“It’s too dangerous, Prez,” Noah argued. “Besides, there are too many fucking plot holes.”
“Such as?”
“Too many loose ends to keep her alive. He would’ve killed her immediately and ditched her body. Made sure it didn’t come back to bite him in the ass.” Noah’s tone was stern and unforgiving as he continued, “The cops are gonna have questions that she’s not gonna be able to answer. Like who fed her? Did he beat her? Did he rape her? Fuck. The questions will be endless.”
The room fell silent as everyone at the table considered what he’d said. I thought that would be the end of my crazy idea, but it seemed Noah’s brothers weren’t ready to give it up. After several moments, Hawk ran a hand over his face with a low, muffled grunt, then said, “We can make it look like she was drugged or something. It would help explain why she didn’t know anything.”
“You want to drug her? Are you fucking kidding me?” Noah snarled.
“I’m not talking about a full-on drug overload. Just enough for the doctors to find a trace amount in her blood stream,” he answered defensively. “You know Doc can come up with something.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I answered. “And as far as who was watching over me, why don’t we say he had one of those gang members do it? Maybe even the one you’ve got chained up around here somewhere? We could say it was him.”
Widow looked apprehensive as he looked over to Noah and said, “You’re not gonna like it, but if we do this, we’re gonna have to make her look a little worse for wear. Give her some dingy clothes and a couple bruises here and there.”
“What the fuck do you mean by bruises?” Noah growled. “No one’s putting their hands on her.”
“Easy there, killer. I’m not talking about a full-on throwdown, but she can’t come out of there looking like she’s been on a fucking vacation for the past few weeks.”
“What the fuck are you saying?” Shotgun slammed his fist down on the table in a rage. “That’s enough. We’re not doing this shit. No one is drugging her and putting fucking bruises on her.”
“Noah, it’s okay. I can do this. It’s just a few bruises.” I leaned over and whispered to him, “I could do it to myself, but—”
“Hold on, you two,” Viper scolded. “No one knows the Punishers roughed her up. We’re the only ones who know that, so we can get away without the fucking bruises.”
“He’s got a point there.” I smiled and said, “I guess I won’t have to get roughed up after all.”
“Maybe not, but there’s still a problem with this whole plan of yours,” Widow interjected. “How are we gonna get the cops over there, and who’s to say they won’t sweep it under the rug like they’ve done everything else where this Mathews guy is concerned?”
“I’ve still got everything I was able to pull off of Long’s computer. With that and Remington’s kidnapping, it’ll be enough to put him behind bars for a good long while,” Menace replied. “But Widow’s right. Been looking into Long’s partner. Way I see it, he could’ve gotten his hands on the information Long had on Mathews and that would’ve been the end of it. Clearly, he didn’t, and there’s probably a reason why. I don’t know who we go to, but if we don’t get all this in the right cop’s hands, we’re fucked, and all this shit will be for nothing.”
Viper leaned back in his chair as he announced, “Looks like it’s time to start calling in favors.”
“You think you’ve got someone who can help with this?” Noah asked sounding hopeful.
“Absolutely.”
“See. It’s all coming together.” I nudged Noah with my elbow. “My plan wasn’t so bad after all.”
“I’ll guess we’ll see soon enough.”
Shotgun
There was a lot I didn’t like about Remington’s plan. It was dangerous and borderline crazy. We were talking about breaking into a fucking cop’s house. And not only that, we were going to be drugging her, locking her inside, and crossing our fucking fingers the asshole didn’t show up while she was there. If that wasn’t enough, there were no guarantees that anyone would buy her story. More than anything else, I didn’t like that we didn’t have more time to plan. If this thing was going to work, we had to move fast. We needed to get Remington to Mathews’ place while he was busy investigating the explosion at the Tyson plant. Billy had done his job well. Not only had he removed the Punishers’ causalities from the scene, but he’d also made sure to leave no trace of evidence behind, making Mathews’ job even more difficult. Knowing he’d be there for most of the day, we set Remington’s plan into action.
While Menace got busy gathering everything he could find on the layout of Mathews’ place, Doc took Remington down to the infirmary and helped her get ready. I gotta admit, when she stepped out from behind that curtain, she definitely looked like she’d been held captive for the past couple of weeks. Her hair was a tangled, matted mess, and there were dirt smudges all over her clothes and face. An unsure expression crossed over her when she asked me, “Well, what do you think?”
“I think you did good.”
“Really?” She stepped closer and extended her hands, then said, “Doc helped me dirty up my fingernails and added oil to my hair to make it look like it hadn’t been washed in a while.”
“Good idea.” As I looked down at her, my stomach was in knots. Even though I knew my brothers would be there watching over her, I hated the idea of putting her at risk. I knew what it was like to lose someone I loved, and I didn’t have it in me to go through that again. “We can find another way around this, Remington.”
“I’m sure you can, but this will work. I feel it in my gut. You just have to trust me.”
“I do trust you.”
“Then, stop worrying so much, and let’s get this thing over with.” I slipped my arms around her waist and pulled her towards me. I was about to kiss her when she held up her hand to stop me. “You don’t want to do that. I’m all gross, Noah.”
“I don’t give a damn.” I crashed my mouth down on hers, kissing her long and hard. When I finally released her, I looked down at her and whispered, “You look beautiful to me. Always have. Always will.”
“You’re crazy, but thank you.” She lifted up on her tiptoes as she gave me a quick kiss, then said, “Okay, now what?”
“We’ll head over to Mathews’ place and assess the situation. There’s a large shed in the backyard and a basement. We won’t know which one will work best until we get there.”
Doc stepped over to her and said, “I’m going to give you half a valium now, and a whole one when we get there. The half won’t knock you out, but it’ll help steady your nerves and get it into your blood stream. The second will most likely make you groggy, but with all the adrenaline that’ll be pumping through you, it’s doubtful that you’ll be completely knocked out.”