I couldn’t help laughing at Gavin’s summation. “The situation’s escalated pretty quickly if I’m ready to have his babies.”

“You know what I meant.” He nudged his shoulder against mine. “So quit worrying, ’kay?”

“The thing is, I let myself get too comfortable with him while we were talking.”

Gavin’s smile faded. “What do you mean?”

Groaning, I covered my eyes with my hands. “We were playing this stupid get-to-know-you game, and when trying to connect with him about being the youngest of the family, I let it slip that my siblings didn’t think I could do what I wanted when I grew up. When I realized what I’d done, I covered my ass by saying I wanted to be a cop.”

When I dared to look at Gavin, he was once again grinning at me. “Jesus, Sam, you’re entirely too hard on yourself. For a minute, I thought you had given him your badge number or some bullshit. That was barely a slipup.”

“You’re too forgiving when it comes to me.”

“Fine. You want the truth?”

Now it was my turn to groan as he did the familiar bit with me from A Few Good Men. “Yeah, I can handle the truth.”

“My first undercover case, I let it slip where I really lived—almost blew the whole damn thing.”

I widened my eyes in disbelief. “You never told me that.”

“Maybe I didn’t want to look bad in front of my new partner,” he said with a wink.

“Thanks for telling me now.”

“You’re welcome. Now we better get inside before Peterson wonders what the hell we’re doing out here.”

As Gavin started for the door, I blurted, “He’s not a monster.”

Glancing back at me over his shoulder, Gavin looked confused. “Who, Peterson?”

I shook my head. “No. Bishop.”

“I’m glad you figured that one out.”

“But I’m not. You know it just makes the case harder if he’s really a decent guy,” I argued.

“That’s true. But at the end of the day, what we’re doing doesn’t mean sending Bishop to prison and throwing away the key. There are a lot of parameters in this case. He and his brothers play their cards right, and they won’t be locked up forever.”

While I nodded, I didn’t tell Gavin what I was really feeling. The truth was in that moment, I had a hard time imagining seeing Bishop punished. In my mind, I hoped there was some way he could cop a deal and plead out of any charges. If they were truly giving their guns to the cartel, then the bureau would be much more interested in taking the cartel down if the Raiders would help.

“Stop overthinking, Vargas. I’m starving for some fucking waffles,” Gavin said, bringing me out of my internal tirade.

I laughed and let him lead me into the restaurant. At the sight of us, Peterson waved us over. The place was fairly empty, with only a few sleepy-eyed truckers as the other patrons.

When we reached the booth, Peterson’s gaze roamed over my heavy makeup and skintight attire. “We really have to stop meeting like this, Vargas.”

I snorted as I slid into the seat across from him. “I have a feeling a burlap sack wouldn’t stop you from ogling me, you old pervert.”

Peterson threw his head back and laughed. “I’m never able to get one over on you.”

“And you never will,” I said as I picked up the grease-encrusted menu.

After the waitress got our order, Peterson asked, “So, how did your first MC party go?”

Although my mind still spun from trying to process all I had seen and heard, I gave an apathetic shrug of my shoulder. “Meh, it was okay, I guess.”

Peterson’s bushy salt-and-pepper eyebrows shot up. “Just ‘okay’?”

“Actually, it was pretty tame. Apparently, all the exhibitionist sex and nudity happens at the rallies, not the parties,” I replied.

“Did you find that out from some of the old ladies?” Peterson asked.

“Actually, Bishop was the one who let me in on that little secret.”

“Ah, you had a little chat with the target. What’s your take on him?”

At the insinuation of getting to know Bishop, I jerked my gaze up from the menu to stare at him. When I saw he wasn’t suspicious, I replied, “Yeah. I did. I found him to be quite the fount of information about certain things.” I didn’t dare look at Gavin. Instead, I glanced back at the menu.

“You find out anything else besides the party-versus-rally info?” Peterson questioned.

“Not anything good that we can use in the case, but I did really well when it came to rattling him. We had a long time alone together while Gavin helped a prospect get a keg in the warehouse.”

At the mention of the warehouse, Peterson forgot all about me. Instead, he turned his bright eyes to Gavin. “I had no idea you would get inside there so quickly. See anything useful?”

Gavin shook his head. “Nope. It was a total bust on physical evidence. No suspicious crates or boxes, no empty spaces where a shipment might’ve been or was about to be. If the Raiders are still running guns, I don’t see how it’s possible they’re doing it out of that warehouse. Maybe they’ve got something going off the property.”

When Peterson gave a frustrated grunt, Gavin held up his hand. “I said I didn’t get any good physical evidence, but the word of mouth from the prospect, Joe, was pretty good.”

“So the old adage that a frustrated prospect is your first point of club knowledge rang true?” Peterson asked with a grin.