have a CI in Valenzuela’s business?” Tack asked. “He’s not on that case. Slim and Mitch are.”
Turnbull was now in Rebel’s face, finger lifted and jabbing.
Rebel hadn’t moved a muscle, but she no longer looked one step up from bored.
She looked like that red hair was not just a product of genetics, and she was about to let loose what it said about her personality.
“It’s my understanding, this coming from Slim and Mitch, that Hank didn’t have a choice. Either he sent her in, and she reported to the police what she dug up, or she went in on her own and took down Valenzuela by herself,” Hawk answered.
“Jesus, fuck,” Rush growled, and watched as all Rebel had to do was uncross her arms and lean into Turnbull, her gorgeous face hard with anger, and Turnbull paled and retreated a step.
For what it was worth, at least Turnbull thought she was a badass.
The problem with that was, Benito Valenzuela was a psychopath who had a pastime he exercised to take him away from dealing drugs, producing porn and pimping whores, and that pastime included exploring the various extremes of his pathological misogyny.
He’d not think Rebel Stapleton was a badass even if she actually was a badass.
And if he found out she was playing him, and informing on him to the cops, he’d slit her throat.
But only after he and his boys gang raped her to the point she begged him to bleed her dry.
Fuck.
“Hank, Eddie and Jimmy decided that if she was gonna go in, at least she should have the cops at her back however they could be that way,” Hawk finished.
“What’s her beef with Valenzuela?” Tack asked.
“I’m not sure her beef is with Valenzuela,” Hawk told him.
Rush listened closely and watched closer as Rebel Stapleton declared she was done with her conversation with Harrietta Turnbull.
She did this by simply turning on her boot and walking away.
And wasn’t that just fantastic?
She also had a spectacular ass.
Not to mention a way with dressing like she was a 70’s rock groupie who would catch the eye and become the muse of Jim Morrison himself, wearing low slung jeans, a thick belt, a flowy flowered top and cowboy boots, and she rocked it all.
Rush lowered the binoculars and looked to Hawk. “Who’s her beef with?”
Hawk shrugged but his gaze was sharp on Rush’s dad. “My guess? Arthur Lannigan.”
Rush went solid and felt his father go the same at his side.
Christ.
And this just got worse.
Way fucking worse.
“Chew?” Tack asked.
“Chew,” Hawk confirmed. “For Stapleton, Valenzuela will just be icing. From what we got on her, she’s not a big fan of Valenzuela. Even so, she’s all about taking down Lannigan.”
Rush turned his body fully to Hawk. “Does she know women are droppin’ like flies around Valenzuela and Chew?”
“She knows at least one woman has lost her life to this mess,” Hawk said, and the way he said it made Rush’s neck get tight.
“She know Natalie?” Tack guessed.
Hawk shook his head.
“Camilla Turnbull?” Rush asked.
Hawk shook his head.
His dad lost patience and bit out, “Spill, Hawk, Jesus.”
“I got a file,” Hawk told him. “I’m givin’ it to you. You read it. Then you get that redhead’s ass out of her porn set director’s chair and back in her bohemian wasteland pad in north Denver. Hank’s troubled. Eddie’s pissed she tied their hands. Jimmy’s considering retirement. They all want her out. She won’t budge. I figure Chaos will have the touch.”
Yeah.
Chaos was gonna have the touch.
Hawk kept talking.
“I don’t have to tell you that ugly has been gettin’ uglier and uglier. What we haven’t considered is that all this bullshit has been touching the lives and breaking the hearts of people not directly associated with Chaos. And Rebel Stapleton is one of those people. She’s just made of stuff that isn’t gonna let her take it lying down. Mo, get the file,” Hawk ordered his man.
Mo moved.
Rush looked back to the parking lot at the spot he’d last seen Rebel.
“I know you got a lot on your plate. I’d intervene, but you both know why I can’t,” Hawk continued.
Yeah, they knew.
Rush looked back to Hawk when he kept speaking.
“But someone has to get her out. Valenzuela or Lannigan catch on she isn’t who she says she is, she won’t be delivered to Chaos and laid out on your picnic table. She’ll disappear. And she’s not tight with her family in Indiana, but she’s got a brother in Phoenix who will go apeshit something happens to his sis.