LineofDuty (11 page)

“Fuck you,” Jake yelled back for lack of anything else to
say.

He and Becca joined the group around the whiteboard as the
last stragglers. Jake did a double take. In the middle of their huddle, with
Cole, was the narc officer he’d met at the farmhouse scene.

“Welcome back, everyone,” Cole said, pulling in the
attention on him. “We have been assigned to work with Narcotics on these busts.
Today we’re going to do another bust. I’ll give the floor to Officer Tatum to
explain the background here.”

Officer Tatum stepped forward. “Thanks for joining us on
this mission. According to the intel we gathered from our dealer friends picked
up yesterday, Felipe Rios, one of David Alvarez and Jose Garza’s former
business associates, runs a prescription pill mill out of this gas station at
Bell Ave and New York Street.” He paused to pin a few surveillance pictures to
the top of the whiteboard.

Jake’s stomach churned. Again? This was too much
coincidence.

“The plan is to enter the store from the front, which is the
only access. We’re going to get power cut so it takes down their security
cameras and we can access the back rooms where Rios has his operation set up.
Several sources have confirmed that every Thursday at one he comes in to check
the stock and have a meeting with a guy who was widely referred to as the
Pharmacist, who handles the day-to-day running of their supply. Our goal here
is to apprehend both the Pharmacist and Rios, take into possession any
computers or information on site and move on it as soon as possible.”

The pieces fit together too cleanly. It was way too neat.
He’d worked so many angles and leads to even get Diego Cruz behind bars, and in
a string of chance they were potentially going to bag three members of the old
gang at once?

Officer Tatum wrapped up the explanation of the mission and
the teams began to disperse to the unmarked vans as the vehicles of choice.
Both vans sported magnetic decals of major snack food companies to further the
disguise.

“Hey, Tatum,” Jake said, approaching the officer and Cole.

“Vant, glad to see you’re with us today.” Tatum offered his
hand and shook Jake’s.

“Yeah, me too. Have we had any leads on why this is so
easy?”

Tatum shrugged. “No, man, but we can’t sit around with our
thumbs up our asses and ignore the golden opportunity.”

“What about Diego Cruz?”

Tatum’s brows drew down in a line. “What about him?”

“How much longer is he in for?”

“Wait—you didn’t know?” Tatum’s eyes opened wide.

“Know what?”

“He got out early. Good behavior and all that shit. They
didn’t call you?”

Procedure dictated that the detective on the case would be
notified when a criminal got out early, for any reason. In the case of a
homicide the family was also informed. With Diego, there were many families who
would be hurt and traumatized knowing the man was out from behind bars.

“Are you shitting me? I never heard.” He couldn’t believe
it. All the work to take the bastard off the streets and he was out again.

“We’ve had eyes on him. He’s set up house and doesn’t get
out much. Let’s look into this when we get back.” Tatum glanced at Cole. “I’d
like Vant on point. He knows what Rios looks like and is familiar with this
case. Is that okay with you, Sergeant?”

“Fine by me.” Cole shrugged. “You okay with it?”

Jake nodded. “Hell yeah.”

He’d like to do a little damage after that bomb.

“Let’s load up,” Cole said.

“We’ll be at the staging point,” Tatum said and headed out
of the garage.

“I cannot fucking believe that,” Jake muttered.

“Hey.” Cole grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks.
“Can you do this and have a clear head?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Just pissed. That piece of trash killed
people like animals. Straight up butchered them. The families, I just hope they
told them.” The nightmares that criminal must have inspired, the children who’d
been left without a parent. Jake had met them all, even attended a few funerals
and promised to see Cruz behind bars. Too bad the system let him out early.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

* * * * *

Jake wiped the sweat off his brow and blew out a breath. One
of the awful things about the unmarked vans was the complete lack of
ventilation. They were quite effectively roasted alive as they drove from the
garage to the site of the mission.

He had to stop thinking about Cruz or he was going to drive
himself crazy. The mission details were straightforward enough that they didn’t
hold his attention. What else?

Nicole.

Her tears had broken him that morning. One of the worst
things about this job was how it constantly interfered with his home life.
Being called out at odd hours, inevitably in the middle of something like sex
or a fight, was a given. But this morning was one of the worst. He could take
her anger, her silence or her rage, but not her tears.

Becca suggested listening to her, but Jake wasn’t so sure
Nicole would talk to him. She’d been practically silent for months.

What if she needed to hear him speak?

He had a good idea what she wanted to hear from him. At
least now he did. Before this week he’d been walking in the dark. It was pretty
horrible that it took her leaving him to shed some light on the whole matter.

