Chapter 27

Maddie drove Alex and Lyric home. Alex sat in the back seat with his foster sister, not saying anything. Thankfully, Dawn began a conversation about a bunch of nothing, which gave him a chance to get lost in his own thoughts.

He had zero faith that the FBI would successfully handle the problems at Melissa’s. Some muckety-muck bureaucrat would see an opportunity for political gain, stick their nose into it, and mess everything up.

While the discovery of the chained-up girls was disturbing, he still hadn’t confirmed the location of the missing medical marijuana shipment. That had to be his focus, but his ankle was a real issue. Before he could do anything else, he would have to take some painkillers, get it wrapped, and see if he could walk on it.

With that plan in place, he began to map out his next steps.

Stretch checked his email and saw an urgent message from Steve Calhoun, so he called the ex-sheriff.

“We have a problem,” Steve said without preamble.

“We?” Stretch asked.

“You know what I mean,” the flustered bad guy snapped back. “Carl and his crew are in custody, and I need a plan to secure the product we acquired.”

Stretch read between the lines. Steve didn’t trust his drug dealers to keep their mouths shut. This was why Stretch didn’t trust the man or his organization. They weren’t disciplined enough to avoid shooting themselves in the foot.

Stretch was more concerned that Carl had talked about his big score to other criminal elements as he tried to move that much pot. Steve had assured Stretch that Carl had connections to handle it, but it hadn’t gone as planned. Carl still had most of the drugs in a storage container in Chester.

The police would take a while to break Carl because they had to follow the rules. It was people on the street who would see an opportunity and pounce. The problem other drug dealers would find was this wasn’t simply a bag of cash or pills they could snatch and run away with. This was a semitruck-load of pot that would take a lot of effort to steal.

If they managed that and tried to sell it locally, word would get out quickly about who’d taken it. If it were him, Stretch would ship it back East and sell it in a large city. Such an approach would eliminate all but the rank amateurs or professionals.

Stretch asked Steve where the drugs were stored and where he planned to move them so Stretch could evaluate the best way to do it. Steve said the pot was currently in Chester, and he had several train cars next to the one he was using as his current base as a temporary landing place.

The only issue Stretch saw was that it would mean the drugs would end up near Conclave, and he wasn’t sure what Alex would do if he found out. Alex had warned Steve about stuff like that and had let the ex-sheriff know there would be consequences. If Stretch knew his son, Steve wouldn’t like what Alex would come up with.

“Your first issue is to scare off any of Carl’s crew that weren’t taken or other drug dealers in the area who he might have told,” Stretch said.

“They wouldn’t dare try to take it,” Steve said.

“There is one universal truth in life: if you have something worth anything, some people will try to take it. Even a low-level street urchin will rob you blind if they think they can get away with it. With Carl and his main crew in jail, who will stop them?”

“Okay, I get that. What should I do?” Steve asked.

“Get a couple of sheriff’s cars and park one in the front and one out back. Better yet, have the deputies visible, like they’re investigating something. That’ll scare off most of your problems.”

“You say ‘most’?” Steve asked.

“If the cops don’t scare them, you have a real issue, and things could get ugly quickly.”

Stretch heard Steve swear under his breath before hanging up on him.

Stretch had already begun planning for when this went south and Steve and his crew became short on cash. Stretch would be a logical target since Steve had just handed him money for planning the heist. Consequently, Stretch started to implement plans to protect himself and his son. He wouldn’t put it past Steve to try to use Alex to get what he wanted when he ran out of options.

Maddie and Dawn wrapped Alex’s ankle.

“If it swells any more, you have to take the bandage off, or it’ll mess up your circulation,” Maddie warned.

“I just need it to work long enough for me to check out the auto repair place in Chester.”

“Why does that have to be you? We could handle it for you,” Dawn said.

“I know you could, but my dad taught me how to do this. It also helps me when I plan a job,” Alex said.

“We could video it,” Lyric said.

Alex started feeling ganged up on, so he just stared at them.

“He’s getting cranky,” Lyric said, turning to Alex. “Do you want to take a nap?”

’Girls!’

By the time they got to Chester, Alex’s head was throbbing. Maddie insisted on blaring a country radio station and thought she should sing along. The songs all seemed to be about drinking whiskey, religion, or riding around in a truck. Somehow, getting drunk, driving, and then praying about what happened when you drove drunk didn’t sound like a good idea. But then again, there wasn’t all that much to do around Conclave. That might be a good Saturday night.

When they arrived at the address of the auto repair shop, they saw two police cars parked outside.

“Should I just keep going?” Maddie asked with a nervous quiver in her voice.

“Isn’t that Rusty Scruggs?” Alex asked Lyric.

She leaned into the window to get a better look.

“Why would he be here? Chester’s in a different county,” Lyric said.

She was right. Rusty shouldn’t have been there; his presence confirmed the deputy was bent. That would be the only explanation that made sense.

“My thought exactly. Pull in,” Alex said.

“You sure?” Maddie asked.

“It’ll be fine,” Alex said.

Maddie pulled into the parking spot farthest from the store. Alex had to grab Snickers’ collar so she wouldn’t get out with him—he didn’t need her biting a sheriff’s deputy. Rusty saw Alex coming and gave him a pained look.