Chapter 5
FIVE
The Fugitive Recovery Squad had barely breached the front door of the house at the end of Darden Boulevard, when Detective Walker Ashley watched the pristine white WCCN Channel 12 Van grind to a stop at the end of the block.
He didn’t even have to look to know who would be climbing out of the passenger seat in less than a heartbeat.
SLAM
Walker kept his feet planted where they were. He’d learned the hard way that walking up to Kennedy Heart, the golden girl of WCCN didn’t end well for him.
She hardly let him get a word in before she had her microphone a few inches from his nose.
He had to grudgingly admit that she wasn’t in any trouble where she was. She wasn’t interfering with the police. And as much as he hated to admit it, she was safe enough at the end of the block.
The front door of the dilapidated home banged open and the Recovery Squad marched men out of the house.
One, two… five men found themselves seated on the half-dead lawn of the house, their hands bound behind them, their heads tilted down so the only thing visible were the tops of their heads.
A dark Crown Vic rattled to a stop at the curb and Detective Henry Jerzek swung open the driver’s door. Before he could manage to get both feet on the ground, the door swung back at him and almost knocked Jerzek back into the car’s interior.
A light cut through the darkness of the street and Walker saw that Kennedy was on the move. With her camera man in tow, she walked across the asphalt with a ground eating clip. “Detective Jerzek! Do you want to tell our viewers about the scene developing behind you?”
Walker bit the inside of his cheek.
The other detective sputtered a little and blinked in the relentless beam of light from the camera. The bright white light gave Kennedy a fresh glow but made the older detective look wan and almost sallow. Seen side by side it wasn’t a good visual for the CCPD.
When Henry didn’t manage to scrounge up an answer, Kennedy cut in, probably trying to keep away from dead air.
“It looks like the Fugitive Recovery van is blocking the driveway of that house. Can you tell me who they’re hoping to recover, Detective?”
The look he gave her would have made most people back away or at least wilt a little.
Not Kennedy Heart.
The sweetheart of WCCN was a pit bull when she wanted to be.
When he sputtered again and tugged at his collar, Kennedy pushed on. “From what my sources tell me, you’re after Johnny Cole, one of the largest meth dealers in Center City.” She leaned to the side and gave the group of men on the lawn a quick once over before she looked back at the other detective. “I’m guessing you’ve come up empty, Detective Jerzek. That seems to be your modus operandi these days. Doesn’t it?”
The light from the heavy camera that her assistant had hoisted on his shoulder seemed to be too bright for the older man. He was left to squint into the glare and wince at the pain it seemed to cause him.
It wasn’t a good look for him.
Then again, nothing really was.
Jerzek yanked a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and blotted the back of his neck and then his forehead. He looked almost too pale to be standing under his own power. His voice was as pale as his skin. “My what?”
Her smile looked perfectly sweet, but Walker had seen her eviscerate an alderman and had him falling all over himself to retract his words.
“Your mo-dus oper-an-di.” She slowed the words down as if he was a few nuggets short of a meal. “You know, I think law enforcement refers to it as your M.O.”
When the words slipped through his dense skull and into his grey matter his eyes narrowed on her and his neck went red. “What the hell are you trying to say, girl?”
Girl?
Ah hell.
“Miss Heart.” Walker stepped forward and signaled for the cameraman to turn off the recording.
The man turned his head to look at Kennedy and her almost imperceptible nod had the larger man ending the recording, but he didn’t turn off the light that was shining in Jerzek’s eyes.
Walker stepped in and blocked the light. “Nice to see you again, Miss Heart.”
He sounded perfectly cordial, but Kennedy’s eyes lit up in a challenge.
That seemed to always happen when they were around each other.
“I’m not sure if it’s nice to see you, Detective Ashley.”
He ground his back teeth together as she made his name sound like she was addressing a woman. All sugar and light.
“I’d like to congratulate you on how quickly you came upon our bust.”
She shrugged, but her smile said she was damn proud of herself. “I’m good at what I do.”
“I’d say you’re more than good,” Walker raked his teeth over his bottom lip, and hoped that the dark street was enough to keep the unconscious movement to himself, “you’re like some kind of a bloodhound.”
Jerzek lifted his handkerchief to his mouth. “Yeah, a real bi-”
The older man gave Walker a look of death when Walker smacked him on the back.
“Sorry, Hank. Thought you were choking on something there.”
Jerzek opened his mouth to shoot something back, but a soft click turned his head and he saw the red light pop up on the camera.
With a weighing look, Jerzek shoved his handkerchief back in his breast pocket and waved in Kennedy’s direction. He gave Walker a baleful look. “You deal with the little lady. I’ve got a job to do.”
As he walked off, Walker turned to look at Kennedy with what his mother called his ‘sugary bullshit’ look. “Is there something I can answer for you, Miss Kennedy?”
