Wicked Game

Chapter 14

"We've secured Ivan in the van," Erza said to Natsu as he stood outside, leaning against one of their unmarked cars and icing his knuckles.  His team stood around him, discussing the events that had transpired.

            "We have his men and the movers cuffed and are holding them in an office inside the warehouse."  Gray ran his fingers through his hair, shaking away the stress Natsu was all too familiar with.  Running an op like this would put anyone on edge.  But Gray's cool demeanor barely registered a change.  It was only because Natsu had known the guy for so long that he could even tell.  The job got to all of them, at some point.  You just had to keep moving, to keep reminding yourself that it was worth it, in the end.

            "Good," Natsu said simply, not meeting their eyes.  He was avoiding asking the question spinning in his head, not sure he really wanted to know the answer.

            "I reached out to my contact in the feds," Erza added.  "They should be here any minute.  While we don't have enough to pin anything on Tartaros, he thinks it may still help in building their case."

            "Did we get enough on Ivan?  Did we get what we needed?"

            "We got footage of the movers preparing to do their job," Freed chimed in casually.  "Ivan didn't say a whole lot on tape, but he said enough that it should hold up in court."

            "We also have the drugs," Grey pointed out.  "Even if we can't directly link it to Tartaros, Ivan's possession and attempt to move the substance overseas is an additional sentence all together."

            "What about the girls?"  Natsu said finally, staring at the floor.

            "Gajeel recruited that bouncer, Bacchus, and the two of them moved all the girls that were left at the club to a safe house we set up nearby."  Erza sounded pleased.  "He was more valuable an asset than I was expecting."

            Natsu nodded.  "Gramps knows what he's doing," he said referring to Makarov.

            "I still don't trust the guy," Gray said in a low voice.

            "Me neither, but he held up his end of the bargain.  When I asked him to tell Ivan about my sneaking Lucy out of the club he got pretty cagey.  I wasn't sure if he would follow through."

            "Well, so far so good." Erza's commanding voice rung through their circle.  "We'll bring him on as a PI, to start with at least.  Though, he may be better suited for security."

            "I'm not having him on my team," Gray shot back.

            "We can discuss all of that later," Freed pointed out, shutting down the conversation.  "I will move my team out after we hand everything over to the feds, I'll see you all back at headquarters."

            The tall man walked away without another word, heading toward a beat up old van at the end of the block.

            Natsu's stomach turned.  He needed to know.  He looked up at his friends.

            "What about Lucy and the others?"

            Gray frowned, but Erza gave him a comforting smile.

            "Juvia and Cana are a little banged up but they were already coming-to by the time you apprehended Ivan.  We sent them to the hospital to get checked out, just in case.  But besides being a bit drowsy they were just fine."

            "Erza!" a man called as he approached the red head.  "Feds are here, we need you inside.

            Erza nodded.