Page 93 of Love at First Rep

Cheryl was falling for his idiot routine. That would keep her guard down, at least.

“No, no, it’s definitely pronounced dock-ile. Anyway, so they ask this guy, ‘Hey, where’d you get these drugs, man?’ and he says he doesn’t know anything about where or who they came from. Where do you think they came from?”

“I have no idea, sir.”

“That sucks. I mean that really sucks. I thought we were friends, Cheryl.”

Cheryl’s eyes darted back and forth. “Uh, friends?”

“Yeah, friends. Friends don’t do stuff like lie to each other.”

“What? Uh, what makes you think I’m lying?”

McHugh pulled out his phone and started tapping on it.

Buzzing broke the quiet in his office.

“Looks like you’ve got a phone call.” When Cheryl didn’t move to answer it, McHugh continued, amusement in his voice. “You’re not going to answer? Oh man, now not only did you lie, but you’re being rude to whoever is on the other line. Diabolical, Cheryl. Absolutely diabolical. Go ahead and answer it.”

Cheryl shook as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the buzzing device. While staring at McHugh in confusion, she raised the phone to her ear.

“H-hello?”

McHugh put his phone to his own ear.

“Cheryl! So glad I caught you. Mick said he did all his business with one phone number, but when I called it, you answered. That’s so weird. Cheryl, why would Mick be texting you about drugs?”

Cheryl blinked rapidly then darted her eyes around the office.

“Th-there must be some kind of mistake. Mick is lying.”

McHugh hung up the call, and Cheryl put her phone on the desk between them. McHugh lay his phone on top of hers, causing her to glance quizzically at him.

Carson’s voice came over the comms. “Cloning her phone with your burner phone now, M.”

“That’s good, that’s so good,” McHugh boasted.

Cheryl’s head jerked back. “It’s… good Mick is lying?”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Cheryl. Don’t worry. We’ll get this all sorted out. By the way, I don’t think I ever asked you. What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?”

Cheryl opened her mouth to speak but tilted her head in confusion as she appraised the captain. It didn’t take long for McHugh’s cloning device to share the information with the team.

“Boom goes the dynamite!” Carson shouted, making both Garrett and McHugh grimace. “We nailed her like a French manicure.”

Garrett wasn’t sure if that metaphor worked, but the whole team went with it now they were so close to the truth. Carson displayed some of the text conversations on the screen next to the feed from McHugh’s office, the info also showing on McHugh’s computer.

There were text conversations with someone named George that made it clear Cheryl was not being leveraged. It seemed George was some kind of enforcer for her, with text messages telling him where to find Mick’s family and threatening messages to Mick from Cheryl. It was clear they also had some kind of villain-with-benefits situation based on some racy texts along with her demands. Demands that included what groceries to bring home. Based on their exchange, they must have lived together.

Carson cackled wildly when he displayed a text chain discussing shipments and where Cheryl needed to disperse them. With someone named Aunt Vika.

It was so close to the alias Rafe discovered in that Russian’s house, Dr. Vika, that it had to be connected. Perhaps it was even the same person.

While McHugh stalled with Cheryl, Garrett dug through the files Carson shared to check the GPS history of her phone to find it disabled. Good thing they had a Plan B.

“We need to send the dummy text,” Garrett said over the comms.

“On it, G-string,” Carson said.