Headlights arched around the cul-de-sac, and they all looked at the vehicle heading in their direction. The dark van had heavily tinted windows and lettering on the side that had Kennedy perking up. “Oh, John. Get some video of the guys being loaded up into the van. Okay?”
Her cameraman gave her a wink. “Anything for you, Ken.”
Hefting the camera into place on his shoulder, he flicked the record button and then the bright white light. He walked away toward the van following Detective Jerzek’s exact path across the asphalt.
Kennedy turned back to look at Walker and he could see she was beaming with delight.
“I think John likes to needle him as much as I do.” Tucking her microphone into her shoulder bag, Kennedy gave him a wide-eyed grin. “I try not to encourage it, but I have to say I love it when Jerk-zek sweats like that.”
Walker shook his head. “Jerk-zek?”
She didn’t shy away or back down at all. “Don’t give me that shocked look, Detective. I know very well that there’s a good percentage of Precinct Four and,” she leaned forward for emphasis, “House Twenty-nine that call him that very same name.”
He gave her a thoughtful look, not quite ready to let her off the hook yet.
When he couldn’t hold it in anymore, he shrugged and crossed his arms. “Don’t forget the hospital. I’ve heard that a few folks at Cole Medical center use that particular nickname for him too.”
She chuckled under her breath, and he found the slightly deeper sound insanely sexy. “And you’d know that because your twin works in the ER. Right? Doctor Roan Ashley.”
He should be used to the assumption.
He and Roan did look almost enough alike to be considered twins.
Still, he wanted Kennedy to be someone who saw beyond their uncanny resemblance to each other.
That made sense.
In a random way.
Sure.
No, actually, it didn’t make a damn bit of sense.
He didn’t give a fuck if she could see beyond their-
“Or rather you would be if you two weren’t more like… What would my grams have called it? Irish Twins?”
Walker couldn’t help the way his heart… and other parts of him swelled when he heard her words. If they weren’t on the street-
An ear-splitting whistle turned both of their heads.
“Hey, Ashley!” Jerzek gave him a rather rude wave of his hand. “You workin’ this job or what?”
Walker bit into the side of his cheek and counted from one to fuck off before he looked at Kennedy. “Are you sticking around for a bit?”
She gave a quick look at the watch on her wrist and for the first time he noticed not just the elegant shape of her arm, but the delicate watch on her wrist. There had to be a score or more of diamonds in the setting and more than a carat or two in stone weight.
The piece wasn’t cheap, and it wasn’t new.
“I’ll be around for a bit to see if I can get some salient facts from some of the other LEOs on scene. I know you’re not going to tell me anything without a warrant or twisting your arm.” She lifted her arm as if he needed to know what it looked like. “So, I’m going to leave you alone now and head off to the station to see if I can make the Eleven o’clock news and online uploads for WCCN.”
She started to walk past him, but for some damn reason that he couldn’t fathom, he reached out and grabbed her hand.
“Kennedy-”
The look on her face said she understood it about as much as he did.
“I know you think you’re Wonder Woman and you’re invincible, but while those men may look docile, they can change in a heartbeat. You… be careful. Okay?”
Kennedy looked at him, her eyes open and curious.
He felt her fingers move against his and he tightened his hold so he wouldn’t let go of her. An instinct that was as unsettling as the rest of their interaction.
A moment later, when he tugged slightly at her hand, she leaned closer and while he had no idea what might happen next, Kennedy Heart turned him inside out again with a soft laugh.
“Wow, Detective Ashley,” her voice melted like butter, “I almost believe that you care.”
She walked away, shaking her head as she laughed to herself.
He joined in the laughter of course.
What else could he do?
To keep quiet would have tipped his hand and Walker was a much better poker player than that.
She stopped a few feet away and turned around, giving him a curious look with a head tilt that showed him the pale perfection of her neck.
Fucking hell.
He shouldn’t get hard that easily.
“You know,” she gave him a soft, almost smile, “if you’re not doing anything later. I’m headed to Ciro’s for a drink.”
Walker hesitated for a moment and then opened his mouth like it was a good thing to do. “I’ll be done as soon as these guys get processed.”
Smiling, she gave him a little half-shrug. “Then we should get there at about the same time.”
And then she was gone, striding across the nearly circular end of the street, her hips swaying because of those fucking heels she always wore.
Kennedy didn’t even bat an eyelash when Detective Jerzek tried to block her from filming the men as they were put into the van. His muttered sexist words didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of her cool.
And his nasty looks?
She just smiled at him with a heavy dose of ‘Bless Your Heart’ in her eyes.
If Detective Henry Jerzek thought that his tired brand of misogyny was going to make her cower or back away, he had no idea who he was dealing with.
She did what she’d been trained to do.
She got the story.
And John? Bless that beautiful giant of a man! He got the footage.
