Page 44 of Redemption

He is clearly extremely unimpressed by Linda’s attention to detail when it comes to security, and honestly I can’t say I blame him. I’m not impressed either.

It’s sloppy and lazy.

“Are we sure this is her place?” I ask skeptically. “The lack of proper security makes me think it’s more of a civilian's place.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely her place,” Pete confirms.

He once again flips the laptop around and then flicks through three surveillance photos that have been taken of Linda entering and exiting the property.

“It’s in her name too,” Trick adds, as he flicks through the file that we all got given and that he’s brought with him.

“See, that’s not smart either,” I point out, my brow furrowing with confusion. “If you’re hiding or up to no good, why the hell would you put your house in your name? That doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t, but she’s stayed quiet for a long time,” Cash reminds us. “She could have been out of the criminal life until recently. If that’s the case, then she wouldn’t have needed to hide her tracks or get better security.”

“Fuck you’re right,” Rafe mutters in agreement.

“Now that you’ve said it, I think that’s actually the most likely explanation,” Riot says thoughtfully. “It makes sense.”

“It does,” Rage agrees. “Although that then begs the question, why? If she was out, settled, and being left alone by the organization, why would she go back in?”

“Money,” Luc answers bluntly. “With my mother, it always comes down to money.”

Everyone is quiet for a moment. There’s no point in denying the truth. Even those who didn’t know Luc’s parents would only have had to see their house and the lavish things that they owned to know that they loved money. While there’s nothing wrong with that at all, it’s the way that they treated money and how they would do anything to make it and keep it that makes them assholes. They aren’t nice people.

“It must have been a lot of fucking money for her to risk going back to the house in order to get the file,” Jensen points out.

“Yeah. It was a massive risk. She has to know that we’re still watching the house. She is far from stupid,” Rage replies.

“So the money was worth it,” Luc adds simply. “We’re relatively sure that she’s now working with Hunt, right?”

“I think that’s the safest thing to assume until we’re proven wrong,” Atlas replies. “She was either going to get the file to use as leverage against Hunt, to get some money out of him, which means she has knowledge of him and the business that he’s in, or Hunt contacted her and sent her back there to get it for him in order for her to be paid. Either way, she knows.”

“Agreed. When she failed to get it, Hunt sent someone else. Which was the very chatty guy that we picked up,” Luc agrees. As we slowly try to put the puzzle pieces we have together.

“There is another angle,” I say as the thought occurs to me. “What if it’s not Hunt? What if Drake contacted Linda and got her to find the file, and somehow that information got back to Hunt and he sent his own people?”

“That’s an interesting theory, and considering how long Linda stood by Drake's side, I think it’s highly possible that she would still be loyal to him,” Riot agrees as he sips his coffee.

“Did Mr. R talk to him yet?” Cash asks curiously.

Trick shakes his head. “He’s in maximum security, and there are a lot of hoops that Mr. R has to jump through in order to get in to talk to him. It’s taking some time, and Drake's lawyers are stopping him at every hurdle. It’s the one place where the organization is tied up with almost as much red tape as normal law enforcement.”

“Awesome,” Jensen replies sarcastically. “One thing we do know for certain is that she needs to be brought in. Getting to Drake is a lengthy and complicated process, but getting to Linda should be fairly straightforward. We should be able to detain her, search the house, and then either question her ourselves or hand her over to the organization, and they can do it.”

“Which would you prefer?” Trick asks Luc.

“Honestly, I would prefer that she’s handed over to the organization. I may need to be here because I know all of the usual places that she used to hide shit in the house when I was growing up, but there is no need for me to question her,” Luc replies honestly.

“I’ll let Mr. R know, although he has probably already guessed that you don’t want to be involved in that.”

Luc nods and says gratefully, “Thanks, man.”

“How long have we got until we need to head out?” Atlas asks.

Trick looks at Pete, “How long is the walk to the house?”

“It should take us an hour or two,” Pete says. “We should probably head out in an hour or so, just in case we hit any snags. That should give everyone enough time to go over the camera placement.”