Page 28 of Live for Me

While he was gone, I dug out the makeup wipes from my backpack and pulled down the visor to try to fix my face with the use of that little mirror. Then I went right back to my laptop.

Indy popped up in our chatroom just a few seconds later.

Indy

You good?

No.

But this wasn’t the time for that discussion.

Me

Can you sort through the list of teams and start looking for any that might be involved in the trafficking aspect? Teams who exclusively pick up people, teams who keep to only specific areas, teams who revisit the same drop points.

Me

I don’t even know where to start for the finances. That would be huge sums of money. There’s no way it’s just a U.S. bank. But shutting down the money would halt everything else almost instantly.

Me

Look for connections to local politicians if you narrow in on any specific location. Big money movers too. The high class crowd.

Indy

Memphis.

Indy

Stop and breathe.

Indy

We can shift gears, but we need to plan it out better than this. Use the same caution we were using for the drugs/arms side of it. Probably even more. This is dealing with innocent lives. Not strung-out gangbangers.

Indy

Put the computer away for a minute. Sit there and think about it. Logically. Not emotionally.

I slammed my laptop shut.

Then my phone buzzed a second later with a text message.

Indy

Just breathe.

I laid my head against the window of the truck and closed my eyes.

Indy wasn’t wrong, but approaching any of this withoutfeelingwouldn’t be possible. If we were truly shifting gears, I really would need Utah to show me what to do with all this anger. If I could bottle it just to successfully redirect it and turn it into an outcome, we’d be golden. But emotions were so very messy.

I didn’t bother to move while Utah climbed back in on his side once he returned.

“He, uh —” he said and stopped to chuckle. “He saidthank you. The guy we picked up and tortured. The guy I planned to kill…saidthank you.”

I felt his very warm hand on my thigh the next second, and he left it there until I managed to look back at him.

“I don’t know if I can tell Jersey about this,” I said.

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