Page 152 of Duty and Desire

“And that call was?” Lawson asked.

“I told you that call, Mitch,” Hawk said, striding toward them in front of Hector. “Now, Mo doesn’t need an attorney, but I’m fuckin’ gonna get him one just to fuck your day up if this shit goes on longer.”

Hawk knew the game.

It just got under his skin when his men were forced to play it.

“Smithie, nor you, nor any member of your team, nor any employee of the club can detain a man, Hawk,” Lawson retorted.

“Yes we can as hired security for that club,” Hawk returned.

Lawson knew that to be true, so he let it go and switched subjects. “He reports his wallet was forcibly removed from his person.”

“I’m not surprised he’s offering false testimony, Mitch, considering what was found in his house,” Hawk clipped. “But at the time, when we shared our concerns, he shared he had nothing to hide, was happy for us to enter his house and do a search, something we did. He thought we were bluffing, didn’t understand the scope of our security remit with Smithie or thought this right here would get what was in his house made inadmissible after what he’ll claim is an illegal search. Now he’s falsifying his story, deciding this will be his defense when his shit got hot.”

Mo remained silent.

The shifting behind him ceased.

“But we got witnesses to the effect of our story,” Hawk carried on. “And he’s got a basement fitted with soundproofing and other things I don’t need to describe since you saw it. He got agitated during the time he chose not to leave Smithie’s office, probably cottoning onto the fact we weren’t bluffing. He was cocky at first, and if you read his letters, you’ll get why. He thought he was on his way, his confidence growing.”

They definitely knew that last.

“So wediddetain him,” Hawk went on. “Just not forcibly. But we were adamant about it once Jorge found what was in his house and I called you. I made that order. So that’s on me. But Mo wasn’t around for any of that. So how about Mo comes down to make a statement when his woman isn’t upstairs, workin’ off a week’s worth of tension caused by the likes of this man having her in his sights and we move on from here.”

Mo wondered who’d called Hawk in.

His guess was Lucas.

But it also could have been Lawson.

He’d never know because he’d never ask, and it didn’t matter anyway.

It was just a game that needed to be played to put a sick man down.

“By the time we hit that club, Hawk, all the patrons were gone so we couldn’t question them. And none of the employees are reporting the incident where your man Axl forcibly locked down the suspect and took him up to the office,” Lawson noted.

“That was because Axl and Jaylen asked him up to the office and he came of his own free will,” Hawk replied.

“And again, he says otherwise,” Lucas pointed out.

“And again, with what Jorge told me was in his house, I’m not surprised,” Hawk fired back. “Are you? You got him on intent. You got him on stalking. You got him on malice aforethought, times two.” He jerked his head toward Mo, indicating the death threat. “And the Feds got him on using the United States postal service to deliver a threat. Three counts. You call in the Feds?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said.

“Now you’re tellin’ me this guy who had that shit in his house is gonna roll into a court of law, whine about Smithie and my boys forcibly capturing and detaining him when the man doesn’t have a mark on him, have pictures shown of that basement, hisjournals passed around to a jury, those letters read, and he’s gonna get off?” Hawk asked.

Axl had a talent at that, a capture with no marks.

Downright skilled.

Mo did not smile.

But he wanted to.

“We’re tellin’ you, if we don’t hand everything to the DA with all of it tied up tight, he’s gonna find a crack to slip through so maybe you can back off and let us do our job,” Lawson replied.

“And I’ll repeat, I’m good to go down to the station, but I told you what I saw, where I saw it, what I did, what I reported to Hawk, which by the way, turned out to be correct, and that I wason Lottie,” Mo butted in.