“Approaching the gas station. Power has been cut,” a voice
said in his headset.

“Look alive, people.” Cole stood, grabbing the pole that ran
horizontal to the ceiling for balance.

Jake was at the back of the van, nearest the only exit.

The vehicle braked, then took a hard right and squealed to a
stop.

Jake stood and twisted the door handle, pushing it open and
jumping down. Aaron was next to him as they hunched and jogged to the front of
the gas station.

Glass shattered.

“Shots fired, shots fired,” Jake roared into his comm.

“Take cover,” Cole called behind him.

Jake crouched behind a bank of newspaper machines just under
the store window. Bullets hit the van and bounced off the reinforced sides.

The other van pulled up alongside the gas station where
there weren’t any windows.

“Team two, hold your position,” Cole commanded from behind
the ice machine.

More shots took out the remaining pane of glass. Someone or
something had given them up. So much for having the element of surprise.

“There are no civilians inside,” Tatum said into his ear.

“What about the clerk?” Cole shouted.

“The clerk is the shooter,” Tatum replied.

“Well, fuck,” Jake muttered.

The shooter paused for a moment. Jake twisted to get his
rifle into a better placement, only to jerk down farther as bullets hit the
sidewalk not three feet from him.

“Shooter is aiming for Vant,” Aaron announced.

“I’ve got him,” Becca replied.

Two blasts came from the direction of their van. A man’s
scream sounded from inside the gas station.

Jake ducked under the broken-out glass of the door and
advanced into the building.

“Clerk is down,” he said.

Two others followed close on his heels, one going to the
clerk and securing the suspect.

“I’m going to the pill mill.”

“Griffith with Vant,” Aaron said right behind him.

Jake kept low between the rows of snack foods and candy.
They reached a metal door labeled Employees Only without incident.

Aaron took two swift steps and hit the door with his
twenty-pound door ram.

It barely moved.

“Aw, hell,” Jake muttered.

The door had to be some sort of reinforced metal, steel
perhaps. A bitch to get through, but they would.

Voices and the sound of boots on tile echoed behind them.

Aaron hit the door again.

An indentation about the size of a dinner plate marked their
progress. The hinges were loose, the screws straining to do their job.

Aaron stood back and kicked the door, once, twice.

“One more time with the ram,” Jake said. He could see space
between the door and the frame. Maybe a flash of movement.

Aaron backed up to the other side of the hall, took two long
strides and hit the door with the ram. It buckled inward, struggling to hang on
by the top and bottom hinges. Aaron kicked it again and the bottom hinge gave
way.

Jake stepped into the breach, gun at the ready.

The room was L-shaped. The door was at the short part of the
L, where a little desk or receiving area was kept almost completely clean. The
long portion of the L was rows upon rows of industrial shelving stocked with
pill boxes and bottles. Some pharmacies didn’t even have such a large
inventory.

He progressed past the first few rows without sight of
anyone. Not the Pharmacist or Felipe Rios. Jake made it all the way to the
other end of the storage area without seeing anyone.

“Clear,” he yelled out, frustration lacing his voice.

“Clear,” Aaron echoed from the other side of the room.

“Where the fuck are they?” Jake stalked the width of the
room, taking in the new equipment, the packaging areas.

There didn’t appear to be any other entrance or exit from
the room save the one through the gas station proper.

“Tatum here,” the narcotics officer said over the headset.
“Are you sure you don’t see them?”

“Not at all,” Jake replied.

“Sweep the place again,” Cole ordered.

Four other officers started at one end and went to the other,
but they also didn’t find anything Jake had missed.

Where the fuck was Rios?

Jake stalked back through the gas station. The two vans plus
a couple patrol cars had the area roped off and a small audience was beginning
to gather. He ignored them and circled the building.

“Hey, Vant. Where are you going?” Becca jogged to catch up
with him.

“I don’t fucking know.” But he needed to do something.

Together they circled the building, finding nothing but
enough evidence to attest to plenty of junkies pausing for a fix after picking
up their product.

They stopped on the far side of the building and Jake turned
back to survey the scene.

“That’s odd,” Becca muttered.

“What?”

“The pill mill has its own air-conditioner unit, I guess.”
She pointed to a silver metal box he’d passed by without a second glance.

“That’s not an A/C unit. There’s no vents.” He jogged back
to the questionable silver unit.

“That’s not a good idea,” Becca called after him.

Becca was prone to being overly cautious, not that he blamed
her, but she did run the robot unit, which they used to detonate explosives or
peek into potentially dangerous situations without risking an officer. She was
probably right that this was not a great hands-on situation, but he couldn’t
wait.

