“I really just don’t want those pictures to hit social media. He needs help, but I can’t help him. He scares me. Doesn’t mean I want him dead.” Smart girl.
Morty nodded then looked at me. “If this happens you’ll finally be free of me. I won’t pursue you, but I may not be able to stop someone else from picking up your trail.”
“They should know by now that if I was going to betray them, I would have. My wild card is simply knowing they need to know something only I can give them. I have no guarantee they won’t lock me up again if I give up the information, so why would I? As you well know I’m not in this life for the money. I’d have given up my hobby if it weren’t for you. Leave me alone to live my law-abiding life, and I’ll do just that with my lips sealed.”
He nodded. “I’ll do my best there. Remember the code word?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Use it and I split. Got it.”
“What?” Lars asked turning to give me harsh look. “Split where?”
I put my hand over his. “Don’t worry, I’ll take you with me. The code word just means haul ass they’re hunting my ass down.”
“You go anywhere without me and I’ll hunt you down like a-“
“Angela and Lars.” Morty sang. “Sittin’ in a tree.” I tossed what was left of my ice water in his face. It wasn’t much so he just laughed and wiped his face with his napkin. “Weak.”
“Oh shut up.” I sneered at him.
“If you three are done with foreplay I’d like to get back to the issue at hand.” Cord brought us back. “How are you going to take care of Peter?”
Morty nodded to the door. “Let’s go for a walk with your girl Eve there. Give me everything you got and we’ll go from there.”
Cord nodded and they left the table.
Myk raised her hand and pointed to the bartender. “I need a bottle of your house red and a round of double-shot whiskeys. Ice on the side and a couple Coke chasers in case we got pussies at the table.”
I snorted. “Oh yeah, I like her.” I pointed at her earning a barely tolerated glare from the quick bitch herself.
9
As an FBI agent I have to admit, they just made me an offer I can refuse. Full cooperation from the largest MC in the country?? Fuck yeah I’ll take it. This deal could set me up nicely for the rest of my career.
While looking into Eve’s brother I formed a plan to lure him in and take him in. He really should be locked up. The doctor he was fucking will go down for this too. You can’t let people out into the world like that. She should go to jail for it, but I’ll be happy taking her license.
Once the plan was formed I called Cord to set up a face to face with the three of them. Angela and Lars don’t need to be involved, especially Lars. Besides, I’m supposed to belting her off the hook, for the most part. I’ll miss that little firecracker. She was a hot one in the sack.
Cord answered skeptically, “Hello?”
“Grab your wives and meet me over at Dirtwater.”
“Morty?”
“The one and only.” I hung up before he could ask anymore stupid questions.
I got to the restaurant first and took a table in the corner and waited for my new friends to settle in and order their drinks before divulging my plan. It’s a simple one minus the pictures.
“Are you sure he hasn’t already uploaded them?” I asked Cord.
“It’s his only card, so I seriously doubt it.” He replied. “How are we going to get the pictures? And how will we know there aren’t copies out there ready to be uploaded the second you arrest him?”
“That’s the ten thousand dollar question. Let’s get Eve on the phone with him and see what happens.” I suggested. “If we can narrow him down I have a friend with the agency that might be able to help there. Actually, you might know him. Mark “Asshole” Colson? Lives in San Diego, but I think he’s been hanging around here lately.”
“Yeah.” Myk chimed in. “He came home to help his family with some shit and hooked up with some chef. I can have Slider get his contact info if you want to circumvent the agency.”
“Good idea, let’s do that after lunch. We’ll get him set up then make the call to Peter, see if we can’t get this ball rolling”
“I don’t like the idea of using Eve for bait. What if he tries to hurt her?” Cord asked.
“He won’t. I’m going with her.” Myk decided.
“Oh hell no.” Cord fired back. “I’ll lose my fucking mind worried about both of you.”
Myk looked at Cord with an expression I can only describe as the way a mother looks at her child when he’s done something really stupid. “He’ll have to go through me Cord, and we both know how that will end.”
