Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
B y the time Dane and Eric dropped Emily off at work and got to the station for their briefing, Dane wanted to hit something. Or someone. Thankfully his older brother was the calmer of the two, and he knew Eric would help him keep his cool.
He hated this undercover bullshit. Hated that it took them away from Emily, that it put her in danger. Hated that if they fucked this up it could—probably would—fuck up their futures within the service.
The rank of Detective.
That was their end goal.
They’d always loved solving puzzles, loved helping people, and becoming detectives ticked both boxes.
And when they’d been approached about helping out with the investigation into Shane Spencer and his little drag racing club, they were promised it would help them reach their goal.
That being involved in ops like this one was a good way to get noticed, a nice feather in their caps for their resumes.
But when they had made it known they were uncomfortable with the undercover side of things, they’d been requisitioned anyway.
Like a piece of fucking equipment.
The only thing keeping Dane’s temper in check when they entered the building was the memory of Emily’s sweet mouth wrapped around his dick, sucking on him like he was her favourite treat.
That and the memory of her hot cunt, when he’d been buried between her soft thighs and eating his goddamn fill of her.
“Fuck,” he groaned and adjusted himself, but not discreetly enough to avoid his brother’s notice.
Eric smirked at him. “Stop thinking about Emily. Getting a hard-on won’t win you any favours with this bloke.”
“I don’t care about winning favours. I just want to go back to doing our real jobs. And I don’t like that we left Em at the dealership without protection. They know she works there.”
His brother’s expression twisted with concern. “I don’t like it either, but she was right. They have security cameras everywhere and a guard on duty. And Teddy is there today.”
“So?”
“So we already know the lengths the convict will go to, to protect his family.” He snorted.
“I would not want to be in Spencer’s shoes if he does prove dumb enough to show up unannounced.
” Eric stopped and gripped Dane’s shoulder, gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“Our girl is protected, so how about we get our reports written up before we get called into the principal’s office? ”
They found their desks and got to work, filled out the required reports, noting everything that had happened at the drag race, before and after Emily’s arrival, including the fact there hadn’t been an actual race due to the cops being called.
He’d just finished going over his report one last time, when a large man in a cheap suit leaned against his desk. Dane gritted his teeth. The very last thing he needed was this guy trying to get a rise out of him.
“What do you want, Travis?”
“Me and the guys in homicide have a question,” he said, then paused to sip his coffee out of a mug with World’s Best Detective printed on the side of it.
Dane only just managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes.
The chances of Travis being the world’s best detective were as small as the idiot’s dick.
“When you and your brother fuck a woman, do you take turns, or is it just a free for all?” He leaned closer, lowered his voice.
“Just between you and me, do the two of you ever, you know, cross swords?”
Dane took the fact he wasn’t punching the walking shitstain in the face as a sign of personal growth. Eric will be so proud . But he also knew how rumours started and he’d be damned if he let this fuckwit taint his and Eric’s relationship with Emily.
If anyone was going to be the object of ridicule, it wasn’t going to be them. Travis was a bully, and the best way to deal with a bully was to push them into the spotlight.
Raising his voice just enough to get noticed, Dane said, “Are you seriously asking me if I fuck my brother? What the hell is wrong with you, man?”
Travis took a step back from Dane’s desk, his face flushed red. “Hey, now that?—”
“Hey, Eric.”
The look on his brother’s face told him he’d already heard what was going on, but he played along all the same. “What?”
“Travis wants to know if we fuck each other.”
Eric stared at Travis with disgust. “Seriously? You homicide guys are fucked in the head.”
Other officers started sticking their heads out from behind their computers, grinning and whispering, which only flustered Travis more. “Now listen here,” he said, waving his hand about and sloshing coffee out of his mug. “I’ve?—”
“What the bloody hell is going on out here?”
Senior Sargeant Jody Walker appeared behind Travis, her permascowl fixed firmly in place and her hands clasped behind her back.
She was their father’s younger sister, and out of uniform they called her Aunty Jo, but as the senior officer in charge of the station, they were just as terrified of her as everyone else.
“Well?” she demanded. “Who wants to go first?” When no one spoke up, she nodded. “That’s what I thought.” Then she turned on Travis and pointed to the spilled coffee. “Clean that mess up.”
Travis smiled tightly and smoothed down his necktie. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. Everyone else, get back to work,” she said, then pointed at Dane and his brother. “You two, my office. Now.”
They entered the office to find the man in charge of the operation, and another man they didn’t know, staring at them with obvious irritation.
Jo introduced everyone then took her seat and invited everyone else to do the same. “So?—”
“What the fuck happened last night?”
“Detective Bryant, I urge you to control yourself,” Jo said.
“Control myself? They’re lucky I don’t put my boot through their skulls after the mess they caused.”
“The mess we caused?” Dane said. He was half out of his chair when Eric caught his shoulder and dragged him back down.
“Thank God Detective Cross was acting as your shadow last night and called in the cavalry.”
“Yes, well done,” Eric drawled, injecting a healthy dose of sarcasm into his usual stoic charm. “Of course, all you managed to do was scatter the cockroaches, and made it just that little bit harder to do our job.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Bryant raged. “Your job was to keep an eye on the drug dealers these damn races keep attracting. Not hook up with a car slut and get yourself into a fight with Shane fucking Spencer. Is it true you pulled your weapons?”
Dane’s grip tightened on the arms of his chair until his knuckles blanched. “Did you just call Emily a slut?” he growled through gritted teeth.
“Answer the question, Senior Constable.”
