Chris Shaunessy, the blond, blue-eyed FBI agent shrugged. “You could say that.”
“I don’t know what the fuck for. I’m not an alcoholic or a druggie.” The only thing he was addicted to was Callie. He’d been without her for a few weeks. Longer if you didn’t count the twenty minutes he’d seen her at the Cabrini estate on New Year’s Eve.
“This shit has gone on too long and we should’ve done something about it years ago.” Andrew ‘Drew’ Thayer stood and clapped Jack on the shoulder. “We’ve all been too busy with our lives to help out with yours. Not to the degree we should have.”
“It’s my life and none of you needs to get messed up in it. Cabrini is bad news. He’s got your friends, your bosses and co-workers all wrapped up tight in his pocket.”
“Then we empty his pockets and take him down,” growled Nicholas Kensington-White, the trucker who’d helped him travel a few places throughout the country. Merely Nick White to anyone who knew him well.
He looked at Scott who grinned.
“Don’t get pissed, Jack. I didn’t do this for you. I did it for Callie and Jonathan. And maybe you a bit too, but the FBI has fumbled the ball on this one.”
“That’s because the FBI has their inflated heads up their asses.” Keith Cho walked in and closed the door behind him. “No offense, Shaunessy.”
Keith was a Boston cop and always liked to razz him and Chris about cops being better than Feds. At this point he had to agree with the man.
Chris glared but answered, “None taken.”
Moving to the tiny fridge, Jack pulled out a six-pack. He grabbed one and dropped the rest in Nick’s lap. He took one and passed it on.
“There better be more of this somewhere,” Keith said, tipping the can to his lips. “I didn’t drive all this frickin’ way to just have one.”
“I’ve got a cooler in the car,” Scott informed him. “We need to put our heads together first and figure out a way to get Cabrini the hell away from Jack. Too much of this” he lifted his beer, “and we’ll be skydiving into his pool. Not the best of plans.”
“Hey, that plan was solid,” Nick snapped, referring to a prank he’d suggested while serving. “We could have gotten the goods and had a clean getaway. I don’t know why you guys keep badmouthing the idea.”
“Because stealing the General’s cigars would have gotten us court-martialed before we even had a chance to smoke them,” Drew said.
Jack laughed at the antics of his friends. “I appreciate all of you coming here, but this problem is mine and I can deal with it.”
“Yeah? How’s that working out for you?” Chris asked, having slumped into the chair at the small kitchen table.
“It isn’t. Not yet. But I need to get close enough to Cabrini and I can fix it.”
Keith moved next to him and tilted his head. “I know we’ve all done a few things here and there the last couple years to see if there was any way to get you out of this. Maybe it’s finally time to get all our heads together collectively and come up with a strategy that’ll win this war. Something we’re all involved in.”
“We did work well together in the sandbox. You gotta admit it,” Scott said.
They had. They’d all had the same goal of staying alive and getting out of there, while taking out any insurgents that came along. Jack didn’t want to put any of his friends in danger. These guys were like brothers to him. Even if he didn’t see them often, he still trusted them implicitly. Probably the only people he trusted. Aside from Callie.
“What kind of information do we have on this guy?” Keith asked.
“I pulled what I could from the Bureau computer,” Chris said. “But I had to be careful I didn’t leave a trace, so it may be incomplete.”
“I dug a little too,” Drew added, picking up a file folder. “Working at the District’s Attorney’s office has advantages and I have connections I can use.”
Jack stared at the file. “You trust these people?”
“I was careful.”
Taking a deep breath, he moved to a cabinet and grabbed the file he had on Cabrini then tossed it on the table.
“If we’re going to do this, we should have all the information.”
Picking up the file, Scott started reading the basic background on the mobster. They spent the next hour with the guys learning more about Cabrini than any of them ever wanted to know.
“This dirt bag seems impermeable but he’s got to have some vulnerability.” Keith chucked some of the pages on the table.
