I could have done this by myself.
Usually, I preferred to work alone.
But I liked having Noelle around.
Rafe made that whole speech about our reputation bullshit, and I had no choice but to go along with his orders, even if I thought he was wrong.
He wasn’t, but that didn’t mean I agreed with keeping Noelle in the dark.
Rafe would shit himself if he found out I’d brought Noelle.
He might even have a few strong words for me because I’d come out here in the first place.
But I knew Rafe.
He’d calm down once he realized the truth.
We had an obligation to the people in our town regardless of what they thought about us.
I cut away the casing around one of the wires and held it up to the light.
The way the wires had been cut and stripped was shoddy, hurried.
In other words, it looked like something our rivals would do.
They never cared about anyone but themselves, and if they could make us look bad, they would.
They probably started the rumor that the blackout was our fault.
They wanted our territory and were willing to do anything to obtain it.
I crunched into the candy I’d been holding in my cheek. Noelle jolted at the sound, and I chuckled.
“Don’t scare me like that. I thought you’d electrocuted yourself.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I’m smarter than that.” I checked the wires, stripped another that I needed, and nudged the flashlight into another area of the control panel.
“We’ll be done soon. And look…” I waved my arms around. “No cops. They’re all too busy huddling around in their conference room eating donuts and drinking stale coffee.”
“You don’t care for cops, do you?”
The question was so quiet, I might have missed it if we weren’t alone in a room in almost complete darkness.
I concentrated on my work.
“I’m not a fan of cops who ignore procedure, refuse to help people, and blame us for everything because we’re easy targets.”
The wire strippers protested when I twisted them in my hands. “Last month, they arrested Ricky for a B&E that happened while he was out of town. He had receipts and photo evidence of his location, but they arrested him anyway. All because he ‘matched the description’ of a white guy walking away from the house in the middle of the night. Turns out, the guy who broke in was the owner’s brother. He didn’t want to rat him out, so he made up a bogus description.”
Noelle shook her head so hard, her hair fell from its bun and cascaded over her shoulders.
“Not all cops are like that.”
“Yeah, well…” I twisted another wire into place. “I’ll have to take your word for that because all the ones I’ve met are lying assholes.”
16
