Not responding to that, Gus grabbed another sheet of paper.
He wasn’t trained in counterinsurgency. He’d been little more than a ground-pounder. The extent of his training was how far he could influence a situation with his rifle. Or more precisely, how far he could shoot.
“This doesn’t have any direct connection to our case, it seems,” Gus said instead, not seeing the sheet in front of him. “Mark gave us the SA. Pretty sure we just gutted them by removing Dunyasha.”
“Seems like it. Way to be a honeypot, Indigo,” Melody said with a chuckle.
“And the people who wanted her dead,” Gus said, ignoring her comment, “made their hired goons perfect patsies. They don’t know anything at all.”
“Yup,” Melody agreed. “And I think Chloe got it right. Someone is pretending to be the SA, no idea why, a Humanity First group wanted her dead, no idea why on that either, and then they were going to kill a congresswoman who’s in the presidential running.”
“Which leaves us with the question—where does that leave us?” Gus asked. “I personally think we’re done. We were asked to drop the SA, pretty sure we did that. The hits on Dunyasha and the Humanity First group seem separate and coincidental.
“I’m only concerned about whoever was trying to pretend to be the SA. Or… maybe that’s it?”
“What’s it?” Melody asked, looking at Gus.
“The second SA group. Were they trying to get Dunyasha killed by the Humanity First movement?” Gus asked aloud, his eyes sliding up toward the ceiling tiles. “Maybe take over from there and move the whole coven in a different direction? Might make more money with far more enterprising criminals.”
“Huh. That… actually, that reads rather well,” Melody said. “It’s certainly not above Vampire politics. And she was trying to get them to go legit. That wouldn’t work for everyone.”
Shaking his head, Gus looked back at the sheet of paper in front of him.
“This is why I don’t wanna concern myself beyond the scope of my case,” Gus muttered.
“That’s… true,” Melody said and then laughed. “We do our job and let it lie. Though I’m still working the Fed bombing.”
“That’s fair… that one kinda went sideways,” Gus said.
“Oh, I entered us into the best couple contest at the company picnic,” Melody said.
“The what and what contest?” Gus looked sharply at Melody.
“Company picnic,” she said with a laugh. “Mark already got it on the books. It’s two months from now. He rented out a hotel. A nice one. I entered us in the best couple contest. Well, you, me, Trish, and Vanessa. We’re all one couple.”
Letting out a slow breath, Gus nodded.
Of course she did.
“Okay.” Gus didn’t bother to argue it. Before he could go back to his paper, the door opened to reveal Mark in the doorway.
“Indali said you’d be in here,” he said, looking at Gus. “I mention I’m kinda annoyed you stole her from me?”
“Be sure to hire someone else just as useful to replace her—I’ll hire them, too,” Gus said, staring at Mark blankly.
“You’re in a pissy mood, Gussy. You’d think your job of keeping the talent happy would’ve made you happy.” Mark glanced at Melody. “I mean, your wife is beautiful.”
“Ah, thanks, Mark. That’s kind of you to say,” Melody said with a smile. “And yes, he keeps me very happy. He’s just grumpy because the SA isn’t an easy case.
“We’re thinking this Humanity First aspect of it will need to be turned over to a counter-terrorism branch. This is done for us. Can’t find a connection.”
Mark grunted at that.
“Figured that might be it. Got a registered, unlisted, and very scary Psyker to peel apart the mind of the shooter we caught at the airport. You were right. They were there for the congresswoman,” Mark said. “Then we had the Psyker rip through the lovely people in medical. More or less matched everything you said. Nothing new.”
Gus nodded. He hadn’t expected anything different. He made a point not to go deep diving into memories, but a licensed Psyker would pull everything out. Even if it damaged part of the subject.
“As for the case, you’re done,” Mark said, leaning up against the door frame. “Dunyasha turned herself over to us for that job offer. She’ll eventually join the Fed, but she’ll be in courts for a while as we rip apart the SA completely.”
Clicking his tongue, Gus took in a long breath and then let it out.
“Okay,” he said finally.
