PAYBACK (A Bad Boy Romance) (29 page)

T
he McDougall warehouse
had been supposed empty for years. Ownership of the warehouse was listed to a corporation and was likely used to take a loss.

The entrances were boarded up and at first glance, it was desolate, gloomy, and devoid of human activity.

The cobwebs and dust limned the windows so that nothing but murky light managed to penetrate the film.

It was a perfect hide-out for criminals smuggling goods where no one would think to look.

I motioned for the team to move forward. SWAT soundlessly advanced into position, flanking the building. I kept Hank near to me. I wanted to keep eyes on him.

Although my gut resisted the thought that Hank might be the mole, I couldn’t take any chances.

Keep your friends close and your potential moles closer.

But so far, so good.

We breached the building and saw a light in the office up the stairs. Movement behind the grimy glass told me someone was in there, possibly Terano.

The fading afternoon light was slowly casting shadows in the warehouse, dust motes dancing in the dying sun.

Something caused the hair to raise up on my arms. My intuition was clanging.

And then the shit got real.

Bullets started flying. I narrowly missed taking one in the chest when I dove behind a crate. SWAT returned fire.

Hank and I were trading shots with the guards who had swarmed the building like ants from a disturbed nest.

There were a few SWAT on the ground, silent, blood leaking all over the cement. But we took down a few of theirs, too.

Acrid smoke burnt the air and I ran across the room to get to the stairs. Bullets continued to fly but it was happening all so fast. I kicked in the office door and burst in, a sizzle seared across my bicep and I realized a bullet had grazed me.

I returned fire, killing the man who’d taken the shot but I dove behind the desk for protection.

I could still hear the melee downstairs. I could only hope we were getting the upper hand.

I’d taken out three up here but a shooter was still loose in the large office.

“You’re fucked,” I called out. “Surrender and you won’t leave this place in a body bag.”

To my surprise, a strained chuckle followed.

“I can’t say the same for her.”

“
Jameson
…”

Ivy’s tremulous voice struck at my heart. I slowly peered around the scarred desk.
Fuck
. Terano was holding Ivy. And a gun was pressing into her back.

“If you want her to live…throw your gun over here.”

“Don’t do it,” Ivy told me. “He’s going to kill us both anyway.”

Pride surged through me for her bravery. My woman wasn’t a weak fragile thing. But I would tear Terano apart with my bare hands for hurting her.

“You’ve made a big mistake,” I told him, ignoring his offer. “She means nothing to me. You have no bargaining chip.”

“You’re lying,” Terano sneered.

“Look, your intel is wrong. She’s just a woman, no more, no less. Go ahead, add one more murder on your head. It’ll just be one more charge to add to the list that will send you to the chair.”

“My intel is not wrong. You’re trying to bluff me. But I love games. Let’s see who’s willing to up the ante. How about I shoot her in the gut? Won’t kill her right away but the agony will be fun to watch.”

Sweat beaded my brow but I kept my voice steady. “I always knew you were a sick fuck but I never knew just how sadistic you were.”

“One must keep sharp,” Terano said with a shrug as if I’d paid him a compliment. “I must say, I wasn’t expecting you to show up here. It does up the timeline a bit.”

“Up the timeline for what? Your arrest?”

“No.” His smile thinned. “Your death, Detective Reed.”

Ivy screamed just as something knocked the wind out of me. I went straight to the floor, gasping, my vision clouding. I knew I had seconds to pull a miracle out of my ass.

But the miracle didn’t come from me

Ivy seized a window of opportunity to attack while Terano was focused on me. Burying her elbow in his gut, she stomped on his instep and then broke his nose with the back of her fist when he instinctively fell forward.

Terano groaned as he went down but before he could recover, Ivy landed a vicious kick to his face, knocking him out cold.

