitation.

  Trexler didn’t say a word as they traversed the halls, saving his tirade for the privacy of his office. Jonah listened to a twenty-minute lecture that Trexler wrapped up with, “I hope you’ve learned a lesson.”

  “Absolutely, sir,” Jonah said stoically. Their conversation ebbed into an awkward silence when neither of them had anything left to say. Trexler wanted Jonah to ask for his badge back again; Jonah would prefer someone douse him with honey and cover him with fire ants. He’d outwait the fucker all damn day if he needed to.

  “Well, then,” Trexler said after the uncomfortable stillness stretched unbearably long. Reaching inside his desk drawer, he pulled out Jonah’s ID badge and extended it to him. “Guess you’ll want this now.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Jonah said, accepting the thing that had defined his existence for the last few years. The badge had once represented a fresh start and a new journey. Lately, it had felt more like an albatross.

  With a jerky nod, Jonah exited Trexler’s office. Avery had stayed overnight and showered with him before work, but Jonah’s heart still raced at the prospect of seeing him again.

  Keep it together, St. John.

  In his absence, Avery had neatly sorted and stacked his mail, casefiles, and project updates on his desk. A bag of Caramel Bugles sat in the center of the piles. He’d been too preoccupied with making Avery climax to save time for eating breakfast, so he tore into the bag and started in on his favorite treat while reading over the project report update Avery had left for him.

  Jonah heard a noise outside his closed door a few minutes later. His heart thudded heavily as he waited for Avery to open the door and poke his head in. A minute ticked by, then two, and before Jonah knew it, ten minutes had passed without Avery approaching him. He began drumming his fingers against his desk.

  Where is he? Was Avery avoiding—

  The door burst inward before Jonah could finish his thoughts. He held two mugs like usual and wore a devilish smile on his lips. That wasn’t what caught his attention, though.

  “Have you been eating avocados?” Jonah asked.

  “Who, me?” Avery asked, setting Jonah’s coffee down on his desk. “What makes you say that?”

  “Flushed cheeks and swollen lips. For Christ’s sake, Avery. I saw you not more than thirty minutes ago.”

  Instead of dropping in his usual chair across from him, Avery skirted around the desk and planted his sweet ass on Jonah’s blotter. “Avocado toast is my weakness.”

  “What am I going to do with you?” Jonah asked.

  Avery waggled his brows. “Do you really want me to answer that, or would you prefer to hear about Bill and Ashley’s breakup?”

  “Again? What happened this time?”

  “Ashley slept with his cousin.”

  “Again?” Jonah repeated.

  “Aha! You do pay attention,” Avery said. “Different cousin.”

  Jonah choked on his sip of coffee. “Are you fucking with me right now?”

  Avery shook his head and his eyes glittered with mirth. Jonah barely resisted the urge to pull Avery onto his lap and kiss his lips. “It gets better.”

  “How?”

  Leaning forward until their foreheads nearly touched, Avery said, “Bill got revenge by sleeping with Ashley’s sister.”

  Jonah crooked his finger and Avery moved even closer. “I’m putting twenty bucks on them getting back together by the weekend.”

  “No way,” Avery said, shaking his head. “Banging someone’s sister is a deal breaker.”

  Jonah looked up at Avery with as much seriousness as he could muster. “I promise to never sleep with your sister.”

  Avery laughed hard. “I don’t have a sister.”

  “Watch the swamp water,” Jonah said, pointing at the cup teetering in Avery’s hand. “I keep forgetting to replenish my spare clothing in the closet.”

  “Knock it—”

  Jonah’s door opened suddenly, and Avery stood up so fast his stinky brew sloshed over the side and landed on Jonah’s pant leg. Great.

  “Is this a bad time?” Deputy Director Malcolm asked.

  “No,” Jonah and Avery said at once.

  “I’ll just get started on the assignment you gave me,” Avery said before hurrying from the room.

  Malcolm chuckled when Avery closed the door.

  “Sir, I can explain.”

  Malcolm held up his hand as he dropped into the chair across from Jonah. “No need. I just stopped by to see if you were doing okay, but I can see you’re just fine.”

  “I’m a little embarrassed,” Jonah admitted.

  “Don’t be. I won’t be able to attend your cybersecurity microchip presentation this afternoon. I was hoping you could give me an advance peek at the data.”

  “Absolutely,” Jonah said, pulling out the report Avery had prepared in his absence.

  Malcolm took his time poring over the extrapolated information. “This is very impressive, Jonah. Your microchip will greatly reduce the risk of hacking, spamming, and data mining.”

  “I had a lot of help, sir. Avery assisted with development and continued to run the trial testing while I was out last week.”