Jake pulled on a leather glove and ran his hand along a
metal seam along the top of the unit. It didn’t budge, so he began tugging at
the sides.

One panel slid free, leaving a three-by-three crawl space
that led into the pill mill and down.

“I’ll be damned. I found a tunnel. Going in.” Jake slipped
in, grasping blindly for ladder rungs.

“Vant, wait for backup,” Cole said into the comm.

“I’m here too,” Becca replied, filling the space above Jake
as he lowered to the bottom of the tunnel. He had to hunch over to fit inside.

“We’re right behind you two,” Cole replied, sounding none
too pleased.

Jake pressed the flashlight button that was mounted
alongside the barrel of his rifle.

The tunnel was nothing more than a three-, maybe
three-and-a-half-foot-wide space of packed earth. It couldn’t have been more
than five and a half feet tall.

He tucked lower and began edging his way down the tunnel.
Becca was a silent presence at his back. She didn’t even turn on her light, not
that they needed it with how smooth the hard-packed floor was.

An unintelligible shout from ahead froze Jake in his tracks.
He let the light go and they plunged into darkness. The sound of scuffling and
more yelling had the hair on the back of his neck rising.

He started forward again with haste but without the light. His
sight adjusted slowly. The scent of damp earth filled his nostrils and he had
the vague impression of a changing space.

Jake reached out and found that the wall to his right was
gone. He pivoted and caught a flash of light ahead.

He picked up the pace, gaining on the bobbing light.

The closer he got, the more he could make out the form of a
person. He couldn’t tell if there was more than one, but one was enough. One he
could get to talk.

Jake came up on the person as quietly as he could.

“You’re dead, do you hear me? Dead,” the man yelled.

Jake shoved the muzzle of his rifle into the man’s back.
“Get on the ground.”

The man froze, twisted slightly and Jake’s world tilted
again.

Felipe Rios was his.

Nicole heard the rumble of an engine, the squeal of brakes
and that was all it took. She jumped off the bed and ran to the front door,
peering through the frosted glass. Lights flipped off and the glass went dark.
She pulled the door open and breathed a sigh of relief.

Jake stepped out of his truck, grabbed his bag of gear and a
brown paper bag. His face was smudged with dirt and his shoulders slumped,
probably from exhaustion. He stopped at the welcome mat, his gaze finally
landing on her.

“Hi.” Everything in her wanted to hug him, tell herself he
was all right.

It was just another mission. He’d been on hundreds. She’d
eaten her way through dinners, gone to movies and snoozed while he was off
playing hero. But it was different now. There were things unsaid, their lives
were unresolved. What if tonight was the night something bad happened and he
didn’t come home? What if they never got to say the things they needed to get
out?

“Hi.” They stared at each other for a moment. “May I come
in?”

“Of course.” She stepped back and held the door.

She followed him into the living room, through the kitchen
and hovered in the doorway to the laundry room. Jake pulled out his dirty
uniform and some other clothes and put them in the washing machine. She didn’t
even complain about the dirt he was dropping on the floors. Just watching him
do something so normal comforted her.

“Have you eaten?” Shit. Did she even have anything on hand
to make for dinner?

“Yeah, I ate on the way back to the station.” He poured in
the detergent and started the cycle.

Jake turned to face her and leaned against the washer, hands
braced on the machine behind him.

“Hi,” he said again, cracking a smile.

“Hi.” She smiled back and her heart fluttered.

“Did you eat?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” He walked toward her, cupping her shoulders, and
pressed a kiss to her forehead. He urged her to back up and went to the paper
bag he’d left on the kitchen counter.

She followed, curious about what he was doing.

Jake produced another box of her favorite chocolates. She
didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but this wasn’t it.

“You can’t buy me back with chocolates and flowers, Jake. I
appreciate all the gifts you’ve been leaving me, but this isn’t—

“I know. I know.” He pushed the gold box into her hands.
“Just, take it, okay?”

She took the box but placed it on the counter next to her.

Jake reached into the bag and pulled out something she
wasn’t expecting.

A wooden unicorn on rollers.

Jake had made the toy in his father’s workshop while his
mother helped her stitch together the doll. Later, his mother had even painted
it before they’d left. Between Jake and her, it was obvious which of them had
more skill, but it had been such a wonderful, fulfilling moment.

She pressed her hand over her mouth and blinked back the
sudden tears.

The doll.

Nicole whirled and rushed into the bedroom.

“Nicole. Nicole, wait.” Jake followed her all the way into
the closet. “I’m sorry—”

She pulled the little doll out of her bag and turned to show
it to Jake.

