Page 51 of Counter Attack

First she waved the driver of the SUV on, then turned to him with a grin as she held up her phone. “Just checking to see if that app works, and it does.”

“I thought you were staying with your SUV while they checked it out.”

“Dylan wanted to take it in to the garage where they could take their time going over it. Instead of taking me home, I had him drop me here.”

“Good.” He looked over her shoulder as J.R. stepped out of the shadows and walked toward them. “Meet J.R., my contact,” Nathan said.

Alexis turned and stiffened. Then she turned to him and scowled. “Thisis your informant?” she asked, loud enough for J.R. to hear.

“Yes.” He looked from her to J.R., who was approaching and looked as puzzled as Nathan felt. “Hold up a minute,” he said to J.R. “Alexis and I need to discuss something.” He pulled her a few feet away. “What’s wrong?”

“That’s Houdini,” she hissed under her breath.

“Hou—the man at the bar?”

“Yes. Reggie.”

Hoo-boy. Nathan tried to recall exactly what Kayla and Alexis had said about him. Something about him being a creep. But that had nothing to do with the here and now. “I need you to work with him. He has information I need.”

She pressed her lips together and gave him a curt nod. Nathan motioned for J.R. to join them. “I think you two know each other? Maybe under different names, so let me make the introduction. J.R. Whittaker, Alexis Stone. She’s chief deputy to the sheriff here. Prior to that she worked undercover in Chattanooga, and I believe you two met at the Lemon Tree.”

J.R. stared at Alexis, then his eyes widened and he snapped his fingers. “Short leather skirt, low-cut top, red stilettos. You certainly look different now.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Well, you don’t, Reggie. I knew that wasn’t your name.”

“Au contraire. J.R.—James Reginald Whittaker.”

Nathan eyed Alexis. “Can you two work together?”

“Of course I can work with him. It’ll be no different than doing undercover work.”

“Same here,” J. R. said.

“Good. Then mute your phones and let’s go. We need to get on the other side of the football field.”

J.R. tipped his head. “Lead the way.”

He led the way toward the railroad track, glancing around in the pale light of the full moon. Nathan felt exposed and veered farther away from the field house, keeping in the shadows of the buildings, then the trees that lined the railroad track. Finally they crossed it and scrambled down the embankment. They were a good thousand feet up the track from where they needed to be, and quietly made their way to a spot straight across from the field house.

“I wish we could get inside the field house,” he said.

“Too risky,” J. R. said. “Do you plan to arrest them tonight?”

“No. I want to see who the players are, get a few photos so we can identify them. Then we’ll make a plan on the best way to shut them down.”

Half an hour later they watched from their lair on the other side of the railroad tracks as a car entered the gravel drive to the field house. A Jeep Cherokee. Probably the lawyer’s kid. He snapped photos of the vehicle, then zoomed in on the license plate. It had mud smeared over it. He took a picture anyway.

Three teenage boys spilled out of the car, and J.R. nudged him. Ethan Kennedy, Cole McNeil, and Mason Garrett—the boys J.R. named in the note a month ago. Nathan had been right about who the Jeep belonged to—the lawyer’s son was the driver. Nathan quickly snapped their photos.

A few minutes later, another vehicle, a dark Escalade, entered the drive and inched toward the field house. Probably the dealers. Boy, he wished there were a light at the field house. At least the full moon helped.

Nathan didn’t recognize the three men who climbed out of the SUV. Two of them wore suits that were tailored to fitmuscular men. The third man was lean and stood a head taller than the other two. Probably the leader and the other two were security.

He zoomed in on their faces and snapped more photos. All three were Caucasian and hard-looking. J.R. had said in his phone call that they were Russian, and they had an eastern European look to them.

Another person exited the SUV, and Nathan caught his breath. It was the fourth person Reggie had listed on the note.

“Do you know him?” Alexis asked, keeping her voice low.

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