Page 66 of Smooth Sailing

He knew.

“And if any of them were faking it, they’re really good actors,” she concluded.

“Right.” He looked down at the phone that had gone dark. “Need you to engage this again, babe.”

She did, he checked the name and hit the call button.

The man on the other end didn’t fuck around answering.

Guess it was okay to call him on a Saturday.

“Diana, are things good?” a deep voice asked.

“Rayne Scott?” Hugger asked back.

“Who’s this?”

“Harlan McCain. Chaos MC. Denver. We’re providing security for Suzette and Diana.”

Nothing from Scott.

“You heard Armitage is out as counsel?” Hugger inquired.

“Yeah.”

“He told Diana the FBI wants a crack at Suzette.”

“I wouldn’t put it that way.”

“How would you put it?”

“They have some lines of inquiry they wanna follow.”

“Care to share?”

“I don’t know you, so no. Is Diana there?”

“Sittin’ right here with me on her balcony. Two of Babic’s assholes are at the coffee place downstairs. So it’s safe to say, think we need a meet, but not here. Suzette is comin’ out of her shell, but she’s takin’ her time. Don’t wanna do something that makes her crawl back into it. But my guess, we both got the same goal, getting her safe and keeping her that way.”

“Maybe you don’t know that cops don’t discuss particulars of a case with anyone but those involved in the case and other cops,” Scott educated him.

“And maybe you don’t know we got a vested interest in making sure Suzette survives whatever she’s facin’ and then gets on with a long and happy life.”

“I’d love to take your word on that, but I hope you don’t mind I’m not going to,” Scott returned.

“Can we meet?”

“We can, but it’ll be a waste of time. It’s not gonna change my mind.” Scott paused then said, “Listen, not sure how you got involved in this. Can’t say I’m upset that Suzette and Diana have someone looking out for them. But the only thing we’ve got to discuss is finding a way to first, get Suzette in a more secure situation, and second, get her to open up about things she might know.”

“So she wasn’t some random chick he picked up to destroy her life,” Hugger noted.

Scott blew out an audible breath but said nothing.

Hugger knew it was useless to keep pressing, but he did anyway. “Again, I’ll point out, we got the same goals here, Scott.”

Scott took a beat, two, and then shocked the shit out of him by saying, “Let’s meet.”

Hugger jumped on it. “Great. You call when and where, we’ll be there. It’ll be me, and likely a brother of mine, Eight.”

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