I climbed to my feet just as Ivy ran into my arms, nearly knocking me over. She was trembling all over. I knew that feeling — that surge of adrenalin — but I also knew it could be overwhelming when you came down off that wild fight-or-flight high.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, frantically feeling my chest where the bullet had knocked me on my ass. Her fingers found the Kevlar vest and she sagged with relief. “Sometimes you’re smarter than you look,” she joked weakly and I chuckled.

“And you are more bad-ass than you look,” I countered, holding her tight. “Who taught you how to fight like that?”

“Frankie,” she answered against my chest. “He always wanted me to know how to protect myself if he wasn’t around.”

Point one in Frankie’s favor. I never thought I’d say this but, “Your brother did a good thing.”

“Does this mean you’ll stop riding his ass?”

“Not a chance.” But I smiled as I said it. I lifted her chin and gently kissed her bruised lips. A fresh surge of something that was so completely foreign but entirely intoxicating flooded through me and I knew even if I didn’t understand what was happening between us, I knew it was real as fuck.

Which meant…at some point…I’d probably have to deal with her brother.

Hank ran up the stairs to join us, took in the situation, and raised his gaze to mine.

Something prickled at the back of my neck.

“You all good here?” Hank asked but there was something in his eyes that I didn’t like.

“Yeah. We’re good. Call it in. We’re taking Terano into custody.”

But there was something about the way Hank’s lips seamed together that made that sick feeling in my stomach start to go into hyperdrive.

“There a problem?” I asked.

But in that moment I knew the thing that I dreaded most was staring at me in the face.

Betrayal.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” I asked flatly.

“I didn’t have a choice,” he answered.

“We all have choices.”

“The world ain’t black and white, brother,” Hank said, shaking his head, a world of shame and misery reflecting in my partner’s eyes.

How deep was he in? How long had he been in Terano’s pocket?

“Why?”

“All it takes is one fuck up. One slip. I owe people. Bad people. Those people knew Terano. At first, it was small shit. A favor here, a favor there. Look the other way for this case, cover up evidence on that case…”

My heart lurched. I knew this story. So many good cops had gone this way. But the fact that Hank was able to hide his involvement from me all this time…God, it fucking killed me.

“So is this how it ends?” I asked, slowly pushing Ivy behind me. “You kill me for Terano?”

“I didn’t want it this way. I tried to keep you safe, man. But you kept digging, kept scratching at it. I thought after our deep-cover assignment failed, you’d get kicked off the Rodrigo case but you wouldn’t let it happen. Why didn’t you just leave it the fuck alone?”

I heard the desperation in his voice. This was the same guy I’d shared beers with, commiserated with, put my life in his hands and vice-versa.

“Fuck man,” I swore. That was all I could say. Hank was up to his eyeballs in shit and choking on it. “How’s this going to work?”

Terano’s voice cut into the tense silence between us.

“You die, she dies. Simple math,” Terano answered, climbing to his feet on wobbly legs, staring me down with hatred in his eyes. To Hank, he barked, “Kill him, you fucking idiot. That is, if you can find the fucking trigger.”

I knew Hank was wrestling with his choice. I knew it was killing him inside, which meant whatever Terano had over him, must’ve felt like the end of the world for him to fall in line with Terano.

Terano wiped at his mouth, wincing as he brushed his broken nose. “Fucking bitch,” he muttered. “On second thought, kill the cop, keep the girl. I got plans for her.”

Ivy began to shake behind me. Her fear made me desperate.

“Let her go and you can have me,” I bartered, hoping to get Ivy out of there before I met my maker. “She’s innocent in all this. It’s my fault she’s involved.”

“Like I give a shit,” Terano sneered. “The bitch broke my motherfucking nose and she’s going to pay for that insult.”

I looked at Hank. “You were a good cop once. You know she’s innocent. Let her go, man.”

“She’ll talk,” Hank answered but there was something there, something that he was struggling with.

“You would kill an innocent woman to protect your secret?”