“That’s it?” Mark asked with a laugh. “Really, Gussy? That’s all ya got? You drop an entire coven into a wood chipper, talk their boss into joining the Fed, save a congresswoman from assassination, and expose a Humanity First cell, and your final word on all of that is ‘okay’?”
Gus shrugged and nodded. “Yeah.”
“See, this is why I love him,” Mark said, looking at Melody. “Except he won’t love me back.”
“I just didn’t give him a chance to say no.” Melody grinned.
Mark sighed and shook his head.
“Well, the boss-lady is tickled pink. I think she’d hire you an army of strippers and hookers if you asked her,” Mark said. “If I were you, it might be a question I’d ask. I can only imagine how fun that’d be.”
“He’s not interested,” Melody said immediately with a firm tone.
“Fine, fine. Anyways. Boss is happy,” Mark said. “Your budget just got approved for next year. After I put a thirty-percent increase on it. But that was after I put an additional thirty percent into your budget for this year as a ‘cost increase,’ which was approved as well.”
“That raise you got—it got bigger, didn’t it?” Gus asked.
“I got promoted, technically,” Mark said with a massive shit-eating grin. “And so did my boss. That congresswoman was… very… pleased with us. Apparently she had way more pull than anyone expected. Although there is one problem that came up from all of this.”
“There usually is,” Gus said.
“First, you’re now a registered and licensed but completely unlisted Psyker,” Mark said. “I claimed it was because of your encounter at the diner. No one can see that you are one, but it’d be marked and dated if a Psyker ever tried to pry into your head.”
“Oh, that’s actually good news,” Melody said.
“No, it isn’t,” Gus said, shaking his head. There was no doubt in his mind he was about to be pimped out. They wouldn’t do such a thing and then hide it otherwise.
“Sure, it is,” Mark said.
“No, it isn’t. Who’d you loan me to?” Gus asked.
“Now, Gussy—”
“Durh, just tell me who,” Gus said.
“Army. Para division,” Mark said. “They’ve got a really nasty drug ring going ’round.”
“I mean… it’s army, so that’s not a surprise,” Gus said with a smirk.
“Right?” Mark asked with a snicker. Then his smile faded. “Need you and your team to head out to the eastern seaboard. Might have to hitch a ride to the sandbox at some point if this goes out of country. That’s where this would go, if you think about it. Think you can handle it?”
At the very idea of heading out that way, Gus felt slightly sick.
But nowhere near as much as he would have in the past. Not even a tenth as much.
Mom was right. Mel, Trish, and Ness really helped.
“I’ll be fine,” Gus said with a quick huff. “When we leaving and who’s our contact?”
“Tonight, and I don’t know. Boss gave me the news twenty minutes ago,” Mark said. “Someone asked her directly for help. Your team being the nasty-business end of her entire organization that it is, she’s sending you all to fix it.
“And I kind of may have mentioned the fact that my best choice in life has been to just load you up, send you out, and make sure you come back intact.”
“Mark,” Melody said, her tone sounding odd.
&nbs
p; “Call me Durh. You’re family now, Mel,” Mark said quickly. “And I know, I know. But this is a really good way to protect him. The further the boss puts him in her pocket, the far less likely she’d ever let someone bother him.”
“Mmmm. Okay.” Melody didn’t sound completely convinced.
“Just pack up everything you’re working on and put it in the lobby. I’ll have another department take over,” Mark said. “Your team really needs to get ready otherwise. They sent a damn Atlas to grab your shit and get you gone. My parting words are ‘drug ring my asshole.’”
Gus raised his eyebrows at that, now rather skeptical as well.
Drug ring my asshole, indeed. They don’t send a damned Atlas for consultation on a drug ring.
What the fuck.
Mark nodded at the two of them and then left.
Shit, I need to talk to him about Chloe. Case is over.
Smiling at Melody, Gus got up.
“Hey… I love you. I need to chase after Mark though,” he said.
Melody turned a deep, dark red and crooked a finger at him.
“I need a kiss for that. Need a kiss, need a kiss,” she murmured.
