Page 8 of Bound By Redemption
“At least we know its point of origin. That’ll help to figure out how it got there because we can focus on that area. I’ll do Emery’s and see if we can get the same,” I interrupted, breaking up the conversation and getting us back on track.
“Is that gonna help?” Ryker asked.
“Yeah, I’ll also go backward through the days one at a time and see when it was planted.” I turned to Ryker and Jacks. “Anyone out of the ordinary been in your house? Plumber, cable guy, the fuckin’ Pope?”
Jacks shook his head. “No not mine.”
“We had a fuckin’ lady claiming to be with the US census, but we didn’t let her in the house.” Ryker answered.
“Thought that shit was over with,” Deke added out of the blue.
“They extended the date supposedly, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with her considering Austyn sent that fuckin’ shit in already,” Ryker explained. This was not helping the situation at all. Answers. We needed to focus, and I had to steer them back again.
“Then someone broke into your houses and were undetected. You have a bigger problem here than just your houses blowing up,” I told them, moving to my second computer, finding Emery and Jacks’ information. I looked through the day to find its point of origin.
Buzz came up next to me. “Why don’t I look at Jacks’, and you focus on findin’ out who was in Ryker’s house.”
I moved over to the first computer, making room for us both. My arm screamed at me, but I pushed it down. “Sounds like a plan.”
Buzz started running through the day at Emery and Jacks’ place, while I was on Austyn and Ryker’s. Someone was in that damn house. That I was positive of. Who and how were the questions now.
The smoke was heavy around us all of the sudden, like the had wind changed directions and was aiming right at us. Not being totally over the smoke inhalation, I coughed a bit more, feeling my lungs burn and shook it off.
Looking up, the firefighters were snuffing out the last bit of embers from the other side, causing the smoke to come our way. If I smelled smoke any time soon, it would be too soon.
Buzz and I kept going on our task, searching and watching until out of the corner of my eye, I saw two uniforms coming our way. Their faces were intent, making me think they did not care for the Ravage MC much.
I reached over and hit the F4 button on Buzz’s computer and then mine. “What the fuck?” Buzz yelled a bit too loudly.
“Cops,” I answered low.
Buzz looked up, seeing the two uniforms making their way to us. “Fuck,” he grumbled.
“What’cha doin’ there?” the cop on the right asked, bending his neck to see the screens. He was lean and appeared to be a runner. He also had his hand on the butt of his gun, ready to draw on at a moment’s notice.
“Just mapping out the area,” I lied, face blank and giving nothing away. Years of torture training did that to a man.
Sure enough the cops stepped around to take a closer look at our screens. On them was a wide aerial map of the entire area in a one-hundred-mile radius with a couple of red circles and arrows on it.
It was something I'd cooked up just in case, but never thought I’d use it. Today was that day. To be frank, I should’ve spent more time on it because the circles and arrows went to nothing in particular. They were only there for show. Hopefully these two wouldn’t see it that way.
There was one for the clubhouse too.
“Any of you know who did this?” the cop to the left asked. He had a potbelly that went over his buckle and hung down. No doubt this one couldn’t chase someone if he tried. Guess that was what the other guy was for.
Cruz stepped forward and in front of them, blocking them from Buzz and me. “No. But this is my kid’s house, and we want to know who it was. Do you know? Do you know how it started? How did it happen?” He kept firing question after question to the two officers and didn’t let them get a word in edgewise at first.
I let out a burst of coughing and turned to try to get it under control, then back to the men.
The pudgy man took a step back, and I held in my smirk. Cruz was an intimidating man. He was solid, and there was no doubt he could throw both of these cops out of his way. The uniform would shit his pants in front of us if Rhys was in his face. Made me want to call him over just to watch the man squirm, but I didn’t. It wasn’t the time for fun.
“We got no clue who woulda done this. Was hopin’ you could give us some information for the investigation. Who was here?” Pudgy cop asked, his eyes sweeping over all of us.
While I could speak up that I was, I didn’t. My mouth stayed shut. We hadn’t discussed how any of this would be handled, and I wasn’t going to be the one to fuck whatever the plan was up. Not only that, I didn’t want Ensley and Remy involved with anything.
“We got a call sayin’ the place was on fire and raced here,” Cruz answered for me.
“Who made that call to you?” the lean cop questioned.
