Dream Chaser (Dream Team, #2)(115)

Doing it for him.

Boone loved that.

And he loved her.

She’d been demonstrating how much there was to love before she did that.

Oh yeah.

Absolutely.

As well as after.

Case in point, him saying he had to get gone from their bed at three in the morning, and her not laying him up by asking questions.

But his sweet Ryn in glasses and pumps, looking out for her man, that was the moment he knew.

He just knew it now even more when he kissed her quick, she rolled away from him, and he got out of bed.

Boone got dressed and kissed her quick again before he went out the door.

He had the text, and with their investigation, he already knew the address.

It was Bogart’s house in Englewood.

He spotted Axl’s Jeep before he got in his car and knew his bud was out there somewhere, keeping an eye on things.

He then drove to that address and parked three blocks away, in the shadows between streetlamps, and he took alleys and walked close to fences, swinging wide of the glow of streetlights, until he hit Bogart’s back gate, which was ajar.

He went through, opening the gate slowly with his shoulder so he could stop it if it made noise. He moved up the back walk, and Hawk had the back door open before he got there.

Light above it was motion sensor, but it didn’t activate.

Bulb still there.

Boone couldn’t see clearly through the dark, but he could still see some of the silver at the turn of the bulb.

Someone had unscrewed it.

And he doubted Hawk came equipped with a ladder.

In other words, they weren’t the first ones that night who arrived in stealth mode.

Boone walked in.

Eddie was there.

Hank was not.

Mag was there. Mo wasn’t.

Too many people, too much attention.

Crew was few.

There were also two dead bodies illuminated by Eddie and Mag’s cell phone lights, and at first glance, it said murder suicide.

Boone didn’t believe that shit for a second.

“Confession,” Eddie grunted.

Boone turned his attention to him and had trouble seeing him since the curtains were closed and the phone lights were aimed low. But on the dark shadow that was his body, Eddie’s head jerked to indicate something, and he kept talking.

“Says they conspired to kill Crowley because he’d found out they were taking freebies from prostitutes and money on the side to provide protection for some pimps. Says Bogart did the kill, but it was Mueller’s idea to frame Cisco. Mueller was to the point he couldn’t live with it any longer. Bogart was not happy Mueller was trying to talk him into coming forward and coming clean. This unhappiness grew to the point Mueller no longer felt safe, because he was beginning to feel it was a certainty that Bogart was going to take him out or maybe harm his family. And so Mueller took care of the situation the only way he knew how in order to give Crowley the justice he deserved.”

Boiling that down, this set him up to be the hero in the end. Mueller did bad, was ridden by guilt, both of them serving the ultimate justice for their brother in blue.

Absolute horseshit.

Boone did not comment on this.

He remarked, “That’s a lot for a suicide note.”

“Yeah,” Eddie replied shortly.

“And how are you here and no one else is?” Boone asked.

“Because I got a text from Mueller saying the situation was taken care of and Hank and me, Mitch and Slim, and Hawk and his boys could back down.”

Boone sucked in breath.

“And Hank called about five minutes after I got my text, saying he got a text, like me, from Mueller’s number, saying the girl is safe and Cisco is clear. The girl, we’re guessing, is Ryn,” Eddie finished.

Boone felt his throat tighten so it took effort to force his question out of it.

“What the fuck?”

“You got me,” Eddie did not quite answer.

“It’s too fuckin’ tidy,” Mag put in.

“We’re right in our suspicions. It’s not just these two. It’s bigger,” Hawk said. “And it started getting messy, so they’re cutting off the dead weight and circling the wagons. If they’re smart, whatever they’ve been doing will end with the end of these two.” His shadow swung an arm to indicate the bodies. “But my gut is telling me that isn’t where this is heading.”

“Get the heat off, lay low, reorganize, come back smarter and stronger,” Boone guessed.

“Yep,” Hawk agreed.

“You unscrew the motion sensor bulb?” Boone asked Hawk.

But Eddie cut in. “What?”

“Bulb out back is there, and it’s been unscrewed enough not to make a connection,” Hawk told him.

Eddie nodded his head and Boone knew he made a mental note of that.

“And Corinne Morton and Ryn?” Boone asked.

Eddie answered.

“Forgot to mention, that was in the suicide note too. Morton, to flush out Cisco. Ryn, for the same thing. Though according to Mueller, who supposedly wrote the note, that was Bogart’s idea. A felon he’d collared and set on Ryn, and Bogart did the deed himself to Morton who Mueller said was putting pressure on them on behalf of her client because she knew they were dirty. So they not only wanted to use her as a means to an end, but also did her to shut her up.”