Page 79 of The Chase

Colt didn’t feel like he’d got Blue anywhere near check and didn’t think he ever would, but took that as the compliment it was meant to be, nodded a little and sighed.

Blue cleared his throat again. To business, the intimacy and tenderness of the previous moment passed now. “So... if you did start the MC up again, you’d need informants. They’d come in without you knowing... maybe you’d be able to guess who they are. Maybe not.”

Just then, the door burst open. It banged against the wall behind it.

“I’ve got to meet him,” the lady who strode in declared. She was African American, with short hair close to her head. Wearing trousers, a blazer, and loafers. Not heels. She was wiry and petite, but the atmosphere in the room changed as if she was taking up most of the space. Most of the air.

Blue seemed put out that she had interrupted him.

“Colt, this is the Mayor, Maxime Harris.”

Blue nodded at Colt and addressed Mayor Harris. “This is the potential new President of the Black Coyotes.”

She looked him up and down. Colt wished he wasn’t meeting her while he was in bed wearing nothing but a hospital gown with his face stitched up. He imagined he was looking slick and flashed her his best devil-may-care smile.

“Ma’am,” he said silkily, then he offered her a hand. She raised her eyebrows and took his.

“I’ve heard so much about you, Colt Kincade.”

“All good, I hope?” Colt replied.

She smiled wryly and shook her head. “No, indeed not.”

Fuck. Colt fixed his smirk in place but inside his heart was rattling against his rib cage.

She shook her head. “But the past is irrelevant. It’s what you are going to do next that I’m here about. Mr. Kincade-”

“Colt,” he corrected her.

She looked at him sternly, as if she wasn’t often interrupted. After a long pause, where Colt had to force himself not to squirm, she continued. “I’ve worked hard to make our city a good place to live and work, for hard working, law abiding citizens. For them to buy houses, for their children to go to school safely… for this place to be an exemplary American dream.”

Colt thought he knew where this was going. She was going to say she didn’t want his kind in this town-

“I want you in this town,” she said finally.

He must have misheard. “What?”

“I want to know everything that goes on in my city. That includes the illegal aspects, too. I want to know about the gangsters and mobsters, and I want them working for me, too. That’s why I liaise closely with Special Agent Blue-” Colt almost snickered. Special Agent Blue. He’d never get used to that. “-To ensure everyone’s pulling in the same direction. My direction. You and our charismatic police Sergeant may pound your chests and measure your dicks and think it’s your town. It’s not. It’s mine, and if you get too big for your boots, it’s the end of the line for you. Do I make myself clear?”

Colt glanced at Blue, wondering if this was some sort of joke. Mayor Harris wanted a finger in all the pies. She was as corrupt as they come.

“Ma ‘am,” he wisely replied.

She nodded, satisfied. “I’m cut in on every deal going on around here, and I call the shots on some, too. The Black Coyotes MC is a useful pawn in the game we play-”

Fucking chess again, Colt thought. “We need you working with the local Mexican cartel, a group called the Demonios, and we like them doing business in our town. They pushed out the other gangs while you were on your sabbatical, Colt-”

Sabbatical? Colt caught himself just before he rolled his eyes.

“And that’s a good thing for now because the Demonios deposit a large amount of money in the town’s coffers and keep the crime rates low, drug use low, keep the drugs and arms moving up the coast and not sticking around here…”

“That’s why you put up with Cleaver?” Colt asked.

Blue nodded. “That’s why we left Cleaver in situ, but we didn’t fucking like it.”

“So, if you did set up the MC, you’ll be informing for us. On the Demonios, on what they are doing for who. We’ll loop back around to the Guardians of Purity and that gun deal later. They won’t want to work with you, Colt. But we’ve got our man planted there, we’ll see if there are other avenues for that… Special Agent Blue will be your contact, and I’d be fully in the know about everything that is occurring. You’ll be under the full protection of the FBI, immunity for you and whoever in your club is working for us.”

Colt hadn’t bargained on this.

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