Games of the Heart (The 'Burg #4)(174)

“Hardly,” Devin returned then looked at Mike. “I want a twelve layer one too.”

Mike had never done it but he wondered if counting to ten actually worked.

He didn’t get the chance to start.

“Fuck me, shut the f**k up,” Cal entered the conversation, glaring at both Ryker and Devin. “Cakes. Jesus. Seriously? Are we talkin’ about cakes?”

“Easy for you to say, you got a woman who makes ‘em,” Devin shot back.

“I heard that!” Vera shouted from the other room and Mike watched Tanner slowly close his eyes.

Tanner had allowed what all of them knew they never should allow – his partner to become romantically involved with a family member. Usually it was your sister you shielded from that shit. With Vera hooking up with Devin, it was Tanner’s mother.

“You did, then bake me a cake every once in a while,” Devin called through the door.

“Um…excuse me?” she asked with a snap.

“Right. Focus,” Mike clipped. “I got a boy who’s turned seventeen today and I’d like to celebrate that with him tonight. Not be in the tank for assault.”

“Jonas is seventeen?” Sully asked. “How’d I miss that? Tell him Uncle Sul says happy birthday and I’ll get Raine on sendin’ him a card with some green in it.”

Mike looked up at the ceiling but he still heard Rivera mutter, “Brownsburg. Every year. Spring break. I f**kin’ love this place.”

“How ‘bout I start?” Cal asked without even attempting to conceal his impatience and Mike stopped looking at the ceiling and looked to him. “Got a bud who’s got a bud who works for McGrath. This bud of his has been vocal about shit that goes down on McGrath’s sites. And by this I mean the fact that McGrath isn’t real concerned his building are up to code. Problem is, the guy’ll talk while he’s hammered but since McGrath signs his paycheck, he won’t do it official. So I found this shit out, I punted it to Colt.”

That was when Colt spoke. “Cal told me that, I started diggin’ and all his builds passed every inspection. So either this guy is the only male on the planet who lies when he’s shitfaced or McGrath has someone in his pocket. Didn’t have to look too far to find out that McGrath’s wife’s, second-cousin’s husband has got his signature on all the documents. First off, as a member of the family, no matter how loose, he’s got no business inspecting McGrath’s builds. But he’s a building inspector, his wife grooms poodles and they live in a three hundred and fifty thousand dollar house with an in ground pool all that sittin’ on five acres.”

“Payoffs,” Mike said.

“My guess, yes,” Colt replied. “No proof though.”

“Yet,” Sully added.

Mike looked at Ryker and stated, “That’s worth twelve layers. You got anything at all?”

Ryker opened his mouth but Devin spoke.

“What I got is they got a pre-nup,” he announced. “But I also got more. See, Mrs. McGrath’s father is a preacher and Mrs. McGrath lost her Momma when she was nine. Mrs. McGrath’s Momma was loaded and that’s with a capital ‘L’. All held in trust until she turned twenty-one. McGrath married her when she was twenty-one. I seen the woman. I know why. And it isn’t that she looks pretty in sundresses. She’s a Jesus Freak who could play defensive end for the Colts. It was her money that bankrolled the business. But she isn’t stupid. She mighta jumped at the chance at love seein’ as she wasn’t gonna get a lotta offers but that marriage goes sour, she walks away with seventy-five percent of everything.”

“Jesus,” Mike whispered.

“No shit, Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” Devin agreed. “Suffice it to say, she’ll frown on her beloved doin’ some bitch on his desk. The sanctity of marriage is God’s will. I don’t know, she finds out, she’ll get shot of his ass or ride it until kingdom come since I heard word God isn’t too hot on divorce. I do know she’s got a rep as a ball breaker which means McGrath has got a type, seein’ as your woman’s sister’s got the same. So, she finds out he’s bangin’ the sister, odds are, she’ll lose her mind and find some way to make him pay. Oh and by the way,” he began to sum up, “it was McGrath who spread those rumors his startup money had scary ties. In the beginning, he had no muscle, just ambition. He needed land and wanted fear on his side gettin’ it so he made that shit up. It was later, when he could afford muscle, he got it but kept those rumors flowin’ because they were doin’ the job.”

“So we got two avenues,” Mike noted.

“Or you could come at it a different direction,” Merry put in and Mike looked at him. “Went to the Academy with a guy who moved to Baltimore. I reached out seein’ as he’s got friends on The Force in DC. Asked him to ask around and he has. Seein’ as Debbie Holliday is a defense attorney, she’s already not their favorite person. Seein’ as she’s a successful one, they like her even less. But she’s a very successful one. So successful, there’s rumblin’s as to how she does as well as she does.”

“And these rumblings are?” Mike asked.

“Talk is judges in her pocket but my friend’s friend thinks it’s something else.”