Urlacher didn’t say anything.
Gant turned to Will. “And you tell your gunnery sergeant that I’ll be seeing him soon. Maybe not as soon as I’d hoped, but I’m a patient man.”
Will struggled with his temper. He tried to play it cool, but he was tired and stymied. More than that, he was protective of his team. They were family to him, and a man didn’t let his family get threatened without drawing a line in the sand. He’d tried to do that here today, but Urlacher had yanked the fangs from that.
Walk away, he told himself. Just let it go. But he didn’t like feeling powerless, and he didn’t like having his team exposed to predation.
“And since you’ve gotten so swollen up over this thing,” Gant said, “maybe I’ll pick off another one of your people while I’m-”
Nothing human could have held Will in check at that moment. He’d turned the other cheek and tried to work within the law. That hadn’t worked out. His anger exploded. He stepped forward and threw an eight-inch punch into the center of Gant’s stomach.
The biker’s breath shut down immediately. Will hit him again with a hook that caught him in the side of the jaw.
Gant’s legs turned to rubber, and he dropped to his knees. His shaggy hair fell over his shoulders.
Then Tarlton was there, wrapping his arms around Will and butting Will back with his chest.
“Easy, champ,” Tarlton said. “You’ve made your point.”
Will let himself be led away. He felt guilty at once, but there was a savage need to protect his people that still demanded to be fed.
“It’s all right,” he said calmly. “I’m good.”
Tarlton stepped away from him but remained between him and Gant.
“Urlacher,” Tarlton said without turning around or taking his eyes from Will, “pick up your trash and get out of here before I decide to run you in for littering.”
Gant hacked and spat and gagged as he tried to regain his breath.
“You can’t do this,” Urlacher said to Will. He caught one of Gant’s arms and helped the man to his feet. “I’ll arrest you myself for assault.”
“You’re out of the FBI’s jurisdiction,” Tarlton said. “And if you try to press any charges, I’ll bury you and your new pet ape on the court docket. You can expect a nice long stay in town if you want.” He turned to face Urlacher. “Do we understand each other?”
Urlacher bit back a reply, swallowed, then nodded.
“Get him out of here,” Tarlton ordered. “Before I decide to find out if Judge Watson is really interested in backing your play by sending somebody here.”
“Get these cuffs off me,” Victor Gant growled. His dark eyes lasered into Will’s.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Urlacher pulled on Victor’s arm.
Victor whipped his arm free of the FBI agent. He spat blood at Will’s feet.
“You got a guy on your team who likes blowing up kids that don’t know better,” Victor snarled, “and you’re mighty big on hitting guys who got their hands cuffed.”
Will felt bad about that. As much as Victor Gant had had it coming, Will still didn’t like taking advantage of the situation. At the time, though, he hadn’t even thought about it.
“You Navy boys never was all that tough back in the jungle,” Victor said. “You guys never stayed till the water got hot.”
“I’ll be here,” Will said.
“We’ll see, Navy man.” Victor showed him a mirthless, scarlet grin. Then he let himself be led away by Urlacher. His mocking laughter sounded even after the FBI agents put him in the car.
Will watched the FBI vehicles drive away.
“You know,” Tarlton said, “I think that went really well.”
Will watched the cars make the corner and disappear. “That’s sarcasm, right?”
“One of my best things. Totally underappreciated if you ask me, though.”
“I can see how that would happen.” Will let out a tense breath. “About hitting him-”
“If you hadn’t, I would have.”
“Not a good thing to do.”
“I forgive you. It’s not like Victor Gant asked anybody’s permission for killing those men.”
“We don’t know that he killed anybody,” Will said.
“We haven’t proven he’s killed anybody. I don’t have a single doubt about his guilt. And I intend on trying to pin him to one of those murders we suspect him of.”
“It would be interesting to see if we can put that together.”
“Kind of like a hobby,” Tarlton said.
“I like the occasional hobby,” Will said.
“The problem is, if you make Victor Gant a hobby, he’s going to come back on you.”
Will didn’t say anything. He’d gotten that feeling as well.
“He’ll probably try for that sergeant of yours first,” Tarlton said. “But you can bet he’s marked a spot on his dance card for you as well.”
“Yeah.” Will took another breath. “In the meantime, Urlacher will keep him locked down. That’s almost as good as putting him in jail.”
Tarlton nodded. “It would be interesting to know what Urlacher’s working on.”
“The heroin supplier.”
“You got all that NCIS equipment and those international contacts.”
“I do.”
“You might want to broaden your new hobby and take a look into that end of things.”
Will smiled. “I was thinking about that myself.”
“I’m thinking that Sheriff Greene and I can shake up the Purple Royals while Victor Gant is MIA. We can send you a few more heroin samples. Maybe get you some names you can run through those fancy computers you have.”
“You have computers.”
“I’m betting your computers are better than our computers,” Tarlton said. “I’m also betting if anyone can trace that heroin back overseas, your agency is going to have a better shot at it than the Charlotte police department.”
“I’ll let you know,” Will said.
31
›› Intensive Care Unit
›› Presbyterian Hospital
›› Charlotte, North Carolina
›› 1208 Hours
Shel held his cell phone to his ear and listened to the phone ring at the other end. He watched the news footage of the raid on the warehouse that Will and Remy had gone on. Seeing the news story made him feel guilty. He belonged out in the field, not in a hospital bed.
“Shel?” Estrella answered in a friendly and surprised voice.
Shel muted the television. All that was left was the hum of machinery and Don’s light snoring as he slept in the chair next to the bed.
“Hey, Estrella,” Shel replied. He continued the conversation in Spanish because he wanted privacy and he hadn’t seen a Hispanic nurse in the ICU yet. “Did you decide to take the morning off since Will’s out of town?”
“Ha,” Estrella responded. “I only took the morning off because I worked all night helping Will track information regarding Victor Gant. Now I find out that it only half worked.”
“Yeah, well, the Feds got involved.” Shel scratched his nose. There was still enough morphine in his meds to
