Desired Perception (Alaskan Security-Team Shadow #3)

Prologue

BUTCH

“I told you to leave it alone, Romero.” The chief of Memphis PD stares at me across his desk, gaze so hard it could cut glass.

“I fucking warned you.” He shoves up from his chair, grunting a little at the effort it takes to get his fat ass out of the seat.

“After all I’ve done for you, you return the favor by sticking your goddamned nose in places it doesn’t belong. ”

I sit in silence as he starts to pace. I’ve got nothing to say to him, or anyone else in this place. Not because there isn’t shit to be said, but because I don’t know whose side he—and everyone else in the department—is on.

All I know is they’re not on the same side as me, and that’s a big fucking problem.

“I let you walk away from the op you spent years on without a single fucking arrest. Because you,” his tone turns mocking as his sausage-shaped fingers form air quotes, “couldn’t do it anymore.”

Those were the exact words I used when I asked to be reassigned five years ago. Taken off a case I couldn’t bring myself to continue working.

For a slew of reasons.

The chief doesn’t pause before rolling the credits on his version of my tenure with the department. All the exceptions he believes he made for me. All the times he recollects being on my side. At one point I might have believed all the bullshit he’s spewing.

This isn’t that point.

I let him ramble anyway. The prick loves to hear himself talk more than anyone I’ve ever known, so I’m sure his dick would be hard as stone at his monologue if he didn’t need a pill to make it work. Maybe by the time he’s done his mood will have improved enough to buy me some time.

Because I might want the hell out of this place, but I’m not quite ready to go yet. I need the perks that come with carrying a badge. The protection it provides.

Not that the men I’m hunting will give a fuck, but it will make it a hell of a lot easier to collect the information required to get close to them.

Close enough to kill.

And that might be the endgame of all this. I’ve come to terms with it. Accepted the reality of my fate.

It will be worth it if I’m right about what’s going on.

“That’s why I’ve got to put you on mandatory leave, starting now.” The chief’s words aren’t totally unexpected. In some ways they’re exactly what I want to hear.

It means I’m getting close. Close enough someone needs to have me stopped.

Unfortunately, it also means shit is about to get a hell of a lot harder for me.

I stand, dropping my badge onto the desk before unholstering my weapon and setting it down on the cluttered surface. I thought this moment would carry more emotion than it does. Assumed I would feel like I was losing a piece of myself.

But I guess I’d rather lose this piece than my fucking ethics, so all I feel is anger. Pissed it’s come to this.

Pissed I’m the only one in this department who seems to give a damn that young girls are disappearing across the city and state.

Young girls I’ve managed to connect to some of the most powerful men in Memphis. Men who clearly have the chief in their pocket.

Spinning on one heel, I walk out, leaving the man I once looked up to sputtering behind me. If he expected a fight from me, he doesn’t know me nearly as well as he claimed he did.

Because I’m not going to argue about what’s going on.

I’m going to fucking do something about it.