“Which is exactly why I didn’t want you going after him in the first place!”
“Okay kids, calm down.” I almost laughed. “I think it’s a good idea for Mykela to go in with Eve. Peter won’t come around with you there Cord. He doesn’t know you so he won’t feel as comfortable. We’re going to play this like the girls are just trying to get him off their backs. Once we know where the pictures are I’ll arrest him for possession and intent to distribute kiddie porn. These are pictures of when you were under eighteen, right?” I asked Eve.
She nodded and looked down.
“Okay, let’s finish up here. Then I’ll go call Asshole. You’ll hear from me by the end of the day. I want to roll on this tomorrow if you’re ready.”
Cord didn’t look ready. Myk nodded looking like she’s sharpening her claws on the inside. Eve wiped a tear from her cheek and sniffled. Cord put his arm around her shoulders to comfort her. Lucky bastard. Then again I can’t handle one woman let alone two. Poor bastard.
Things started off according to plan. Peter called from back a throw-away cell phone but agreed to meet in a public park in Gilbert. Asshole, aka Mark, couldn’t trace the call to see where he might be staying, so I told Eve to try and sneak a tracker on him somehow. We discussed several ways she could do this. I’m hoping she gets the tracker on him or we may never know whether we got all the pictures. Peter could easily do this again and again the rest of his life.
Eve’s nervous. Myk is checking her gun and a knife that’s entirely too big for a woman to handle. Somehow I get the feeling she knows how to handle herself just fine in any situation. I also get the feeling I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of her wrath.
When Eve recognized her brother she threw up in the back of my car. “Shit. Sorry.”
Cord turned around, “This is a bad idea. Call it off before she has a nervous breakdown.”
“No. I can do it.” She argued. “I want this over with.”
“You and me both babe.” Mykela’s voice dropped an octave. That bitch scares me, and I don’t scare easy. She offered Eve a bottled water. “Here. Drink this and I’ll come get you.” She got out when I unlocked the doors. I miss my Challenger, but I need four doors for this operation. Great. Now it smells like puke and we can’t do a damn thing about it. Right now Peter can’t see us, but if we got out he’d be sure to see us as the girls approached from across the park.
Cord reached back and took Eve’s hand. “All you have to do is keep him talking and get close enough to put the tracker on him. I’ve got a couple of the guys waiting nearby. One scream from either of you and he’s going to die today. Got it?”
“Nobody is going to die today. Get the tracker on him and walk away. Make sure you play along with whatever he wants. Doesn’t mean you’ll be following through. You okay Eve?” I asked just to be sure.
“She’s fine.” Mykela shot back pulling her from the car. “Let’s get this over with so we can go home.”
I turned on the video and audio equipment and dialed them in to record the interaction. Cord is fidgeting. “Last time I ran into this fuck he brought Rangers in as back up.”
“I heard. Doesn’t look like he did this time, but we have no way of knowing. Here we go.” I turned up the volume.
Peter open
ed his arms and beckoned Eve for a hug. “There’s my favorite sister!!”
Eve hesitated like she warned us she would out of habit. This is good. If she’s too eager he’ll get suspicious. The tracker’s location changed when she let him hug her and I knew the hard part was over.
“When they parted Peter looked at Mykela. “I want to talk to her alone.”
“I want the pictures.” Myk will never leave Eve’s side.
“They’re not here.” He laughed. “Did you really think I was stupid enough to bring the USB drive?? If I hand them over then what leverage will I have to make sure I get to see Eve again?”
Myk reached behind her and drew the twelve inch Kbar at the same time she lunged at Peter and spun him around to jump on his back.
“Shit.” Cord cussed as the small-ish woman easily bent Peter of a picnic table and drove the knife right into the back of his hand when he tried to brace himself.
Even I cringed. “Woof. That was brutal. We gotta move in.”
