Tastes Like Candy

Twenty-Nine

Twenty-Nine

Candy

He took a generous sip of coffee, and an even more generous drag off his first cig of the day, and felt ready to tackle things. "As far as we know," he said, setting his mug down on the chapel table. "The feds and the cartel aren't working together. But someone knew the feds were taking the gun shipment, and intercepted. So that points to an intel leak on our side."

"Or theirs," Jinx said with an unconvinced snort.

Candy tipped his head in concession. "Yeah, that's a good possibility. It only takes one person to tip off the cops, and Ruiz's crew is deep. No way does he have a tight leash on all of them."

"But," Jinx prompted.

"But according to Riley, someone is talking about us."

"A bluff?" Blue asked. "That would be classic fed."

"Where would a leak have come from?" Cowboy asked. "We're a tight ship, boss."

"Jaffrey said there's an undercover agent involved," Jinx said, exhaling a long, thin stream of smoke through his mouth in a restless way. He was as stoic and solid as ever, but that little jet of smoke betrayed the inner stress tremors.

"Shit," several of them said at once.

"We don't have any new members," Fox said. "And if any of you start pointing fingers at my nice..."

Miles laughed, a low dark chuckle, like he couldn't imagine such a thing.

Mercy spoke up from the end of the table. "What about someone you've hired on at the bar? A contractor? Inspector? New staff?"

"That fighter," Talis said, and so rare were his contributions that everyone looked at him.

"Niko the Texas Russian," Colin said, disgust clear in his voice. "Please let it be him so I don't gotta hear about his blue eyes anymore."

There were a few laughs, but a few speculative eyebrow lifts too.

"None of us have seen him before, though," Candy said. "He's waited awful late to make his move, if it's him."

"Maybe he bugged one of us. Maybe he's been taking pictures," Talis said, shrugging. "You see anyone following you that night you met with Ruiz's buyer?"

"No," Candy said, automatically, but the worry that he'd overlooked something niggled at the back of his mind.

"So we need a fed trap," Blue said.

Candy nodded. "Yeah. I have some ideas, but the suggestion box is open, boys."

Fox and Miles shared a look across the table – oh, shit, now there were two of them – and Fox said, "I've got a few things in mind," sliding into that perfect Texas accent he could mimic.

"You terrify me," Gringo told him.

Miles grinned.

Fox said, "Thanks, bro."

~*~

Michelle

"You can say you're impressed. I won't hold it against you."

Tommy sent her what she thought of as his So Done face. "It's nice. Okay?"

"Glad I could finally drag that out of you."

They stood side-by-side on the upper gallery, hands on the now-glossy black rail, looking out over her new domain. And oddly enough, though it had started as a club project, maybe even a Candy project, it now felt like hers. This was her design, her layout, her ideas put into play.