Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
BECKETT
As soon as Anita slipped out the front door, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed my old partner as I rolled my stiff neck side to side. I just had my ass handed to me on a silver platter, and I could honestly say it didn't feel good. I underestimated Anita once again.
"It's a little late for a chat session, don't you think?" Callahan answered after the first ring.
"Meet me at The Pit. It's important." I didn't want to say anything more in case Anita hid listening devices in my place while she was waiting for me. I wouldn't put it past her. I needed to do a sweep as soon as I got back but talking to Callahan was priority.
"I'll be there in thirty." He didn't say anything more before hanging up.
The Pit wasn't the official name of the hole-in-the-wall bar Callahan and I used to visit often when we needed someplace safe to talk.
Callahan wasn't just my old partner. He was my mentor and taught me everything I knew.
I considered him family and was one of the few people in my life I actually trusted.
Right now, I needed someone I could trust to work through what happened.
I made it to the bar in fifteen minutes. It wasn't packed despite the late evening, but that was nothing new. The Pit wasn't a touristy spot. Only the locals knew of its existence, and that was the way the owner preferred it.
I grabbed a booth in the corner and waited for the owner to come over to take my order.
"It's been a while. I thought you forgot about this place." Ranger was a burly man in his forties. There was never any trouble in The Pit because people knew if they started shit, Ranger would toss them on their ass and never let them in again.
"Nah. I've just been busy. How are things here?"
"Same old shit just a different day." It was the same answer Ranger gave every time I asked.
Despite the shitty neighborhood the bar was located in, there was never any trouble.
It might've had something to do with the fact that most didn't even know it existed.
There was no sign outside that let people know what was inside.
The two lone windows facing the alleys were covered in iron bars.
From what Callahan had told me, you only learned about The Pit through word of mouth.
Callahan had introduced me to the place, but I never trusted anyone enough to give them the location.
"Callahan meeting you here?"
"Yup, so we'll just have our usuals."
Ranger rapped his knuckles on the table. "Coming right up."
I watched as Ranger poured us each a pint. Callahan and I didn't love this place just because it was private, but Ranger also kept a damn good selection of beer and liquor. He knew what his customers liked, and he didn't deviate.
Callahan walked in just as Ranger was dropping off our pints.
"It's good to see you, Ranger." Callahan slapped his friend on the back.
"I was just asking your partner here if you forgot about me."
Callahan smirked. "We would never." He kicked a thumb my way. "This guy's a workaholic. I need to pull him away more often."
"Make sure you do that." Ranger lifted his chin. "Flag me down when you need another."
My mentor slipped into the seat opposite of me and took a drink of his beer before his eyes met mine. "So what's so important that you had me leaving my wife's side in the middle of the night."
I chuckled and shook my head. "I hardly consider eleven o'clock the middle of the night."
"I'm retired. I go to bed earlier these days." Callahan was full of shit. He was a night owl like me. It was one of the things his wife teased him about.
"I'm sure you do." I looked down at my pint of beer. I gave him one word. "Anita."
I glanced up when Callahan whistled. I found him leaning back in the booth with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Never thought I would hear that name again. Is she still as cold as I remember?"
I thought back to the conversation we had in my townhouse.
I had known the moment I entered my place that something was off.
I never expected to find Anita sitting in my living room, looking even better than she did seven years ago.
The woman had an air of danger that would make most men shake in their boots.
I wasn't most men. Even when she had me pinned to the wall, I wasn't afraid. I was turned on, and that was probably worse.
"More so." I ran my finger around the rim of the beer glass. "She wants me to set up a meeting between her and Mason."
Even though Callahan and I were no longer partners, he was the first person I called when Mason got picked up on a warrant.
"I'm not surprised. She was convinced he had something to do with Nova's disappearance."
Anita wasn't just convinced. She was adamant it was Mason's fault.
Without a body or a confession, there was nothing I could do to help her.
And truthfully, I didn't think Mason had anything to do with Nova's disappearance.
I didn't lie when I told Anita Mason loved her best friend.
I had seen it in his eyes. The man would move heaven and earth for his fiancée.
"Are you going to give her what she wants?"
"I don't see how I can. He won't even talk to me.
I had him placed in solitary confinement because the first chance his family gets, they're going to kill him.
I'm pretty sure Anita will as well, and we both know she could do it in seconds.
Not even the threat of prison would stop her.
" Anita was a force to be reckoned with. I saw that firsthand tonight.
Callahan nodded. "You need to keep an eye on her."
"That's going to be hard. She's a damn ghost." In this day and age, it was almost impossible not to have a digital footprint, and yet somehow, Anita managed to do so.
Callahan raised his eyebrow. "You still haven't found anything on her?"
I shook my head. "Not a damn thing. I can't even be sure Anita is her real name."
"Did you try asking who she was when she approached you?"
I gave him the same look he used to give me when I asked a stupid question back in my rookie days. "You know how she is. She didn't exactly give me the chance. I was caught off guard, and then she kept me on the defensive the whole time."
"I've got a few contacts that might be able to help. Let me see what I can find out."
I dipped my chin. "I appreciate it."
"In the meantime, watch your back. Anita is a wild card, and I would prefer not to attend your funeral."
I chuckled at the thought. "You would have to find my body first."
Callahan laughed with me. "You're probably right."
Something told me if Anita wanted to make me disappear, it wouldn't be hard for her to do. I was pretty sure she had the resources, and she proved once again she had the skill. As a rookie, I had been overly confident that I could handle her, but she’d quickly proven me wrong.
Despite all the training I've done the past seven years, Anita was still better than me.
Somehow that didn't deter me from finding her attractive. If anything, it made me want her more.
I didn't know what that said about me. There had been a time in my life when I thought my type was a docile woman. Anita quickly proved that wrong. Her cold exterior called to me in a way no other woman ever could. I wanted to break through it and see what lay beneath.
But I knew that would never happen for a variety of reasons. One: Anita would never let it happen. Two: She was involved in one of my cases, and I didn't mix work and pleasure. And three: She wanted to kill one of my witnesses. That was the opposite of what I stood for.
I mentally kicked myself in the ass. I needed to stop thinking about Anita and focus on how I was going to get Mason to testify because that was my goal at the moment. And nothing would stop me when I was laser focused on a case. Certainly not a sexy woman in black.