“Oh baby. Come here.” He walked to her and folded her into
his arms, cradling her against his chest.

She let him hold her, soaking in the comfort she hadn’t felt
from him in so long. He stroked her hair and rested his chin on top of her
head.

“You’re right that we never talked about Willow. I’m sorry.
I didn’t know how to handle it, so it was just easier to move on and not talk
about her.”

His words stunned her. He hadn’t even been able to say
Willow’s name. She listened, half afraid to move or even breathe because she
might break whatever spell had been cast over him.

“I wrongly thought you needed space and to be left alone. It
was easier to just pretend it hadn’t happened. You aren’t supposed to have to
bury your kid, and we didn’t even get to hold her or even know who she might
be. I kept feeling sorry for myself, and you’re right. I wasn’t there for you
and you had to have been going through so much more than I was. It was selfish
and wrong. I’m sorry. I don’t know how to make it right, I don’t know how to go
back to how things were before and I don’t think we can. I want to figure out
how to move forward, though. Together, because I do still love you. And I
fucked up.”

His words poured over her like a healing balm to her spirit.
It was everything she’d wanted to hear, and while she relaxed against him,
things didn’t quite click into place. She didn’t know if there was a future.
Words were easy, but could things change? There was no going backward, only
forward.

“I still wonder if it’s my fault,” she admitted into the
silence. “If something I did caused it.” She tripped over her words. Jake
wasn’t the only one who had trouble talking about their daughter.

“The doctors said it wasn’t.”

“I know. But what if it was all my fault?” She peered up at
him. “We don’t know.”

He couldn’t argue with her because the truth was they didn’t
know and never would.

“Where do we go from here?” he asked.

“Out of the closet?”

A smile curled his lips and she could have sighed in
happiness.

“Come on.” Jake took her hand and led her into the bedroom.
With the lack of furniture, the only place to go was the bed. He sat down on
the edge and tugged her hand until she settled in next to him. They each had
their toys in their lap.

“I still want to be a mother.” She hadn’t enunciated that
out loud, but admitting it now felt good.

Jake placed his hand on her knee. “You’re going to be a
great mother someday.”

But would he be the father? She loved him, but was it
enough? Could it be?

She wanted it to be him. Deep inside, it was the vision of
her life she’d had and she wasn’t ready to let that go. Trying again might mean
more heartache, making the same mistakes they’d already made, but if they did
it together she could survive it. It was a lot of trust to put in his hands.

“I still love you,” Nicole said and her insides quivered.

Jake reached for her, cupping her face. “I love you too.”

He leaned in and kissed her. All the turmoil, the pain—it
faded away until the only two constants were hope and love.

She pushed him back on the bed and straddled his waist,
drawing her hair over her shoulder and leaning over him. It wouldn’t do to
smother either of them with her unruly locks, not right now. They grinned at
each other. Nicole was giddy on the joy, the desire, finally feeling the
connection with her husband she’d feared had been destroyed.

They kissed again and it was wonderful. His lips on hers, so
perfect.

He pushed his hands under her shirt, flattening them on her
stomach, and slid them up to her ribs. He pulled her shirt off, tossing it off
the bed before wrapping his arms around her. He hugged her to his chest and she
laughed.

Jake had never totally mastered the knack of the bra clasp,
a fact that never ceased to amuse her.

She kissed his cheek up to his brow while he fumbled with
the clasp for a second. Finally it came free and she sat up, allowing the lace
construction to fall down her arms.

Nicole knew she was lucky. Even now the way Jake stared at
her was full of lust and desire. He’d never lost that. It’d been there all
along.

Jake sat up, hugged her to him and took her to the mattress,
rolling until he was on top. He kissed his way down her body and unfastened her
pants, pulling them down slowly, covering each inch he exposed with kisses down
to her ankles.

She’d painted her toes to match the lingerie. Silly? Maybe,
but she’d grabbed it at the drugstore because it had made her smile.

Jake lifted her feet, kissing the arch of one foot then the
other.

He’d noticed. But then again, he was the kind of man who
could enter a room and tell at a glance how many electrical outlets there were.
She didn’t know how a man so observant had missed her slipping away, but
everyone messed up. Her most of all. What was life without second chances?

Jake kissed his way up her legs, melting her a little bit at
a time. If they had five days, five years or five decades together, she wanted
to savor it. To hell with all this back-and-forth bullshit.

He blew a hot breath across her panties and she quaked. Her
inner muscles rippled, desire suffusing every cell and fiber of her body.

