A Chip and a Chair (Seven of Spades, #5)(35)

“I don’t see that we have any other choice,” Denise said. “We can’t have neo-Nazis running around Las Vegas with unstable improvised explosives. Do you have access to that video feed here?”

“On my laptop, yeah. And I’ll write down everything I can remember from their murder board.”

“Thank you. I’ll get the ball rolling; I need to notify my superiors that we have an elevated threat level.” Denise hurried out of the room.

Once she was gone, Dominic could bring up the sensitive detail that Levi and Martine wouldn’t have wanted to learn in front of an outsider. “We have another problem. One of your uniforms, Officer Daley, was at Carson’s house right before I broke in. I guess it’s possible he’s working some kind of undercover angle, but from what I saw and heard, it’s a lot more likely he’s on Utopia’s side.”

Martine clenched her jaw, her nostrils flaring. Levi made a low growling noise that did not bode well for Daley’s future.

“You might want to loop in Internal Affairs. Though if Utopia has one guy inside the LVMPD, they may have more.”

Martine stood. “I’ll get Freeman and Montoya on it. I think we can trust that neither of them are working with white supremacists.”

A safe assumption, given that Freeman was black and Montoya Mexican-American. If Montoya really was the Seven of Spades, that might be even better.

Once Martine had left, Dominic swiveled his chair to face Levi. “I can’t apologize for breaking into the house. I wouldn’t mean it.”

“I know.” Levi hesitated, his mouth still open, and then huffed out a breath. “Dominic, I’ve been in life-threatening danger right in front of you multiple times, and you’ve been able to stay focused. What about seeing my picture on a board made you lose your cool?”

This was something Dominic had thought about on the drive over. “It wasn’t just the threat to your life. It was the premeditation behind it, the hatred. These people don’t even see you as human; they’re tracking and hunting you like an animal.”

Levi’s lips quirked. “I’m a gay Jewish cop. That would tick a lot of boxes on the Neo-Nazi kill list even if I weren’t notoriously linked to an active serial killer.”

“I know. And it’s not like it was a secret that Utopia has serious beef with you. But seeing that hatred in all its ugliness . . .” Dominic swallowed hard. “I’ve never been so terrified.”

Levi leaned forward and took Dominic’s hands, his eyes soft with understanding. “Not even the day you were shot?”

Dominic should have known Levi wasn’t going to let that pass unremarked. “No. There’s a big difference between being scared for you and being scared for myself. Until today, I didn’t even think that day had left mental scars with the physical ones. I’ve never even had nightmares about it. But that smell . . .” He grimaced, cracking his neck from side to side.

“Olfactory triggers can be powerful.”

“Yeah. And this is gonna sound stupid, but my shoulder hurts.”

“That doesn’t sound stupid at all.” Levi brushed his fingertips against the scar through Dominic’s shirt.

The intimacy of that action, of Levi knowing exactly where his scar was without being able to see it, made Dominic feel better. He laced their fingers together and pressed a chaste kiss to Levi’s mouth before they released each other.

Back to business, Levi said, “You described TATP as unstable. I’m assuming it also degrades quickly?”

“Very.”

“So if Utopia made a batch, how long a window do they have to use it?”

Dominic met his eyes grimly. “Ten days at the most.”





Dominic ended up being right, of course, although Levi had never doubted him. By the time the FBI obtained a warrant to search Carson’s house, the place had been emptied out and scrubbed as clean as an operating room.

They tracked down most of the people identified in Dominic’s surveillance feed and brought them in for questioning-including Daley, who was dragged in by Freeman and Montoya-but each one lawyered up and refused to say a word. Because Utopia was being bankrolled by the likes of Conrad Bishop, its members could afford excellent legal representation. In retrospect, Levi realized that was how a lowlife like Lonnie Hale had been able to hire Sawyer.

Without hard evidence of a crime, they had no choice but to release everyone eventually. At least they had enough to suspend Daley pending an IA investigation, and Freeman and Montoya were on the hunt for any other Utopia moles inside the LMVPD.

The silver lining of everyone refusing to talk was that neither Carson, Spencer, nor Boyd implicated Dominic in anything illegal. Still, there was no guarantee that wouldn’t change.

So, as Levi and Dominic were standing behind two-way glass watching yet another punk smugly demand an attorney, Levi turned to Dominic and said, “I think you should talk to Sawyer.”

He could have said that Dominic should hop on the next shuttle to Mars, and Dominic wouldn’t have looked more surprised. “You want me to what?”

“You broke the law. What if one of the people who were there tries to leverage that to cut themselves a deal?”

“They won’t.”

“They might.” Levi felt sick at the thought. “I think you should have a legal strategy prepared, just in case.”