  “He’s clearly an asset to you and the bureau. I’m glad I listened to Ellen’s recommendation, although I doubt she saw the full potential there,” he said with a wry smile.

  Jonah’s face heated.

  “You do great work here, Jonah. Your skillset is valued and needed. Guys like you and Avery play a critical role in crime solving as the world becomes more digitized. Keep your head in the game and your priorities straight, okay?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Malcolm gave him one of his Uncle Charlie smiles. “It is my hope that you and Butch can find some common ground to stand on. It’s in the best interest for you personally and the bureau as a whole. I’ve told Butch the same thing.”

  “I will do my best, sir.”

  Malcolm nodded
and rose to his feet. “I won’t keep you any longer. Good luck at the meeting.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Malcolm left and Jonah started counting the seconds until Avery popped in. He made it to ten.

  “Jonah, I’m so sorry,” he said in an agonized voice. “I shouldn’t have sat on your desk.”

  “You should’ve sat on my lap.”

  Avery’s mouth fell open on a soft gasp.

  “Have a seat.”

  “On your lap?” Avery asked hopefully.

  “I wish,” he replied. Heeding Malcolm’s advice, Jonah gestured for the chair the deputy director had just vacated. “We have some work to do before we make our presentation this afternoon.”

  “We?”

  Jonah nodded. “You’ve worked your ass off on this project and have earned a spot at the table,” Jonah said.

  “Oh, I’m not prepared.”

  “You will be,” Jonah assured him.

  They went over the presentation slides and devised a plan of how to divide and conquer. Jonah had hoped to take Avery to lunch, but he’d already made plans with his friend Karlee.

  “Would you mind bringing me back something? I want to do some digging around on Earl’s case.”

  Avery slid the notepad to him. “Write down what you want.”

  Jonah drew him a picture.

  Avery looked down at Jonah’s stick figure with the raging boner and smiled. “I can cancel with Karlee. Tell her something’s come up.”

  “It will still be up when you get back from lunch. Have fun.”

  “Fine. I’ll grab your usual from Bytes and Brew.”

  “Thank you.”

  Jonah’s gaze lingered on Avery’s ass as he left, then he gave himself a mental shake. Big head in the game, St. John.

  Curious to see if there was any internal movement while he was gone, Jonah typed Earl’s name and hit enter.

  Access denied.

  What the fuck? He thought maybe he’d typed the name in wrong, so he tried it again.

  Access denied.

  Jonah tried the case file number since he’d memorized it.

  Access denied.

  Jonah sat staring at the computer for a long time, trying to assess all the possibilities. Then he typed in Bo Cahill’s name and received the same message. He typed in the names of cases Trexler had assigned him, and those he could view.

  Fuck me.

  Someone had restricted his access to only the cases he’d been assigned. It didn’t take a fucking genius to figure it out. Why hadn’t Trexler rubbed it in Jonah’s face during their meeting? He figured Trexler would relish having a conversation like that.

  He could poke around in the system and find who restricted his access, but he wasn’t as skillful at hacking as Avery. He risked a chance at getting caught.

  Jonah sure as hell couldn’t make the request through the bureau’s IM system or ask over the phone. He had been suspended to discourage him from pursuing the investigation further. Someone had slashed his tires. Maybe it was coincidence or perhaps it was because he hadn’t heeded the warning. Now his access to case files was restricted. Jonah was getting close to answers, and someone didn’t like it.

  But who? Trexler?

  Jonah’s adrenaline spiked, making him fidgety and edgy. Was it excitement or paranoia setting in? Jonah was aware of how similar the emotions affected the body.

  When Avery returned with his lunch, Jonah crooked his finger for Avery to lean over his desk so he could show him that his clearance was restricted. Avery’s brows dipped into a deep V. Jonah flipped over the top sheet with Boner Man, then wrote a message for Avery.

  Will you see who restricted my access? I think it’s important. Suspension. Slashed tires. Now this…

  Avery gestured for Jonah to give the notepad to him. He picked out a pen from the cup on Jonah’s desk and wrote a response. Leave it to me. Then he pivoted and left Jonah alone in his office.

  Forcing his frustrations aside, Jonah dug into his lunch so his blood sugar wouldn’t tank and impede his presentation. He would not give Trexler a reason to humiliate him again. Unfortunately, a stress headache had already started to form, which only intensified as the meeting time neared.

  His phone vibrated with an incoming text from Avery. It was Trexler. 2:36 pm. Yesterday. Remote laptop.

  Thanks. See you in the conference room, Jonah replied.

  Son of a bitch. Why? Trexler wasn’t old enough to be involved with Earl’s death unless he’d been killing drag queens at the age of ten. But he could be protecting someone now just like Bo Cahill had back then.