Well, that, and a few unguarded quips from some of the other officers who weren’t fans of Jerzek either.
No, she wouldn’t use those in the story.
The offhanded comments of uniformed officers, while justified, weren’t important to the subject she was covering.
Sitting beside John in the editing bay at WCCN she worked at cutting together the best story she could. Her eyes roamed over the screen as she watched the half dozen men taken into custody climb up into the van. “I just don’t get it.”
John leaned closer to her, folding his arms on the surface of the desk. “What’s wrong?”
“All of these guys. I went through the facial recognition software that Vihaan ordered for us, but I’m not coming up with any big-name criminals. No one on the fugitive list. No one with a criminal record above petty theft or drug possession.”
John sighed and leaned heavily on the desk. “So, the jerk is batting somewhere below what? Three hundred?”
Kennedy blew out a breath and reached into her purse for a hair tie. “He’s barely above a zero when it comes to his record. I don’t know why he’s still leading that unit.”
“You mean,” John reached for the cup of coffee he’d set down a few minutes before, “why isn’t your man leading the unit by now?”
“My man?”
Flustered, Kennedy waved him off and pulled her notepad out from her purse. She flipped open the worn top of the pad and started to page through blindly.
What she was looking for was a mystery. She was just trying to look busy so she could find a way to get off that particular topic.
She saw John reach for the controls, and she let him work on the edit. The man was probably better than she was at the editing program, but normally she did the editing under his guidance.
Practice didn’t always make perfect, but it made her better at her craft and that was what she wanted to be.
Better.
Always better.
She didn’t want to move ‘up’ to a larger market.
She didn’t even want to be a newscaster at a desk in the WCCN studio.
She wanted to be on the street interviewing people. Getting the story. Not just saying the words that come across on the teleprompter.
Kennedy wondered if Walker might feel the same way about his job. He certainly could advance within the CCPD, but he seemed to be happy where he was. A detective wasn’t like a beat cop. He dug a little deeper. He really got into the investigation just like she got into a story.
So maybe, they understood each other more than just their sarcastic comments and hot, flirty looks.
“You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?”
Kennedy felt her cheeks heat, but she didn’t even try to hide it from John.
John read her like a book.
Lifting her chin she arched a brow at her friend. “And if I was?”
John bit his lower lip beneath his bushy mustache and tapped to save the current file they had going. “If you were, I’d say go for it.”
Kennedy almost wanted to play coy, but really, John would’ve seen right through it. So, she went for the truth.
“Really? What? Invite him over and-”
John held up his hands. “Oh, please just leave it there, Missy.”
“Missy?” She shot it back at him, but secretly she was pleased. It had been an age since he’d jokingly called her that. “Wow, that’s a flashback.”
He rolled his eyes as his lips pursed together. “Ha. Ha. Funny.” Then he shook his head. “Not so much. But really, what are you waiting for? If you’re waiting for him to show up and ask you out with flowers in his hand, you have to know you’re crazy. Right?”
The image he put in her head was almost comical.
The idea of Walker Ashley bringing her flowers for any reason almost made her snort with laughter. “Uh yeah. And thanks for not saying that when I had a drink in my mouth.”
He looked at her with open disdain. “You’d better not spit on these monitors and controls. That,” he informed her in all seriousness, “would be the last straw.”
It was her turn to beg off. “Not me. No, sir.” They settled back into the editing process, both aware the clock on the wall was tick-tick-ticking off the time until they had to get the piece to the producer. They listened to it from the start to finish and then Kennedy turned to John for his thoughts.
She liked it.
Really liked it.
But John was the one she trusted above everyone.
John let the tape run to its end and turned to look at her with a smile. “Looks good, real good, Kennedy Heart. I think you should do a little celebrating tonight.”
“Sweet!” Smiling, she sat back in her chair and let her legs sprawl out before her, still careful not to scuff the back of her shoes on the carpet. “So, you coming to Ciro’s? I’m buying!”
That got his attention.
His chin dropped and his eyes opened wide, but he still shook his head. “I’m headed home for a quiet late night with Donna. I’ve got to put my feet up and have a drink before I pitch forward from exhaustion. I’m not as young as I used to be.”
John got up and Kennedy shifted forward on her chair to stand with him.
Chuckling, he leaned over and put his hand on her arm to keep her in her chair. “I know I seem young and na?ve, but I don’t need you to walk me to the principal’s office. Now, all you have to decide is what to do with the rest of your night.”
With a wink, he pulled the drive from the computer and walked out of the editing bay.
Sighing to herself, Kennedy looked up at the soundproofed ceiling tiles and stared.
It wasn’t about a decision that she had to make.
It wasn’t about her.
Not necessarily.
When it came down to it, it was all about Walker.
If he showed up at the bar, then that was one step in the right direction.
From there... Well, they'd have to see.