Page 20 of Beyond the Badge: Nox

Aaliyah had given him her card, but he had shoved it deep into his front pocket, pretending he didn’t want it. Even though it had burned a hole through his jeans that night, he hadn’t looked at it. In fact, the pair he’d been wearing still hung over the back of his couch.

Tempting him.

He was afraid if he saw her phone number, he might text her.

To meet up.

To have conversation.

And get busted again for staring at her tits and ass.

But now… Those discarded jeans called to him like a damn siren song. Urging him to run upstairs. To grab that business card.

To find out her connections.

He almost jumped out of his skin when Crew’s cell phone rang. The volume of his ringtone had to be turned up to the max.

Miller winced. “Damn, old man, are you deaf or something?”

“Maybe Cabrera is right, and you do need hearing aids,” North ribbed Crew.

“Eh?” Crew curved a hand around his ear before snagging the phone off the table. “It’s Fletch.”

“Yeah, we know, since his mug is filling your screen. Do you have all of our pics on your phone?” Miller asked.

“No, just the pretty ones,” Crew answered dryly. “You don’t qualify.” When he answered the call, he immediately put the BAMC vice president on speaker phone. “Yo.”

“Boss,” Fletch greeted, using the nickname their newest task force member called Crew to get under his skin.

“Fuck off.” Crew warned, “I’m at church with North, Miller and Nox and you’re on speaker phone.”

“What’s up, fuckers?” Fletch asked on a laugh. “Believe it or not, I miss you assholes. Hopefully, our time being undercover is coming to an end soon. Right, Crewser?”

“I know you want to be free of that assignment, but I need you two to stick it out for as long as possible.”

“We should have enough shit on them to bring the whole MC down.”

“Yeah, for the most part, but that’s not the only reason I want you to stay under with the Demons. We need someone on the inside to make sure we’re one step ahead of them.”

“Group one has two members within the Demons,” Fletch reminded Crew.

“Yeah? And now so do we.”

“For fuck’s sake. I didn’t want to be under for more than a few months and here it is going on year two.”

“Jesus, have you been gone that long?” Miller asked. “I didn’t miss you at all.”

“It hasn’t been two years,” Crew insisted.

“It will be by the time this is all wrapped up.”

Fletch was right. It had been about a year and a half since the Tri-State Federal Drug Task Force was formed. But they all knew going in that it wouldn’t be a quick investigation. Too many players were involved. And their part of the investigation didn’t even include the Pittsburgh Cosa Nostra or the Mexican cartel.

Hell, their part only included the Deadly Demons in Pennsylvania. Two other groups covered that outlaw MC in West Virginia and Ohio.

All three groups had to work as a team and coordinate. None of them could wrap up their investigation until they all could. Planning and communication would be key.

Nox was glad he was only a grunt in this case. No different than during his time in the Army. He kept his head down and simply did what he was told, then did what he wanted to do when no one was looking.

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