This was why Big Tag was always annoyed. He had to deal with shit like this all the time.
“You need to chill, man. You can’t go in there,” Deke replied, not backing down. “How is it going to look if you walk in and suddenly know the chick who is supposed to be a stranger? MaeBe’s fine. Hutch is in there with her now.”
“Good, because I have a few things to say to Hutch,” Kyle shot back. “MaeBe is supposed to be safe in her fucking cubicle. She was not cleared to go into the field. Hutch should have shut this shit down immediately.”
Yep. He was going to have to deal with Kyle. “I cleared her. I made the decision to take her out.”
Kyle’s head swiveled like a predator scenting prey. “You had no right.”
Michael moved into the waiting room, which was blessedly empty at this point. It was a good thing because he didn’t think Kyle would care about an audience. “I am a senior investigator. I assure you I have every right to use tech support. All MaeBe was supposed to do was dupe the target’s phone.”
“Which she managed to do without incident.” Deke followed Kyle, sticking close, as if waiting to tackle the fucker if he had to.
He was grateful for Deke’s presence. Michael wasn’t sure he could handle Kyle all on his own. Kyle could go berserk from time to time.
“Without incident? She took a knife to the gut. Is that not an incident, Deke? What do you consider an incident? Does she have to die for it to be serious for you?” Kyle was right back in Deke’s face.
But they were just friends. Sure. He was dealing with a self-delusional powder keg ready to go off at any moment. He also had to remember that this particular powder keg had a Taggart for a stepdad and was vital to the mission at hand. As much as he wanted to knock some sense into Kyle, he had to move with caution around him. “She’s fine. Deke is telling you the truth. MaeBe was there to do a technical job. She could have left at any time after she duped the phone, but she stayed until Vanessa was ready to go, and somehow she got caught in the physical op. Deke tipped off some photographers that Vanessa was at the café.”
“Why would you do that?” Kyle asked.
“Because she’s moving too slowly, and we can’t watch her given where she’s living.” Normally he wouldn’t explain himself, but it was obvious that Kyle needed to understand in order to calm down. “Between the photographers and what Deke set up at her house, she’ll need a place to stay tonight, and I intend to offer her my guest room. Now I think she genuinely needs someone to watch after her because there’s no way that guy was going for her purse. The cops are wrong. He was going after Vanessa.”
Michael was surprised at how much that upset him. When he’d realized something had gone wrong, he’d been angry, and then he’d turned down the alley and seen MaeBe on the ground, Vanessa holding her together. He’d realized someone had taken a shot at Vanessa, and he’d felt like he’d gotten kicked in the gut.
She would have stayed in her seat had those fucking photographers not been there. She would have waited for him, and he would have taken care of her attacker. He was responsible for this.
“MaeBe was trying to help. She saw the guy go after Vanessa, and she followed. She would have done it for anyone,” Deke pointed out. “She’s one of the kindest people I know.”
“She shouldn’t have been in that position,” Kyle argued. “She’s supposed to be at the office. I told Ian I didn’t want her to have anything to do with this op. If you wanted a tech, you could have asked Hutch.”
“Hutch runs the department. I don’t ask Hutch to do a simple job any of his employees can do. MaeBe wants to be in the field. And this is my op. You’re a bodyguard. You don’t have any say in who I use or don’t use over the course of my investigation.” He was getting irritated. “You know I was running ops when you were still in college, kid.”
Kyle shook his head. “I don’t care. You don’t get to use MaeBe that way.”
“She works for McKay-Taggart. I’m not using her. She’s doing her job, and you’re out of line.” He wasn’t going to let Kyle’s issues fuck with this op. “If you’ve got a problem with me, feel free to take yourself out of the job, but you don’t tell me how to run this show. And I think MaeBe will have something to say about you going behind her back and affecting her job.”