Cord was already out of the car and headed across the park. I followed pulling my gun as Mykela pulled the knife out and repositioned herself like she was ready to cut some fingers off of the already bloody hand.
“Mykela!! Stop!!” Cord ordered just as the knife came down again and a pinky finger rolled off the table and bounced off the bench to the ground.
Eve screamed and hid her face.
Cord went for the knife but missed. “Mykela!! I said stop!!”
She drove the knife into the back of Peter’s thigh making him scream louder than Cord could yell for her to stop again.
I went for the knife and got the business end of a rather nice .45 shoved in my face. “You have to stop this Myk.” I ordered.
She shook her head. “I don’t have to do shit. Back off or I’ll kill both of you.”
Cord got between us. “She means it Morty. Back off. Mykela, put the gun and knife down.”
“Fuck that.” She turned back to Peter and put the gun to his head. “The pictures. Where are they or I kill you right here and now.”
“Fuck you bitch!! If I don’t get back to my computer in one hour they’ll upload to every private porn website and Facebook page out there.” Peter threatened.
Myk stabbed his other leg. “Where is this computer??!!!”
Cord finally pulled her off and literally threw her about fifteen yards. “Damn you Mykela!!”
I moved in with 911 on the line and helped Cord tie off the leg wound.
Next thing I know I hear a shot fired and Peter’s head exploded. Like literally exploded. “What the fuck are you using?!! Hollow points?? SHIT!!”
Cord rounded on Mykela relieving her of the gun. “Have you lost your fucking mind??!! How the fuck am I going to clean this up??!!”
“Take care of her Cord.” The three of us watched as someone on what looks like a Suzuki motorcycle pulled up behind her. Myk jumped on and off they went.
Cord let out some kind of animalistic yell as Eve screamed her fucking head off.
“ENOUGH!!!” I yelled over both of them. “Give me a hand here Cord. We’ll track her down later.”
“No we won’t. If my wife doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be found.” He pulled Eve into a hug. “I’m so sorry honey.”
“She left me!!”
“She left us. Shhhh.” Eve ended up passing out right along with her brother.
Fortunately for her she woke up when the paramedics arrived. Her brother, of course, will never wake up. I called Asshole over to check Peter’s car along with the CSI team. He’s got an ID that gets him pretty much anywhere e wants to go. Even I can’t do that.
We found a receipt to a hotel where we also found Peter’s computer. Mark hacked the code and deleted the pictures before we put a couple bullet holes in the hard drive.
If Myk ever shows her face again she’ll go up for manslaughter. The pictures wouldn’t’ have been enough to get her off a cold-blooded murder like that. Personally I hope she enjoys the south of France, or wherever the fuck she ends up.
Cord and Eve stuck around for a few weeks to give their statements. Since neither of them had any idea what Myk had obviously planned meticulously they were allowed to go home to Montana.
I have to say I’ve never seen two people so distraught in my life. Poor Eve. She couldn’t seem to stop crying. Cord has her on some meds that allow her to zombie out for a while, but when she comes down, like she did for her statements, she was a blubbering mess. I’m surprised we can make out her tapes.
Cord took Eve home to Montana and I got to sit behind my desk for a few weeks filling out paperwork and suffering my slap on the wrist by my boss. When I told her what I was really up to she decided to let me stay on the case, just give it some time to breathe and blow over first.
I went to the club to make contact with Slider in person as a show of good faith. He knew I had nothing to do with Myk’s plans. I found out he’d already kicked her out of the state of Arizona for breaking the nose of his VP. Interesting stuff.
We ended up talking for a long time that night. This is going to be a lucrative relationship for both of us. We agreed only to speak to each other. Any third parties sent in will throw up a red flag. The only exception was Joe. He hacked my phone from across the room to inform me if he contacts me that means shit’s hit the fucking fan and I better listen up. I laughed and gave him a thumbs up. Nothing wrong with a backup plan.
