Page 78 of Static

"Yeah. That's what I'm doing." I pulled my credentials out of my pocket and showed him. "If you're going to be opening an investigation into any of the women here, or the owners of this building, I'm going to need recordings of the complaints that came in. And I'm going to need a copy of the police reports that are necessitating the need to bring CPS here."

"Who the hell are you?" he muttered, looking at my creds.

"I'm the lawyer representing everyone here."

The man's eyes flashed up to mine and I saw the defeat there. He turned to Fremont, shook his head, and finally backed off. "If we get called out here again, we're not going to just let you off with a warning."

"Sure, Officer," I said with a smile that was more bared teeth than anything.

Him and one other officer got into a nearby squad car and took off. That left Fremont, and seven men, none of whom were in uniforms. They were very clearly cops, and they were just as clearly not on duty. This visit today wasn't sanctioned. I would never receive those call logs, because they didn't exist. Fremont was only doing this to get at us. Even he would need more time to manufacture fake charges, though.

"Unless you plan to release those items to me," I told Fremont, "I suggest you leave this property."

"In a minute," he said. "I have a few other questions." He looked over at Lock and Idaho. "An officer has gone missing."

"An officer?" Lock asked, raising a brow. "What does that have to do with us?"

"You knew him." Fremont looked over at Idaho. "He was with the group of men you assaulted-"

"Oh," Idaho said, nodding. "You mean the group of guys that were trying to kidnap a foreign dignitary right off the street? Those guys?" Idaho cocked his head, staring down Fremont. "Have you checked to see if any other foreign dignitaries are in town? Maybe it's a hobby of his."

Fremont's eye twitched at that. "The police are launching a full investigation."

"Good," Lock told him. "Has nothing to do with us."

"Since you had run-ins with him, I would expect to be contacted and interviewed. Something tells me you're going to have a hard time proving you're not a part of Officer Hughes's disappearance."

"Something tells me," I butted in, "that Internal Affairs is going to figure out that Officer Hughes was involved in a lot of things unsanctioned by his police chief."

Idaho's private investigator had originally done a search on the men who had attacked Eva, and later I did the same. Hughes had been using a different name while undercover with this group. What he was doing with them we didn't know, but when a second search was done with his real name, which we got off his body before it was dumped, it gave us a wealth of knowledge. Rip had continued that search and now we had a huge file folder, full of all the shady shit Hughes had been a part of during his time with the police force.

I didn't doubt that the cops were looking into his disappearance, but we suspected that unless he could tie it directly to us—which he couldn't at this point—Fremont would clean up that mess for us. He couldn't afford to have Hughes's activities brought to light. It would expose him and all the men working with him. That was the biggest fuck you about this whole thing. We didn't know who we could trust.

The only law enforcement we knew that wasn't on Fremont's payroll for sure was Torres, because he'd already proved himself by arresting Trask. And we could trust Tommy, Seek's Sheriff friend.

Fremont shot me a feral smile. He wasn't completely sane. I could see it in his eyes. And honestly I wasn't sure whether that was new, or if I was just seeing it now that all his plans were unraveling. The man was a master manipulator and usually hid his emotions well, but he was beginning to unwind. I didn't know what was going to happen by the time we got to the end of this.

"Internal Affairs has nothing to do with a missing persons case," Fremont snapped.

"Not yet they don't," I replied. "But they will." It was a promise. If he tried to point any of the blame in our direction we'd get IA involved so fast their heads would spin.

Fremont lifted his lip in disgust as he looked me up and down. "What side are you on?"

"Not yours," I told him, "that's for fucking sure. And you're not on the right side of the law either, so it's not like you have the moral high ground here, John."

He snapped his fingers and his guys spun around as one unit. They climbed into their SUVs. Fremont looked over his shoulder at us. "This is just the beginning."

"It's the ending," Lock told him. "You're just too far behind to know it yet."

We watched as they sped off down the road. Silence settled over the area as we absorbed all the bullshit Fremont was spewing.

"Hell, Smoke, Ricochet, can you help Mel and Bear get everyone back inside?" Lock asked.

The men nodded and went over to where the women and children were standing. I could hear them speaking with the women, telling them they had nothing to worry about, that we were going to take care of them. As one group, they all began to head inside the building.

The sun was just beginning to set, and I was glad that Fremont had made this move in the daylight. We didn't need him creeping around out here at night. Not when the women and children were so vulnerable.

"Two men aren't going to be enough to guard this place," Priest said as soon as the women were out of ear shot.

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