Page 42 of The Gentleness of Rage

“Let’s go check the crime scene,” Ben said and walked away.

“Ben’s mellowed,” Ramirez stated and followed his partner.

Yeah, Ben had chilled out, Drake thought. In the past, Ben would have been dragging them down to the station to interview.

“I will call Slate. Give him a heads up,” Drake murmured to Fish. “And put our lawyer on standby.”

Slate

“Holy shit,” he muttered as Cayla waded in on a bitch fight. He’d no intention of getting involved, but Cayla was grabbing hair and tearing the fighting women apart.

“Stay the fuck there, or I’ll bust you down to last spot!” Cayla roared at Candy. Oh, Slate knew Candy, the woman didn’t stop whining. The other dancer, Sindy, Slate thought, was glaring at Candy and, to Slate’s amusement, holding a wad of hair extensions. Or at least he hoped they were.

His phone rang, and Slate looked down at it, and his happiness faded. Drake fucking owed him for this.

“You’re an asshole. I’ve got bitches fighting and not in a good way,” Slate announced as he answered it.

“I’m at the cabin, and Skylar’s dead body is here. Think I beat you, brother,” Drake replied, and Slate blinked. That wasn’t what he’d expected.

“How long she been there?” Slate demanded.

“Looks like a few days. Lawyer’s on standby,” Drake said.

“Fuck!” Slate growled out and moved away from everyone. Cayla continued laying the law down, and Slate didn’t want anyone listening in.

“Yeah, someone’s setting you up. That or your woman is a serial killer,” Drake replied.

“Jaelynn ain’t no murderer. This is a setup, Prez,” Slate snapped.

“You told me Jaelynn hunted,” Drake retorted.

“Jaelynn is no Artemis or Irish. She’s not out hunting former barmaids that we sacked,” Slate stated.

“Ramirez and Ben think you’re clean for this and Jaelynn, too. But they’ll interview, they have to, or when the case goes to court, it’ll fall apart,” Drake said.

“Won’t go to court. This is an attack on a brother, we keep that shit in-house,” Slate countered.

“Idiot. I know it won’t. But they’re going to do it by the book, which means you and Jaelynn will be formally interviewed,” Drake declared.

“Then we need to hide her. I won’t have her name out there for her to be tracked.”

“We can get Ramirez to keep it quiet.”

“If her ex is a damn cop, he ain’t acting alone. Jaelynn could have called the police on him. The fact he is free and she’s on the run means he’s got contacts and people helping him. I’m blind here, Drake. Am I looking at an officer, uniform, detective, or maybe a state trooper, what about a Fed. You’ve any idea who I should be keeping an eye open for? No. We need to lock Jaelynn down,” Slate erupted.

“Finished shouting? Good. The only person who can give you those answers is Jaelynn or put Hawthorne’s on her,” Drake replied.

“Did that. Davies said he triggered an alert and stopped looking because I told him to,” Slate stated.

“Wait a minute. Call Davies and ask if the alert could be tracked back to him or Rapid City. Because you might have just given Ramirez an answer,” Drake ordered.

“You think her ex is here, killing people to set me up? That’s a bit far-fetched. If he was here, he’d try to take her.” Slate denied the idea.

“We’ve seen stranger shi—fuck. An early slot has opened up for Silvie. Apache is taking her in, they’re operating today,” Drake announced.

“Go deal with Apache, he’s gonna be a mess. I’ll grab Jaelynn. Tell Ramirez to phone me if he needs me.” Slate hung up and rubbed a hand over his face.

Today was going to hell, he decided as Candy open-slapped Sindy as Cayla turned her back for a second.

---