Chapter Fourteen
Dominic
I’d had an uneventful tour, which was good, because I was too busy thinking that I’d just had sex with a man.
Emmy. I kept smiling all day, thinking of him, and it got to the point that even Bradford noticed and I had to brush him off by saying I’d had a great night with someone new.
We ticketed a few speeders, moved a stranded car off the highway exit ramp, and helped old Mr. Jamison, who’d forgotten his keys and was locked out of his house.
We separated in the parking lot and with a smirk, Bradford punched me in the shoulder. “Don’t think I didn’t see those scratches. Have fun.”
I didn’t answer, merely raised my hand and walked to my car, already thinking about the night ahead. I hit the gym—about a five-minute drive from home—and put in a punishing workout. Totally wiped, I went home, took a shower, and took a power nap. An hour later I woke up, reinvigorated.
I sat at my kitchen table and texted Emmy while I made a sandwich.
Yours or mine?
Yours. I need to make a list of things you need to get for when I’m staying over.
Ok, Martha.
He sent me a middle-finger emoji, and my lips twitched.
Damn, who knew he was so particular? I looked around the spartan house I’d rented and had to admit Emmy’s place was a lot warmer and homey.
Mine looked like a run-down hotel room—I could walk out the door, and it would be as if I’d never lived there.
I guess it wouldn’t hurt to get a few personal items to brighten it up, as the walls and furniture were plain beige and gray.
I ate, threw out the garbage, and made sure the bedroom was ready—meaning enough lube and condoms. I ran my hands along my non-twelve-hundred-count sheets.
“All right, I see what you mean,” I grumbled at the rough texture but couldn’t help snickering at the thought of Emmy buying me sheets and towels. “Guess it can’t hurt to upgrade.”
I flossed, brushed my teeth, and used mouthwash. I dug out an extra toothbrush and a razor I had in a travel kit and set them by the sink for him. Maybe he’d come with his own, but I didn’t want him to think I wasn’t planning for him to stay.
Was I going to let him fuck me? I couldn’t be sure.
I didn’t care if it hurt—it was relinquishing control I feared.
Him pinning me under him in the bed, rendering me immobile, his heavy weight on top of me, my face in the pillow, unable to see what was happening…
I shivered, sweat breaking out on my face.
My brain might have an issue with it, but my dick had stiffened at the thought of Emmy’s domination.
I splashed cold water on my face and paced my living room to settle my rattled nerves.
“We’ll take it as it comes.”
A few deep breaths, and I was in charge.
The doorbell rang, and I jumped like an electric prod was stuck up my butt. With my nerves on edge, I almost took the door off its hinges when I flung it open.
“Hello, Dominic. Please don’t shut the door in my face again.” Becker McGill stood on my porch.
“The hell I won’t,” I snarled and attempted to close it, but this time McGill muscled his way inside and stood opposite me in the tiny entranceway. Still, I refused to let him in any farther. “Get out. I have nothing to say to you.”
“You might not, but I have things to say to you.”
“Yeah? Like what?” I challenged. “You’re spying on me for my father? I’m not in the city anymore. I’m gone. Why can’t you all leave me alone?”
“You’ve got it all wrong, Dominic. I’m not here to make trouble for you.”
“You already are. Get the fuck out. I have nothing to say to the Rat Squad, retired or not.”
McGill grimaced but nodded. “I understand where you’re coming from. But if you give me a chance, you’ll see that we can work together.”
“Work together?” I checked the clock on the stove. Emmy still had an hour left on his tour, and it was obvious McGill wasn’t going anywhere until he had his say. “Fine, come and sit, but I’m having visitors soon, so you can’t stay long.”
McGill settled on the couch, and I sat in the club chair.
He clasped his hands together. Casually dressed in a pair of jeans and a polo, he sat ramrod straight with a face carved from onyx—all hard angles with no softness at the edges.
Buzz-cut silver hair covered his head, and his steely, brown-eyed gaze bore into mine.
I’d gone to Internal Affairs on my own to report my father, but I knew guys who’d been called in on an investigation.
Beforehand, they’d boast how they’d have no problem answering questions, and then they’d come out of the room looking like they’d shit their pants.
I was out of that world now, with little desire to get dragged back in.
“Talk to me. Tell me why you’ve been after me,” I demanded.
“I’m part of a special task force looking into corruption at the highest levels of the department. For years we’ve been hearing rumblings about your father—”
My stomach did a deep dive, and I put my hands up. “Oh, no. No fucking way am I going to be involved in that shit.”
“Dominic, just listen to me for a moment. If you decide no, fine, but there are a lot of good people out there getting hurt because of him.”
“You think I don’t know that? You’re looking at victim number one.
” I sneered. “You have no idea what it was like growing up with him. He made my mother’s life a living hell.
He’d constantly accuse her of cheating on him with the super of our building, the delivery guy from the supermarket, the cable-installation man…
it was ridiculous. I knew he had his cop friends watching her and reporting her every move to him—how else could he know what she did all day?
” Furious and frustrated at the tears on my lashes, I dashed them away with shaky fingers.
“He’d come home calling her all kinds of names, and she’d do whatever she could to appease him so he’d stop. ”
“Did he hit her?”
I was never able to get my mother to say the words, and I honestly didn’t think so.
“Physical violence wasn’t his thing with her.
But he degraded her in other ways.” McGill opened his mouth, but I shut him down with a glare.
“She’s my mother. Don’t make me say the things he forced her to do.
I was a kid when it started and didn’t know better.
By the time I was a teenager and figured it out, I begged her to divorce him.
She finally listened to me and got a lawyer, but after the marriage was legally over, he still didn’t stop.
Even when she moved out of the neighborhood, it didn’t matter. He always found her.”
Chastened, McGill dipped his head. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah,” I choked out. “Me too.”
