Domestic Duet: Domestic Alliance & Asset (29 page)

“Bingo, we gotcha punk and you’re going down.” Oliver eased from the car.

“Watch the road. I’ll go inside.”

“Dammit, Sadie where’s your weapon and no I’m going in first.”

“I know what to look for and how Edwards thinks. You know what to shoot.” She patted a hand to her hip pocket where she’d sewn in a hidden pocket for her weapon.

“Be careful, Ochi. Once you reach the door let me go in first…make certain it’s clear.”

She winked, ducking and walking close to the ground, her back braced to the fence. Excited with her heart pounding, Sadie took advantage of the quiet to sprint across the street with Oliver’s footsteps trailing a whisper in the background.

Oliver moved in beside her. He peered around as he slid a key into the lock Richard had given him, and eased the metal door ajar enough to slip inside. Scanning the dusty warehouse, she rocked on her white nurse’s shoes, waiting until he gave the all clear. Inside, she stayed close along the wall to an eight-foot-tall padlocked cage. She tugged a bobby pin from her braid, unbending it then began to pick the lock. Sweat beaded down her temple curling the fine hairs. She looked around when the lock popped.

Oliver stood guard, his phaser aimed at the door. “You in?” he asked, his breathing tight.

“I’m in,” she whispered. “Give me sixty seconds and I’m out.”

Inside, she stepped over the cardboard box labeled
brown packing tape
, and eyed the floor. She clicked on the desk lamp and covered it with the box to dim the glow. It left enough milky light to see the contents on the desk. She set down her phaser and headed for the metal file cabinet in the corner. She flipped through the tabs until she saw what she wanted. Her pulse ramped up. Rummaging through the other drawers, she found more files. Launch plans. Invoices for the cylinders they’d purchased. Her hand froze on the linen paper with the government seal embossed at the bottom. A copy of the amended treaty she found in Richard’s vault between the karuntian and humans. Quickly, Sadie made copies of the invoices of cylinders and launch times with the camera function on her transporter. She stuffed the copy of the amended treaty inside her dress. She needed that to show the different ink where they made a fake and signed the altered copy.

“You find it yet?” Oliver asked from across the room, keeping watch on the door.

“Don’t rush me. There’re all sorts of junk in here: Burger wrappers, cigarette butts, and a filthy magazine that’s been sufficiently and thoroughly examined. You men don’t have a clue.”

“Sadie, give me moral lessons later when we have more time and I have a beer in my hand. Did you find it?”

“Three seconds, everything hinges on this. You make certain I don’t get my head blown off and let me worry about my end, Cantrell!”

“Don’t worry ‘bout me. I got you covered.”

The pitter patter of rain on the metal doors echoed through the space, adding to the tension building by the second.

“Ochi, let’s go. We’re pushing it as it is.” Oliver’s frustrated voice echoed in the hollow space.

She replaced the papers, closed the drawer, and left it the way she found it, and then stepped outside of the cage gate locking the deadbolt. Sticking the pin inside her braid, she ran across the dusty floor, careful her tracks blended in with the others.

“I got it. Let’s go,” she exclaimed, tossing her head from side to side scanning the area, while her hand secured the paper under her bra.

Outside, she sucked in the fresh air filling her lungs, her eyes scanning the area for anyone that may have followed them. This was too easy, she thought as they took off across the street. Arms pumping, shoes slapping the wet pavement, they ran through the rain toward the car. Her pulse pounded, and fear cramped in her veins at the chance they’d be stopped, because a black woman caught stealing was going to prison. She couldn’t go to jail. She’d transport first.

A sound came from around the corner and Oliver’s hand locked on her forearms dragging her back, covering her from the tall man barreling for them, gun aimed straight at her. She went down at the sound of a bullet leaving the chamber. She fell against the chain-link fence, biting back a curse when the metal scratched a line down her arm, leaving a trail of blood to drip along her skin. Pressing a hand over the cut, Sadie rolled to her feet to see Oliver kicking the gun from the man, but not before a second bullet caught him in the arm. He grunted, biting back the pain, and used his left hand to phaser shoot the man. The man crumbled to the pavement, his arms caught beneath his side appearing to be broken. Oliver dropped just as Sadie ran over to check on the unconscious man. Seeing the pulse in his throat pumping strong, she ran to Oliver where he lay sprawled out bleeding, his face contorted in pain.

