Page 107 of Fly's Path

“Why are you afraid of women messing with your boys’ club?” Maddox teases. “We’ve embraced those of the female persuasion.”

“Because I know how you work. You wouldn’t let us keep one of your kids. But you would send them over to spy on us and learn from us. And you didn’t trust a boy not to defect when it came to custom motorcycles and the free road, so you sent a girl who wouldn’t be interested in anything our club had to offer but an education.”

Maddox’s cheshire grin says it all.

“You know what I think.” I wink at Rogue. “I think we should build her a custom bike. She likes rocker teddy bears. She’s already got one foot in the club. I’m sure with the right incentive, we can turn her.”

“Not funny.” Maddox glares.

Max swivels around in his chair. “If you guys are done fighting, Lola and her friends are out, so Everett can call the police.”

This better work, or Vandal might not survive.

Taking Them Home

Fly

Voice changers have been around forever, and I’ve used them a few times when needed, but listening to Everett turn into a nosy eighty-year-old woman ratting on a wild party is as hysterical as it’s freaky.

He even had her send a ‘picture’ to prove what she was seeing to the cops.

“What made you decide on using the handler’s phone to take the picture?” This kid does nothing random. I’m good at what I do, but his mind is on a whole new level.

“There can’t be any blowback on innocent people. Even though nothing is real about this woman, including her name, they still might go looking for an old woman. If anyone enhancesthe image, it will show it was taken by our friend. The phone call also shows his number. And if they’re sophisticated enough to reverse engineer the voice, it will come up being his.”

All that was done in a half an hour…

“Jackpot. Goon on the left just got a message. Tracking it back. Oh, they’re smart. It didn’t come directly from a phone in the precinct. He’s making us work for it…even though he has no clue we’re here. I love a challenge.” Everett’s narrating as he’s cyber hunting, which hopefully will give us an edge if we need to act fast. “Got the phone it was sent from. Oh, he didn’t hide his number. It was Ewan Masters that sent the message from his personal phone.”

“Check again,” Maddox snaps. “You're wrong.”

Everett doesn’t even look up. “I’m not wrong.”

Maddox moves until he’s standing over Everett and says, “Check again.”

Max hops up and steps between the two. “Back up.”

“He’s wrong. I know Masters. He wouldn’t do this.”

Max shoves him back. “Do you think I want it to be him? That’s my brother-in-law we’re talking about. Now step back.”

“Ewan Masters has saved so many children. He helped them find The Street when nothing else was working for them. He wouldn’t do this to a kid.”

“And what difference does it make if he’s selling them at the same time?” Max shoves Maddox back. “Cool down, or I’ll take you down.”

“You can try.”

“The number checks out. It’s Ewan Masters’, but I’m not sure it was him. Look.” Everett's hands move faster than would be possible for most people. Half of that has got to be muscle memory. He’d do well as a pickpocket. “But there’s a tracker on every badge. Ewan Masters walked out of the precinct ten minutes ago without his phone. Now, could we please focus.Carves is approaching Vandal. I’m putting them on speakers now.”

Music blares through the speakers, loud enough to make this place feel like a club.

“Filtering that out now.”

The room goes quiet.

“Shut it down. Shut it down now. The cops are coming.” Carves practically jumps out of his skin. “Shut it all down. I’m out of here.” He runs for the door while the two babysitters hustle the kids out a little slower.

Some of them appear to be so high or drunk it’s hard for them to stand.