Gus snorted once, then leaned in and kissed Melody. He felt her hands on his face, caressing his cheeks and jaw.
After pulling away from her, Gus chased after Mark. He really did need to run him down.
“…later, Indali,” Mark was saying, waving a hand over his shoulder.
“Have a good day, Director Ehrich,” Indali said.
Waving a hand at the Construct as he went by, Gus continued to quick-step after Mark.
“Mark, hey, I wanted to talk to you,” Gus said, catching up to him just as he entered the main lobby.
“Talk. Doing my rounds,” Mark said.
“Chloe,” Gus said, matching Mark pace for pace.
“What about her?” Mark asked as he tapped the button for the elevator.
“I want to keep her,” Gus said. “I know she’s supposed to go back when the case is over, but… I want her.”
“Don’t need my permission to bed her,” Mark said with a shrug. He seemed genuinely confused. “You’re already banging almost your entire department.”
“No, Mark—I want Chloe in my department. I want to keep her on,” Gus said.
“Oh! Oh… oh. I thought you just wanted to lay pipe in her. Huh,” Mark said. He stepped into the empty elevator when the doors opened and motioned for Gus to follow. “Hit the tenth floor for me.”
Gus stepped in and flicked the requested button.
“I can’t… commute her sentence,” Mark said. “She killed people who knew people. And the assistant warden is a raging dickbag. He’s freaking out that she’s out free.”
“Not asking that. Just asking to keep her on. The deal was that as long as she worked for me, she’d stay out and about,” Gus said.
“I mean… sure,” Mark said. “If that’s all you were looking to do, go for it. Deal stands till you or I close it. She keeps working, keeps making money, stays free.
“Me, though? I’d bang her, too. Often. She’s got that Irish hotness to her that I just can’t—mmm. Just thinking about her. Mmm mm mmm.
“Idiot that you are, you have a woman making a harem around you and you don’t want to get hip deep in it. Stupid.”
Gus rolled his eyes at that. “I’m just not—”
“You’re dickless. Dickless,” Mark said with some heat to his voice. “If Kelly let me have a harem, I’d be fifty deep. Wouldn’t see the same woman twice in the same month.”
The elevator dinged open and Mark stepped out.
“But that’s okay,” Mark said, standing in the elevator door. “You are who you are, and that’s why I love you. Gimme a kiss?”
Mark leaned forward and made a kissy face at Gus.
Sighing, Gus patted Mark on the cheek, then shoved him gently out of the elevator. “Thanks, Durh.”
“Yep! Dinner when you get back; Kelly and Megan demand it. Bring your wives,” Mark said as the doors shut.
Looking down at the buttons, Gus realized Mark had pushed the top floor on the panel as he left.
“Fucker,” Gus said with a sigh as he went up. Pulling out his phone, he dialed up Chloe. She’d probably be sleeping right now, but this one couldn’t wait.
Her shift didn’t start till the day was half over. In the end it’d been easier for her to take on their swing shift rather than constantly fight the sun.
“Gus?” asked a sleepy Chloe on the other end. “What’s going on?”
“I need to see you,” Gus said. “Got some time?”
“Huh? I mean, I guess we cou—wait, what? What are you asking? Spell it out,” Chloe said.
“Can we meet up at your place? I need to talk to you. That or you can come down to the office,” Gus said, watching the elevator display go up and up.
“Ugh… figures. Okay, yeah. Come on over,” she said and then hung up.
***
The door opened before Gus had even stopped moving.
Standing in the doorway was Chloe, with a grim look on her face. She was dressed in sweatpants and a simple t-shirt.
“Well?” she asked.
“Can I come in?” Gus asked.
“No. You can’t. Because you’re here to tell me the case is over,” Chloe grumbled. “And if that’s true, you’re not coming in because I’m going to go back inside, get really high, gorge myself on blood, and sleep. Then wake up later and try to get laid. You can come in at that time, not before.”
Gus shook his head with a grin.
“Case is over, but I wanted to talk to you about something else. Can I please come in, Chloe?” Gus asked.
