At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(190)

“You need to stick to town, not go out on a job,” Mike put in, losing his bid to get Cal out of Vi’s house he was changing his tune and Cal’s eyes cut to him.

“Yeah, Mike. Thanks for that head’s up,” Cal’s sarcasm was obvious and Mike straightened.

“We’re all on the same side here,” Sully noted as the air around Cal and Haines again grew heavy.

Cal speared Sully with a glance and looked at Colt.

“You got the gifts or you send them to Pryor?” he asked.

“Sent an inventory and photos to Pryor. Gifts were delivered here, they’ve stayed here. They’re in evidence,” Colt answered.

“I want to see them all. Chronological,” Cal demanded.

“Why?” Sully asked and Cal looked at him.

“Do you know what I do for a living?”

“Security,” Sully answered.

“Stalker sub-specialty,” Colt muttered and Sully looked at his partner.

“No joke?” Sully whispered.

“No joke,” Colt repeated.

“Wow,” Sully was still whispering, “I didn’t know that. We should have brought you in sooner.”

Colt looked at the ceiling. Haines pressed his lips together. Cal growled.

* * * * *

“You feed the Feds this shit?” Cal asked Barry. He was sitting in the seat beside Colt’s desk after having gone through a f**kload of expensive gifts that got chronologically more expensive, more desperate to make an impression and more demanding to get a reaction.

“Feds aren’t interested,” Cal heard Barry’s answer through the phone.

“Not interested?” Cal asked.

“You’re interested. I’m interested. Any Chicago police officer is interested, they knew Tim or not. The Feds… no,” Berry answered.

“Nothin’ ties him to this shit,” Cal surmised.

“I looked into it, Colt looked into it and nothin’ ties him to that shit. She was still in Chicago, gettin’ visits, maybe they’d care. Harassment isn’t a big deal but they’d be happy to pin anything on him, it keeps him locked away even a day longer. But she’s in Indiana gettin’ gifts we can’t pin on him, they don’t care,” Barry replied. “They want him shut down. They think they got a lock on that and so they’re focused.”

Cal clenched his teeth. If he heard the f**king word “focused” one more f**king time he was going to do bodily harm.

“You suggested protection, Colt’s people can’t offer it. You got the resources up there to give Vi and the girls that?” Cal asked.

“She’s out of our jurisdiction,” Pryor answered.

“What about the Feds?”

“Sorry, man, like I said. They’re not interested,”

Fuck! The word exploded in his brain then Cal took a deep breath and laid it out for Barry.

“You need to keep him busy, Pryor, his mind on other things,” Cal advised. “Shake up his operation. Give him headaches. Even if you can’t follow through with what you’re doin’ just be a nuisance.”

“How’s that gonna help?” Barry asked.

It wasn’t, Cal knew from the gifts it wasn’t going to stop Hart doing what he was doing.

Daniel Hart was like Kenzie Elise. He was used to getting what he wanted just wanting it. The gifts he’d been sending, the shake up in the schedule since Vi moved, the escalation of attention were not good signs. Colt knew it and was doing what he could do. It wasn’t right he didn’t share with Cal not only considering what Vi was to Cal but what Cal did for a living, but he was doing all the right things, including making it so Vi could live her life and only worry about all the shit that was in it, not adding anything extra. The fact that she was protected, not even receiving the gifts, and Cal had no doubt Hart knew she wasn’t, was probably driving Hart up the wall. He couldn’t get close, not with a restraining order and a cop living on Vi’s street. He wasn’t stupid and wouldn’t take that chance. Colt would take him down in a second. Hart could only hope Colt would mess up, miss a delivery, she’d get her diamonds and he’d get his reaction. Something Hart needed to function and something Colt had kept from him.

What Cal had to find was Hart’s Marco. Marco held Kenzie’s strings and yanked them when she got out of line. No man was an island. Not even the top of the heap in a crime syndicate. Hart had buyers, sellers, suppliers, employees – people he had to keep happy. Focusing on the mother of two daughters in Indiana when his focus should be on business, business that was all of a sudden getting a shakedown from the cops, would not make any of those people happy.

And then Sal could do his work which would make all those people really not happy and hopefully end in Daniel Hart being dead.

That was Cal’s plan. It was shit but at least it was a plan.

“Feds makin’ deals, cops on his ass, his attention is scattered, his operation goes into disarray someone’s gonna notice and he’s gonna have to make a choice. He chooses Vi, his operation falls apart, people get pissed, he’s f**ked. He doesn’t choose Vi, shifts his attention away, gets with the program, she’s free. Either way, she wins,” Cal explained.

“You’re askin’ me to put a shitload of boys in danger. This guy does not like to be messed with,” Barry replied.