Covert Exposure (16 page)

“We got a little problem up here in the
warehouse.”

“What kind of problem?”

“Well, it’s wired with cameras up here. And
though it’s pitch black, for all I know they’re watching us right
now and we’re having trouble finding the gateway to the
underground,” Marsh replied.

Suddenly Spinelli heard a loud screeching
noise of metal being scraped across a cement floor. It sounded from
the room in which Shannon and Miller sat in captivity. Spinelli
dropped to his knees, and pressed his cheek against the floor and
peered under the door. He saw Loukas the Greek and one of his large
musclemen dressed in black enter the room through the door located
between the shelving units which housed the drugs. A light glowed
behind them.

Spinelli fought for a voice. “Marsh, get a
move on. Loukas and another goon just entered the room. There’s a
light shining from where they came. Look for the glow and you
should find the entrance.”

Spinelli watched as Loukas glanced in the
direction of Shannon and Miller then toward the goons. His voice
echoed throughout the room and made its way under the door and into
Spinelli’s ear. “I told you to tie up the loose ends. We can’t
afford any more mistakes like the kid lying in the hospital. Get
rid of these two now and make them disappear. And hurry up because
we’ve got company upstairs to take care of as well.”

* * * *

Tears burned in Shannon’s eyes. Did she
really just hear her death sentence? A multitude of visions and
thoughts bombarded her mind causing her to grow dizzy, or perhaps
it was her throbbing head that caused the havoc. At this point, she
didn’t know.

A vivid picture of her nephews surfaced in
her mind. She wondered if she would ever see them again. She
thought of all the things her untimely death would prevent her from
doing. She would never have the opportunity to marry and have a
family of her own. She wondered who would take care of Mrs. Finch
and Mrs. Night. And Spinelli, who would take care of him? He needed
taking care of, he probably didn’t know it, but he did. Would she
ever get to see him and feel the warmth of his arms around her
again?

Shannon gave herself a mental head slap.
I
had the gun in my hands. What the hell happened? How did I end up
here?

She blew out a sigh.
Where is Spinelli? If
only he were here this wouldn’t be happening, he’d know what to do,
and he’d take care of us.

* * * *

With no good plan in mind, Spinelli sprang to
his feet and pounded on the metal door. He knew he needed to create
some sort of distraction to buy time until Marsh and the officers
could make their way down.

“
Shit!” Walker cursed over the air.
“Marsh, watch out; they know you’re up there and hurry up. Loukas
the Greek just entered the room and ordered that Shannon and Miller
be killed.”

As Spinelli banged on the door, both he and
Walker stepped to the sides hoping they wouldn’t be seen through
the large sliding peephole. The peephole gate slid open for a
moment, and then shut. “I don’t see anyone.” The muffled voice came
from the opposite side of the door.

Spinelli pounded on the door again and the
peephole opened.

Gunshots fired, echoing a floor above. Loukas
the Greek’s voice penetrated throughout the underground, “Damn it!
You idiots! Can’t you do anything right? Get rid of whoever it
is.”

Marsh’s hurried voice came over the air.
“We’re on our way down. We’re just about there.”

The metal door between Spinelli and Walker
pushed open and a large bodied man dressed in all black stepped
through. He turned his head and eyed Spinelli standing there in his
Santa suit. He appeared completely dumfounded at the sight. Walker
stepped out from the opposite side of the door and tasered the
goon. He dropped like a rock.

“Let her go! There’s no way out for you, let
her go!” Marsh’s voice bounded from the other side of the room.

Spinelli stepped into the doorway to find
Loukas the Greek with his arm wrapped around Shannon’s waist. He
was using her as a shield. Spinelli’s heart popped into his throat
and cut off his oxygen supply.

One of the goons stood to Loukas’ right,
pointing his gun in Spinelli and Walker’s direction. Positioned
between the goon and Shannon, Loukas stood secure.

Spinelli studied the room, looking for
anything, anything at all, to help them out of this situation
safely. Other than the drug-stocked shelves lining the walls, only
a few old rickety wooden chairs and a table occupied the center of
the room. One bare light bulb hung above the table dimly lighting
the room.

Spinelli shifted his glance in the direction
of the muscleman who cowered behind Miller. Miller still sat
slumped over and motionless and bound to his chair with duct tape.
The muscleman kneeling behind him drew his gun and pointed at the
doorway in which Marsh and one uniformed officer stood.

All at once, Miller let out a loud groan and
flung his head back catching the thug behind him square in the
face. The crunching sound of the goon’s nose bones breaking sent a
shiver up Spinelli’s spine. The goon immediately threw his free
hand over his profusely bleeding nose. Then he pulled his hand back
and stared at the pool of blood in his palm. His eyes widened as if
he’d just seen a ghost. The color drained from his face, his eyes
rolled back and he dropped to the floor. Out cold, Spinelli
thought. But for how long?

The excitement drew the attention of the thug
standing next to Loukas. Spinelli seized the opportunity and fired
a round at the goon standing between him, and Loukas and Shannon.
He caught him in the shoulder of his gun-arm causing him to drop
his weapon and fall to his knees. Blood seeped out of his shoulder
and soaked into his shirt.

Spinelli’s eyes fixed on Loukas and with his
gun pointed in that direction he edged toward Loukas and Shannon.
He scanned him, looking for weapon. He saw none. Loukas continued
to use Shannon as a shield. Spinelli watched as Marsh moved in
toward Loukas from the opposite side.

Walker moved in toward the thug that lay on
the floor next to Miller. He appeared motionless but suddenly, in
one fluid movement, he reached for his weapon that lay only inches
from his hand and quickly fired off a round at Spinelli catching
him in his midsection.