This led to me frequenting the club once a week or so. That’s how I ended up running into Angela and Lars about a week after Cord and Eve went home. We shook hands and agreed not to use each other anymore. Even Lars shook my hand and thanked me for legitimately letting her go.
If it wasn’t for Myk losing her shit things worked out pretty well. We can’t find any signs of the pictures other than what was being stored on the laptop. No USB drives were found, and it doesn’t look like they’re on a website somewhere. Asshole is doing random checks between jobs, and since I’m riding a desk lately I’m able to do the same.
Maybe I’ll trade the Challenger in for a motorcycle. I gotta change my name though. These assholes are already calling me Shorty.
Epilogue
It’s been almost a year since we watched Mykela ride off on the back of the flat black motorcycle. Eve looks like shit. She never smiles and has lost entirely too much weight. I just can’t seem to bring her around.
She stays busy, and once in a while she wants affection. I miss when she all but begged for my touch. Now I have to coax her into making love to me, and even then she’s only about half there.
I don’t think Myk had any idea what she was going to be doing to Eve by leaving her. If I ever get my hands on my wife I’m going to kill her. No. I’m going to chain that bitch to the bed and let Eve take a crack at her for a few years. Then I might be calmed down enough not to smack the living shit out of her.
We both look for her over our shoulders. I think the FBI gave up on their random checks to see if she’d show up here. I know she’s not that stupid.
Larry’s truck pulled up out front so I opened the front door to greet him. “Hey buddy. What’s up?” I ask because he’s not usually up this way this time of day.
He pointed due west. “Take a good look. What do you see?”
I had to squint but I saw it. “Smoke. Hikers?”
“Too deep. There’s nothing up that way, not even fresh water. I think we should go take a look.”
“I got the bird tore apart for servicing until tomorrow morning. How far out is that?”
“About a four hour ride. The woods are so dense up that way I don’t think we’d be able to see whoever it is. They could easily put the fire out and lay low. Without anywhere to land the heat seeker won’t do us any good.”
My spider sense tingled. “You don’t think… who else would…” I looked at him. “You think it could be Myk?”
He shrugged. “If I was running from the FBI, I’d go exactly where she is. If we leave now we c
an get there before dark. Spend the night, and be back by noon tomorrow. With or without her, at least we’ll know.” He’s gotten as bad as us about looking over his shoulder.
“Let’s go.” I grabbed my coat and keys and pulled the door shut behind me.
“What about Eve?”
“I don’t want to get her hopes up. Besides, she’d just slow us down. As much as she loves horses bitch can’t ride worth a shit.”
We took his truck down to the stables where he had already left orders for three horses to be saddled and supplied with rations for three days. Always take more than you think you’ll need.
The ride was rough, and took a lot longer than four hours. The horses were exhausted by the time we reached the area where Larry had seen the smoke. We walked for a while looking for the campsite. He ended up finding it shortly before nightfall.
“Looks like it was left to burn out. Not smart.”
I looked around. “That means she’s not far. Mykela??”
I heard a rustling before I saw the cause unfurl from under a bush. Her hair is blonde and she’s lost some weight, but otherwise my wife is here! I crashed into her pulling her off her feet. “I’m going to kill you fifteen thousand times later.” I crushed her mouth with a kiss until neither of us could breathe.
She hugged me so hard I struggled to catch my breath. “How’s Eve?”
“She’s all fucked up Myk. You gotta come home.”
“Are you sure it’s safe?” She asked as I let her slide back to her feet.
“I think so. You’re not leaving the house for a decade, so there’s no way they’ll see you.” I wrapped my arms around her again. “Eve is going to shit.”
“You left her alone??”
“I had to or we wouldn’t have made it before dark. She’s okay. She knows I stay out late working sometimes. I’ll give her a call as soon as we find a spot out of the dead zone.”
“No. No phone calls about me in any way shape or form. Lock me away if you have to, just get me back to my wife.”
Free to Love (The Colson Brothers Book 8) Page 21