Chapter 4

Avery’s POV

She places the picture down and relaxes back into her seat with a long sigh. As amazed as she was earlier, even she knows how intense covering a case like his is going to be. She shakes her head again.

“He is… in the underworld. According to every single bird on the street, he just came into the city and has been going about establishing himself here. I don’t know if you’ve noticed the spike in the number of j*nkies everywhere. Again, the birds say he doesn’t operate from dens like the rest; he has cookhouses in hidden locations where he produces the dr*gs especially, then has his people distribute them.”

My forehead creases hard with how high my eyebrows are, and the only thing I can think of is how incredibly dangerous he has to be to possess that level of organization in the first place. It’s like Sophie can hear my thoughts as she adds, “He’s also laid waste to dozens of people already: his men, rivals, and two of the feds’ spies.”

I sit up straighter and gape at her.

She nods twice and continues, “And he carved out warnings on their bodies for the feds to leave him alone.”

“Damn,” I breathe out as I try to picture how the scene would’ve looked like. His picture stares up at me, and I pick it up to have a good look at it; now that I think about it, he does look a bit unhinged.

“But they’re still gonna go after him, right?” What a silly question… of course they will. He’s such a threat right now he’s attacked agents already. My mind spins wildly when I think about just how thrilling it will be to find out the tidbits about him as well as the details of how the hunt is going to be.

I sigh; I’m still not inclined to join, though.

Sophie picks up on my mood and points sternly at me, “You’re on it. Ah ah ah…” She snaps her fingers when I begin to protest, “This is huge, and I know how much you hate being out there…”

Hate? I despise it.

“But nothing beats putting in your big girl pants and venturing out to where the action is to get the details that someone indoors is going to enjoy reading,” she closes her eyes as she gets immersed in her speech, “It’s clearly an underrated form of providence.”

I hesitate to let her think I’m chewing on the matter, and after a while, I reply with, “Is that all?”

She makes a suction noise with her teeth and lifts up from the chair. Her expression clears to become a blank canvas, so I’m not able to tell what she’s thinking, but I assume she’s not too happy with my stubbornness.

I try to reason, “Come on, Sophie, you are aware no matter how hard you try to convince me, I have taken my stand. I’ll hop on to a few other cases, though. Preferably the latest fraud whispers from the governor’s office…”

“What if I told you that upon completion, you get to move up and into the office?”

My rambling stops instantly, and I snap my head up to stare disbelievingly at her. She sighs like she doesn’t want to have to resort to this but has no other choice.

I narrow my slitted eyes at her, “Um… I don’t believe you?”

She holds my gaze as she tells me, “Besides, I’m tired of having to drag your unhappy ass to places all the time. Davis said to put you in at all cost because you’re the only one on the team that looks unsuspecting and…” She gestures to my frame, “You’re really gorgeous and composed. These are traits we especially need for this case because we’re going undercover with the cops.”

Hold up…

I nearly choke on my saliva as I leap to my feet and round up on her, “Sophie…”

She raises her voice, effectively shutting me up, “Will you just listen? The police department asked for journalists as usual, but they specifically requested two people who’d be able to work undercover. Now you and Jamie are going to be the undercover journalists while the rest of us hold the fort outside of wherever you’re going to be.”

I refuse to think about it and ask instead, “And the promotion?”

“Will be yours as soon as we have Gaius,” she points to the table littered with pictures and papers, but my eyes find the exact one she’s referring to, and I go to pick it up. It’s a memorandum released by the office of the executive director of the firm stating that all members directly involved in the capture of the criminal, Gaius Frederik, will be granted rewards as accrues to their personal preference.

“It’s supposed to be a surprise, but I didn’t think you’d literally be so hard to get,” Sophie explains, waving her arms around dramatically as she sings, “Surprise?”

I grip the paper tighter like my life depends on it. I’m happy, ecstatic even because this is proof that my dreams are one case and a few weeks away from coming true. I’m happy, but also, I’m not. Undercover? No wonder they’re willing to take me off as soon the case is over because I sure as hell will deserve it. And the guy’s clearly a psychopath… although my botched memory doesn’t recall him being anything like that.

I clutch the memo to my chest and blow out a raspberry before groaning, “And to think my mom warned me about this… fine, I’ll do it even though I had no choice in the first place,” I sigh and tilt my chin to her, “What are you gonna be doing then?”

Sophie shrugs and turns to lean over the table. I peer under her arm to take a better look at the pictures on the table; there are several of Gaius, some of the other people, presumably members of his gang, and the rest are of buildings. Post-it notes surround these images, indicating who and what they are. She begins moving the papers around in some sort of arrangement, with the men starting at the top and the buildings finishing at the bottom.

“I’m going to be where I can be of most help at any given point in time,” she responds, inclining her head to look at me, “What you should be focusing on is how to prepare for whatever role you’re going to be playing for however long it takes the authorities to catch him.”