Page 30 of Devil's Hour
Royce pulled his card out of his wallet, then saw the note taped over the card reader. It read: Bankcard system is down. Must come inside to pay. Wondering if it was a sign of how his entire day was going to shape up, Royce filled his Camaro with gas, then went inside and stood in line with a dozen other frustrated people. After paying for gas, he headed back outside to his car. Royce was busy turning over the facts in the case and didn’t notice the tall, handsome man approaching him from behind.
“Nice shirt. You going to wear it to work?”
Royce whirled around and was greeted by Sawyer’s smiling face. He suspected his boyfriend had been too nervous about giving him the house key to notice what Royce was wearing. Then Sawyer broke eye contact with him to briefly look at the front passenger seat where Ryan Tedrick sat. Sawyer would’ve recognized him as the mayor’s assistant, but there was no way he’d guess the bomb they’d had dropped on them in the predawn hours.
Quirking a brow, Sawyer said, “This ought to be a good story.”
“Lifetime movie worthy. I’ll tell you all about it after I drop the kid off and change my shirt. It seems I can’t help outing myself.”
Sawyer smiled broadly, then looked at his watch. “I’ll meet you at your place.” There was so much heat in his expression it was impossible for Royce to mistake his intentions.
“Chief wants to see us in her office right away,” Blue said the minute Royce stepped inside the bullpen. He had done his best to wipe the sex-blissed expression off his face before entering the precinct but knew he failed when Blue gave him a once-over that ended with a knowing smirk.
Blue shook his head, but the grin never left his face until they were sitting across the desk from Rigby, who looked beyond stressed and tired.
She opened a desk drawer and took out the Tupperware dish she used to store her baked goods. “Every day that ends with Y calls for pastry but some more than others.” She removed the lid and held the container toward them. Royce was only slightly disappointed when he discovered there were no bear claws inside. He was never going to pass up Sherry Rigby’s baked goods though.
“Chelsea buns,” Chief said.
Royce thought they looked like cinnamon rolls with icing drizzled on top. They also reminded him of the stripes of cum he’d painted over Sawyer’s ass before they quickly cleaned up and came to work. There was nothing more invigorating than a hard fuck in the morning. It was just too lousy that reality insisted on ruining their post-coital glow. He took a bite of the pastry and bit off a moan.Still not better than sex with Sawyer.
It didn’t take them long to devour their Chelsea buns, then Rigby got straight to the point of the meeting. “I just got off the phone with the mayor who wishes to close the case and pretend the vandalism never happened.”
“Vandalism?” Royce asked. “What about the threat to expose her if she didn’t resign?”
“She’s choosing to call their bluff.”
Blue and Royce exchanged a glance.
“What’s our game plan, Chief?” Royce asked.
Chief Rigby sighed deeply. “We’re going to honor her wishes.” Royce would’ve been less stunned if she’d tasered him in the nuts. He’d always thought of the chief as a principled, ethical woman. A wry smile split her face. “While your team secretly investigates, of course. She’s out of her mind if she thinks I’m going to let a group of vigilantes destroy my city just to keep her affair with a man-child secret.” A hard shudder worked through the chief. “I try not to judge what adults do, but I feel like I need a shower after this morning.”
Blue covered his chuckle with a cough. “I feel ya, Chief.”
“Here’s how this is going to play out. You,” Rigby said, gesturing to Blue, “are going to continue working these arsons. Chief Winegard is currently investigating the breakdown of protocol in his firehouses and has personally assured me it will not happen again. He has vowed to turn over any evidence he uncovers that could point to one of his investigators being more than a lazy asshole. His word his good enough for me. Zeke’s number one priority is assisting us. Two sets of eyes are better than one. All evidence gets rushed to the lab. Let’s hope these guys used a unique accelerant or incendiary device to start the fires or left behind some other calling card that helps us catch them before they can do it again.” Rigby turned to Royce. “I have someone inside the GBI who can help us begin to piece together a profile on this group. They have tools to analyze words and phrasing to help us figure out what sort of zealot we’re dealing with here.” Royce must’ve made a face because Rigby chuckled. “Jonah St. John is a great guy who happens to be my nephew. He won’t try to take over your case, Locke. You and Key have an appointment to meet him at nine thirty.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Royce said.
“I want you to give him the flash drive so he can run the letters and voicemail messages through his supercomputer. He’ll also have access to search engines we don’t. Maybe this group has struck elsewhere. Maybe it’s just a root of a bigger crazy tree. He can also compile a list of paroled arsonists with the evidence Blue and Blevins may find, which could give us solid leads. Sometimes it’s easier to unravel a group because there’s almost always someone who can’t keep their mouth shut. That’s who we need to find, gentlemen. There’s too much at stake to bury our head in the sand and hope it will go away. The only reason I’m pretending to appease the mayor is because I want to keep this out of the press. The last thing we need is mass anarchy in our streets,” Rigby said. Royce’s heart sank.
“We also don’t want to risk disgruntled citizens encouraging The Purists either,” Blue said. “Their brand of justice will appeal to a lot of disenfranchised people.”
Chief nodded. “Agreed, Blue.”
“I think it’s too late for that,” Royce said humbly. “Felix Franklin already badgered Sawyer for information yesterday.” Royce told them about Fleabag following them from the precinct and talking to them afterward, leaving out the part where Felix threatened to expose their relationship. “I should’ve said something during my update yesterday afternoon, Chief. The omission wasn’t deliberate.”
“All he can do is speculate, bluster, and bully unless he finds an inside source. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen by keeping this task force as small as possible. I trust Chief Winegard’s discretion. If he believes Zeke Blevins is trustworthy, then so do I.” Royce wasn’t sure if Chief Rigby knew about Blue’s involvement with Zeke, but he didn’t feel like it impacted the integrity of their investigation.
“Chief, for the sake of full disclosure, I need to tell you that Zeke is my boyfriend,” Blue said.
“Yes, Blue, I know. I trust you to make the investigation your top priority right now.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
This was when Royce should’ve made his own confession, but he kept his mouth shut. His career wasn’t the only one at stake, and it wasn’t fair to blurt things out to the chief without giving Sawyer a heads-up first.
“As for the annoying reporter,” Rigby said, pulling Royce from his thoughts. “Should this group carry out their threats and expose the mayor’s private business, they’ll most likely go straight to the press. There’s no way to keep this secret forever, and the mayor should know better. Just keep an eye out for Felix dogging you. Don’t make his job easier for him by giving shit away.”