Chloe frowned, then partially opened her mouth and stuck her tongue up in the spot where her fang should have been.
“Fine. Make it quick. I have things I need to do,” she said as she walked back into her apartment.
“Well, I’d say you may want to change your plans already.” Gus walked in and closed the door behind him. “Because you’re not going back to prison.”
“I’m not?” Chloe asked from deeper inside. “And why’s that?”
“Because yes, the case is over. Dunyasha is turning on the entire coven. It’s just going to get rolled up and burnt to the ground, if I don’t miss my guess,” Gus said. “But that doesn’t mean I want you to stop working with me. You were useful, you were helpful, and you definitely did all that you could. I don’t see any reason to let you go back to prison.”
Walking into the living room, Gus found Chloe sitting on her couch. In front of her were a lot of drugs in small plastic bags, vampiric alcohol, packs of blood in a bucket of ice, and several knives.
“Oh,” Chloe said. Then she waved a hand at her table. “Ignore all this then. Apparently I don’t need it.”
“I should hope not,” Gus said with a chuckle. Reaching down, he idly pushed around a number of small baggies in different directions.
“Blood as the medium for the drugs. I didn’t… want… anything else. Felt weird,” Chloe said. “Anyways. So… I guess… uh…. I’m not going back.”
“No,” Gus said, sticking his hands in his pockets. “I talked to Mark. He said I can keep you as long as I want.”
“In other words, I’ll just… keep doing what I’ve been doing,” Chloe said.
“Yep. Work for the Fed in my department, collect a paycheck, live here in this apartment,” Gus nodded his head. “If you’re willing to agree, that is. You could easily decline, and we’d get you back under guard. Can’t get rid of your sentence, but I could probably work something out to get you into a minimum-security instead, like I said.”
Leaning back in the couch, Chloe lifted one hand and scratched at her chin.
“Work for you and remain out here, or go back in and you’ll do what you can for me,” Chloe drawled slowly. “And that’d be it? Nothing needed from me otherwise?”
“Nope, nothing needed,” Gus said. “Like I said,
I don’t think I could get your sentence reduced, but I’m positive I can get you into a minimum-security if you promise me you’ll behave. Something inside the states as well so you’re not under a mountain of snow and ice.”
“I mean… I can’t—” Chloe froze and then sighed, laying her head against the couch cushion. “I could promise you I’ll behave if you promised to visit me.”
Checking a sigh, Gus nodded at that.
He’d honestly been hoping she’d agree to stay on. She’d been rather handy, and having another person he could actually trust didn’t hurt.
The simple fact that, when they’d gotten in a gunfight with another group of people, she’d come to his aid and killed people had warmed Gus up to her significantly.
“You want me to stay,” Chloe said, her eyes watching him.
Gus started to immediately shake his head, then stopped. There was no reason to lie to her.
“Yeah, I do. I trust you, and it was good working with you,” he said. “And I think if you keep working with me, make good impressions, make contacts, we might be able to slowly chip away at your sentence.”
Chloe grinned at him, the gaps in her teeth making it look slightly offbeat.
“Really?” she asked.
“Uh huh.”
“And what if I wanted to take Mel up on that offer of hers, too?”
“What offer?” Gus asked.
Laughing, Chloe quirked a brow. “She asked me if I wanted her to start working on you so I could contract with her. Apparently I’d be an ideal Blue for her.”
Annoyed, Gus rolled his eyes and looked to the side.
Melody had promised him she wouldn’t go looking for girlfriends, and she was abiding.
He hadn’t expected her to start looking for more contracts so soon, though.
I don’t know why I didn’t expect it. I should have. It wasn’t like I told her no.
“Then I’d remind you that contracts are permanent,” Gus said, looking back at Chloe. “And there’s no way out. You’d have to be on really good behavior so you wouldn’t get the rest of us in trouble.”
“I could easily promise that.” Chloe shifted to the side, leaning into the arm of her couch. The t-shirt she was wearing started to slide down her arm, revealing her shoulder.
Swing Shift: Book 2 Page 15