Page 7 of Mimosa

Taran’s voice was warm and kind, and it made Sonny hate him more. “I get it, the things these assholes are doing is super bad. The longer it takes to bust them, the more people suffer.”

Ignoring the empathy, Sonny demanded, “When are we meeting with the pub people?”

“Soon. I promised them I’d keep them up on everything. I was skeptical to tell them about you and Sandy, but they need to know. If anything happened, they’d know they could depend on you.”

“Plus, maybe they don’t shoot us,” Sandy said.

“They don’t use weapons often, but they’re all carrying now. I pushed through their conceal carry permits.”

Sonny became enraged. “You pushed it through? You do know that cops know about that? All they have to do is wonder why a bunch of felons suddenly have conceal carry permits?”

“One, not all of them are felons. If they were, they wouldn’t be able to live and work together. Most have little more than juvenile records, not a felony among them, including my boyfriend. He had his record expunged because it was when he was underage. The judge did it to help give him a new life after Murphy pulled strings. And two, my name isn’t the one on record.”

Sonny was enraged, and he didn’t know why. Well, he did, it was a culmination of reasons. “Sorry. I just…if anything bad happens while we’re waiting for enough proof for RICO, then, is it worth it?”

“No,” Taran said, shocking him. “But our superiors want it this way, and so do yours. They want these men and women away for the rest of their lives.”

As Sonny sipped his double shot cappuccino, he felt his anger wane enough to be able to say, “I’m sorry.”

“There,” Sandy said. “We’re all on the same page.”

Both Taran and Sonny glared at him.

“Sorry! God, but now that the fists are unclenched, as well as the assholes, can we talk?”

“Yeah,” Sonny said. “Okay, I need to meet them before I’m given the assignment to watch them. How do we do this?”

“You don’t need to meet them all. Once you meet a couple key players, they will go back and talk to the others. We’ll provide a picture of you, and they can let the rest know that you’re on our side.”

“Fine. Can we do this today? I mean, part of why I can’t sleep is that I feel like we’re in limbo. I hate being stuck.”

“I can arrange it today. I’ll get Murphy and Cosmo.”

“Oh, your boyfriend.”

“Why not?”

Sonny knew he wasn’t thinking right, but there was one of the men he wanted to meet. “I need the computer guy. I can give him a few ways to get into the right systems. For one, the dark net site that the BBC uses, with the passwords to get into the stuff I can’t get.”

“You can do that?”

“No, but I can get it. I plan to hit up Marion, the cop that knows just about all of it, to let me do this gig. While I’m at it, I can ask if I can get on the main computer to look up other things on the men at the pub. Once there, I have a flash drive that I can use to get whatever I can, and I can hand it over to Mimosa.”

“How are you going to secure the gig?”

“I have the stash of money I get as my part of the cut of the jobs I do. I’m not allowed to spend any of it because I’m supposed to keep it for evidence, but if I can talk my superiors into letting me use it to bribe Marion, then I’m in.”

Sandy knew all this, but Taran had no idea. “What are you going to say? I mean the reason you want that certain gig?”

“I’m gay. Why not enjoy the eye candy while I’m doing my job for the BBC? None of the other men will want it.”

Taran smiled, then laughed silently. “That’s…good. Yeah.”

“Even if I’m caught with one of them, I can always say I’m getting a piece of ass and trying to infiltrate the enemy camp.”

Sandy laughed, and it was anything but silent. “That’s my boy right there.”

“I have to admit, that is perfect. Alright, then, go for it on your end. I’ll get Murphy on the phone and have him bring Mims over.”

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