Raider glanced back at Brigid. “Why is Dana calling you?”
“Can’t get to her car,” Wolfe said, urgency lowering his voice. “What the hell is she doing? I told her not to go without backup. That moronic camera guy she uses has never even shot a gun, and chances are she didn’t even take him.”
Brigid petted the purring kitten, her heart rate accelerating. “Isn’t Dana a crime reporter with thePost? And she’s telling you all about her stories?”
“She’s freelance now,” Wolfe said, drawing his gun from the back of his waist. “And she didn’t exactly tell me about her cases.” Darkness and then light alternated inside the cab as they drove quickly past the streetlights. “I might have broken into her apartment and then her computer so I could find out what she’s working on. Her password was almost too easy to guess,” Wolfe admitted, his hand on the gun.
Brigid swallowed. There seemed to be no boundaries to Wolfe’s friendship. Just how dangerous was the ex-soldier? She only knew him in passing at this point, and the lattes and the kitten had disarmed her. Had that all been intentional? “Wolfe, she probably won’t like that invasion of her privacy.” Brigid squinted out the window at a commercial area with a few boarded-up buildings with bars on the windows and doors.
Wolfe pointed down a side street. “Drive to the mom-and-pop convenience store and park there.” A few dented and older vehicles occupied the parking area, while a car or two pulsing with loud, pounding music drove by.
Raider did so, easily pulling into the lot and scanning the area. “Montegue Dentistry?” He pointed to a darkened strip mall directly across the street. “Where is she?”
Wolfe texted something. “She stopped answering.” He glanced back at Brigid. “You and Kat stay down. Raider, I’ll take the back. You go in the front.”
Brigid’s breath quickened. “Wait a minute. If she’s working, did she ask you to come in with guns blazing?”
Just then, a woman dressed in all black burst around the side of the building, running full bore toward them. Her blond hair was secured through a dark baseball cap, and she clutched a camera to her chest. Two men ran behind her, and one fired a shot that missed the woman and pinged off the curb.
“Get down,” Raider ordered, already jumping out of the truck.
Brigid gasped and ducked down, curling over the kitten. How was any of this even happening?
Wolfe leaped out and immediately fired back, slamming the door.
“Our unit can’t go public right now. Try not to hit anybody,” Raider snapped, ducking low and shutting his door.
Brigid barely leaned up to peer out the window. Raider and Wolfe kept pace with each other, both firing across the street at the two men but hitting the building. Dana kept running toward them, and vehicles swerved out of the way. She reached them, and Wolfe grabbed her arm and tossed her behind him. She landed on her feet, wobbled, and then ran between a couple of cars into the parking lot.
Wolfe and Raider continued to advance, and the two other guys retreated and ran around the building again.
Dana reached the truck and opened the back door, jumping inside. “Hi.”
Brigid blinked. “Hi.”
Dana leaned over and sucked in several deep breaths. “Got pictures and everything.” She held up a camera, her green eyes sparkling. “Pretended to be a buyer and have all the evidence for a story.” Her face was flushed and her voice high.
Raider and Wolfe ran back to the truck and shoved their way inside.
Wolfe turned around. “What the holy hell were you doing?” he snapped. He shoved his gun in the jockey box.
Kat jerked on Brigid’s lap and gave a little meow. Brigid swallowed and turned to look at Dana.
Raider turned around. “Do we need to call the police? If so, we have to do it on the run.”
Dana shook her head. “No. I can file the story online in about an hour, and then I’ll call the police. Those morons won’t get far.” She held the digital camera to her chest. “You said you wanted to provide backup, Wolfe.”
“Then I needed to be here to be backup,” Wolfe countered, his face harder than ever. “We are going to have a long and uncomfortable discussion about this later.”
Dana rolled her eyes. “Not your place,friend.”
Okey doke. Wow. There were some emotions here that even Brigid could sense.
Raider fired up the truck and pulled out of the lot. “As I see it, Dana, now you owe us a favor.” After engaging in an illegal shootout and damaging a building, he was as calm as if he’d been at the beach all day. How did he do that? What kind of a childhood did it take to learn that type of control?
Dana stiffened. “All right. That’s fair. What do you want?”
Raider looked at her through the rearview mirror. “All of your research into the current status of the Irish mob, the Coonan organization, and anything else that ties in so far. I want it tonight so I can read it all before our debriefing tomorrow.”
