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“Piper has a contact who sometimes hangs out at The Hideout, the dive bar where Reflex has parked their ass,” said Bryn, reading the notes on her phone. “He isn’t affiliated with her or APS in any way, but she has used him on several occasions in the past for other PI investigations. Apparently, our Reflex friends are spending their time in a tight little huddle, not talking to anyone else that much, but rumor has it they are looking for bodies to handle a big haul of stolen goods of some kind. Piper says her guy told her it doesn’t sound like the job is happening this week, but whatever it is will be going down soon.”
At the daily management meeting the morning after Brooke and Blake had gone to dinner with their parents, the team discussed the intel starting to trickle back in from the tails APS had set on them. Although it had become more than clear that Reflex—led by Rob Kilgore—was in the process of coordinating a hit on the four microbreweries in their sights, Drew was feeling itchy.
“Little moonchild hasn’t approached me again. She’s also backed off Kilgore since he hasn’t been down in Purgatory as much, Dara told me. If they’re using The Hideout as their base of operations now to coordinate their theft and money laundering—keeping shit offline—that would make sense. However, Dara has said Kilgore still makes a fairly regular circuit around Purgatory…alone.
“He’s holding private conversations that involve only him and one, maybe two other people. There’s no sign of the otherthree Reflex partners when he has these chats either, which means he’s fucking up to something he doesn’t want them to know about.”
“That leads me to wonder if Kilgore isn’t working his own deals outside of the Reflex embezzlement and money laundering scams, without his other partners in the loop,” mused Trill. “The question, however, becomes: is he running a separate embezzlement or laundering scheme—or schemes—that he’s cutting them out of, or does he have his grubby paws in something entirely different?”
“Exactly. I have a part-time associate, who has only been in Purgatory a handful of times and isn’t known to have an affiliation with APS, heading down to see if she can’t dig out any more intel, especially since Liz and Toni have been hanging out for a while,” Drew told them. “You all know Syd. If anyone can loosen the lips of any peripheral players, she can.”
Giving Blake a piercing look, she said, “Cuz, the thought fucking sucks, but I can’t help but feel in my gut that everything Kilgore is doing is interconnected in some way.Everything, even if we don’t know what the scam is yet. Plus, if it turns out heistrying to screw over his partners with some big master plan that benefits him alone? Some serious shit is going to go down, and we for sure don’t need Brooke anywhere near that bomb when it detonates.”
Her eyes dark, Blake ground out, “She won’t be going anywherenearCask & Canvas or those shitbags. One of my crew will always be with her when I can’t be so she’s not stuck at home 24/7. Granted, she doesn’t leave the apartment much—because my woman is a workaholic and has a ton of graphic art shit going on right now—but I wouldn’t confine her like that anyway. Besides, my crewlovesBrooke. Those assholes will fight for the privilege of guard duty if she wants to go out. I know someskanky motherfuckers who will be broken into pieces if they dare to come anywhere within a mile of her.”
Bryn was busy making more notes on her phone. “Since I assume you’ll be having Syd find any players who have ever had contact with Kilgore, even if it was a lone conversation,” she arched a brow at Drew, who nodded, “we can keep our fingers crossed that something has been saidsomewherethat will be helpful and she can dig it out.”
“Kilgore isn’t an idiot,” Drew ruminated, “but more than a few of the other players in Purgatory aren’t always the sharpest knives in the drawer. If our man Rob is scouting, but not making contact with anyone Reflex has done business with in the past, though, that in itself is a tip-off. He’s keeping whatever the hell he’s up to under the hood. However, you can’t tell me thatClayisn’t suspicious on some level. He might not be the brainiac Kilgore is, but he’s not the idiot Thom and Jack are either.
“I suspect there’s a good reasonCyb3rmoonalluded to his name in particular when she went on her little fishing expedition with me. Maybe Clay is smelling something he’s not liking much with his bestie, and she caught it.”
“Then have Syd start paying attention to the most active users in any conversations about digital currency when Kilgore is around,” Blake proposed. “The loudest players are the ones who’ll have the juiciest info. It’s not much different from influencers in the gaming world: you can’t shut the fuckers up when they get on a roll. Kilgore is listening to those conversations to determine who to approach for his side hustle, but Clay Langston may be using that information to try to figure out just what the fuck Kilgore is up to. You’ll never convince me Langston doesn’t have an alter ego with a backstory in play roaming around these assholes in Purgatory.”
Raising an eyebrow, Drew said, “Look who’s been paying attention in class,” and smirked as Blake flipped her off.
