I chewed on the inside of my cheek as Stone stepped to the forefront of the group. “Carlos?”
The man nodded. “You’re lucky that Clancy and I are such good friends.”
And that was when Clancy and his sons stepped out from the shadows and formed a semi-circle around the backside of Carlos’ crew.
“I wouldn’t put it that way,” Clancy said.
Carlos’ men withdrew their guns, which caused us to do the same. But Stone and Carlos both put their hands in the air, commanding everyone to hold their position.
“So, what is it you want? Have you finally come to surrender?” Carlos asked.
Stone sighed. “No, actually. We’ve just come to let you know that we know your secret.”
The man chuckled. “And what secret would that be?”
“The Baker Secret,” I said.
Carlos’s stare flickered to mine, but his face didn’t give way. “I’m unsure of what you speak about.”
Stone chuckled. “We figured you might.”
Clancy walked up and placed his gun to Carlos’ temple, turning man of his men’s guns toward his own form. “Which is why we’ve brought proof that we know you’re informing for the FBI.”
“What?” one of his men asked.
Carlos scoffed. “How stupid do you think I am?”
I pulled out my phone that I had transferred some of the documents to and I pulled up the email in question. I stretched it out for him to see, and the second he squinted his eyes, his face reddened.
“That is forged. I don’t know who the hell that’s from, but it isn’t me,” Carlos hissed.
“Really?” I asked as I pulled the phone back to my own face, “because I swear this is your email. Want me to read it to you? It’s from upper-case-X-lower-case-x-upper-case-B--.”
“Hey, that’s his email,” someone whispered.
I grinned. “Want me to read what the email says? I’m sure your men will find it… enlightening.”
Stone slowly lowered his arm back down to his side. “You’re an informant for an agent by the name of Chad Baker. We have your files. We cracked the passwords. We have everything we need to spread throughout the community so that everyone knows the kind of rat that leads them.”
His mens guns faltered as the anger grew in the man’s voice. “You have nothing. Nothing, you hear me!? And even if it were true—which it isn’t—the beauty of being an informant is that I can let the FBI know what I want, and in exchange? They let me get away with murder.”
Stone looked back at me. “You hear that? Informants can get away with murder. Does that apply to our informant?”
Carlos blinked. “What informant?”
I nodded. “I’m pretty sure it does, Stone. What do you think, Clancy?”
The Irishman cocked his gun. “Yep, pretty sure we all play by the same rules sometimes.”
“Shoot them! Now!” Carlos roared.
And just like that, guns popped off left and fucking right.
Twenty-Four
Chloe
West stood and made his way to the door. “Try to keep yourself distracted, and we’ll be home before you know it.”
