He nodded. “Tenny told me where to find him, and I spent the day tailing him. There’s photos of the house on there, and the car: he’s got a driver. Travels in a big Mercedes, one driver, one bodyguard, and a second car follows, a G-Wagon full of thugs.”
“Plates?”
“On there.”
“Sweet.”
“But he drives himself, sometimes. I followed him back from the diner where he met Toly, and he was in a Cobra. Black, tinted windows, mag wheels.”
Rob whistled. “Nice ride.”
“So are all the rides that go in and out of that place. Lots of traffic. ‘Cept the vans. Those are plain black, no logos.”
“Not home reno, I’m guessing,” Melissa said.
He shook his head. “There’s ladders on top, and there’s probably tools inside to sell the lie, if they got pulled over, but no, definitely not. I got shots of those plates, too,” he added, before she could ask. “Another thing: there’s a drive-under garage, through a gate. But behind that, there’s a carriage house, with alley access. Four car bays, plus what looks like a finished space on the top floor.”
“Pays to be a mob boss,” Rob said.
Kat went on: “I walked around back to get to it. Couldn’t get in – they’ve got five locks on the door that fronts the alley, and there’s a ten foot wall around the rest of it. But when I got close, I could hear a noise from inside. A humming. I could feel it when I put my hand on the wall.”
“Could be an AC unit,” Melissa said. “Some kind of appliance.” But her pulse had kicked up a notch. Kat wasn’t a novice; if he’d made mention of the humming, it was for a reason. All sorts of things hummed…like big chest freezers.
His look said he knew what she was thinking, and that he was thinking it, too. “The maid,” he said. “The Polish one. She was never found?”
“No. But now I’ve got a good idea where to look.”
He lifted a brow beneath the bill of his cap. “Can you? I mean…” He nodded to her jacket pocket, where she’d tucked the drive. “That’s not exactly permissible.”
“No. But if the right department somehow caught wind of suspicious activity…” She turned to Rob, who was nodding.
“I’ll believe they quit running girls when I see it. My money says they still are, but they’re being more careful after Abacus.”
“And sex-trafficking is a sex crime,” Melissa drawled, gesturing between them. “So…”
To Kat, Rob said, “We’ll get on the horn with Organized Crime and see if we can cook up a warrant.”
Kat looked between them, expression mildly surprised. “Just like that?”
“We’ll at least try to do it the right way first,” Melissa said. “And if that fails, I know some Dogs to sic on them.”
~*~
Raven may have pitched Albany to Cassandra as a festive holiday, but she hadn’t counted on it feeling like one for her as well. The next few days unfolded in a flurry of Christmas movies, s’mores cooked over the fire pits, hearty home cooked meals that left her itching for the gym, and something that felt an awful lot like what normal people called “family time.”
No one save Maverick lived in the clubhouse full time. He had a master suite on the ground floor, and an office, where he spent most of his time when he was at home, which meant he only saw any of them in passing. A few of the single Dogs, including Shepherd, lived on property, but in cabins studded up the slope behind the main house, glimpses of lit windows through the trees at night. The Bennets lived close, and Joanna found a reason to come round every day, either to drop off food of some sort, or extra rolls of toilet paper, or to show Raven how to work the washing machine, after trying to do all their laundry herself. All told, it felt a bit like living in a vacation rental.
A cozy holiday retreat with her boyfriend.
And her little sister.
And her little brother.
And the world’smost bloody obnoxiouslittle brother.
“You’re cheating.”
“Me?” Tenny pressed a hand to his heart, expression one of comically overwrought disbelief. “Slander.”
