Page 178

“Take five, guys,” I told my employees.

They nodded, obviously relieved to not have to go through every toolkit again.

I climbed the stairs to the office overlooking the work bay. Rome was leaning over the desk, clicking through the computer. He pointed at the screen. “Check this out. Outdoor cameras caught movement around three a.m. Looks like we have someone here who picked the lock on the back door and got in.”

“Shit,” I said. “Can you tell who it is?”

“Nope. Can you?” He paused the footage and zoomed in. The figure was dressed in all black, including a beanie, but looked slight in figure. It looked like a young woman.

My dragon huffed in anger. There was no way Blakely would be this stupid…

As the footage rolled on, I watched as the woman crept inside the garage and approached one of the work bays. She glanced around the empty space, and then darted over to the stairs to the office.

“No fucking way,” Rome said.

I glanced up to the corner of the office, where a tiny, nearly-invisible security camera was mounted on the wall.

Rome tabbed over on the screen, and the footage showed the woman standing exactly where we were now. She opened the top drawer to my desk, set a little plastic baggie inside, and then darted out of the office.

“Well. There you have it,” Rome said.

I opened the desk drawer, and there it was.

“Jesus fucking Christ. This is the first place Forrest would’ve looked, too. Someone set us the hell up.”

“You have an idea of who it was?”

“Maybe,” I said. Anger roiled within me. I didn’t have time to deal with this shit, but I would. I had a feeling all the bullshit going on was connected, and I’d have to figure out how.

I stomped down the stairs and waved the baggie over my head. “Got it, guys. Cancel the search.”

“What the hell? But we nearly turned this place upside down yesterday, including the office,” one of the guys said, shocked.

“Turns out we ran the search a little too early,” I said. “Should be fine to start work again. Don’t worry about being a little behind on orders.”

“We’ll catch up,” Rome promised. “Thanks for sorting this out, Ace.”

I flushed the drugs down the toilet. My clan ran clean businesses now, and I wasn’t going to let anyone fuck that up for me—for all of us.

I left the garage and pointed my motorcycle west.

Blakely lived in a small apartment on the far edge of Lakeview. The quiet brick complex was just off the main highway, with a big parking lot and a shitty pool that looked like it hadn’t been serviced in years. I cut my bike off and approached the door to her ground-floor apartment. She’d lived in this crappy place for as long as I’d known her. Her own apartment probably hadn’t mattered as much to her when she was spending most nights in the clubhouse.

“Blakely!” I pounded on the door. “Open up!”

The front door swung open, and Blakely answered, looking like she’d just rolled out of bed in a T-shirt and oversized shorts. Her red pixie cut stuck up in every direction. “Ace,” she said, her mouth slack with surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk.”

Her surprised expression morphed into something a little more sultry. “Oh, do we? Why don’t you come inside?”

Jesus. This girl couldn’t let anything go, could she? “Don’t be cute,” I snarled. “Who paid you?”

“Paid me? Paid me to what?”

“To break into Cole’s,” I snapped. “To plant the drugs there and tell Forrest we had them.”

“What? What the hell are you talking about?” She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. “I haven’t even been to that part of Lakeview in ages. Ever sincesomeonebanned me.”