Terano snapped his fingers impatiently. “Listen up, jackass, it’s not up to him. He’s my bitch. He’ll do what I tell him to do. And right now, I want him to blow your motherfucking head off!” He glared at Hank with cranky disgust. “Or is that too fucking difficult for your little brain to figure out? Jesus! Give me the fucking gun and I’ll do it if you’re too much of a pussy.”

Hank’s gaze darted to Terano and a flare of rage sparked in his eyes.

Yeah, buddy, cultivate that rage because you’re looking at your fucking future with this guy’s dick up your ass
.
Make the right choice!

It didn’t escape my notice that our lives depended on a crooked cop resuscitating his broken conscience but that’s all we had.

It was going to be Hank’s call whether we lived or died.

My partner.

The guy I trusted with my life…now held two lives in his hands.

“I’m sorry,” Hank finally said and I prepared for the impact of the bullet.

With lightening fast movement, Hank switched his aim and fired without hesitation at Terano, a clean shot right between the eyebrows, dropping the fucker like a stone.

But before I could exhale with relief, Hank put the gun under his chin and fired.

Ivy screamed.

I turned away, sheltering Ivy from the carnage, relieved at being alive but pissed as hell that Hank had taken the easy way out.

Ivy shuddered in my arms. “Why did he do that?” she cried. “I don’t understand. Why?”

“Because he knew crooked cops don’t last long behind bars,” I answered grimly. “He took the only choice he thought he could handle.”

Ivy gripped my shirt and cried into it, overwhelmed by the horror of everything. “Get me out of here,” she begged. “Please Jameson. I can’t stay a moment longer.”

I took her out of the room, away from the bloody mess that’d become Terano and my partner and called in the scene.

But before we could leave, she told me about the girls in the basement and I sent SWAT downstairs to get them.

Moments later, two young women and a mean-as-a-junkyard-dog Chinese woman were brought up.

“Terano was not only into drugs but he was trafficking people as well,” Ivy explained, swallowing. “We were going to be sold like human cattle.”

I pressed a kiss to her crown, shaken by the realization that I could’ve lost it all in a heartbeat.

I could’ve lost what I didn’t even realize had been precious to me.

I held Ivy more tightly and said, “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

And then I let SWAT take over the scene.

I needed time and space to process everything that’d just happened.

M
y mind was in a fog
.

All I knew was that we were alive because Jameson’s partner had made the ultimate sacrifice.

Twelve hours ago, if one single thing had gone the opposite direction, I would either be dead or on my way to
God-knows-where
to be someone’s sex slave and Jameson never would’ve known that the mole was the one person he trusted above everyone else.

Talk about dazed and confused…

Sex was our therapy. The need to feel something aside from the turmoil twisting our emotions in knots was a welcome respite.

Even if we both knew it was just a Band-Aid for a wound that later festered.

We wound around each other like twisted branches, seeking solace in the pleasure.

In all the world, I’d never known what pleasure was until Jameson barreled into my life with all the grace of a wrecking ball.

He smashed everything I’d ever known, obliterated any preconceived ideas of what sex would be like, and then rebuilt my future expectations with each powerful thrust into my willing body.

And somewhere along the way, I’d fallen in love with the hulking brute.

But I didn’t know what Jameson was thinking because he’d been mostly silent.

All I knew was Jameson was struggling.

He wasn’t his usual self — which, in light of how he was usually gruff, private and prone to mood swings, should’ve been an improvement but I missed the man who’d changed my life.

Not because I loved when he was an asshole, but because I didn’t know how to react to this new version of Jameson.

We were both processing.

The only difference — we were locked in each other’s arms as if the world was about to end.

“I should’ve known.”

Jameson broke the silence between us, his voice soft in the darkness of my bedroom.

“How could you? Are you psychic?”

“Of course not,” he growled but he tightened his hold on me as if he were afraid I might disappear into thin air. “But going undercover with someone…you become each other’s life line. How could I have missed something so big as my partner being on the take?”

