“The warrant,” Ty said carefully, not wanting Lexie to catch on, not yet, not until he could give her his undivided attention.

“Yeah. The warrant. Got a boy in holding. This boy was caught with a gun in his possession. And this gun’s got a ballistics match on it says it did Ronnie Rodriguez, amongst others. And this boy has a protective instinct so this boy made a deal. And this boy shared the hit he confessed to doin’ on Rodriguez was ordered and paid for by Martinez. And this boy ain’t dumb like Martinez but he does have a screwy family. And when I say that, I mean, this boy does business, he does it at his Momma’s kitchen table, with Momma there. She’s lookin’ out for her boy, makes sure he don’t get screwed providin’ excellent service without gettin’ paid a good wage. She negotiates the deal, she takes a cut, her boy does the job. Therefore, she’s in holding too and she’s also facin’ time but she’s also not dumb and makes her own deal. Her boy goes down, she goes down but so does Martinez. We have the shooter, we have the gun, we have his word and we have his Momma as witness. And I’m not gonna get into the fact that Martinez is not like Rodriguez with his stable. He takes freebies, he takes ‘em often and once that boy gets off, he gets chatty. Therefore, he’s shared a lot with his girls. A lot. Too much. Stupid much. And another way he is not like Rodriguez, they have a light night, he don’t like that and doesn’t see that johns may not have a hankerin’ for a ‘ho with a black eye or busted lip. Therefore, they had it good so they are not big on how bad it’s got the last four years and are not feelin’ the love for their Daddy.”

Holy f**k.

Martinez actually ordered the hit that killed his brother.

He knew it could be true but a part of him didn’t want to believe it not of Shift, not of anyone.

Holy f**k.

“So,” Peña spoke into his silence, “don’t got me a calculator handy but the minimum jail time on possession with intent to distribute, pimpin’ and conspiracy to commit murder all added up means Duane Martinez is oh-fish-ah-lee f**ked. And since he’s an ass**le who don’t discriminate with who he feels like bein’ an ass**le to, he gets sent down, there are boys in there who do not like him. I’m not thinkin’ good thoughts about his survival rate.”

Ty rolled off Lexie so his back was to the couch but his front still pressed to her side and he avoided her eyes which he felt on him and he asked, “You got him?”

“Lookin’ for him now. He’s got three enforcers, uses his girls in the daytime hours to cut and bag the dope and they’re all in interrogation rooms as I’m speakin’ to you and they’re all yappin’. It shouldn’t take long. Now, what I wanna know is, did these angels fly from Colorado?”

“Payback,” was all Ty said and he got silence.

Then he got a quiet, “Okay, then, I appreciate it so I hate to do you a dirty after you handed me gold but…” he hesitated and Ty braced then he went on, “It is standard procedure to inform the victim’s family when the perpetrator has been caught. I’m makin’ this call then escaping this office that right now looks like The Ninth Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. And I’m doin’ that to get in my car and drive to Ella Rodriguez’s house. I reckon about a nanosecond will elapse after the door shuts on me when she’ll be on the phone. There is no love lost between the Rodriguez women and Martinez. But that doesn’t mean this news is not gonna hit these women and hit hard. It’s obviously up to you how you’re gonna play it but you gotta know they’re gonna know and soon and prepare to pick up the pieces.”

“Right,” Ty said quietly.

“Now, I got more.”

Fuck.

“Right,” Ty repeated.

“As much as Dolinski can keep a line to me, he does. That Misty Keaton woman’s activities have thrown a freeze on shit at the CPD. These f**kers are scared shitless and don’t know which way is up. They are not scrambling. They are immobilized. They are also lookin’ to their leader who is actin’ business as usual. Now, they don’t know if he’s got an ace in the hole that’s gonna shine the light of the Mother of God on them and save them at the last minute or if he just don’t give a f**k and has his own exit strategy planned. My guess would be the latter. What you need to know is it might be the former. That said, the good news for you is, you and Lexie have unofficially been declared off-limits. This is not comin’ from the top, this is the boys makin’ up their own minds that they don’t wanna dig a very deep hole any deeper by f**kin’ with either a’ you. The ACLU bein’ involved, you gettin’ an attorney who, apparently, locally has a reputation for being a ball-breaker and a liberal one at that and the entrance of one Samuel Sterling into this hubbub, a man I don’t know but I’ve done some checking on and he’s got weight, a f**kload of money and both he earned for himself so this is no dumb motherfucker, he also takes no shit and further takes absolutely no shit due to his skin color and therefore it doesn’t take a leap to figure that, if he’s in the position to step in when a brother is doin’ it, he will and anyone who knows him knows this, all this means you got so much firepower at your back, they won’t say boo to you.”

“Proof you are Santa Claus,” Ty muttered.

“Well, no, ‘cause the boys at CPD are scared shitless but Fuller has convinced himself his skin deflects bullets and he don’t give a shit who he says boo to. Sayin’ that, now I’ll prove I’m Santa Claus ‘cause there has been a recent occurrence which meant that, on the fly, there needed to be some sharin’ and that sharin’ is… now wait for it…” he hesitated dramatically, Ty clenched his teeth then he gave it, “Detective Chace Keaton has been workin’ undercover for the IA for the last thirteen months.”

Ty shot up to sitting and rumbled into the phone, “You are shittin’ me.”

“What?” Lexie whispered, also sitting up with him, rearranging her legs so they were over his thighs and putting a hand to his chest.

He looked to Lexie, shook his head then touched his forehead to hers briefly before he pulled back and gave a still talking Peña his attention.

“Nope. No shit. This guy was deeper than Dolinski, in the inner sanctum. IA wants a clean house and they wanna make an example and considering how messy this shit is, they’re pullin’ out all the stops but it is still takin’ time. Now, the reason Dolinski learned this is because Keaton was in on a strategy meetin’ and the play that was to be instigated was that Fuller wanted you down and out. And to do that, he was gonna light a fire under your parole officer’s ass to do a random inspection of your home. Now, they didn’t know if they’d find anything so they decided to find somethin’ whether it was there or not. And to make certain it was enough not only to get you in hot water but set you to boil, they were going to plant a firearm and dope during that inspection which Fuller was going to make damned sure had his boys involved in it obviously so they could plant the shit. And just because they’re dickheads of mammoth proportions, they were also gonna plant dope in Lexie’s car.”