She knelt beside him on the ground, her pulse in her throat at his rapid breathing. “Where did it get you?” darting her attention up and down the street while searching his suit coat for the entry wound. Blood began to seep from his bicep through the suit jacket, darkening the fabric. Rain splattered his face and she wiped the moisture from his eyes.

Oliver touched her hand with his and his grip was weak. “Go check him. I’m okay.” He wasn’t okay… trembling lips was far from okay.

“You’re bleeding from a bullet, not a stun gun. I’ll get you to the medical bay. You’re losing too much blood, Oliver.” She started to grasp her transporter and his long fingers brushed her fingers on his arm.

“Go and check the other guy.” Swallowing thickly he hissed out his pain. “We can’t leave a civilian out in the open. Delivery trucks roll through in an hour.”

She knew he was right and got to her feet to check the other man’s pulse. “Stunned.” She picked up his phaser on the ground, tucking it between her belt and dress at her back. “He’s one of Edwards’ security guards from the bank. I’m contacting Ryner to get you out of here.”

“I’ll get him, you take care of him.” Oliver depressed his com and rattled off an order in a teeth-clenching tone. Seconds later, two men from the space station appeared then disappeared with the man. She got behind Oliver, supporting his head from off the ground, and transported them to the station.

Twenty minutes later, she paced while the doctor ran scans and injected meds into Oliver’s system. He held a wand over her partner’s heart recording his pulse.

“How is he, Doctor? Any permanent damage?” His clammy skin finally held color, and felt less pasty than earlier.

Stepping away from Oliver, the doctor came to stand before Sadie, hands buried inside his lab coat pockets. “No arterial damage. The bullet lodged just under the bicep, severing muscle and tendons, but it’s not his first gunshot wound. The commander’s seen my medical bay more than once this month. I’ll get him patched up. He’ll need a few hours before he tries to use it so I’m keeping him here for observation. Bullet wounds tend to leave a bloody trail inside the body, depending on the trajectory of the shot and the caliber of the weapon.”

“357 Magnum,” she informed him fishing out the check in tickets still in her pocket. “I checked it into evidence.”

“I received the log, thank you, Detective,” he said with an appreciative nod and she tucked the paper back into her inner pocket.

She just wanted the doctor to say Oliver would be okay. “He doesn’t have any family up here, so can you contact me if something happens?”

“Of course. Are you his wife?”

Heavy footsteps echoed around the room.

“She’s his partner, Doctor Cabot, nothing more.” She whirled around. Aroc’s voice boomed through the archway as the doors slid apart.

“Aroc, you can’t be on the station uninvited.”

“Who’ll stop me? I go where I need to when I hear you’re hurt,” he declared and no one appeared to have enough nerve to stop him. “I about came out of my skin when my males informed me you were seen with blood on your face. Are you okay?” he asked, grouping her to his chest, checking her over with long sweeps of his hand. His kiss caught her off guard and she leaned into his caress, loving his touch. Separating herself from his delicious warmth, she straightened her clothes, avoiding the open-mouthed stares from the medical staff.

“Captain, I’m fine—who told you we were here?”

“Doesn’t matter.” He raised his eyes to the doctor. “Can I take her home?”

“No, Captain, you can’t,” she answered for the doctor. “I’m meeting contacts at the diner that work for Windamere. They’ll know of things not mentioned at the Edwards’,” she replied stiffly under his brutish stare. “I’ll be okay, Aroc, I promise,” She whispered, attempting to understand his concern. She left his wounded gaze to look at the doctor. “Will Oliver be okay? I don’t want to leave with him unconscious.”

Doctor Cabot chimed in. “The commander will be sedated for at least three hours and even then I’m keeping him overnight.”

