Hitched (Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory 2)

Well, fuck. That had happened faster than I’d anticipated. I wasn’t sure how he’d gotten around Trixie Peppers, and I didn’t want to know, but it wasn’t a total shock. My ex was smart, which was one of the reasons I’d been attracted to him in the first place. I simply hadn’t realized at the time he had an ego even larger than his brain and ambition even bigger than the two of them put together.

Tommy Drakes didn’t even try to fake friendliness. “Investigation into what, exactly?” he demanded in a don’t-waste-my-time tone.

“We have reason to believe that there is a corrupted virus file loaded onto a stolen gaming device you recently acquired. The source code of this virus might help us track down a ring of international hackers,” Vince explained, smooth as butter.

This was a lie, of course. The Horn supposedly held the Cartel de la Luna’s financial data as well as identifying information for high-level cartel members that could put a serious dent in the cartel’s ability to do business if it ended up in the DEA’s possession. In the meantime, whoever held this data might as well have been holding a ticking time bomb. When Gustavo Santiago tracked down the stolen Horn, he and his people wouldn’t ask for it nicely. They’d leave a swath of bloodshed and violence in their wake.

If Tommy tried to access the data on the device, it would put him in even greater danger, so it made sense Vince used the virus story to discourage snooping.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand why you think I have this information or this device,” Tommy said. There was a long beat of silence in which I imagined everyone in the room staring at the giant wall of gaming devices.

Vince finally spoke carefully. “We only want to take the device long enough to extract the data. Of course, we’d be happy to return the device itself back to you when we’re done processing it.”

Translation: you will get your Horn back approximately never.

“I don’t believe I have a stolen device, so I’m afraid this has been a waste of your time,” Tommy said. “Levi, please show this man out.”

I bit back a smile. Implying Drakes had stolen property had been Vince’s critical error. I didn’t believe for one second Tommy Drakes would have handed it over voluntarily, but Vince still shot himself in the foot by making him sound like he was harboring ill-gotten gains. If only Vince had done his homework on Tommy Drakes, he would have learned the man was into some shady shit. In addition to the car dealerships and other legit businesses everyone knew about, Hux had found that Drakes was also connected to a couple of suspected chop shops, a low-rent strip club out by the Nashville airport, and a dry-cleaning business that had a suspiciously high number of weed-smoking high schoolers as customers.

I’d told Quinn the man wasn’t a thief, and that was true… mostly. Certainly, no one had ever pinned anything on him. But he wasn’t a choirboy either. And there was no way he was going to cooperate voluntarily with a government agent.

“I don’t mean to imply you stole the device, Mr. Drakes,” Vince said quickly, trying to recover his schmoozing efforts. “Of course not. We assume you acquired it under completely legitimate circumstances. Of course you would have had no way of knowing it was stolen.”

Before he could continue his desperate attempt to get back on track with Tommy Drakes, Levi’s voice cut in. “Come with me, sir. Right this way.”

Vince wasn’t going to give up that easily. Sure enough, he stayed right where he was and came at it from a different direction. “Mr. Drakes, I’m afraid I’m going to need to take that Horn device with me today. It’s necessary to preserve national security and—”

Tommy Drakes’s voice cut through the room like an icy draft down my back. “Well, why didn’t you say something? If you came here with a warrant, I’m more than happy to comply.”

The silence lasted for a beat before Vince had to admit the truth. “Surely a warrant isn’t necessary in such a—”

“If you do not have a warrant, you are no longer welcome in my home. Levi will see you out.”

I heard a faint scuffle before Levi and Vince left the room. Just when I was wondering if it was safe for me to come out of my hiding place, I heard the creak of a chair.

Fuck.

A minute later, Levi came back into the room. “He’s gone.”

“How the hell does he expect me to believe a DEA agent is here about a hacker?” Drakes sounded annoyed, but his implication that Vince wasn’t the brightest bulb made me want to laugh.

“I got his card. I’ll look into him. In the meantime, Mrs. Drakes is looking for you. Marissa’s come to some decisions about the wedding.” Levi spat wedding like the word disgusted him.