“Wait,” Jo said, holding up her hand, then stared at Dane and Eric. “Did you say Emily? As in Emily , Emily?”
He and Eric nodded. “Yes.”
“Who cares what her fucking name is?”
“Detective Bryant,” Jo barked, furious authority bleeding out of her as she glared at the man.
“The young woman in question is a dear family friend, and her brother is engaged to my niece. If you call her by anything other than her name again, I will have you written up for conduct unbecoming. Do you understand me?”
Bryant’s mouth tightened and he rolled his shoulders. “Yes, ma’am. I apologise. It won’t happen again.”
“It better not. Now, first things first. Is Emily all right?”
Nodding, Dane released a slow breath and relaxed his grip on the chair, flexed his fingers to get the blood flowing again. “Yeah, she’s safe.”
“For now,” Cross said, folding his arms over his chest. “Spencer isn’t going to let her get away with humiliating him like she did.
” Then he chuckled. “Not that it wasn’t fucking spectacular to watch that little shit get taken down a few pegs.
Especially by a woman,” he added, then sent him and Eric a nod of approval.
Not that they needed or even wanted his approval.
Jo frowned at them. “Why was she even there? Emily has never struck me as the type of woman to go looking for trouble.”
Dane shared a look with Eric, then sighed. “She was on a date,” he said. “With Matthew Spencer, of all people. She thought they were going to Willowbank but the little shit took her there instead.”
Their aunt’s frown deepened. “But I thought you two and her were… you know.”
“We were taking it slow,” Eric said. “Too slow, apparently. And then we got brought in on this and couldn’t tell her anything about it, so….”
“So she thought you weren’t interested anymore and went out with someone else. Got it.” Jo laughed but there was no humour in it. “And now she’s stuck in the middle of this mess.”
“We were trying to get her out of there as quietly as possible, but things didn’t exactly go to plan. Shane noticed her and liked what he saw.”
“And was that before or after she hit his brother?” Jo asked, flicking through the reports in front of her.
“After,” Dane said. “She hit Matthew because he called her a slut.” He faced Detective Bryant and grinned with grim satisfaction. “Would you like to meet her?”
The older man snorted and shook his head but wisely kept his mouth shut, which was a good thing. Dane wasn’t sure he could listen to any more of the man’s crap without getting himself into serious trouble.
“Well, it looks like you need a new plan, gentlemen. Any suggestions?”
“I could think of a few,” Bryant grumbled.
“Before I put forward my suggestion, I have a question,” Cross said. “If Emily had raced Spencer last night, could she have won?”
“That’s why you called it in?” Dane said. “You didn’t think she could win?”
Cross’s brow shot up and he stared at them like they were idiots. “I called it in because the situation was escalating out of your control. But now I’m curious. Did she have a chance? Could she have beaten him?”
Now it was their turn to stare at Cross like he was the idiot. Dane laughed. “Yeah, she could have.”
“Bullshit,” Bryant said. “No one beats Spencer. That’s how he keeps getting away with this shit.”
“Emily was taught how to race by her brother,” Eric said, “and to this day he is the only person she can’t beat.”
“And who’s her brother?” Cross asked.
“Edward Berringer,” Jo supplied.
“Why do I know that name?” Bryant asked.
“About ten years ago he gave evidence that helped your team take down the biggest car theft ring in South East Queensland,” she said.
“He also did a six month stretch for, among other things, the property damage he caused when he led the police on a high speed chase through Brisbane. The chase that caught the ringleader’s daughter and her top drivers. ”
Cross laughed and nodded. “I remember him. Fuck me. Emily is Emily Berringer. Jesus, no wonder she was so cocky.” He stared at Dane and Eric with a considering look. “You really think she can do it, don’t you? You think she can beat him.”
“That’s your suggestion?” Bryant demanded. “To get a civilian involved. No. Not happening.”
“Finally, we agree on something,” Dane said.
Eric turned to face him, his expression as serious as it had ever been, which was saying a lot considering Eric wasn’t known for his lighter side. “You said it yourself last night, Dane. Emily may not have a choice.”
“No. We keep her out of it. We keep her safe.”
“That’s not what you said last night,” Eric reminded him.
“Yeah, well, I’ve changed my mind, okay.
I made a judgement call based on the information we had at the time.
But she’s been removed from the situation now.
Why put her back in it?” He shook his head and rubbed at the ache in the centre of his chest. “I don’t want her anywhere near it. I don’t want her anywhere near him.”
“You think I do?” Eric scowled. “Dane, she won’t be safe until Shane Spencer is put away.
Detective Cross is right, she humiliated him.
He’s not going to forget that. And now that everyone is on the same page again, it really doesn’t matter if she wins or not, as long as we catch him in the act.
” His brother pinned the other men with a glare. “Because we will catch him, right?”
“If we can find out where the next meet is.”
Bryant rubbed his chin. “You said she showed up last night with Matthew Spencer? Any chance she has his contact info? Maybe we can use him to find out where tonight’s race is.”
Much to Dane’s chagrin, Eric agreed, and they all spent the next two hours hammering out the details of their plan and working out contingencies for every possible outcome.
They also gave detailed accounts of the drug deals they’d witnessed, plus the sale of counterfeit car parts, and at least one incidence of prostitution, just for good measure.
It seemed Shane Spencer was a regular entrepreneur.
Once everything was settled, Dane looked at his brother and forced a smile. “Great. So. Who wants to tell Emily the plan?”
Eric pulled a coin out of his pocket, flipped it in the air and called it. “Heads.”
The coin landed in his brother’s palm, tails side up. “Fuck.”