“Go to your meeting, Sadie, then I want you to sit in on a meeting with my staff.”

Sadie leaned back, offering a raised brow. “So you can watch over me?”

As surly as ever he smiled. “Side bonus. Yes!” He kissed her, tossed a searching glance to Oliver, and then walked them from the ER. “I want your input, Sadie.”

“They’ll think you’re showing me favors.”

“I am! You’ve earned them.”

Who told him she was there?

Together they transported to her home where she changed clothes before going back down to retrieve Oliver’s car.

Chapter 15

Back on Earth, Sadie stashed Oliver’s car in a safe place a block away in the parking garage. Transporting to the back of the coffee shop, she took a breath then hustled inside. Once there, she inhaled the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans and honeyed pastries caressing her. Spotting Mr. Wixom and Colson, she kept her back to the men and made her way to the counter. Undoing the rain bonnet from her hair, she placed her order, leaving the cashier with her last five. Blowing her cover over three dollars wasn’t worth it when she only used cash on Earth.

Neither man noticed her maneuvering her way to a table, feet from theirs. Drawing the chair from under the table, careful not to scrape the legs across the floor, Sadie lowered herself on the vinyl seat. Two tables behind them, Sadie slipped a pair of reading glasses from her pocket, pushing them up onto the bridge of her nose.

The waitress dropped off her coffee cake then picked up the empty cup and saucer on the next table. Effortlessly, she moved behind the counter to the swinging doors of the kitchen.

Sadie’s attention came back as one of the men spoke. “What do you think of Cantrell? I don’t trust him…too shifty.”

“Edwards’ cousin,” the man replied, stuffing a slice of pie in his mouth before he continued. “I think he’s holding out on us…keeping the big deals for themselves.”

Sadie strained to hear more over the hum of the other patrons’ conversations.

“Tomorrow after the meeting, at the bank, we'll follow Cantrell; see where he’s getting all his information. He’s not sharing something. You see the car he drives. That model’s only been out a month and he’s had his for six months already. Someone’s bank rolling him, and I intend to find out who.”

“How long has Edwards known him?”

The other man paused as if in thought, then raised the cup of coffee to his lips.

Sadie heard him glug down the coffee, then the
thwack
of the cup hitting the saucer. “Says he’s a cousin by marriage from Ohio and somehow he has all these government connections that he’s sharing with Richard.” Suspicion filled the air.

“Are you sure everything’s set for tomorrow? Last time, someone tipped off the state police, now eight former bankers are sitting in federal penitentiary doing life,” the man spoke so low, Sadie strained to listen.

“Those men were amateurs with no experience in this. Richard’s never been caught and he’s made millions over the years.”

“Millions!” The man snorted setting down his cup of coffee. “Do you know what I’d do with that kind of money?”

“Nothing, after they catch you, locking you in the prison cell for the rest of your life.” He leaned forward and Sadie had to strain to hear. “You can’t spend a dime for a year. Let the heat die down first.”

“A year?” The other man cursed, the blotchy sunburned cheeks flushing up to his hairline. “I can’t sit on cash like that for a year. I’ve got my eye on a little island off the Caymans where I can retire with the wife.”

“And the big guy doing twenty to life, in the next cell, will have his eye on your bony ass. Spend a dime before we get the okay—we all go under.”

The man fumed, dropping his shoulders in an exaggerated gesture, then drank his coffee.

“You heard Richard. Extravagant purchases draws too much attention. If you’re in a tight, I’ll float you for a few months, but don’t stiff me.”

He rubbed his hands together. “The new Plymouth’s coming out soon and I got my eye on a white and cream little beauty.”

“Are you listening to me?” Colson huffed and Sadie could make out the edge of his lip curling into a snarl. “Let me know where to send the china once the guy in the cell next to you proposes marriage. I’m not giving your greedy ass money for a new car. I meant making the mortgage or your kid needs braces. Get smart or we all go down.”

“Alright, alright.” He gave on a haughty breath. “I’ll sit on it for a year.”