Page 93 of Mike

“We need to go,” she told Mike. “Making a plan to catch Lester is priority one.” She reluctantly extricated herself from his arms. “Once things are in place, we can get back to…this.” She winked.

Mike grinned. “And what makes you think Mason doesn’t have a course of action for your dickhead boss already sussed out?”

“He’d better not,” Joe mock glowered. “That amp-pole is mine.”

Mike smirked, but didn’t comment on her language clean-up. Smart. Because truly? Joe didn’t know how long she could keep it up now that the cat had been let out of the bag.

They walked, hand-in-hand back to where the entire team milled about, the command bus having been brought into position at the front of the warehouse.

“Just a heads up,” Mason told them as they approached. “I’ve called in Hank Twidelle to come assist on this case.”

Joelle’s feet almost tripped over themselves.

“Hank? As in the head of the Portland DEA, Hank?” Joelle squeaked. “You know him?”

“I do,” Mason informed her. “He and I were on a few public safety committees together before he left law enforcement to work for the DEA.”

“Well, shit. I wish I’d known that,” Joe huffed. “I was thinking of getting him involved in the case when I hadn’t gotten satisfaction from my home office, but I didn’t know if he was somebody who’d be in Lester’s pocket.”

Mason shook his head. “Not a chance. He’s one of the good ones. And after I explained what was happening, he agreed to head straight here with a handful of agents. He’s meeting us in the conference room at the OPD. I expect him in two hours, then we’ll set things up to nail your boss,” he told Joe.

“You already have a plan,” Mike stated, unequivocally, giving Joe a wink.

“I do. After I talked to Hank, it was a no-brainer. Since this is Lester’s operation, and Joe is the man’s agent-in-charge, he has jurisdiction over what’s happening here. Which means once Galici calls him and tells him the deed is done…”

They all knew “the deed” meant her boss would be informed that she was dead.

“…he’ll come east with his own team to find her body, while at the same time uncovering the ‘evidence’ Galici planted that implicates her as being part of a drug ring. And he’ll make the trip himself to make sure Joe and any intel she’s previously reported is out of the picture, so the prick can continue his perfidy, unchecked. Or so he thinks.” Mason’s smile was downright lethal, and if Joe didn’t know what a regular guy he was, she’d be scared spitless.

“And Galici has agreed to make the call?” Mike questioned.

Mason nodded. “He’s in the ER right now, having been escorted there by F squad. Alvero tells me our perp suffered two clean breaks and his leg is being casted. Once he’s finished, they’ll escort him to OPD where he promises to do what we ask in exchange for a good word during his hearing. He knows he’s headed to prison, for sure, but he’s hoping for a little leniency as to location.”

Yeah. Joe wasn’t surprised. It wouldn’t go well for the guy if he were to be incarcerated amongst men he’d crossed. And as far as her experience was concerned, all drug dealers made enemies during their long journey into darkness. Galici would be no different.

“So…what do you need from us right now?” Mike asked, sending a side-eye to Joe while attempting to look innocent to his boss.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Mason tsked, immediately catching on. “We need a debrief from Joe, and while I’m doing that, you have to help the team make sure there’s no evidence of us left for Lester to find when he gets here. That means broken glass needs to be cleaned up, the panel on the front door rewired, and all our boot-marks and tire-tracks erased. I’ll take Joe back to town, then you can join us in the OPD conference room when you’re finished.”

“Damn, Mase. It’s a good thing I like you,” Mike growled to his chief.

“And it’s a good thing you’ve finally found a woman who’ll get your grumpy ass under control,” Mason countered.

Mike, rather than feeling chastised, looked at Joe with both heat and joy in his gaze. “Yeah. You got me. It certainly is.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“Finally. That bitch is off my ass.” Lester’s smug voice was on speaker, via Galici’s confiscated phone, as the group stood around and listened.

Galici had just told the corrupt agent that Joelle was dead, and the man was gloating.

Mike wanted to reach over the phone line and strangle the asshole, even though Joe was nodding her head calmly. How dare the rotten-to-the-core agent act sanctimonious while he was up to his gullet in drug dealing.

“Yeah, well,” Galici answered as if killing a woman was nothing. “We’ve done your dirty work, now it’s your turn to clean up the mess. When will you be here?” The drug supplier prodded Lester as Mason urged him on with a rolling hand.

Lester sounded haughty. “I’ll contact the local authorities and tell them we have a missing agent; that the cunt has skipped several check-ins, and that we’ll be traveling east to interface with them to find her. That way, when we come across her body and sweep the warehouse for evidence and prints, they’ll be there to corroborate with us that the bitch was rotten to her nosy little core.”

“Sounds good. I’ll put the tracker you sent on her body so you can locate her,” he said, as he’d been instructed by Mason. “And should I take some of the fentanyl out of Benji’s truck to plant with the xylazine? You know, just to make sure she’s really busted as a crooked agent.”

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