Smiley (New Species) Read online

  “You don’t legally have to release the identities of whoever you imprison at Fuller.” Cindy grinned. “Score one for the good guys.”

  Fury chuckled. “I checked. The staff at Fuller Prison assembled the bunks and received new bedding. They are just waiting to issue clothing to the new prisoners.”

  Smiley calmed. “You’re sure he won’t get away?”

  “Positive,” Justice swore. “He’s too afraid to piss without a security team outside the door. He just hired two of our undercover task force members. He has no idea who they really are.”

  “That’s totally true,” Cindy nodded. “I’ve been researching Gregory Woods for over a year, since he hit the big-time-social-media level. He’s all mouth and no spine. Right now he’s got to be paranoid as hell and I’ve monitored the increase in his security detail in the past few days. He used to keep three suits around him but he’s doubled that number.”

  “Our team members have him wired and have cloned all his devices,” Fury announced. “He’s very dependent on his electronics and has already done searches for non-extradition countries to flee to. He also hired a private jet to be waiting on standby. One of our humans is now wearing that company’s pilot uniform. He’ll rush right to our pilot and be flown to where our team will be waiting to take him into custody.”

  “What about the son? I want him too.” Smiley wasn’t about to forget that Carl Woods had set Vanni up for his father.

  Justice nodded. “He and his father can share a cage. The father won’t leave without the son.”

  “By every indication I’ve found, Carl Woods is heavily dependent upon his daddy’s money.” Cindy whipped out an electronic device from her purse on the floor. “He spends more than he makes and to be honest, he’s not the best lawyer. His father paid to open his private practice and gives him the majority of his business.”

  She turned the screen to show Justice something. “This is his current debt. The doors to his practice are only open because Daddy saves his ass every month. His home is mortgaged for more than it’s worth and his ass would be homeless and jobless within three months if the money gets cut off. Gregory Woods is a dickhead who loves to keep everyone around him on strings. It’s that pathetic god complex he has. I’d bet the candy bar in my purse that Carl Woods realizes the money gets cut if he doesn’t stick close to his father’s ass. I mean wallet. He’ll also know, if criminal charges are filed against Gregory, the first thing that would happen is they’ll freeze his assets when he evades arrest. That means the money is cut off for sure.”

  “What if he doesn’t leave with his father?” Smiley wasn’t willing to risk it.

  Fury drew his attention. “Then we’ll pick him up a few weeks after his father disappears. Everyone will assume he just met up with him later. They’ll be accurate.”

  “Especially when they foreclose on his house and evict him from his nice office suites,” Cindy added. “Even his car is a rental.”

  “And Bruce? I want him the most. He Tasered Vanni and made threats.” Smiley wasn’t about to allow that male to get away with hurting her.

  Justice leaned back. “We did a background check on him. You want to hit someone and make them bleed? He’s all yours.”

  Fury growled. “He enjoys hurting females. He’s been arrested six times for beating and terrifying them. The females dropped the charges after the police suspected he made threats. Gregory Woods told your Vanni we have a graveyard of our enemies. I think we should start one.”

  “Now, Fury.” Justice shot him an amused look. “He would make horrible fertilizer. I wouldn’t want to expose our vegetation to his remains.”

  “True. He is a piece of shit though.”

  Justice nodded and held Smiley’s gaze. “Leave him alive after you teach him how it feels to be hit. We’ll get him when the teams bring in Gregory. I think death would be too kind. Let him spend his life in a cage. He doesn’t like to leave his boss’ side. We’ll help him obtain that goal. Let’s go.”

  Cindy stood. “I wish I could come with but Miles is probably waiting in the car. He wanted to leave after the meeting and you can guess who is driving. It wouldn’t be him.” She walked over to Smiley. “I’m glad you got the girl.” She winked. “Hold on to that one. She seems like a keeper.”

  Smiley nodded in agreement and followed the men out of Justice’s office to Security. He entered the holding cell first, recognizing the bartender from the hotel. The male’s eyes widened upon seeing Smiley. He tensed in his chair.

  “You do remember me.” Smiley kept away from the male and crossed his arms over his chest. “I remember you.”

  Jericho entered the interrogation room and slammed the door. “I’ll do the talking.”

  Smiley showed fangs but stepped to the side. He glared at the male who was handcuffed to the chair but made sure he stood out of the range of the camera set up in the corner. Jericho rumbled loudly as he stalked forward. It was a sound meant to intimidate the human.

  “I didn’t do anything!” The human’s eyes were wide with fear.

  Jericho crouched a few feet from the male, just glaring at him. Smiley noticed he’d tilted his head up enough that the lighting in the room would catch the red hues of his eyes. The bartender tried to scoot the chair back but realized it wouldn’t move. He broke out in a sweat.

  “I don’t like liars,” Jericho rasped as the rumble emanating from his chest deepened. “Do I look amused? You’re wasting my time. I want to know what happened in that bar.”

  “I just served the drinks.”

  “Let me rephrase that. I know what happened but I want you to admit what you did.” Jericho took a deep breath, expanding his chest and nostrils. His expression showed his anger. “Confession is good for the soul, I’ve been told. So confess.”

  A good minute ticked by. The bartender tried to glance away but his gaze kept going back to Jericho’s intense glare. He trembled. “Okay. All right. This guy approached me before my shift and paid me four hundred bucks to slip something into a pair of drinks. He said it was going to be a joke.”

  “Really?” Jericho stood. He cracked his knuckles. “What was so funny? Share how this joke worked on my friend because I could really use a laugh. I want specific details.”

  “Um, maybe he didn’t say it was meant to be funny. He was with that church group.”

  “What church?”

  “I forgot their name. You know the one with the heavyset preacher guy who has a whiney voice?”

  “No.”

  “He’s always going on about protecting the human race and how wrong it is that you weren’t sent to live in zoos.” He blanched. “I don’t feel that way though. I don’t! I’m so cool with New Species and the entire NSO thing. My girlfriend has a poster of Justice North on her fucking bedroom wall.”

  “You resent that?”

  The human’s face reddened. “No.”

  “I don’t believe that. Justice is a handsome male.”

  The human clenched his teeth. “She tells me I need to work out more.”

  Jericho snorted. “I bet that isn’t good to hear.”

  “She thinks he’s perfect.”

  “Perhaps he is.”

  “No guy is. And he’s a cat. She named her kitten after him. It’s all kinds of fucked-up.”

  Smiley winced and glanced toward the camera, hoping Justice didn’t take offense. His focus returned to the male. It made him happy he wasn’t feline or canine. Primates were harder for humans to own as pets so he doubted there were many being named after him. Of course no one had known about him until the footage of him and Vanni behind the hotel was released. His name hadn’t gotten out until the shopping excursion.

  “Get to the point. This male approached you to do what?”

  “He handed me this little glass bottle with a liquid drug inside it. I was supposed to wait for a New Species to come into the bar and when some chick came in and sat next to him I was told to split the dosage in half and put it thei