Lady Luck (Colorado Mountain #3)(155)
Tate nodded and muttered, “I’m on that.”
“You need to know,” Ty said at this point, “Angel called today. Keaton is also working with IA; he’s been with them thirteen months. We know Fuller instigated that inspection on Monday. What we didn’t know was the play was to plant shit. Keaton and Frank worked together to derail that plan without losin’ their cover. Frank didn’t know Keaton was with IA, he knows now and so do we.”
Tate stared at Ty in unconcealed surprise a moment before what appeared to be relief moved across his handsome features then he shook his head and whispered, “Jesus, this web is so f**kin’ sticky, everyone is caught in it.”
That was, unfortunately, true.
Ty gave me a squeeze, I looked up to him and he said, “Give Tate everything you got on the guy you saw delivering the envelope.”
My eyes went back to Tate and I told him, “Not small, not huge, a man, plaid, short-sleeved shirt. It was dark, I didn’t even get his hair color but –”
“Newcomb,” Tate cut me off and I blinked.
“No f**kin’ way,” Ty replied instantly. “Loyal foot soldier for years and that motherf*cker makes Fuller look like a poster boy for Affirmative Action. Newcomb had a white hood and robe in his closet, I would not be surprised. He wouldn’t scratch an itch he had on his ass if it meant it might in some way help me.”
“Newcomb’s also got a wife who took off three years ago leavin’ him with three kids and one of them is a daughter who has leukemia and it isn’t lookin’ good. Those kids need him to go down or disappear like they need holes drilled into their heads. He’s inner sanctum, caked in mud so, they all go down, he’s f**ked. He’s doin’ what he can to divert attention to the higher ups in hopes the buzzards will see him breathin’ when they pick over the meatier carcasses and leave him be. He’s also a big guy and he doesn’t ever wear tees. He’s not in a sports jacket and slacks on duty; he’s in short sleeves, always plaid.”
Ty made no reply.
Tate kept speaking. “I’ll get to the girl in Maryland. You said you were savin’ this on your hard drive, you do it?”
“Yeah,” Ty answered.
“You got a writeable DVD?”
“Yes.” That one I answered.
Tate looked at me. “Make copies. Get one to Nina, hand delivered. Express one to Peña, you give him a head’s up to look for it and you send it from the post office in Gnaw Bone. Mick Shaughnessy is the top cop in Gnaw Bone, clean as a whistle and, because of that, he hates Fuller’s guts. Fuller doesn’t step foot in Gnaw Bone, he did, Mick would lose his mind. You’ll have no eyes on you there. You put one in your safe and then you spread them around. Krystal and Bubba, Deke, Jim-Billy, Wood. The fact you have it has to be dropped in the right ear, I’ll think about which one that’ll be and do it. What I’ll also do is let people know that they got a lot of work to do if they think they can sweep them all up. That shit heading to Dallas, they’ll figure it isn’t worth it even to try.” Tate then looked at Ty. “But this means two things, one, even the boys in the inner sanctum are turnin’ on each other which leads us to two, desperate times, desperate measures. You’re close to bein’ cleared but you aren’t. Somethin’ goes down and you got a gun, currently, you’re f**ked even if it means protecting yourself, Lex, your home. Still, you feel you need that insurance, I’ll go get your gun.”
I looked at Ty to see him shaking his head. “Not gonna trip on my own feet now.”
“Smart,” Tate muttered. “Fucked that you can’t have that insurance, but smart.”
Talk about guns and insurance, anonymous men silently wandering up our stairs to leave envelopes, Ty closing us in, I felt a full body tremble and Ty’s arm around me got tighter.
“All right, Tate, again, I owe you but right now, gotta get Lexie home. We haven’t had a great day so we need it to be done.”
Tate nodded and stood, his eyes coming to me.
“Stay strong, darlin’, this’ll be over soon.”
I nodded too. Tate’s eyes moved to Ty, they exchanged a look then Tate led the way out. There was idle chitchat in the kitchen with Laurie but not much before Ty shut it down and got me out to the Viper.
We were winding our way down the hill when he asked gently, “My mama okay?”
I wasn’t.
But I hoped soon I would be.
So I lied, “Yeah. Fine.”
“Bullshit,” he muttered but said no more and reached out a hand to mine, he squeezed firm and warm then he let it go.
As we were waiting for our garage door to open, I was thinking, doors locked, blinds pulled, no gun, anonymous men lurking in the dark with sick-ass sex tapes, I was still glad to be home.
Ty pulled in, shut the Snake down and I was ready for his tee, a beer then bed so I had my buckle off, the door open and was folding out before he hit the button to bring down the garage door.
Again, at the corner of my eye I saw movement, turned my head, froze half straightened from the car with my eyes aimed over the roof and I hissed urgently, “Ty!”
But he’d seen him before me and Ty was already out, standing in his opened door, turned to look in the opened door of the garage where Rowdy Crabtree was standing two feet in.