Page 55 of Kevin's Destiny

“Of course, they are. Give me an hour, possibly an hour and a half. I’ll have to make some calls to get the guys gathered. Are you at New Double?”

“Yes, we’re in the new security office at the end of the driveway before you get to the main house.”

“That must be new.”

“Cole told me Clark put it in for us to run security.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon.” They rang off, and Kevin went back out. The others looked at him, and he nodded.

“Jake’s gathering his guys and should be here within an hour and a half.” Before anyone could say anything Kevin’s phone dinged with a text message, he opened it, grinned and looked at the others, who were looking at him.

“Cogburn wants to know if you guys want some pizza?” Everyone agreed, and he sent the text back with the number of people that were already there, and reminded him again about the FBI coming, but unsure of how many people would be arriving. He only received a thumbs up emoji back. Kevin pocketed his phone and went over to see what everyone was discussing. He had yet to tell them about the information he had uncovered about Shedrick, and Strokes. He figured he would wait, like Jake said, for everyone to get there.

CHAPTER 20

Hours later,Kevin stood in front of everyone present and held up his hand to get their attention. “Not everyone here knows the entire story of what happened to me up in Seattle. If you’ll bear with me for the next few minutes, I’ll bring everyone up to speed, then we can proceed as to why everyone is here, and what we’re going to do about it.” He received nods from everyone, and as they settled in the chairs, or leaned against the wall, Kevin, with help from Ryan, Denver, Manny, and Perry, laid out everything that happened in Seattle. It took almost an hour for the entire sordid tale to be revealed.

“Fuck me,” SSA Harmon said when he was done. “Pardon my language. I said it because I’ve been the Director of the gangs division at the Denver FBI office for the last seven years. We’ve heard rumors of a bingo card, but nothing ever solidified until your wife took out Strokes in prison.”

“Let’s get something straight right here,” Kevin said with a clenched jaw. “Karen Carter is my ex. From here on out, she will be referred to as Karen, or the ex, is that clear?”

“Yes, Sir.” Even though Harmon had seniority over everyone there, he gave the title to Kevin out of respect. He also knew if he pissed the man off, then he wouldn’t be read into thismission with the former military people milling around. On the ride down here, he had told his team to look up Clark Riceman, a former Navy SEAL, and by the time they arrived, Harmon was impressed by what he had been told. Though all of their files had been heavily redacted, what he could read was extremely impressive.

“Okay,” Kevin said with a nod in Harmon’s direction. “Now for the reason you are all here. The people that work for Erin and Clark know that New Double is a ranch full of racehorses—very, very expensive racehorses. Naomi and Cole have been having them trained, and they are being trained as we speak. Naomi, Cole, do you want to take it from here?”

Naomi stood, and turned to the crowd. “Kevin’s correct. I have almost thirty horses that are worth a lot of money, both individually and as a whole. My entire life, I was into the rodeo, but my family had the racehorses. Cole has worked for my family’s ranch over in Wyoming for forty years. Because of things that happened with my family, Erin Riceman gave me the opportunity to move my entire operation here. We’ve dubbed it New Double.”

“What was your ranch in Wyoming called?” SSA Harmon asked.

“The Double A, after my grandfather and grandmother, our last name starts with an A. Alcott. Since coming here, setting everything up, and hiring a trainer and jockey for the horses, we, Cole and I, have discussed which ones we want to keep, and which ones we want to sell. However, we have a problem that we’re working on fixing. This is why we are in this predicament now, because of this problem.”

“What’s that?” Harmon asked as he looked up from the notes he had been taking.

“In the horse world,” Cole said as he stood and went to stand beside Naomi. “No owner, trainer, or jockey worth their saltwould purchase a horse sight unseen. They would want to come and physically see it, have their trainer look the horse over, and have their jockey ride the horse. Without that, then you would be a piss poor owner.” He shrugged. “That’s just how things are done in the horse world. Even if the potential owner doesn’t bring a jockey to ride the horse, they’d bring a trainer, and ask the seller to have their jockey ride the horse so they can see how it runs. That’s the smart thing to do.”

“Another thing you have to know,” Shay said as he joined them. At Harmon’s scowl, he grinned. “Former Commander of the National Guard, twenty-five years’ experience.”

Harmon looked at everyone and shook his head. “Is there anyone in this room that isn’t former military?”

“Me,” Erin said with a grin.

“And me,” Naomi said.

“Me,” Cole said with a raise of his hand.

“Me,” Kevin said with a grin. “But I do have thirty years with Seattle PD.”

“The rest of us are all former military,” Duane said. “I’m also former FBI. I’m out of the Los Angeles office.”

Harmon shook his head as he looked over at Yvonne. “Damn, Wilson, when you said you surrounded yourself with people that would have your back, you’re not kidding. So, why are we here?”

“Again,” Naomi said firmly as she stared Harmon down. “Because we knew we wanted to sell some horses, but they didn’t have any stats, we couldn’t advertise. We’ve since gotten stats, and Cole and I put out the word that we had horses for sale.” She walked over to Kevin’s laptop and everyone looked at the wall as she brought up the website for New Double. “If you’re in the horse world and see this, then you’ll look for this button.” She went over and pointed to an area, and Kevin used the mouse to click on it.

Everyone went forward and read the blank application, and Kevin used Yvonne’s computer to bring up the one that Shedrick had filled out.

“This is why we’re here. Why Yvonne and I work here is to run background checks on people who will be coming to this ranch to view the horses, and possibly purchase them. Because Erin runs a tight ship, and Naomi and Cole do too, we do everything to get as deep as possible in the checks on these people.” Kevin walked forward and pointed to one line on the application.

“What’s that?” Jake asked, taking his own notes.