Page 87

“It was a team effort,” I give him some of the credit.

“Besides Agents Collins and Ross, who else are we reading in on this?” I direct my question to the Captain.

“Oliver.”

“No shit, you think he’s ready?” I sit back in surprise. I halfway expected the Captain to request another detective, someone with much more experience.

“Yeah, I do. He’s young, but he’s hungry. He’s proven himself as valuable. This will be a good test of his ability to think on his feet. He obviously can’t go undercover, but he can be your eyes and ears.”

I nod my agreement. “Let’s bring him in now. I got shit to do tonight.”

Captain twists in his chair and opens the conference room door, yelling for Oliver.

“Lazy,” I utter until his eyes aim fire at me. I smile for the first time since leaving Emi this morning.

Oliver comes in and looks around at us curiously. Kelly, Ross, Collins, and I all sit in silence as Captain explains our case and asks if he’s interested in joining the team.

I’ll give it to him; he does a good job of controlling himself, but his excitement is evident on his face. Kelly shoots me a sideways look, knowing we’ve just picked up the newest member of our task force.

I slide a thick file down the table for Oliver to review.

“Agent Kelly and I got together this morning and outlined a new plan for the Attorney General and Governor. Our goal is national security and to stop these drugs, but there’s a bigger picture. We need to cut off the operation at the roots, not strictly stop the transfer. As a result, we’re going into this with long-term intentions. Find out what we can, get a lock on the plans, learn the players, and then spread the intel among the agencies involved. The car theft was petty and simple, a way to see if we were competent. Now that we’ve put a stop to that way of transport for the time being, we have to take advantage of the disruption. That’s where you come in. This weekend, Kelly and I are going into a nightclub under the ruse of possible investors. Ross, Collins, and you will be running information as we pass it through.”

“Got it.” He thumbs through the folder.

“I need to know you can separate yourself, Oliver. We’re looking at a long-term win here. No matter what, even if we find out about a local delivery, our goal is to locate and follow the drugs.”

This gets his attention. “We’re going to let drugs roam through our city?” Disgust rolls off his tongue. “You’re shitting me.”

Kelly shuffles beside me uncomfortably.

“This is where you make a decision, no hard feelings and no judgment. You’re essentially wearing a new badge. Our end game is total wipe out. We’re going to have to appear weak and lazy. Let a few things go, but underground, we’ll be following the trail. If these drugs are truly traveling up and down the coast, we’ll track them. Once they cross state lines, Kelly has an action plan with SLED. But if we bust the first lead we have, we might as well kiss our chances of slaughtering this thing goodbye. It’s going to take patience and a lot of restraint.”

He seems to think about what I’ve said, the realization of the big picture dawning on him. Slowly, he nods. “I’m in.”

“Have a seat. We’ll bring you up to speed and go over our angle for Saturday night.”

He sits down, and for the rest of the day, we go over every detail from the last weeks, explaining how SLED became involved, and leading up to where we are now. By the time I leave the conference room, my body is buzzing with energy. I chose to come to Charleston because of the easy-going lifestyle and the low crime rate, but it’s proving to be so much more. And damn if the feeling doesn’t excite me.

My phone dings with an incoming text.

Emi- Going to spin my thighs and butt off… wish me luck. If I get hurt, blame it on Maren. She lied. It’s not a spin class. It’s a SoulCycle class.

“What the fuck is SoulCycle?” I ask out loud to no one in particular.

“It’s an intense cycling class, a new craze. People are raving about it.” Nina pops up from her desk, grinning at me proudly. “And we don’t think Emi can injure herself. Maren checked it out.”

“Crazy fucking women,” I mutter under my breath and text her back.

Me- I love your thighs and ass the way they are. You try to spin them off, we have problems.

Her reply comes almost immediately.

Emi- Don’t worry, my ass isn’t going anywhere.

Me- You want to ride something, you ride me.

Emi- Think we can make that a formal exercise? Gotta go! (hope you are remembering what I am)