“Honor among thieves, right?” Teagan snorted. “From what I can see, Kilgore has every intention of coming out the big winner in this. Sure, he’s working the embezzlement and money laundering scam of those area craft microbreweries along with the others. But he has a hell of a lot more lucrative shit up his sleeve that will benefit him and him alone.”
Trill’s fingers were flying over her laptop. “How many times has he fucked his partners out of a score in the past as well and they’ve never known? Convince me this is his first rodeo.” Cynical murmurs filled the room. “Maybe Langston is finally getting wise to his tricks. But, like Drew said, Thom Berber and Jack Norris are morons. It might not be that difficult to pull the wool over their eyes.”
“Let’s see what Syd finds out in the next day or two,” said Drew. “Kilgore needs to be ready to pull the trigger on whatever extracurricular activities he’s secretly planning concurrently with the Reflex hit on the microbreweries. That doesn’t leave him a whole lot of time because Piper’s contact is pretty sure the microbrewery embezzlement isn’t that far out.”
“We need more ears in The Hideout. While Syd is doing her thing, we’ll coordinate that.” Blake nodded at Drew. “Too many fucking moving parts on this bullshit, but we’ll manage. We can coordinate status reports in the morning.” A slow smile spread across her face as she stood up to return to Utopia. “What Reflexdoesn’tknow is that the last thing they should have ever done was bring their schemes to Tampa Bay, let alone upset one of our femmes. Because they’re about to learn averypainful lesson about what it means to fuck with APS and what’s ours. Bring the popcorn.”
Chapter 15
Brooke lay with her head on Blake’s shoulder, running her fingertips over her butch’s hard abs as they rested after some very passionate sex before Blake went to sleep. Blake got up every morning at four-thirty a.m. to run with the APS management team before their daily six o’clock management meeting; however, Brooke was a night owl and did a lot of her own work late at night. Coordinating their schedules had taken a bit of thought.
They had finally decided they would spend the early evening together—Brooke rolling her eyes when Blake growled she would wear her woman out so Brooke couldn’t do anythingbutsleep—but she had told the Utopia head she would get back up after Blake was asleep to work on her projects. When Brooke crawled back into bed in the early hours of the morning, she would curl up with Blake, then go to sleep herself, never hearing the APS team lead leave to go on her early morning run and to her management meeting. By the time Blake was back and had showered, Brooke was awake, so the two of them had coffee and breakfast together before they both went to work.
Now, Brooke frowned as her phone started to ring with Reflex’s ringtone. “What thefuck?” she huffed as Blake snagged her phone off the nightstand table, and handed it to her. She glared at the display. “They have no reason to be calling me. I shouldn’t be hearing fromanyoneat Reflex untilIcontactthemto say the label art is complete.” She answered the phone, automatically putting it on speaker. “Brooke Marino Designs.”
“Brooke?” It was Thom. “It’s not too late to call, is it?” Rolling her eyes, Brooke mouthed to Blake,“Since when has that ever made a difference to this fucker?”
“It’s fine. You understand the final label art isn’t complete yet, don’t you? I don’t have anything to show you, so I don’t understand why you’re calling me.”
“We didn’t expect anything to be finished at this point. However, we would like you to come to Cask & Canvas again as soon as possible. The four of us would like to talk to you about a late adjustment to the project, for which we are fully prepared to pay any additional charges we may incur.”
With her mouth open, she looked at Blake with wide eyes as Blake leaned over and switched on the nightstand light. “It’s a little late to be wanting any project changes, Thom, don’t you think?” she parried, thinking fast as she sat up. “You seem to be committed to a fairly fast-moving timeline.”
“Undoubtedly, but this is something we feel will be necessary in order to make this project a success.”
Brooke thought fast for a moment. “I admit, this is highly unusual for a project of this nature. What does Gene say?”
“Gene trusts Reflex to make the best decisions for him, his wife, and their microbrewery. Our participation is, of course, what he’s counting on to bring Cask & Canvas back from the brink. He is certainly willing to do whatever it takes to help us in that endeavor. Can we count on the same from you?”
Fucking dickhead. “Frankly, Mr. Geralt, perhaps I’ve missed it, but I would appreciate it if you would point out at what times during this project I have ever been unwilling to accommodate the wishes of either Reflex or Gene?” She let an edge creep into her voice and decided to call his bluff. “Perhaps, as you seem to believe my cooperation or willingness to adapt to your needs is in question, we should void our contract. Then you can proceed with a graphic artist whom you feel will be more…flexible.”