  Jonah sent a quick text to Rocky, asking him to dig up as much as he could find on Butch Trexler and his family. The man was going too far out of his way to protect retired officers that weren’t connected to him.

  Rocky quickly responded. He would start as soon as possible but warned there could be a slight delay since the cheating wife case was taking up so much of his time.

  Jonah rose from his chair, grabbed the presentation materials, and exited his office. Avery wasn’t at his desk, so he continued to the conference room.

  “St. John,” said the devil as he approached from behind, “I hope you’re prepared for the meeting.”

  Jonah halted and turned to face his boss. Avery was a few paces behind Trexler, watching their interaction.

  “I’m more than prepared,” Jonah said. “Avery and I are looking forward to sharing our exciting news.”

  “We are,” Avery confirmed, handing Jonah a steaming mug of coffee.

  Trexler scowled at Avery and Jonah in turns. “He’s joining us?”

  “He is,” Jonah said without quantifying his reason.

  Trexler stormed off without another word.

  I’m onto you, you sanctimonious prick.

  The presentation went amazingly well. Trexler tried his best to trip him up but failed miserably. Jonah knew the chip inside and out because he and Avery had built it from scratch. He focused on what the latest cybersecurity would mean to the bureau, then asked Avery to present the data from the trial run.

  “I can’t believe you’re developing it for us when you could sell it for a huge profit,” Agent Paxton said. “You could probably get millions and spend your days on a boat or a beach instead of chained to a desk in here.”

  The thought had crossed Jonah’s mind once he realized how unhappy he’d been at work lately.

  Trexler quickly moved the meeting along once the attendees started heaping praise upon Jonah and Avery. No way the traitorous fucker would stand for that. Jonah only gave half his attention to the meeting and let his mind wander.

  Why had Trexler restricted his access? So the bureau could avoid sharing the blame for the botched investigation? Or, was there a clue to the killer’s identity Jonah had overlooked? Thankfully, he had a copy of the file on the flash drive Avery made for him. Jonah would prefer to examine the actual evidence collected at the crime scene, but he’d have to get someone at SPD to—

  Wait a minute. He recalled seeing the storage location noted in the records, and it wasn’t an SPD site. That was the proof he needed to show GBI had taken over the investigation at one point? When? And who? Since he’d memorized the case file number, he didn’t need to swing by his house first to get it.

  The meeting ran much later than it should have, since Trexler was in love with his own voice. Several agents had follow-up questions for Jonah about the microchip, and he stayed to answer them. Avery took off because he had dinner plans with his family.

  By the time Jonah logged off and secured his computers, Avery was already gone. He’d left a note on his desk.

  You’ll be my dessert. I’ll call you when I’m done.

  Jonah swung through Arby’s again on the way across town and ordered his favorite combo meal, but his stomach was too upset to eat it. He decided to leave the food in the car and reheat it later at home.

  The sky had started to darken with impending storms by the time he re
ached the storage facility, a windowless warehouse. It housed rows upon rows of dusty metal shelves jam-packed with decades’ worth of evidence from solved and prosecuted cases. Because the risk of theft and tampering was low, they didn’t keep a clerk on site. This was also where all the old files had been stored before he’d digitized them, so Jonah knew the access code unless someone had changed it. He tapped it in and held his breath while waiting for the system to respond. The red light turned green, and the lock disengaged.

  The setup reminded Jonah of a library, but instead of using alphabetical letters, they sorted and stored the boxes numerically by case number. Jonah went to the section where Earl’s evidence should’ve been and found an empty spot on the shelf. There was a disturbance in the dust which signaled recent activity.

  Son of a bitch. Of course, it wouldn’t be as easy as he’d hoped. Jonah was disappointed but not surprised. No wonder Trexler didn’t change the access code. Why go to all that hassle when you could just make the evidence disappear?

  The headache he hadn’t been able to shake had intensified from stirring up dust and other allergens. When he stepped outside, Jonah noticed the sky had darkened further. The wind had kicked up considerably too. It whistled and howled between the warehouse buildings the city used for various things, swirling dust and debris in miniature dirt devils. It wasn’t loud enough to drown out noises coming from around the side of the building.

  “Dammit,” a gruff voice muttered.

  Instead of heading for his car, Jonah poked his head around the alley between two buildings. An older man wearing filthy, frayed clothing stood looking angrily at the dumpster. He pushed an old grocery cart with one hand and held a dingy teddy bear in the other.

  As wretched as his grandfather could be, Oscar St. John had a soft spot for homeless people. Jonah remembered the surprise trip to Atlanta when he was ten years old to see his very first Braves game. Jonah had never seen a homeless person before and was shocked to see how mean people were to them.

  “Get a job, you bum,” one lady had said to an elderly man who’d stretched out a paper cup to her as she walked by.