Jake swiped his thumb over her mound. The jolt of sensation
as he traversed her clit shot all the way to her toes. She fisted the comforter
in her hands and panted for breath.

He slipped her panties down her legs and pushed her knees
apart. They’d had more sex and orgasms this last week than the last year. Maybe
with a vacation where she could wear as little as possible for easy access. For
now, she’d enjoy every precious moment they had together. And she did mean to
make the most of tonight. Every minute of it.

Jake passed his fingers through her folds and her eyes
fluttered close. He was good with his hands, so good she could come at his
touch alone, but she wanted more. She wanted to feel him, to stare into his
eyes and know what he felt.

It was different now. The sex they’d had this week was
passionate and hot, but it had lacked this connection, where she felt as if
their hearts beat as one. There wasn’t anyone else who could play her body and
master her heart as he did.

Jake leaned over her, snagging her gaze with his while his
fingers continued to tease and stroke her down below. His eyes glinted with
emotion, lust and something deeper she hadn’t seen for a while. Love. She
gasped as he slid a finger into her pussy, stroking her sensitive flesh.

Nicole reached for him but he pushed her hands back.

“Not yet,” he said and went to a knee next to the bed.

She put one leg over his shoulders and flattened her palms
on the bed. The cool fabric felt good against her hot skin. Her eyes drifted
closed and she moaned as Jake curled his finger inside her channel. She felt
his breath on her mound a second before his lips wrapped around her clit. Her
voice rose as he sucked the sensitive nub.

More. She needed more.

Nicole pinched her nipples. She could feel Jake hum against
her clit, approving her actions. Did her breasts still make him hard?

She stroked her engorged nipples, imagining it was his hands
instead of hers.

He added a second finger and increased his rhythm. She knew
deep down that he wasn’t going anywhere, not until she came seven ways ’til
Sunday.

Her world burst apart in a shower of colors set to her
keening wail as the orgasm washed over her. He continued to tease her sensitive
flesh, drawing the pleasure out until it bordered on the edge of pain. It was
too much and not enough all at once. She wanted him. All of him. Now.

Jake watched Nicole settle against the mattress in a
boneless, twisted pose that couldn’t be comfortable. She was beautiful when she
came.

He bent and kissed her thigh, her hip and her stomach.

Hell, he loved it when she touched herself like that. Made
him jealous as fuck that he didn’t have more hands to do all the jobs properly,
but he did like the show.

Nicole sat up, color high in her cheeks and a dreamy smile
on her lips.

I still love you.

Her words echoed in his mind. Hearing them, finally knowing
it wasn’t all lost, he was so relieved. If she loved him, if they wanted to
make this work, they would. He had faith in them.

She leaned forward and kissed him, a sweet brush of lips
tasting of the best candy. He wouldn’t get enough of her. Not for a long time.
Not ever.

He rose on his knees to deepen the kiss, except his erection
was incredibly uncomfortable crammed into his jeans.

Nicole reached for his shirt, grabbing a handful of the
material and pulling it up. Well, he could make quick work of this. He reached
for the hem but she stopped him.

“Let me.”

Well, he wasn’t about to deny the lady what she wanted.

He let the shirt drop back into place. Nicole smiled at him,
a cheeky thing. She tugged his shirt up to his chest and he lifted his arms.
The shirt landed somewhere behind him, but that didn’t matter.

Nicole smiled and watched him as if they were years in their
past. When the relationship was new and they hadn’t a problem in the world.

He leaned forward and kissed her, unable to relinquish total
control. It was in his DNA and he knew she liked it. She cupped his head and
pulled him closer. He could feel her smiling against his mouth and he loved her
more.

She pushed him back on his heels, her gaze going lower. He
glanced down at the bulge.

“Want to help me with that?” he asked.

“I think I do.”

He stood and so did she. Nicole didn’t go for his pants
first, as much as he wanted her to. She began at his shoulders, running her
fingers and palms over him, dropping random kisses in her wake. He’d stand
there all night and let her torture him like this if that was what she wanted,
he didn’t care. All that mattered was that she still loved him.

There was hope.

She unfastened his jeans and cupped his length, stroking him
through his underwear. The lady knew how to drive him mad, which seemed to be
what she was up to. He’d take her sweet torment and dish it back to her. Two
could play this game, and he wanted to go many, many rounds with her. She
worked his jeans down to his thighs, her lower lip caught between her teeth and
a smile teasing her lips all the while.

Nicole went to her knees, taking his jeans with her. She
held the denim while he stepped out of it, leaving him in his boxer-briefs with
his erection trying to get out. There was a mischievous quality to Nicole’s
smile as she ran her fingers along the elastic band of his underwear.