CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
Lana put her phone down and leaned her head back against the headrest of her seat. Shit was happening way too fast for her liking.
She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, a practice she’d learned years ago to calm her mind, heart, and body when she went into overdrive. She about had herself back into calm mode when her phone rang.
“Pennington.”
“Ah, I have missed that sassy snark, Captain. How is civilian life treating you?”
“Better than it’s treating you, apparently. You’ve missed a few check-ins, Angelo. You changing teams, forgetting which side you’re on?”
“You don’t like me very much, do you, Captain?”
“I don’t know you, Angelo. I know you’re former Delta and that the C.I.A and the F.B.I.
pulled you into a joint operation to go undercover in the Soriano Cartel, one that also has an MC in the US calling themselves the Soriano’s Army.
I know you’ve missed several calls with your handler, and they were considering whether or not to have you declared as a rogue agent.
I hope for your sake you haven’t switched sides and now have to be taken out with the rest of them. ”
“I love it when you talk dirty to me, Captain. You need to learn how to relax. If Kenwood isn’t capable of satisfying you, call me.”
“No thanks. Community dick doesn’t work for me, Angelo. From what I’ve heard, the ladies don’t try to come back for seconds. Now, stop wasting my fucking time and tell me why you called me and not your handler?” Lana answered, looking around when a background sound sounded too familiar.
“Looking a little pudgy there, Captain. Not knocked up again, are you?”
“Trying to fat shame me, Angelo, you should take it up with your old man since he’s my cardio.”
Lana heard the same noise again as she got out of the SUV when Rocky came out of the store with Dani. As they got closer, she heard the motorcycles rev up.
“Get Dani back inside, now!” Lana screamed out, drawing her weapon and pointing it toward where she now heard the noise coming from.
Rocky and Dani made it inside the store just as the two motorcycles came toward her, increasing their speed. Lana pointed her weapon at the two men, then lowered her weapon as she fired, hitting the front tire of the motorcycle Angelo was riding.
When he went down, she ran toward him, only to have him abandon his motorcycle when his partner squealed their tires at a stop next to him. When the man stopped his bike, he aimed a gun her way. Angelo ran in front of her toward his partner, yelling at him to take off.
What…the…fuck…was…that? Lana watched as the two men sped away on the one motorcycle with his saddlebag over his shoulder.
Lana ran toward the downed bike and turned the still running motor off. The fact the engine was still running surprised her.
When she stepped back to look at her surroundings, she saw an envelope on the ground near the seat of the bike. She pulled out gloves from her glove pouch on her duty vest and put them on. She picked up the envelope that was addressed to “My Dearest Lana.”
“Mommy!”
Lana whirled around when she heard her daughter, Dani, scream out for her. She knelt down and caught the running missile as she was tackled into a tight hug.
“It’s okay, baby. Mommy’s got you.”
Lana held her shaking daughter in her arms and started rocking the crying girl as she did her best to soothe her. When she looked up at Rocky, she knew her bestie had some serious questions.
“The store clerk called 9-1-1. You know Kenwood is going to demand answers when he gets here.”
Lana nodded toward the envelope in her hand as she continued to hold her daughter. Rocky leaned down with a glove on and took the envelope out of her hand and placed it in her pocket on her duty vest.
Several seconds later, she heard sirens and screeching tires as she continued to soothe her shaking daughter. Rocky helped her to stand up with her daughter still latched onto her and walked over to their SUV.
“Lana!”
Well fuck! So much for the hope Jayson hadn’t heard about the incident just yet. Seconds after hearing him scream her name, she and Dani were engulfed in his own shaking embrace.
“We’re okay. Rocky had Dani in the store. I’m fine. I promise.”
“There were reports of shots fired,” Jayson murmured into her hair.
“Only one. I shot my gun at Angelo’s motorcycle tire and took out his bike. His buddy aimed to shoot me, but Angelo blocked his shot,” Lana admitted to him.
“I can’t breathe, Daddy,” Dani croaked into her neck.
“Sorry, baby girl.”
“Baby, go with Auntie Sunny for a minute. I need to talk to Daddy and your other aunties privately for a minute.”
“You’re not going away, are you?”
Dani’s question, in her scared voice, broke Lana’s heart. She moved Dani so that the little girl could see her face.
“I’m not going anywhere. Pinky promise. I just need to talk to Daddy and your aunties for a minute. You can watch us from your seat in the car, okay?”
“Okay.”
Lana nodded at Cullen and Sunny, who walked up and took the little girl’s hand. When Lana and Jayson moved a step to the side, Rocky and her sergeant joined them, along with Jayson’s brother Ryan, Hollywood, and Swift.
“Lana…”
“I’m okay. I promise. Angelo called me. I think he was warning me because he was taunting me but not answering my questions.
When he called, he acted like his informant gave him my number.
He allowed me to hear his location, knowing I’d be listening to the background sounds.
He let me shoot out his motorcycle tire.
He could have easily taken me out. When he laid his bike down, he took his saddlebags but left something for me that I can’t read here.
His partner could have killed me with one shot, but Angelo ran in front of the gun to jump on his bike and told him to haul ass.
We need to get away from here to look at what he left for me. ”