Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 132031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“It’s never gonna happen between them, but Joe won’t give it up,” Emma explained and reached a hand over the table in greeting. “I’m Emma and I need to know what’s going on here. Is this some new layer to add to the team because our plates are already pretty full?”
Her curious gaze shifted between him and Shanna.
Shanna’s brows remained furrowed as she glanced at Malik as if he might have the answers.
“Had any of you read the reports, you’d know Cash lived around here as a young boy. Isn’t that correct?”
Cash nodded, intertwining his fingers, locking them in place in his lap. “Lived here might be stretching it. I went to Dallas ISD for three months, where your brother went to school.”
Shanna looked blankly at him, questioning such a simple explanation. “I’m five years younger than he is. You wouldn’t have known me through school…”
The sudden rush of emotion caught Cash off guard. He sat back in the seat, staring into the eyes that looked very much like the Dev he remembered from back then.
He’d had no idea these long buried memories would resurface like they had. It wasn’t a time in his life that brought easy memories for him. Images played like a slideshow through his head where he’d been a victim of some of the most hateful bullying he’d ever witnessed since.
His parents had always been wholesome people. Naïve to the troubles of the world. Putting their innocent child inside such a tough as nails elementary school had doomed him.
That was the last public school he’d ever attended.
“I—” He started and stopped, glancing at Malik. “It’s all in the report, right?”
Malik nodded, perhaps with the briefest hint of compassion in his eyes. “Catch up on your own time. Ryan comes to us from the federal levels of the DEA. He brings his expertise to help get us more fully on the inside of the Disciples. I was just getting to that point when you arrived.”
“Why?” Joe blurted before Malik could move on.
Any attention Cash had garnered was lost to the questions so clearly forming in his counterparts’ faces. Malik lifted a hand to silence those incoming questions.
“The stakes have risen. Higher-ups see us as dragging our feet. They want answers. As a whole unit, not only our team, the directive is to infiltrate every part of the club to take greater control of events as if we haven’t been trying to do that very thing. Shanna, they want you more on the inside.”
She glanced up from where she had been reading in the file, most likely about him. “What exactly are you saying?”
“I think it’s clear. They want you to put your nursing degree cover on hold and work within the club.”
Shanna’s face paled. “They’ll never believe I want anything to do with them.” She shook her head at the new directive.
“Your job is to make them believe,” Malik instructed. Any compassion to what that might mean was lost in his steely command.
Emma sat back in her seat, her gaze on Shanna. “This will put her at great risk with no quick answers. We know what happens to the women who join the club. They have one job and that’s to be at the disposal of those nasty men. They’ll always think of her in that way even if they can’t act on it because Fox deemed her hands-off. We’re better off moving forward like planned. Our pace is good. The intel we’ve gathered so far is phenomenal.”
“I don’t question my directives. Neither should you. We do what we’re told,” Malik said. “And I honestly agree with this new direction. They’ve had us sitting out here with our thumbs up our asses, waiting for intel to cross our paths. It’s time to move in closer. Be prepared to act when they call on us. Hopefully it’s soon because I refuse to live through another one of these never-ending hot summers.”
The shifting pieces kept moving as Cash tried to get a read on each agents’ internal motivation.
“If we’re ready to continue, Cash Ryan is a healthcare administration consultant from California. He’s been hired in a yearlong assignment by Methodist Hospital. We’re assigning Cash to Devilman’s detail. Shanna, we want you to focus on the women in the club, specifically the ones they call club whores. They have a story to tell, at least one is always present when the club president is around. She has to know something. Cash will be moving into Devilman’s new property in South Dallas. Joe will be hidden inside the unit with Cash, acting as your official handler, as I said. He’ll monitor everything. Anything you need, he’ll work out the details and get it to you. Also he’ll relay real time information back and forth from the local office to you, Cash.”
Cash nodded. Having Joe on the inside with him was standard practice. He felt bad for Joe. He’d barely see the light of day for the length of the time Cash lived in the apartment, but Joe had clearly signed on for the job. He had to know what he was getting into.