“Names now!” Castello took another sip of his coffee. He was about two seconds away from booting their asses. His guys were making him crazy. He looked at the clock, eight thirty a.m., sigh, it was way too early to call Axel’s shop. He could tell himself all he wanted that he would be calling to see if he was where he said he would be. Reality was he just wanted to hear if the man’s husky laugh sounded the same on the phone as it did in real life.
“Darlene and John Martin Sweeney,” Sage called from his spot at the table, “both have extensive rap sheets. Good old John Martin was caught for money laundering and tax evasion. The courts suspected but couldn’t prove links to the Diamond.” He scrolled down the screen, reading off details.
“They closed on that house the day Axel reported his sister missing.”
“You think they were placed to watch him?” Sawyer tossed a stress ball from hand to hand.
“It’s possible, but that would also suggest Givens gave a shit either way.” Sage shrugged, but before he could elaborate further two different ring tones sounded, one from Castello’s cell, one from Sage’s military grade laptop.
Castello pulled out his cell and looked at the unlisted number. His finger hovered over the reject call. Answering restricted or unlisted numbers was never a good thing. His phone went silent at the same time the incoming call on Sage’s laptop stopped. Almost immediately both began to ring again.
“Boss?” Sage twisted in his chair. Both calling at the same time, that they could say was a coincidence. It happening twice meant it was on purpose.
“Don’t answer it.” Castello ordered, “I’ll take this one, it’s easier to change a cell than that thing.”
“Sure.” Sage’s shoulder lifted in an ‘I don’t give a shit either way’
movement. But they all knew that was a steaming heap of bull. Sage would lose his damn mind if anything happened to his custom-built laptop with all the bells and whistles.
Castello hit answer on the call, cutting off the sound of his ringtone. He didn’t have to wait long for the person on the other side of the line to speak.
“Answer the damn incoming call on the computer, dickhead.”
Shit, he knew that voice. “Rock?”
“Yup,”
“Fucking show your number next time.”
“Nope,”Rock muttered,“Answer the damn call.”He repeated,“It’smy comms tech looking to hook up with yours, we have intel.”
Castello nodded to Sage. His guy immediately clicked accept video call with his mouse and the screen on his laptop jumped and flickered before finally settling to show a broad-shouldered blond man with a headset on his head.
“I’m Cade.”The man nodded in greeting to Sage and the others.“MyBoss will fill you in, I’m just here to make sure he doesn’t fuck up myfiles while sending you shit.”
“Asshole.”A hand appeared from off screen and cuffed the back of Cade’s head.
“Boss, last time I had to rebuild the fucking hard drive,”Cade grumbled,“You are not allowed to fucking touch a damn thing but thatbrick of a phone you are talking on.”
Castello ignored Sage nodding in agreement and watched the bickering on the screen in front of him, knowing it could be a mirror view of watching his own guys. Garrett *Rock* Rockwell headed up a team, along with Griffin St. Clare, that was supposed to be so far under the radar they might as well be at the bottom of the mid-Atlantic ridge. “Are you two princesses or ballbusters?” he asked. “Tell me what we need to know.”
“Cade, you’re up.”Rock said,“They can hear me without this cell?”
“Yeah.”
The phone in Castello’s ear went dead.
“Good.”Rock’s voice now came from the laptop speakers.“Wereceived this footage from a contact in law enforcement in Florida thismorning.”
On screen they could see Cade’s hand moving his mouse,“I’m sendingit to you.”
“It's security feed from the scene of a double homicide in Miami twodays ago.”Rock said,“Watch it, then we will talk.”
Sage’s hand moved to click on the link that popped up on his screen, but he froze when on screen in front of them Cade swore and ducked to one side.
When he righted himself, he had a pink sparkly rubber dart stuck to his
cheek.
