The mood in the room lightened a fraction as they silently shared humor about a criminal committing a crime and being this stupid.
“He give a description?” Brock asked.
“Not exactly. Though, he says he wouldn’t forget him. But he won’t play unless he’s paid.”
“We’ll handle that,” Hawk said and looked between Axl and Aug. “B needs another visit. She knows more than she said, and I don’t pay to get jacked around.”
“She’s moved again,” Rhashan informed them.
“You got a location?” Hawk asked.
Rhashan shook his head.
“I’m on that and I’m on Brandi,” Ally declared.
“It’s not you she fucked over, Ally,” Hawk pointed out. “Wearing my money and knowing my boys walked out of her place with an operation already underway to take them out, and that operation was using their women, when she specifically said the women were not involved, I’m not okay with that.”
“Let’s just say I got a way with girl talk,” Ally replied.
Hawk didn’t argue that.
He nodded.
“Brandi and I need a conversation as well, I work with you,” Cisco put in smoothly.
“When I work, I’m a loner type of girl,” Ally told him.
“Trust me,” Cisco said on a smile. “We’ll have fun.”
Ally studied him, saw whatever women saw in him, and smiled back.
Jesus.
That was when Hawk went back to Jorge’s news.
“We’re lookin’ into the other two fake IDs to see if either of them have ties to cops. Obviously, the incarcerated one does, but he’s from Maryland and doing his time there. Doesn’t mean this doesn’t have that reach, cops know cops. But that’s going to take awhile.”
“I can get Brody to help with that,” Lee offered.
Hawk nodded again then looked around the room. “Everyone’s computer needs a hefty firewall. You don’t have a source who can do that for you, get them here. We’ll handle it for you.”
Axl made a mental note to get his and Hattie’s laptops into the office.
He then said, “We need to fuck up without fucking up.”
Hawk looked to him. “That was my take.”
“I’m not comfortable with that,” Mitch put in.
“Nothing that will stick,” Hawk returned.
“They can make shit stick, Hawk,” Mitch shot back.
“It’ll out some players and we need some threads to pull to unravel this, brother,” Hawk replied. “We’ll be careful that the fucking-up part has a stronger not fucking-up part.”
“And while some member of your team deals with legal issues because he put himself out there to be arrested, we’ve lost resources that could be put to better use,” Mitch retorted.
“Let me talk to Resurrection,” Rush suggested.
“Room’s already pretty fuckin’ packed, man,” Luke noted.
“Resurrection won’t mind a couple of brothers going down for something they didn’t really do,” Rush replied. “As long as we make sure their asses are pulled out of that sling. And anyway, back in the day when they were Bounty, if B can be believed, they were in bed with these assholes without knowing they were in bed with them. They were the ones who were running security for those transports that were taken down. If that was me and my club had that in its history, I’d wanna know. Having it in their history without knowing it makes them vulnerable. It also makes them motivated to find out who was really behind that shit. So them getting involved in this won’t come as a surprise. They had men who did time back then, ties like that bind. We’re allies. If I don’t share that with them, they find out we knew, we’d lose that, and we need shit copacetic with MCs all the time, but now especially.”
Axl didn’t miss the proud look Tack Allen had on his face when his son was talking.
And he thought it’d be interesting to know how that felt, having a dad that was proud of you and did not hesitate showing it.
Though he suspected he’d never know.
“Mitch, you good with that?” Hawk asked.
“Plan carefully, Hawk,” Mitch said quietly. “We do not need innocent men behind bars and dirty cops free.”
No one said anything because no one disagreed.
Hank broke the silence.
“By the book.”
Yeah.
Fuck.
From here on out, they had to keep their noses clean.
Or be even more careful when they didn’t.
“Hawk, you definitely. Lee, you too. And Knight, you watch your back,” Hank went on.
Knight’s lips thinned.
“Brandi mentioned you and Eddie specifically, Hank,” Aug reminded him of something they’d already reported.
“We’re clean,” Eddie grunted.
He and Hank were partners.
Hank knew the rules, and for the most part, played by them.
It was lore that Eddie Chavez had always shot from the hip.
If it wasn’t this situation, this would almost be funny.
But it was this situation.
So it was not funny.
“We’re up,” Malik put in. “Me and Mitch and Brock. We can’t swing our asses out there, but you got inside shit you need done in a cop shop, you come to one of us.”
There were general murmurings of agreement all around.