Page 7 of Magnum, Volume 1

She nodded and looked to Bud, who said, “I’ve told all of you she’s friends with my Nickie, and the two have had each other’s backs on multiple occasions. She has a USB with a good bit of her information on both investigations, and she has everything in the cloud with an extra layer of encryption, but we all know how that goes. I didn’t want her accessing anything from my place without Shadow overseeing things, and I didn’t want to pull him in on this if we were just going to bring her here.”

“I can get her online safely,” I told him, and I left to get my most secure Linux tablet. If Gears’ brother had been taken by this group, then our chapter would absolutely get behind her to help take it down.

And if he hadn’t? I wasn’t so sure. The assholes needed to be stopped, but taking on that level of badass who was married to the governor? Nothing about this would be easy.

But I was in a unique position to help her, which was likely why Bud had brought her here to start with, instead of taking her to Mad Dog and having him send her here.

The tablet I grabbed never gives up where it’s logged in from. I use it when we travel, and for… other things. Also, the tablet would grab her login info, so I could sneak and get the data later, if we need it.

And yes, it’s fucked up, hesitating on whether to help while working to steal her information in case we want to go after these assholes on our own, but whatever. I don’t claim to always make sense. Usually, but not always.

Kinda like how I’m pissed that this bitch with the huge tits also has a good head on her shoulders and knows her shit. Don’t ask me to explain that one, either.

Chapter 4

Storm

Nearly as soon as Magnum was gone, Mad Dog shook his head and said, “Maybe we don’t need the dates. Do you know the names of the people taken in Birmingham?”

I frowned at him while I put it together in my head. Someone they knew had been taken, maybe? Was that why Bud thought this chapter was my best chance at getting help?

It took me a few seconds to get my mind onto the right list. I wouldn’t know everyone off the top of my head, but I’d spent time downtown talking to witnesses, so I’d get most of them.

I started naming them, and when I got to Mason Barnes, Squatch jerked like he’d been hit and said, “Fuck. Shit.”

I stopped and looked at him, waiting for an explanation, and he said, “We’ve been looking for him since he went missing. The cops don’t care. No one cares.”

“I care,” I told him. “Marine, veteran. All-around badass dealing with bad shit he saw in… everyone assumes Afghanistan, but his record is classified and I can’t get it. He wasn’t interested in getting help to stop drinking, but even trashed, he’d help others in the homeless camp who needed it. Made sure no one fucked with the girls who didn’t want to be fucked with. Everyone liked him except the assholes, best I could tell, and they had a healthy respect for him.”

Magnum had stepped in while I was talking, but I ignored him while I tried to sort through what I knew. “Mason’s brother reported him missing, but I don’t remember the brother’s name off the top of my head, and I could never find contact info that actually led to him. How are ya’ll connected to him?”

“Brother of one of our members,” Mad Dog said.

Magnum stepped closer and told Mad Dog, “Looks like she didn’t need to get to her info, after all.” He met my gaze. “You knew all that off the top of your head?”

“I feel like I know so many of the missing… it’s why I decided to keep going even after I found out what it’ll take to bring this organization down.”

Mad Dog looked at Magnum, and I wasn’t sure what to think about the look that passed between them, but it ended with Magnum nodding, and then Mad Dog went full-on into leader mode.

“We’ll keep you safe, but you won’t do anything without Magnum’s approval, and there’ll be some things he’ll need to check in with me on before he can give the okay. You will not move faster or slower than we are willing to go. That’s our price. We get a say in how the investigation goes; we keep you safe.”

I considered that and said, “I get veto power over massively illegal activity. I’m good with grey-area stuff, but I have a moral code. I’m not above cloning phones and invading privacy, but…” I shook my head. “We aren’t going to be able to call law enforcement for help, and I get that means I’m probably not going to be comfortable with some of what’ll have to be done, but can you let me help work any op we decide on so we are defensive and not completely offensive?”

“We have a moral code, too,” Squatch said. “You hurt one of ours, we hurt you.”

“If we can’t agree on how to move forward,” Mad Dog said, “we’ll bring Bud and Nickie in to mediate. Does that work?”

I looked at Bud, but he was looking at Mad Dog. “I didn’t agree to that!”

“You brought her to us,” Mad Dog said with a smile, “and as much as I appreciate that, it comes with a bitch of a responsibility.”

Bud smiled at me and then told Mad Dog, “Yeah, I know, and she’ll accept it because she knows Nickie will be the voice of reason even if I’m not.”

I nodded, not because I thought Nickie would persuade them if it came down to it, but because I figured it was the best deal I was likely to get. “Yeah, okay.”

“I have some rules,” Magnum said. “We’ll get Skippy to help me craft the best route out of here so no one can track back to us, not even the best, which is quite possibly who’ll be looking for us. You do not go online unless we are doing it together. I’ll put your phone in a lockbox so you have custody of it, but you can’t use it — and you won’t have Wi-Fi on your laptop, either. I know it’ll kill you not to check on your bank balance and your home security system, but they need to think you’re completely off-grid.”

It would kill me to stay away from my social media accounts and my email, but it couldn’t be helped. I knew better than to access them, and it pissed me off that he didn’t trust me to stay offline — but he didn’t know me, so I tried to be chill.