“How’s that gonna help?” Barry asked.

It wasn’t, Cal knew from the gifts it wasn’t going to stop Hart doing what he was doing.

Daniel Hart was like Kenzie Elise. He was used to getting what he wanted just wanting it. The gifts he’d been sending, the shake up in the schedule since Vi moved, the escalation of attention were not good signs. Colt knew it and was doing what he could do. It wasn’t right he didn’t share with Cal not only considering what Vi was to Cal but what Cal did for a living, but he was doing all the right things, including making it so Vi could live her life and only worry about all the shit that was in it, not adding anything extra. The fact that she was protected, not even receiving the gifts, and Cal had no doubt Hart knew she wasn’t, was probably driving Hart up the wall. He couldn’t get close, not with a restraining order and a cop living on Vi’s street. He wasn’t stupid and wouldn’t take that chance. Colt would take him down in a second. Hart could only hope Colt would mess up, miss a delivery, she’d get her diamonds and he’d get his reaction. Something Hart needed to function and something Colt had kept from him.

What Cal had to find was Hart’s Marco. Marco held Kenzie’s strings and yanked them when she got out of line. No man was an island. Not even the top of the heap in a crime syndicate. Hart had buyers, sellers, suppliers, employees – people he had to keep happy. Focusing on the mother of two daughters in Indiana when his focus should be on business, business that was all of a sudden getting a shakedown from the cops, would not make any of those people happy.

And then Sal could do his work which would make all those people really not happy and hopefully end in Daniel Hart being dead.

That was Cal’s plan. It was shit but at least it was a plan.

“Feds makin’ deals, cops on his ass, his attention is scattered, his operation goes into disarray someone’s gonna notice and he’s gonna have to make a choice. He chooses Vi, his operation falls apart, people get pissed, he’s f**ked. He doesn’t choose Vi, shifts his attention away, gets with the program, she’s free. Either way, she wins,” Cal explained.

“You’re askin’ me to put a shitload of boys in danger. This guy does not like to be messed with,” Barry replied.

“I’m askin’ you to serve and protect. Tim did it and died doin’ it,” Cal reminded him.

Barry was silent and when he spoke his voice low and pissed.

“I met you, I liked you but don’t f**kin’ use the Tim card on me,” he warned. “You didn’t know him, you don’t get that card.”

“His daughters go to bed under the same roof as me. I know him, Barry,” Cal said quietly. “You’ve seen the waste Hart laid to those girls’ lives but I’m cleanin’ it up and you think I won’t use that card for them, you’re f**kin’ crazy.”

Barry was silent again, it lasted longer this time then he bit out, “We’ll do what we can.”

Cal didn’t respond.

Barry spoke again, “You tellin’ me you’re livin’ with Vi and the girls?”

“Yeah,” Cal answered.

Cal heard movement on the phone and he knew it was Barry seeking privacy when he said, “I checked you out.”

Cal pulled in breath and closed his eyes.

“Your line clean?” Barry asked.

Cal opened his eyes. “I’m on Colt’s phone at the Station.”

“You talk to him, you do it on a clean line,” Barry advised and Cal was surprised.

“He’s family,” Cal replied.

“You talk to him, you do it on a clean line,” Barry repeated.

“Barry –”

“I don’t wanna know,” Barry cut him off.

“You know,” Cal said again quietly and heard Barry sigh.

“Yeah, I know.”

“That shit doesn’t blow back on me,” Cal warned.

“We didn’t have this conversation,” Barry stated.

“Good,” Cal replied.

“Jesus. All the luck, Vi moves away from that f**kface and moves next door to a security specialist with mafia ties. Fuck me,” Barry muttered.

“She doesn’t seem real lucky to me,” Cal remarked.

“Maybe her luck has changed,” Barry returned. “I gotta go. I got a Captain to try to convince to commence operation shakedown on a guy who’s whacked one of his detectives and put two others in the hospital, one’s still a vegetable three years down the line. Lucky for you, Vi and those girls, he misses Tim’s shortstop on our softball team.”

“Tim good?” Cal asked.

“The best,” Barry answered.

“I’ll bet,” Cal murmured.

Barry was silent again. Then he whispered, “Keep her safe.”

“You got it,” Cal promised.

Barry disconnected and Cal put down the phone.

Colt rounded Cal’s chair and sat in his own.

“Pryor in line with your plan?” Colt asked and Cal looked at him.

“Yeah,” Cal answered.

Colt studied Cal then asked, “We good?”

Cal studied Colt then asked back, “I tried to take on Denny Lowe without keepin’ you in the loop, would you be good with me?”

Colt’s face went hard. “Not the same thing and you know it, Cal.”

“Explain to me how.”

“You were there when we had our conversation.”

Cal leaned into his friend. “Fuck, Colt, just you roundin’ my f**kin’ house to have that conversation meant you knew.”

Colt held Cal’s stare and then his jaw clenched.

“I stepped out for two and half months, leavin’ her alone,” Cal reminded him.

“You’re in that line of work, Cal. You knew what was goin’ down and where it was gonna go. You stepped out for a reason. You can’t tell me you weren’t workin’ through some shit,” Colt returned.

“I didn’t have the intel, Colt, you kept it from me. I was workin’ through some shit but I woulda worked through it next door to her f**kin’ house and in the know about the escalation of attention,” Cal shot back.

“We had our eye on her and the girls,” Colt informed him.

“That be good enough for you, someone was takin’ pictures of Feb and Jack?” Cal asked.

“Like I said, I made a call. You didn’t like it but nothin’ I can do to change it. We knew what was goin’ on and we kept our shit sharp and she’s good. Pryor knew all about it and her brother did too and they still did what they thought they had to do so that isn’t on me. You’re welcome to stay pissed at me, man, but it’s a waste of energy. It’s done.”