Jacked (63 page)

Other units were dispatched; their lights and sirens lit up the night sky behind us. But it didn’t matter. I didn’t want to think about what I might find when I finally reached her.

He drove our rig right onto her front lawn. Gun drawn, I was up at her door, shouldering it in easily. Marcus was at my back.

“Erin!” I shouted, hoping and praying with every fiber of my soul she’d answer me back.

Shit was scattered on the floor: broken glass, pillows, a lampshade.

Marcus shoved me up against the wall; the whites of his eyes drilled reminders into me of years of training, of protocol, of keeping the team safe. Several other uniformed officers entered behind us.

“We clear first,” Marcus growled low through his teeth.

All I could see was blinding rage and a terrifying fear that I wouldn’t get to her in time. I pushed back but he shoved me harder, knocking some sense into me.

Flashlights lit up the rooms, the stairs, announcing police presence with every step.

“Adam!”

I heard her shaky voice before my flashlight scanned over her petrified face. Her arms were around my neck in the next step. I had her pinned to the wall two seconds after, shielding her body with mine until all threats were neutralized. She was barely dressed; I at least had a vest on, able to protect her.

“I’m here, baby. I’m here. You’re safe.”

The familiar smell of her hair, the feel of her warm skin against my cheek as she shook in my arms—it was the best and worst feeling in the world, making it harder to breathe.

I caged her in, unwilling to holster my weapon in case I needed to kill the fucker who did this. I’d think about revenge and retribution later.

“Are you hit?” My words came out choked with everything I’d been feeling, knowing I’d seen blood on her face.

She was trembling. “N… no.”

I wiped her hair back, scanning her from head to toe, moving clothes to see her skin, assuring myself that she was okay.

My heart clenched. “You’re bleeding.”

She touched her forehead. “I tripped in the hallway.”

“Did they come inside?”

“No.” Her head shook. “I don’t think so. I… I didn’t hear anything. Adam…”

I hugged her, taking her tears as my own threatened to follow. I kissed her hair, trembling with her. “I know, sweetheart. I know. I got you.”

All throughout the house officers were calling out “clear,” announcing that each room was free from perpetrators. Lights in every room were turned on.

Marcus holstered his weapon. “You all right?”

Erin swiped her hair back, nodding.

He shined his flashlight on her forehead, minding her eyes. “She need an ambulance?”

I wanted him to quit looking. “She’s okay. Just shaken.”

Marcus glanced around while more officers paraded through. “Any ideas who’d do this?”

I didn’t want to state it out loud, but whoever did this was trying to kill her to hurt me, and that made the list of possible suspects quite long.

I DROVE PAST
my house slowly before circling the block and pulling into my garage. Erin had been quiet for the last few hours, withdrawing pretty hard while local PD processed the scene. She answered questions as best as she could but beyond describing hearing the gunshots and seeing things break, she had no valuable information to share.

My captain had shown up shortly after we cleared the house, providing a great buffer between the leading questions posed by the investigator assigned and me. As if I’d want any harm to come to the woman I was in love with.

I knew he was just doing his job but I didn’t like him implying that I was directly involved. I wanted to question her neighbors myself, but there was no way I could leave her side. I had to take the other officer’s word for it that they’d do a thorough job.

“What makes you think we’ll be safe here?” she murmured. I let her doubt slide as I knew she’d been through the wringer and her voice was still shaky.

“I have an alarm system and plenty of weapons. This is safer than a hotel.”

She nodded; the life had been sucked out of her.

“Erin, look at me.”

She was on the verge of tears again. It killed me.

“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise. You trust me?”

I didn’t like her pause before she nodded.

I grabbed her suitcase and her duffle bags and set them outside the kitchen door. I punched in my alarm code and then reset it, moving Erin into the corner of my kitchen, away from windows.

I had a Sig Saur loaded in the cabinet above the microwave. I made sure a round was chambered and handed it to her. “Don’t shoot me. Safety on, safety off. Red is dead. Remember?”

I knew she was confused. I pulled my service weapon. “You stay here. I’m clearing the house to make sure you feel safe, and then we’re going to bed. Okay?”

The fear was back in her eyes.

“That’s just like the weapon you fired at the range. You know how to handle it. We’ve got this.” I touched her face. “You with me?”

Erin nodded.

“Words, Doc. You with me?”

“I’m with you.”

“Good. I’m going upstairs first. Try not to accidentally shoot me.”

She frowned at me, but it had to be said.

I checked doors and windows and then went room by room. She was mostly a zombie, reeling in shock when I got back to her. I relieved her of the weapon and grabbed her bags. “Come on. Let’s get some rest.”

We moved around my bedroom in silence; gone was the comfortable familiarity and effortless ease. In its place was separation and mistrust. She took a shower by herself and then crawled under the covers, putting her back to me, spanning that distance even farther.

I rested up on my hand and stared at the back of her wet head, aching to fix this.

“Erin.”

She made no effort to move so I moved her.

I held her cheek so she wouldn’t be able to turn away and ignore me. I searched her eyes, praying I’d see some remaining love staring back at me. Her brow furrowed.

“I love you.”

Her frown deepened.

