How many would die if she didn’t take risks? Another risk was coming her way as now came the most delicate phase of their plan. With several witnesses, she’d need all her skills to persuade those young criminals to follow her plan as well as all her talents as a lawyer to weave the perfect trap, so this madness ended once and for all.
Chapter Nineteen
“I want a fucking update right now,” Shane bellowed as he paced the conference room.
The team had assembled for a de-brief and update. Malco watched Shane pace with sympathy and guilt hounding him. This had been partly his idea, and if something had happened to Mercy because of him, he’d never have forgiven himself.
With a case like this moving so fast, it was imperative everyone stayed on the same page. James was leaning against the wall, one foot raised and resting against the stone, arms crossed over his chest. The normally playful grin he wore was gone, replaced by barely concealed fury as his eyes remained on Mercy.
“I had no choice, boss. If I’d moved, it would’ve exposed us, and we would’ve failed.”
“Fuck the mission,” James spat as he came off the wall, moving toward Mercy, who glared at him. Mercy, for her part, stood taller as she faced the angry man. It was like watching two bulls go head to head. Except for the first time, Malco noticed a distinct air of sexual tension around the two operatives.
“Is that what you would’ve done, James? Would you have risked mission failure or done what I did?”
Malco saw the man clench his jaw, his hands on his hips as he faced down the much smaller woman.
He sighed. “No, I wouldn’t have done it differently.”
Malco could feel the ‘but’ on his friend’s lips, but James wisely didn’t voice his thoughts.
“Exactly.” Mercy stepped forward and poked him in the chest. “So. Get. Off. My. Back.” She enunciated each word with a poke to his chest, which had James’ lips turning up in a smile.
“Whatever you say, Merc.”
“Can we please stop with the fucking drama and you tell me what exactly happened. I know what I saw on the camera, but I need to hear it from you.” Shane leaned his hands on the back of a chair and eyed Mercy and Knight.
Knight and Mercy gave their account of what happened, which was pretty much what Malco had heard over the comms.
“Fine.” Shane nodded and turned his eyes to Malco. “Are the HVTs secure?” Malco was familiar with SEAL speak, so he knew HVT was High-Value Target.
“They are. We’re keeping them separate for now until we can interview them in-depth and find out exactly what they know. Frida is with Ward and Emme in the observation room.”
“Including JaKheel?”
“No, Mason and Alex took him to a separate site. I didn’t want to risk having them all together.”
“We have the compound locked down so nobody can enter or exit the premises without us knowing.” Shane took the safety of his team very seriously.
“Does the girlfriend know?”
Malco shook his head. “Not yet. We plan on telling her when we know he’ll cooperate. I’m conscious of not getting her hopes up given what she’s already been through.”
“What about Tycen’s mother?” Mercy asked.
Malco nodded his chin. “Yes, she knows he’s safe, but Frida and I talked to her, and she knows she can’t tell anyone yet. The minute the Blood Razors know their men are gone, the shit is going to hit the fan.”
“We have back-up from internal affairs and the FBI now. With the corruption we’ve already uncovered, it’s enough for a special FBI task force to look into this.”
“Can they be trusted?” Malco wasn’t entirely happy Shane had taken this outside the team. He recognized they need support on the streets, and with no way to know how far the corruption went, the FBI was the only way to go.
“With what we have and Chief Randall being the person who instigated this in his own department, then yes, I believe we can. A task force has been set up to respond to major incidents involving gang violence.”
“Are we still the lead on this?” Malco asked, knowing they could easily become involved in a battle for leadership.
“For now. So, let’s get this done before they decide to take it away.”
Malco nodded and moved to the door. He slung his arm around Mercy as he did and kissed her head in a brotherly way.
“No more giving me a heart attack, Merc. I think I lost ten years of my life back there.” She wrapped her arm around his waist before elbowing him in the guts.
“Ouch. What was that for?”
“Being sexist. When Mason got hurt, you never acted like this.”
Malco frowned and looked at his friend, the girl he thought of as a little sister, and considered her words. He’d never considered himself to be sexist in any way. When Mason had been hurt, he’d spent his fair share of time at the hospital waiting for news, worried sick the man wouldn’t make it, and that had been near the beginning of the Alliance Agency. Now they were a few years in, and these people were no longer colleagues, they were family.
“It’s not sexist, Mercy. Not at all. I’d feel the same if it were anyone else because Alliance isn’t just some place where I work. It is pivotal to my health. The bonds we share, the friendships, mean everything to me. So, if you got hurt, it would devastate me, just as it would if it were Alex, Caitlin, or Nick.” He watched her features soften as she heard what he was saying.
“That said, what I feel isn’t the same as what James felt. What he was feeling went so deep that he’s struggling to know what to do with it. So, ease up on us a little, we know how capable you are, more so than a lot
