Page 12 of Fighting Conviction
They’d never talked about the party with Burgess, afraid they’d give too much away. They did think the traffickers would be dumb enough to try the same crime in the same party. They had no concrete evidence yet, but it was their theory the traffickers hid their evil under the cloak of the party, helped by some of Ashland County’s finest. But no way in hell were they going to tell Investigator Burgess.
“We haven’t thought too much about it.” Hawk hedged.
“No way they’d be that stupid though, ya know?” Jaybird offered.
Burgess nodded and grunted. “Might be somethin’ worth lookin’ into.”
Hawk tilted his head at Burgess before nodding to himself. “We’ll do that.” He templed his fingers and tapped against his lips. “We might have some leads.”
Burgess grunted his assent and the BlackStone men waited for the inevitable question of who their leads were. But each passing tick of the dated clock above the door echoed in the silent room, reverberating inside Devil’s head and bringing on a painful tension headache.
If only he could see Ellie after the meeting. Her gentle spirit was always the warmth he needed to melt the icy stress accumulating in his veins.
When Jason had shown the Crew her picture for reference to save her last year, Ellie’s soft face and effortless smile lit a fire inside him. His hardened heart had been cracking ever since.
And he hated it.
Everything about Devil was logical, methodical, planned. And for good reason. He’d come face-to-face with what emotions could do to a man.
Six years ago, he was burned by a light that was snuffed out too soon. He learned then that when his control faltered, someone got hurt. Ever since, he’d honed the skill of cold detachment.
Until Ellie.
She was becoming a distraction, and the only way he could think to get Ellie out of his head was by getting inside someone else. It’d been months since he’d gone to Original Sin and gotten an easy lay from one of the dancers at the strip club. He and Phoenix would’ve left right after the meeting, but the lucky bastard got out of going to the sheriff’s office at the last second with another client meeting. Devil would have to keep both heads in check until he had the chance to blow off some steam.
“Welp boys…” Burgess slapped the table with a pasted smile on his face, bringing Devil back to the moment. “I appreciate your time. Whatever you’re lookin’ into, keep me in the loop.”
“Sir? Are you, uh, sure you want to end the meeting so soon? They just got here,” Officer Brown asked from behind the investigator, obviously as confused as they were that the meeting was being cut off half an hour early.
“I think we’ve covered everything, haven’t we gentlemen?”
Hawk narrowed his eyes at both officers and glanced back at Jaybird and Devil. “If you think so, sir. We’ll follow up with what we find out.”
Burgess nodded and they all shifted to get up.
“One more thing.” Jaybird lifted his chin at Burgess.
Burgess’s eyebrows raised and Devil resisted the impulse to do the same. Unable to hide his hatred for Burgess, Jaybird never piped in with his two cents. He’d already met his word quota for that meeting.
“Now, son, I’m on a tight schedule. I-uh, I think we can wait until next time, don’t you agree?”
Jaybird shook his head. “Unbelievable, man. This is important.” He gave Burgess a pointed look.
“If it’s so damn important, why’dya wait ‘til the end to talk about it?”
“Maybe because I don’t trust you farther than I can throw you assho—”
“Enough.” Hawk’s lips tightened in a thin line before nodding at Jaybird to continue.
Jaybird huffed and seemed to mentally collect himself as the investigator idly flicked his lighter, like he had nothing better to do.
“I’ve had one of our guys look into this, but we’ve come to a dead end. My sister told me yesterday she’s seeing the same car following her around town—”
“What the fuck?” Devil growled and his whole body swiveled to glare at his teammate. “How could you not tell me about this?” He thought back to the last time he’d seen her. It must’ve been around the same time she told Jaybird, but she’d still chosen not to tell him. She’d even turned down a ride home.
What the fuck is she thinking?
Jaybird’s eyebrow lifted and he frowned as he turned back to the investigator. He seemed to keep his eye on Devil in his periphery for a second longer before giving the description of a Corolla down to the dent on the driver’s side and some of the locations Ellie remembered seeing it, all near the clinic.
