“Dude, you know her church is all white ladies, don’t you?” Jax filled his coffeemaker while Reuben polished off his green smoothie.
Reuben shrugged. “Used to it. Wouldn’t otherwise but Larraine asked me.”
Jax grimaced. “Friends gotta be friends, got it. Anything I need to work on while you’re socially occupied?”
Reuben waited until Evie led a chattering Loretta outside before replying. “Sunshine has called an emergency board meeting for tomorrow. There’s a conference room in the office wing of the Azalea Apartments. You might ask Gump if he’s bothered wiring that room. It would be beneficial.”
He hurried after Evie before Jax could question.
Emergency board meeting? For why? And why would it be beneficial to bug it? He hadn’t really believed Evie would drop the case, but what had she had time to do to result in a board meeting? They’d spent all yesterday in a phone bank!
Alarmed, Jax pulled out his cell, but he doubted if Gump had had time to obtain any warrants. On the face of it, Sunshine was completely legal. It might employ a few questionable employees, but the feds didn’t waste time arresting penny-ante embezzlers and reformed counterfeiters. They’d need interstate criminal activity, and no one had evidence of that yet.
Reuben was telling him that Evie hadn’t stopped interfering.
Shit. Drinking his coffee, he texted Roark. Then snatching a donut from the box Mavis must have brought over, he headed out to his Harley. Ariel would be sleeping at this hour, but it was probably best if they kept her out of Evie’s machinations.
Barefoot and shirtless, Roark greeted him on the front porch, water bottles in hand. He’d built a pull-up exercise bar under the eaves and had worked up a sweat in the August humidity. Still early, the heat hadn’t reached boiling yet.
“Celebrating?” Jax asked, rolling the bike up the last part of the drive to keep from waking his sister. “Did Pris jump your bones in jubilation last night?”
Roark snorted up the water he’d just swallowed. “I left her and your Italian geek shouting at each other in foreign languages. Does she really read minds? Because she didn’t seem to like what was on his.”
Jax accepted a cold water bottle. “Evie’s familyknowsthings the old-fashioned way, gossip. What’s up next for you?”
“Waiting to see what the cops did with my da’s nest of vipers. Needing action. You bring me some?”
“Depends. You know what Reuben and Evie are up to on the Gump case?” Jax settled on the front step.
“You told us to pull back.” Roark handed him his cell phone with the message from the Candyman. “Reckon I’ll have a visit from da as soon as he works out where I am. Probably ought to head out before then.”
“The Candyman?”
“Yeah, my bros used to call him dat cause he’d bring candy when he wanted to wheedle somet’ing out of us.”
Jax whistled. “What are the chances he’ll find you?”
Roark shrugged. “Don’ even know how he found that number. I reckon we stirred the sleeping giant behind his operation, someone with tech knowhow.”
“Any of your family back online? Can you tell what’s happening?”
“Mais oui, women are pissed. Lotta code words flyin’. My name came up a time or two. I called Mama, since my number out there now.” He looked at his prepaid phone with regret. “Gotta get a new one.”
“You’ve earned it. You should collect ten percent, minimum, of all that money you got back. Send a bill.” Jax grinned at the idea of all those victims receiving a bill for services rendered. “What did your mother say?”
“Cops raided a bar in town. She thought da clowns were gambling and was cursing dem for shuttin’ down the internet while her favorite show was playing. She said my cousins suddenly decided to follow my bros out of town. Now I gotta hope the rich honcho doesn’t have an operation in Texas too. I can’t keep doin’ this.”
“Well, if your father had a phone to text you, we’ll have to assume he escaped the raid. And since you emptied his bank account, he can’t get far. The security here is tight. You should be good.”
Roark’s look was almost wistful as he glanced over his shoulder at the cottage. “It’s nice here. But I can’t keep bumming off your sister.”
“Stacey Gump will pay her bill, and you’ll have a share of that. Shame there wasn’t any big reward for catching scammers. That line of business ought to pay better.”
Roark shrugged. “Gotta face facts. Can’t get paid for illegal hacking, unless I want to turn criminal. I coulda made a bona fide bonus yesterday.”
“Which is where I come in.” Jax knew he hadn’t had time to think this through, but time was of the essence. “You didn’t have time to build in a transfer to your own account in yesterday’s attack, but I assume that’s doable?”
Roark squinted at him. “You mean, I should skim off the top of old ladies’ stolen money?”