“What kind of lead?” Hawk sounded apprehensive.
“I met a girl at Lily and Bailey’s house a while back, and I met that same girl last night at the Blue Dog, only she told me that she was an attorney. That’s not going to be much of a problem if she works anywhere else, but if she’s anywhere near Chalupa’s case, we’re going to have to find out,” I explained.
“Meet me down at the underpass near the station. It’s Saturday, but hopefully someone will be around that we can bump into and ask a few hard-hitting questions.”
“I’ll be there,” I said, grabbing the keys to my bike, hopping on, and taking off into the scorching heat. I arrived at the location not long after to see Hawk pull up on his bike, nodding at me to let me know the coast was clear, and we could decide exactly how we were going to play this.
“I see you’re all dressed up,” I said, noticing the attire that made Hawk look entirely out of place with his jeans and a sleeved shirt that covered up all of his tattoos. It was strange to see him like that, but if we were going to try our luck, we certainly had to look the part.
“How exactly are we going to do this?” he asked.
“You’re going to leave your bike here, I’m going to hang back a bit of a distance away from you while you walk down the sidewalk in front of the police station until someone comes out that you can bump into. Then make up some excuse, something involving Lacey. Anything that can confirm that she works there,” I instructed, and he nodded.
We made our way back up, and I hid our bikes in an alleyway while I got close enough to hear what he was saying as he hung around the corner waiting for someone to come out. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would, and I spotted a police officer coming out of the building just as Hawk moved in to bump directly into him.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” he said, as the police officer kindly let him know that it was all right.
“Are you heading in there?” he asked politely.
“Yes, actually I just wanted to see if Lacey was in today. She’s helping me out with a bit of advice seeing as my wife and I are having a few problems. I live in the apartment across from hers, I know it’s terrible of me to show up unannounced like this, at her place of work, but she told me to stop by if I ever needed and she’d see me when she was on her break,” I heard Hawk say, and it was a ridiculous excuse, but it seemed to be enough to get the response we needed out of the officer.
“I’m sorry, she’s not in her office today,” he said, and from the look on his face, I could tell that he was trying to process what Hawk had said, but he’d already left the scene, walking off and not looking back.
It was a strange scenario, especially because it wasn’t the kind of place that anyone could just show up to, and I knew it was only a matter of time before that news traveled back to Lacey, but I’d gotten the answer I was looking for.
Maybe he won’t think anything of it. Maybe he’s going to forget about the whole thing the moment he gets back to work.
Meeting back up with Hawk, I had to tease him about his choice of excuse.
“You do realize that people don’t just pop in to see their friends at the LPPD, right?” I asked, laughing while we both got back onto our bikes.
“What else was I supposed to say, man? I had to look desperate enough. He didn’t seem to care much, so I don’t think that he’s going to be telling anyone. He doesn’t look like the kind of person that knows her too well.” I hoped he was right.
* * *
I couldn’t helpthe feelings that were welling up inside of me, and I tried my best to put the thought from my mind that Lacey had been an attorney all the time, and that she was involved with Chalupa’s case. It was truly too bad because I found myself really wanting her, and I could almost feel the warmth of her skin on mine, but sadly, I was never going to be able to experience that for myself.
Even if I could imagine her being a wildcat in bed, I couldn’t allow myself to get involved with someone who had completely different priorities than I did, and now that I was sure where her priorities were, I thought it best to stay far away from her.
I was sure that the little stunt that Hawk and I had pulled was going to ruffle some feathers, that is if the police officer that Hawk spoke to even bothered to mention that someone was there looking for Lacey on her day off. I didn’t count on the fact that he was going to keep his mouth shut, but I knew it was genuinely a possibility.
On Monday I got onto my bike, hearing the sound of the engine roar through the sky while I headed deep into the heart of La Playa to meet with the attorney that my brother had directed me to. I could only hope that he was going to be some help to us, because I couldn’t imagine how much longer Chalupa could take lying low until it was time to face trial, especially because he had nothing to do with the stolen car in the first place.
Every time I allow myself to think about the fact that someone was out there trying to get under our skin, I felt my blood boil. I was furious, frustrated, and I couldn’t wait to put all of this behind us.
I was prepared to do just about anything to make sure that Chalupa got out and the Outlaw Souls were safe from prying eyes.
We didn’t engage in terrible, malicious behavior like Las Balas did, and I made sure that we never dabbled in the kind of horrific things they spent their days doing. We tried to keep a low profile, look out for our own, and not stick our noses where they didn’t belong.
It seemed that whoever was behind this didn’t care much about the fact that we never caused much trouble for anyone around us, because it didn’t stop them from wanting to frame the Outlaw Souls for something we didn’t even do.
I’m running out of time, and Chalupa is going to need proper representation if he’s going to stay out of jail.
I pulled up at the location that my brother gave me and hopped off my bike, knocked on the door of what appeared to be a small set of offices, and waited patiently for the man to open up the door.
When he finally did and I got a good look at him, I couldn’t believe my eyes. He didn’t seem like the kind of shark we were looking for, one that would stop at nothing to make sure that Chalupa was able to walk out of the courtroom a free man, and I was even more terrified to see just how much torment we were going to have to suffer through before this was all over.
“You must be Michael,” he said. “Your brother said you would be stopping by, though up until recently I didn’t even know that Keith had a brother. Let’s just say you’re not the guy I expected.” He stared down at my tattoos, probably wondering whether Keith and I were actually blood relatives or not.
