Page 16 of Wild Card

I nod my head in agreement, and Maxim gives me one last look before he enters in the code and leaves me alone. He should have remembered I’m a liar. If he thinks I can’t get out of here he’s underestimated me.

He isn’t the first to do so, and he won’t be the last. What he will be is wrong.

And most definitely pissed.

Chapter Twelve

MAXIM

“What the hell were you thinking bringing a civilian in here?” Johnson hisses under his breath.

We’re in a private room with a two-way mirror. On the other side is a lineup of suspects, and he needs me to identify them.

“You wanted me here, you got me here. Now let’s get this over with, and I’ll take my civilian out of here.” My jaw tics because I don’t miss the way Johnson watches Rue on the monitor. If he keeps getting closer to the screen, I’m going to smash his face against it.

“Fine,” he agrees, and we both turn away from the screens to face the men in the other room. “I need you to name as many of these guys as you can. They are all refusing to talk, and I need everything I can to close this case nice and tight.”

“That’s Joe Stemponelli and Carl Grover on the left. They handled arms distribution on the west side. That’s Joe’s brother Arnold.” I point to the guy on the right and take a second to try and remember the rest of them. “Wasn’t Barbra able to help you with this?”

“No, witness protection has stepped in. She’ll need to go underground until the trial is over.” Johnson sighs and crosses his arms over his chest. “This case has been a clusterfuck, and you leaving bodies behind didn’t help.”

“I got the bad guy. That’s literally my entire job.” I glance back at the monitors and see Rue still sitting where I left her. When I face the lineup again, I nod to two more in the middle. “Those guys are Jimmy and Jimmy Ployza.”

“Don’t tell me. Brothers with the same name?”

“No, they’re cousins.” I shrug when Johnson smirks at me and writes it all down. “They are known for running girls.”

“Barbra has them in her report, but we needed a positive ID.”

“Yeah, that’s them all right.”

There’s one guy left, and I don’t recognize him. When I tell Johnson, he hands me the report.

“He was brought in as a suspicious person but he’s not talking. He was outside the building at the time of the arrest, and when officers approached him, he said he was meeting someone.”

“This guy was just hanging around while federal officers were arresting people?”

“We think maybe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but we wanted to bring you in and be sure you didn’t know him.”

“Did you run his prints?” I ask, and Johnson nods.

“Nothing. No ID either.”

“Odd,” I say and flip through the file again.

“You’re telling me. The kid hasn’t said a word. Nothing.”

“Not even to say he’s being wrongfully detained?” I raise a brow, and Johnson waves me off.

“Nah, but he’s hiding something. Maybe it doesn’t have to do with this case, but he’s not afraid of being around the rest of these guys.”

“Hmm,” I say and look at him again. I’ve never seen his face before, but there’s something prickling at the back of my neck.

Johnson uses the intercom next to the two-way glass to tell the officers on the other side to take the detainees away. Once they’re gone, I take a seat and spend another few minutes filling out my statement before there’s a knock on the door. When I look up, an agent I don’t recognize comes into the room.

“We’ve had to move the unidentified subject to the infirmary,” the agent says, and Johnson looks puzzled.

“Why?” he asks, and I’m thinking the same thing.

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