In the very next instant Walker got off a
shot and the thug that shot Spinelli lay permanently motionless on
the cold cement floor.

All eyes shifted to Spinelli.

When the bullet struck him, Spinelli felt an
odd sensation pass by his abdomen. The impact caused him to shift
slightly to the left. He looked down at the right side of his body
and noticed a black rimmed hole in the red velvet coat he wore.
Confusion filled him. He couldn’t feel pain yet he knew he’d been
hit.

Shannon let out a cry and Spinelli caught her
frantic gaze. She looked as confused as he felt.

Spinelli took a couple of more steps toward
the goon he shot in the shoulder and he kicked the goon’s weapon
out of his reach. He looked up and saw that Marsh and the uniformed
officer had freed Shannon from Loukas the Greek’s hold and secured
him.

Spinelli glanced at the uniformed officer and
pointed to the thug on the floor. “Cuff him.”

Walker radioed for an ambulance for Miller
and cut the duct tape loose, freeing Miller from the chair.

Spinelli could hear Walker talking to Miller.
“Is he okay?” Spinelli yelled over to Walker.

“He’s conscious, but a bit out of it.”

Spinelli took a moment to study the room then
deemed the situation secure. Suddenly Spinelli remembered he’d been
hit. He looked down at where the bullet entered him. No blood and
no pain. He eyed the bullet hole and studied the black ring left
behind on the red velvet material. He unfastened the big gold
buckle on the wide black belt, which secured his coat and then he
unbuttoned the black buttons and pulled the coat open to find that
the bullet entered and wedged itself in the gut roll of his fat
suit.

Spinelli let out a hearty laugh and looked up
to find the eyes of Shannon, Walker, Marsh, and Loukas on him.
“Well, Merry Christmas to me.”

Shannon leaped forward, threw her arms around
Spinelli’s neck, and clung to him. Her voice shook, “Oh my God! I
thought you’d been shot.” He wrapped his arms around her and held
her tight as she sobbed into the crook of his neck.

“Shh, Sweetheart, everything’s okay.”

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Spinelli strode into Captain Jackson’s office
and took a seat in the chair across from her desk rather than on
her two-drawer file cabinet where he usually took up residence.

“Well, what’s the scoop on Loukas the Greek?”
Jackson asked.

Spinelli cleared his throat. “He had quite
the drug trafficking operation going on right out of his restaurant
in the mall with the help of an extensive underground tunnel system
reaching as far as the campus. He preyed on college kids who worked
at the mall to handle the distribution.”

Jackson cocked her head to the side. “What do
you mean? How did he get them to work for him?”

“He would invite the kids to join in an
after-hours card game in his restaurant. The drugs, alcohol, and
women made it appealing to the kids. And when his card sharks would
take the kids for all they were worth their options were either to
cough up the cash to pay off their gambling debt or work off their
debt by distributing drugs for Loukas. Most of the kids didn’t have
any money so they were forced to distribute. If they didn’t comply,
Loukas’ goons would help them come to terms with their
destiny.”

Jackson raised an eyebrow. “Hmm.”

Spinelli pressed on. “Anyhow, at some point
victim Reed apparently confided in victim Hudson about the
operation and they both wound up dead. The kid in the hospital,
Jarrod, got pounded by Loukas’ musclemen because they caught him
talking to Miller. They’d discovered Miller’s a cop. As it turns
out, Loukas has been running this operation for twenty plus years
out of the mall, recruiting new college kids in as others left the
operation.”

“So one minute these kids are partying and
having the time of their lives and the next minute they find
themselves deep in debt and desperate. Desperate enough to risk
going to jail for drug distribution.”

Spinelli nodded. “That about sums it up.”

Spinelli lifted himself from his chair and
headed toward the doorway.

She called after him and he glanced back at
her. She looked unusually puzzled.

“Ah, Spinelli, why are you still dressing
like Santa? You’ve solved the case, your undercover job as Santa is
over.”

Before he could answer Jackson, the sound of
women’s heels clicking on the old hardwood floor echoed throughout
the precinct. They both turned their heads in that direction to
find Shannon crossing the precinct floor dressed in her little
Santa helper outfit.

Spinelli turned his head back in Jackson’s
direction. He flashed his lady-killer smile, wiggled his eyebrows a
couple of times and finished off with a little wink. “That’s why,”
he said as he pointed in Shannon’s direction.

Jackson returned Spinelli’s sly smile with
one of her own. “Lord help her!”

About the Author

Valerie Clarizio
lives in beautiful Door County Wisconsin with her husband and
extremely spoiled cat. She loves to read, write, and spend time at
her cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She's lived her life
surrounded by men, three brothers, a husband, and a male Siamese
cat who required his own instruction manual. Keeping up with all
the men in her life has turned her into a successful hunter and
fisherwoman. She holds a Master of Business Administration degree
and works as a Finance Director. She is a member of Romance Writers
of America and the Wisconsin Romance Writers of America.

Twitter:
@VClarizio

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/val.clarizio

Blog:
http://valclarizio.wordpress.com

Also available from Valerie
Clarizio:

Craving
Vengence
, a Nick Spinelli Mystery

Turn the page for more books
available
from Melange Books

Also Available
From Melange Books

Craving Vengeance
A Nick Spinelli Mystery #2

by Valerie J. Clarizio

Nick Spinelli's normal life as a homicide
detective has been catapulted into a whirlwind of chaotic holiday
adventures ever since he met the beautiful Shannon O'Hara.