“You see why even with that, he should be removed from his position.”
My bitter laughter rang out. “You think you can get him ousted because of the way he treated my mother years ago? And rest assured, she wouldn’t be coming to New York to testify against him. She remarried and moved on. She doesn’t want to be involved.”
“But you were. We know what he did to you.” Sitting opposite him, there was no way to escape the probing depths of his dark eyes.
“Of course you do. I told you.” Unable to sit still, I jumped out of my chair to pace the room.
“So fucking what? Yeah, he hit me. Twice in the face with his gun.” I pointed to my cheek.
“I needed stitches, and I have a scar. But I was told to shut up—by my captain, the borough commander…everyone. And when I didn’t and reported it—to you guys—I got the thank-you present of being transferred to Staten Island Parking.
And my mom was afraid he’d return and do God knew what to her and I wouldn’t be close enough to save her, so she begged me to leave it alone.
All she wanted was to forget he existed. ”
McGill remained resolute. “None of those people work in the department any longer.”
“Big fucking deal. He still owns the top brass of the divisions. Listen. I don’t know what you want from me.
I did what I was supposed to do and was not only told to back off, I got deep-sixed in parking detail, then transferred to watch surveillance cameras.
Nothing anyone is going to say or do will change the way things work. ”
McGill nodded. “I understand. But there’s more. As Chief of Department, your father is aware of every sting operation, every drug informant, every bust the department makes. Nothing gets signed off on or put into action without his approval.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I know that. So?”
“We believe your father is actively working against his own undercover detectives and for the cartels. He’s been a major part of bringing in narcotics from all over the East Coast and is paid off by the cartels. And it’s been going on for years.”
Whoa. That was not what I’d expected to hear him say. My stomach dropped. “Are you serious? How do you know?”
McGill’s smile was thin. “We’ve been surveilling, building a case. We have ghosts in the various gangs all over the city.”
Everyone in the department knew what a ghost was.
An undercover cop who infiltrated the drug and gun gangs to get as much information as possible, with their main purpose to get to the head of the snake—the person or group responsible for the illegal activity.
It was the single most dangerous assignment in the department that often saw officers lose their lives.
I knew my father had done undercover work when he was coming up in the ranks, and it was possible he’d made connections he’d kept to this day.
“You’re accusing him of murder,” I said flatly, and speaking those words sent a shiver down my spine. I’d suspected corruption but not this.
McGill held my gaze. “On more than one occasion, your father has had detectives, plus confidential informants we believe came close to exposing him, taken care of so they wouldn’t speak.”
My stomach turned. As much as I hated my father, hearing he might’ve had people killed to keep his crimes quiet made me physically ill. I struggled to find my voice. “I still don’t know what you want from me.”
“Did you ever hear your father on the phone with any of his associates, making plans or simply talking to them?”
I shook my head. “He was rarely around—the department was more a home for him than our apartment. And after the divorce, he never spent any time with me. But somehow he always knew where I was on patrol.” I shrugged. “I figured he had someone keeping an eye on me.”
“You’re correct.” His sharp eyes connected to mine, and it was almost as if I were in one of those steel-and-cement IAB interrogation rooms where you couldn’t leave until you were turned inside out and your guts examined. A sour taste rose in my mouth. “We know you work with Emerson Kane.”
I had to bite my tongue to keep a neutral face. I could only nod. Not that I’d say a word to McGill about him. I wouldn’t do anything before speaking with Emmy. I owed McGill and his cohorts nothing. Frankly, I wasn’t sure they were to be trusted any more than my father.
McGill rose to his feet. Our meeting was over, but he’d dropped a bomb about Emmy, and I wasn’t sure why.
“What does Kane have to do with this?” I followed McGill to my door. “Damn you,” I called after him as he descended the steps of my porch. “Tell me.”
“We’ll be in touch.”
I watched him get into an SUV and drive off. I caught the license plate and put it into my phone—if he’d been checking up on Emmy and me, I had no compunction in looking into him.
I closed the door and rested against it, as if afraid McGill might come through it again.
What the fuck was all this? I’d escaped the city to leave the reach of my father behind, thinking all the miles between us would give me peace.
Now I’d discovered not only had they found me, but somehow they were drawing Emmy into their sticky grasp, and I didn’t fucking like it. At all.
I strode into the kitchen and pulled a beer from the refrigerator, downing half in one long gulp. The bell rang, and I jumped, then wanted to smack myself.
“Get a grip,” I scolded and went to the door. Emmy stood with a grin that faded the moment he met my eyes.
“Hey,” I said, hating the quiver in my voice.
“What’s wrong?” He faced me with concern.
Ignoring him, I peered outside. “I didn’t even hear you drive up.”
“I parked a few blocks away. I figured since I was staying the night, people didn’t need to see my car outside your place.”
“Pretty smart.” I forced my numb lips into the pretense of a smile. “Want a beer?”
“No,” he answered, his jaw set. “I want you to tell me what’s the matter and why you look like shit.”
“Thanks.” I was speaking as if underwater, the sounds reverberating in my head like bubbles. “You always talk to your dates this way?”
“Only you, because you’re acting like a dick.” He dropped his overnight bag and put a gentle hand to my cheek. “Dom. Something’s up. Tell me.”
I couldn’t drag Emmy into this. If my father was as evil as they suspected, Emmy wasn’t safe. Especially if anyone found out the two of us were lovers.
“It’s nothing. I overdid it at the gym, and I fell asleep. I’m still waking up and hurting.”
I guess I could fake it with the best of them because Emmy bought it and smacked my ass. “I hope you’re not too tired for tonight. ’Cause I’ve got plans for you.”
I held him tighter than normal. “No. Not at all. I can’t wait.”
I vowed to make sure Emmy was protected. No one would hurt him.