He’d ask too many damn questions, and Frost had mixed loyalties. He’d see the club in a different light if he discovered they had Dixie Mafia ties.
“And,” Frost continued, “assuming he actually did send it to the feds, with their backlog of cold cases, not to mention a deluge of new ones, I doubt they’d get around to it for quite a while. Right now, the Dallas office is working those Valentine murders in San Antonio.”
Axel had heard about the Valentine case. The feds were combing the countryside for the remains of dozens of young women. That had to be eating up a lot of local resources.
He glanced at Charlie once more. She was huddled in the corner of the booth. Damn. He wished Frost had broken the news to her differently. She looked smaller somehow, more vulnerable, and he had a crazy urge to pull her into his arms, and comfort her.
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” Frost sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Charlie flinched, pulling away from him.
Frost withdrew his hand and continued on. “Nothin’ would give me more pleasure than hunting down your father’s killer, but my hands are tied. I was actually gonna suggest you seek out the Horsemen, see if they can do anything to help you.”
And that got Axel to thinkin’…
Maybe this situation could be a solution to the Beauregard problem. “We can’t let this bastard get away with his crimes.” And Axel sure has hell didn’t want to spend the remainder of his life being a Dixie Mafia errand boy. “Maybe we need a permanent way to fix the problem.”
Frost’s blue eyes had gone as chilly as his name. “I’m gonna pretend you didn’t say that, seein’ as how I’m a cop .”
Charlie cleared her throat then took a long drink from her coffee cup.
Good. She’d snapped out of her daze. Axel worried she was going to fall to pieces, but he should’ve known better. Charlie was a survivor; she had to be in her chosen profession.
Frost pursed his lips. “For the record, I think this is a bad idea. When I suggested the Horsemen, I was wondering if Beauregard would pay some compensation. To keep this quiet.” He gazed at Axel. “You know, one of your asshole fees.”
“Asshole fee?” Charlie asked.
“My MC,” Axel answered. “We make bastards pay for harming people.”
“And that isn’t a metaphor,” Frost said. “The asshole fee, I mean.”
“Oh, there’s an asshole or two here, and I don’t mean Beauregard,” Charlie said with a sneer. “I’m not going to accept that murder’s money. There’s no such thing as a Sorry I Gunned Down Your Father check.”
Then she turned to Axel, eyes blazing. “And you? Nobody’s doing anything permanent. That isn’t my style, or my father’s. I don’t want this Beauregard guy six feet under. I want him sharing a cell with some big dude who likes it rough.”
“I wasn’t suggestin’ a murder.” Axel had never killed in cold blood.
“What did you mean?” Frost asked.
Axel didn’t have any delusions about going head-to-head with Beauregard. His mafia connections would make sure the Horsemen died bloody.
So, they had to come at him sideways.
“There has to be a way to set his ass up,” Axel said. “Maybe we could poke around? Find some evidence? He’s clever bastard, but he’s bound to have fucked up at least once.”
“Yeah, but you’d have to get close to do that,” Frost pointed out. “He’d see you comin’ a mile away.”
While Axel had a deal with Beauregard, he didn’t have any delusions that the man trusted him. The Horsemen couldn’t do this particular job. “We need an in, then. Someone he wouldn’t notice. Someone who could poke around and gather some intel. And then we could gift wrap it and send it to the feds, since the sheriff won’t get off his ass.”
“And who could get that close to him?” Frost asked.
“I could,” Charlie said simply.
***
“No, no way. Absolutely not,” Axel protested, crossing his arms over his