“Her brother was murdered three weeks ago, Colt. You think I should go home, tell her someone’s taking photos and makin’ threats? Against Mike? Against me? After Sam was killed she had nightmares. Bad ones. They’re gone now. Now you want her to try to sleep knowin’ that? To let her girls go to school? Me go to the store? Mike’s a father, it didn’t end bad between them, it just ended. She cares about him. You think she’ll be okay with thinkin’ she brought this shit into his life?”

Colt lifted a hand. “All right, Cal, I get it.”

No one said a word for awhile until Sully ended the silence.

“So now what do we do?” Sully muttered.

“Cal backs off,” Haines said and Cal’s eyes sliced to him.

“Come again?” he asked dangerously.

“You’ll explain things to her after the Chicago PD takes him down,” Haines went on.

“You think he should move out?” Colt asked incredulously.

“I think we make Hart think his threats worked,” Mike explained. “Keep Cal safe. Keep an eye on Vi. Pryor says he’s close.”

“Close with what?” Cal growled.

Mike’s eyes caught Cal’s. “Tax evasion.”

“Jesus Christ,” Cal bit out, “that’s a f**kin’ joke.”

“They got a lock on a second set of books,” Mike returned.

“A lock?” Cal asked. “They don’t even f**kin’ have the books?”

“The Feds are involved now,” Colt explained, “they’re makin’ deals.”

Cal shook his head. “You want me to leave Vi and the girls for tax evasion?” Cal returned, knowing Mike’s game. He didn’t want Cal safe. He wanted Cal to leave Vi. “They get him he’s bonded out in hours.”

“Odds are, they’ll hold him without bail,” Colt noted.

“He’s got money, he’s got lawyers, in his business he knows this shit could happen any time. He’ll be prepared,” Cal told Colt.

“They set bail, it’ll be set high,” Sully noted.

“He’ll be out,” Cal shot back.

“Like I said, Cal, you explain it to her after it’s done,” Haines repeated.

Cal turned fully to Haines. “Last night she stood in the kitchen in my arms giggling herself stupid. You think after she’s walked through two years of hell, I get her to the point of giggling herself stupid, I’m gonna rip that away for tax evasion, you’re f**kin’ whacked,” Cal returned and now Haines’s jaw was hard for another reason, his hands were clenched and his body was solid.

Haines glared at Cal. Cal scowled back.

“Boys,” Sully mumbled, Cal looked away from Haines and saw Colt and Sully both were on alert.

“Security, vigilance, tails,” Cal declared. “I’ll keep my gun where I can get it and carry when I’m not with Vi and the girls.”

“You got a permit to carry concealed?” Sully asked.

“Man, do you know what my job is? I got a concealed permit in forty-seven states,” Cal answered.

“Right,” Sully muttered, his eyes slid to Colt and his lips twitched.

Cal did not find anything funny and his eyes hit Colt.

“He’s gettin’ impatient and he’s gonna f**k up. Every man standin’ here knows that. Your job is to make sure he doesn’t f**k up with Vi, Kate or Keira in his crosshairs.”

“You need to stick to town, not go out on a job,” Mike put in, losing his bid to get Cal out of Vi’s house he was changing his tune and Cal’s eyes cut to him.

“Yeah, Mike. Thanks for that head’s up,” Cal’s sarcasm was obvious and Mike straightened.

“We’re all on the same side here,” Sully noted as the air around Cal and Haines again grew heavy.

Cal speared Sully with a glance and looked at Colt.

“You got the gifts or you send them to Pryor?” he asked.

“Sent an inventory and photos to Pryor. Gifts were delivered here, they’ve stayed here. They’re in evidence,” Colt answered.

“I want to see them all. Chronological,” Cal demanded.

“Why?” Sully asked and Cal looked at him.

“Do you know what I do for a living?”

“Security,” Sully answered.

“Stalker sub-specialty,” Colt muttered and Sully looked at his partner.

“No joke?” Sully whispered.

“No joke,” Colt repeated.

“Wow,” Sully was still whispering, “I didn’t know that. We should have brought you in sooner.”

Colt looked at the ceiling. Haines pressed his lips together. Cal growled.

* * * * *

“You feed the Feds this shit?” Cal asked Barry. He was sitting in the seat beside Colt’s desk after having gone through a f**kload of expensive gifts that got chronologically more expensive, more desperate to make an impression and more demanding to get a reaction.

“Feds aren’t interested,” Cal heard Barry’s answer through the phone.

“Not interested?” Cal asked.

“You’re interested. I’m interested. Any Chicago police officer is interested, they knew Tim or not. The Feds… no,” Berry answered.

“Nothin’ ties him to this shit,” Cal surmised.

“I looked into it, Colt looked into it and nothin’ ties him to that shit. She was still in Chicago, gettin’ visits, maybe they’d care. Harassment isn’t a big deal but they’d be happy to pin anything on him, it keeps him locked away even a day longer. But she’s in Indiana gettin’ gifts we can’t pin on him, they don’t care,” Barry replied. “They want him shut down. They think they got a lock on that and so they’re focused.”

Cal clenched his teeth. If he heard the f**king word “focused” one more f**king time he was going to do bodily harm.

“You suggested protection, Colt’s people can’t offer it. You got the resources up there to give Vi and the girls that?” Cal asked.

“She’s out of our jurisdiction,” Pryor answered.

“What about the Feds?”

“Sorry, man, like I said. They’re not interested,”

Fuck! The word exploded in his brain then Cal took a deep breath and laid it out for Barry.

“You need to keep him busy, Pryor, his mind on other things,” Cal advised. “Shake up his operation. Give him headaches. Even if you can’t follow through with what you’re doin’ just be a nuisance.”