Rip
“He’s clean,” Preacher says. “He’s a manager at the dealership. I haven’t had much time to check, but there’s nothing I can find on him.”
“Fuck,” I mutter. I can and will beat the shit out of him, but that will have the opposite effect of what Serena wants. That will likely make Levar angry, which will make him retaliate. “He needs to be neutralized.”
“But his mother isn’t so clean.” Preacher slams his hand on the desk and gestures at his iPad. “Philomena Ruth Gaston. We can control him through her.”
He picks up his revolver, checks the cylinder for bullets, and puts it in his waist. He does the same with the one on his ankle and the one hidden under his shirt.
“How do you know this?”
“Dax said to dig into everyone close to the sheriff. That included his son-in-law and his family.”
That’s not news to me, but once we got Rose under control, his family didn’t matter. We didn’t need them.
“What do you have on his mother?”
“Three words.” Preacher taps my shoulder and gestures for us to leave. “Credit card fraud.”
That makes my ears perk up. Preacher gets into the passenger side of my truck while I get in the driver’s seat. “She worked at the same car dealership as her son.” He stops speaking, and from the grin on his face, I know he’s gearing up to tell me the juicy part. “As a finance manager.”
“Oh,” I say, shaking my head.
“Yes. She had access to all the information needed to open credit cards in people’s names. Her son found out and forced her to quit. Never turned her in though.”
“When was this?”
“About two years ago.”
“And how do you know? Dax had you look into Rose’s family years back.” It doesn’t make sense that he would dig into this woman. We had Rose by the balls for much longer than two years.
“I almost bumped into that old cow one day. She jumped about ten feet and grabbed her purse. Then she pointed me out to one of her church lady friends.” Preacher frowns. “I’ve never stolen anything in my life. So, I hacked into her computer, found this dirt on her, and just held on to it.”
We don’t talk anymore, but I’m not surprised that he did that. He’s especially distrustful of anyone deeply ingrained in the church.
“You’ll never guess what else I found.” Preacher smirks while he looks at my profile. “Emails from years ago to her sister, complaining about how her family excludes her for marrying a black man and having his children.” He scoffs at that. “Old bitch,” he mutters under his breath.
Chapter 68
Rip
“Thorny, I won’t be much longer.” I try to sound as calm as possible. “Something came up, but I’ll pick up dinner on my way home.” I close my eyes and hope that she doesn’t ask more questions.
One of the things we decided weeks ago was that we would be able to track each other’s locations, but if it’s business, I will shut it off. I completely forgot to turn it off today.
“Your location tracker is on,” she whispers. “It’s not business.”
“I’ll tell you about it when I get home. I promise.”
Preacher is standing outside the car, impatiently waving for me to follow him.
“I’m worried,” she says. “I know that neighborhood and who lives there. Why are you there?”
“There was an incident. He won’t return the kids.”
“Why areyouthere?” she asks again, firmer this time.
“Your mother asked me to get the kids back,” is all I say.