“I’ve been in love with you for a very long time. I can’t even think about not having you in my life.” The images plaguing my mind were too vivid, too real. I couldn’t bear being without her; the thought was too painful, beyond anything I’d ever felt for another person. I’d almost lost her. Almost. Part of me felt dead just acknowledging that. “I can’t lose you.”

My vision of her face blurred as the pain crushed into my chest. She’d become as necessary as breathing to me and losing that would take me out with it.

Her thumb caught one of my tears.

Her eyes were just as watery, making me say a silent prayer that she wasn’t going to tell me goodbye.

“I love you too,” she broke. “So much, it hurts.”

I leaned down to kiss her, feeling her cry into my mouth, crushing me inside. Our fears turned into need—need to feel alive, to reconnect, to drown out the internal agony that consumed us both. She let me make love to her, allowing me to show her how much I couldn’t live without her. Soft whimpers left her throat every time I told her I loved her, as though it physically hurt her to hear those words. I didn’t care; I’d tell her a thousand times a day just so she’d know.

I wrapped her into my chest when we’d finished, forming a protective cocoon around her so she’d feel safe enough to sleep.

I woke up several hours later to an empty bed.

An empty house.

Erin and her bags were gone.

MY CALLS WENT
unanswered.

My texts to her—ignored.

I drove by her house; her car was gone. The bullet holes through her large front window were easy to see in the light of day.

I cruised through the hospital’s parking lot but there was no sign of her car there either.

Over the next few days I rolled through every emotion: from anger and aggravating betrayal to remorse and resentment. I managed to accomplish the very thing I had tried to prevent. I’d fucked up her life. Her house getting shot up had made the news. Pictures of her and her house were broadcasted on all of the television news channels, in the local section of the newspaper, and spread throughout every crevice on the Internet.

Erin had obviously shut her phone off; her voice greeting picked up immediately. Call it resourceful—I put my detective skills to work and eventually found her car at her parents’. I just needed to know she was somewhere safe with people looking out for her—not that she was incapable of doing that on her own, but it gave me some peace of mind to know she wasn’t alone.

Local investigators managed to pull fifteen slugs out of Erin’s walls and retrieved most of the spent shell casings outside, but without a weapon and a suspect, the case was cold. None of her neighbors had seen anything either, only reporting that they’d heard the gunshots. No one had even seen a suspicious car driving through the neighborhood. The elderly woman who lived directly across the street told me she’d heard loud cracks quite a few times over the last few weeks but never saw where they came from. The shots reportedly happened in the cloak of night, which led me to this new level of desperate insanity.

Someone had been firing a nine-millimeter at Erin and I needed to know who.

My hand squeezed harder on his throat, choking the dirtbag I’d snatched from the street. “I’m losing my patience, Felix.”

“Get the fuck off me, pig,” Felix groaned.

I crammed his face into the chain-link fence, pressing my advantage. The sun had already come up, revealing our position. DEA had recently seized this property, locking it down from local gang radar. There was nothing around us but an empty lot and abandoned buildings. “Yell all you want. Ain’t no one gonna hear you.”

Marcus was on point, being my backup, looking the other way while I bent the law. I tried to keep him out of this but he insisted he had my back. We were off duty when I snagged Felix; if anything happened now, we’d both be in trouble.

“I don’t know nothing,” Felix spat, trying to wiggle his scrawny body loose.

“They executed your brother, Felix.” I put my next words right into his ear. “Two bullets to the head, not just one. Apparently one wasn’t enough. Your cousin was on the slab next to Benny. Who’s next, Felix? You? Your mom? Your sister? My woman?”

Felix rolled his face on the chain-link.

I was tired of him stalling. “Who put the hit out on my woman?”

“Man, I don’t know nothing about a hit.”

I shook him hard. “Do not fucking lie to me!”

“I’m not! No one is talking about taking out a cop or anything. I swear.”

I twisted his arm higher, adding to his misery. “Who the fuck unloaded a magazine on my girlfriend?”

“I don’t know,” he snapped. “No crew even give a flying fuck about pig pussy.”

I wanted to snap his neck. “You know they’re coming after you next. If I found you, you think Mancuso’s crew can’t fish you out?” I could feel the small pipe in his front pocket. “You end up in gen-pop, you’ll be shived before lunch.”

“Man, fuck you.”

“Sorry, not into skinny white dudes.”

Marcus cleared his throat, telling me to speed this up.

“Why did they take your brother out, Felix? I already know who did it; help me understand why.”

His resolve was wavering.

“Give me something. Help me get them off the streets. Your mom, your sister, all safe.”

“I talk to you, I end up like them.”

“Not if I get to them first.”

Felix scoffed. “Like mofos are worried about ATTF, ‘n sure as hell ain’t worried about Mister Hollywood. Boys have been playin’ you for months. Ain’t even breakin’ a sweat over it.”

I gave him another hard jostle as a reminder that time was ticking and I wasn’t above beating his ass for answers. “Enjoy jail. Fuck if I care you become someone’s bitch.”

“All right. All right,” he groaned. “You gonna let me walk?”

“Up to you. It’s all just paperwork for us.”

“Shew.” He glared over his shoulder. “I’m a dead man.”

“Then do your brother a solid.”

Felix bowed his head, slowly rolling it. “All I know was Benny was talking to this dude.”

“Who?”