Page 99 of Sticks and Stones
Oliver stared at him.
“Should I now?” he asked.
Yeah, Greyson wasn’t playing games with this guy. That shit wasn’t happening.
“Oh, I insist,” Greyson stated. “As the person who runs thePhillyfield office for Gabriel Rothschild, you can either call your boss or mine. I can promise if you call mine, the ass chewing is going to be truly painful for you, and spectacular for us to watch since he sent us here.”
That made the man go red.
Well, sue him.
Greyson was tagging himself in. He’d called that interpersonal bullshit the second he saw the man staring atGene, and he wasn’t letting the man use it against one of‘his’Feds.
Without another word, Oliver picked up the phone and dialed his boss. When he answered, he began talking and was promptly cut off.
“But, Sir,” he said, and wasn’t able to say anything else.
The way he was glaring at Greyson, it was crystal clear that his boss was laying down the law, and that the Feds hadn’t been lying.
And he didn’t like it.
Not.
At.
All.
Well, you couldn’t always win the battle, but this time, the victory went to the Feds.
“I see, Sir,” he said. “I’ll be more than happy to do just that. Don’t worry about it. I’ll be in contact with the FBI the entire time to make sure they are handling it for our detective, and that it’s to my standard.”
He listened more.
“Yes, Sir, I’ll keep it off the record and not say anything to anyone. I understand that the FBI has requested to keep this quiet for the sake of the detective involved, and I won’t inform anyone of Corbin’s assault.”
They watched, and knew the man was pissed. They’d usurped control away, again.
“Yes, Sir, I’ll put him down as being on vacation until he’s back on his feet.”
Oh, Gabe had to lean damn hard on the commissioner if he was now leaning this hard on Oliver.
The whole time, Gene was holding his breath. They were so close to getting this, and Commissioner Drake Herman was actually making this easy for them.
That was new.
“Yes, Sir, I’ll get them the file from Detective Price that he filed on this,” he said. “Thank you, Commissioner,” he added as he hung up.
When he placed the phone back in the cradle, he stared at Gene.
“So, that’s how your tenure inPhillyis going to be?” he asked. “Going behind my back and taking whatever case you want?”
Gene shrugged.
“I was bored and figured that I might as well work a case plaguing the city. I’m crazy like that,” he said, sarcastically. “If you can’t see that we’re doing this to protect a detective, then you’re not seeing the big picture. We’re protecting Detective Price. That’s the bottom line.”
The man stared at him and didn’t say a word. The whole time, Gene and Greyson stared back, not backing down.
It was annoying that Oliver didn’t give two shits about the man they’d rescued from the hospital.