“It’s not like he wore a badge on his forehead announcing that fact,” I pointed out, trying to soothe his guilt. I hated seeing him so torn up over this when it wasn’t his fault.

When did I become so wrapped up in Jameson’s feelings? How had things changed so dramatically?

“Still…there would’ve been signs…”

“People who are determined to keep a secret, generally put a lot of energy into making sure their secret is kept. But for what it’s worth, I think your partner was trying to protect you. He was crammed between a rock and a hard place.”

Jameson nodded, surprising me when he agreed. “I just wish he would’ve trust me to help him out of his jam. I would’ve done whatever I could.”

And I knew that to be true. While Jameson may have seemed shady when we first met — and certainly hadn’t acted like a good guy — deep down, he was all about being there for the ones he cared about.

Even if he was private about it.

“So what happens next?” I asked, curious.

Jameson sighed and pulled away to roll to his back. “There will be an investigation. Everything will be out in the open. Fuck, it’s going to be a bloodbath in the press.”

I ached for Jameson. “Is there any way to keep the details of Hank’s suicide out of the report?”

Jameson didn’t answer but I knew he was thinking.

“I mean, let’s get real, I’m sure there is plenty that is left out of the reports when you go undercover,” I said. “What does it matter as long as the bad guy was caught?”

“Forensics will show that he clearly blew his brains out,” Jameson said with a frown.

“True, but what if…the circumstances in which Hank died, were not entirely what happened?” I suggested, unable to believe I was encouraging Jameson to bend the truth but I could see how the details were unnecessarily cruel to Hank’s family.

“Such as?” he prompted, curious.

“Well, what if, there was a struggle…and Hank got shot when Terano rushed him?”

Jameson shook his head. “That won’t work. Forensics will show that Hank shot Terano first.”

My hopes sank. “Damn,” I murmured. “Forensics are hard to circumvent.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” he said wryly.

I was out of ideas. I snuggled up to his big body and held him, our heartbeats syncing as one.

Then, something came to me that I knew was probably a long shot but…I had to try.

“Tell your captain the truth.”

“That’s already the plan,” he said as if my suggestion wasn’t very helpful. “What choice do I have?”

I rose up on my elbows. “But maybe appeal to your captain’s sense of fair play. Why does Hank’s suicide have to be part of the report? He got killed in the line of duty. End of story. No one else has to know.”

“I don’t think that’s a risk my captain wants to take. It could blow up in his face.”

“All he can say is no. If he says,
forget it
, then at least you tried.”

“Yeah, and ruin my credibility with my captain? If I walk in there and ask for him to leave out details, he’s going to wonder if I’ve done that with other cases. It could fuck my undercover career.”

Personally, I didn’t think Jameson ending his undercover career was a bad thing. But I know that was selfish thinking so I kept it to myself.

“Look, it’s my problem, don’t worry about it,” he said, his frustration coming out in a clipped tone that hurt my feelings.

I bit my lip. “Jameson…”

But he wasn’t in the mood to listen any longer. Jameson flung the covers back and climbed from the bed, his nude body cutting a muscular silhouette against the moonlight.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“I should go,” he said abruptly. “I need to clear my head.”

He was running away. I had enough experience with people in my life bailing when things got tough that I recognized the signs.

It shouldn’t have hurt so much but it did.

“Fine.”

Jameson scooped up his clothes and dressed. Within moments he was gone.

At least he didn’t toss some obligatory bullshit like,
I’ll call you,
when I knew he probably wouldn’t.

I fell back on the pillows and fought the burn of tears.
Well, the asshole has returned
. I was trying to help.

Everything was crazy inside my head.

The horror of everything was crowding my brain and I sensed a panic attack coming but I pushed it back.

I wasn’t going to crumble.

If I could get through everything that’d gone down in the last week, I could handle whatever was coming.

Even if what was coming was the biggest heartbreak of my life.

Fuck you, Jameson.

How the hell did you manage to get your claws into my soul?