The woman pointed over her shoulder to where Burkewas standing next to an office door, signaling for him to come in.
“Thanks,” Marcus said, giving the woman a nod as he walked around the counter and into the “Police Only” restricted area.
“Marcus, thanks for coming,” Sheriff Burke greeted, patting Marcus on the back as he entered the office. Another man was already seated behind the desk. “Please, have a seat.” Burke motioned to the empty chair sitting in front of the large, cluttered desk. “This here is my cousin, Quaid. Officer Pike, if you will.”
The officer behind the desk leaned forward and offered Marcus his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, and thanks for coming.”
Marcus took a seat, just as the officer from the front desk entered, carrying a coffee for Marcus.
“Umm, thanks,” Marcus offered, taking the mug from the woman and setting it down on the desk.
The two other men in the room looked up at her, mouths slightly open.
“You two can get your own damn coffee,” she said before exiting the room.
Marcus let out a snort.
Officer Pike huffed, then fixed a few of the papers that were thrown across his desk.
“Whatever. Look. I’m grateful that you’re willing to do this and help us out, but as I’ve mentioned to my cousin, I’m not exactly keen on having a criminal organizationprotecting one of our witnesses. What kind of message would that send?”
Marcus sat up and leaned forward.
“Criminal organization?” Marcus asked, pressing his arm against the man’s desk as he studied his face more closely. “To which crimes are you accusing my club of participating in?”
The man’s eyes went wide when it finally sank in just how big Marcus really was.
“Look. We both know that you’re selling more than just booze down in that sleepy little town my cousin likes to call home, but I’m serious when I say, the media will have a shitstorm when they find out that one of our witnesses is being protected byThe Mountainand his biker gang.”
Marcus wasn’t sure how he felt about being compared to the large beast of a man inGame of Thrones, especially since his face was all burned to shit. Was the man calling him ugly? Or just big and scary?
“I thought the whole point of this was to make sure that nobody—the press included—finds out where this kid is hiding? Trust me, serial killer or not, nobody is going to try and get to this kid with a bunch of scary biker dudes standing guard, protecting him,” Marcus growled back.
Sheriff Burke smirked. “My thoughts exactly.”
He sat his ass down on the edge of his cousin’s desk and crossed his arms against his chest.
“From what we know so far, the kid was on a date with the guy, then went back to his place for a bit of fun. Thebastard drugged him, then tried to force himself onto him. The kid fought back and managed to escape. He’s lucky. He could have been victim number seven if he hadn’t managed to get away.”
“So, the kid knows where the killer lives?” Marcus asked. “Why aren’t you there arresting him?”
“That’s the problem. The kid was so drugged up, he doesn’t remember escaping or where the guy actually lives. He gave us a description of the guy, but it’s pretty generic. Black hair, blue eyes, strong jaw. He gave us a name as well, Robert Ashford, but we aren’t even sure if that’s a real name. He said he was a plastic surgeon, but we can’t find a Dr. Ashford anywhere in Colorado or neighboring states.”
“So basically, you got shit,” Marcus huffed, leaning back in his chair and picking up his cup of coffee. He gave it a blow before taking a sip.
What a bunch of fucking morons.
“We have a team reviewing video surveillance to retrace the kid’s steps. Even if we find this guy’s address, he’s probably long gone since someone can now ID him,” Burke’s cousin added.
“What we need right now is for you to keep this kid safe and out of harm’s way while we search for this bastard,” Burke continued. “Do you think you can do that?”
Marcus locked eyes with the sheriff. While he liked to bust the guy’s balls, he wasn’t a monster. Of course hewould help protect the kid—even if he had no interest in being a glorified babysitter.
“On one condition.”
“Oh? And what’s that?” Officer Pike asked, locking his fingers together as he waited.
“Even when this is all said and done, there’s no mention that my crew and I helped you out with this investigation.” Marcus stood. “We got a reputation to keep, and helping lazy cops like yourself would make us look weak.”
