Page 59 of Rogue

“We’re not the cops’ lap dogs. We exist for the sole purpose of bringing down criminals the cops can’t touch. You seem to have forgotten that lately.”

To her credit, she doesn’t roll her eyes again. And she looks shocked. As she should be.

“Maybe this setback is for the best,” I say. “We can save the rest of the women Clive is holding easier and more efficiently than the cops can. And we can let them go, while the cops will just deport them. So maybe this is for the best.”

The door opens and Skye peers out, squinting at the bright sun. “I think I managed to track down Hydra. They’re on the move again.”

“See?” I say to Alice. “All the more reason we need to get involved again.”

I don’t wait for her to answer. I just follow Skye into the bar where multiple conversations are still going a mile a minute.

“Are we really just gonna sit on our asses now?” Trinity asks, rounding on me as I enter.

Her jet-black hair is hanging in a silky smooth, shiny braid down her back and her dark eyes are glowing in anger. I’m glad to see it.

“No, we’re not just sitting on our asses,” I tell her then face the rest of them, most of whom have stopped talking when Trinity asked her question.

“Don’t go anywhere, any of you. I’ll need you all tonight,” I tell them. “We’re rolling as soon as I go over Skye’s intel. We’re finishing what we started, I promise you that.”

Relief seems to wash over them all. Or maybe that’s just what I wanted them to see. I don’t look too hard, I just tell Skye to lead the way to whatever she wants to show me. Alice is on my heels as is Blade. I can’t read what he’s thinking, but his face is so impassive that I’m sure he’s thinking lots.

Skye’s computer room abuts the War Room and as always, it smells nice—like lavender and peaches today. She sits on her purple and black computer chair and wakes the huge screen that takes up most of the table in front of her. We’re looking at a bunch of pink blinking dots on what is the map of LA.

“I’ve been lowkey tracking those fancy headpieces the Hydra dudes use for a couple of days,” she says. “Not hard enough to be notice, just enough to see if there was some activity.”

“Was there?” I ask to speed her along. She really knows her stuff, but she has a tendency to get too technical when she’s talking about it.

“Not until just now. I thought they just switched frequencies because they were aware I was tracking them,” she says. “But about an hour ago they all came back online. They seem to bescrambling. Trying to get something done fast. Doesn’t it look like that to you?”

I look at the map on the screen, trying to get my bearings. Some of the blinking dots are definitely at Clive’s house, which is easy to locate on the map, given its remoteness. And some of the rest of the spots where the blinking dots are converging are the strip joints.

“It does look like they’re busy doing something,” I say as I straighten up.

The computer room is dark since there are thick blackout curtains covering all the windows, and even after looking away, I can still see the bright dots and map lines superimposed on the walls. “We have to assume they’re getting rid of evidence. Probably because Clive was questioned by the cops. Which in our case means?—”

“Killing more of those women they own,” Blade finishes the sentence for me.

“Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing,” I say.

Alice just looks at us both with very serious eyes. “Then we gotta ride.”

“We will,” I say, already trying to formulate a plan of attack in my mind.

But there’s really no time for planning. If we don’t move now, all we’re gonna find is corpses. Again.

“We’re gonna wing it,” I say. “We don’t have any other choice. We’ll need radios and maps and then we ride. Here and here.”

I point at the two spots where there seems to be the most blinking pink dots bunched together.

“They seem to be on the move,” Alice observes, pointing out the dots that are trailing all over the map.

“Then we hit them en route,” I say. “We can’t wait. They’re trying to cover their tracks and we have to stop them. I’ll alert my cousin, but we’ll probably be on our own. Are you with me?”

Both Alice and Blade nod solemnly.

“We finish what we started,” Blade says.

I leave them to sort out the details and step outside where I text first my cousin and then Melody to let her know I won’t be able to make it tonight.

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