31. Chapter 31
Chapter thirty-one
Tension held Amber’s body still as Leo connected his laptop to the larger screen hanging from the wall in one of HICC’s offices.
Spencer sat on one side of her, Daphne on the other.
Sabina, Callie, Ethan, and Chad, Sabina’s husband and the head of HICC’s West Coast operations, occupied the other side of the table.
Like some weird watch party. Only they weren’t viewing a sports match, but instead the raid.
Or the “serving of the warrant” if she wanted to be polite about it.
When Callie first mentioned the possibility of a warrant, visions of Anthony being carted away danced in her head. The possibility of never having to worry about him again, of a peaceful life for her and Zoe, a life unshadowed by their past, had lured her into an almost euphoric state.
Now, forty-eight hours later, she was jumping out of her skin.
The delay had allowed Toni to go in and clean up her toys, which, as Callie pointed out, could have put any case at risk if the Feds found them.
Something no one wanted. But every one of those hours also gave Amber’s mind the opportunity to conjure a hundred and one what-ifs.
What if they found nothing? What if this was their only chance? What if he managed to hear of it beforehand and ran? So many what-ifs.
“What’s this going to look like?” she asked, although to whom, she wasn’t sure.
“There are nine people involved in executing the warrant,” Sabina answered. “Six FBI and three DEA, including Grace. The FBI will lead, but the DEA will play their part. Scopolamine isn’t an easy drug to find, so they don’t hold out a lot of hope of finding it, but they will do a thorough search.”
“Every agent has a body cam, but we’re only linked into Grace’s,” Chad continued.
“We want you to look for anything out of place. I know you already did that with the pictures and video, and the things you identified will be the first places they check. But seeing the house through the eyes of a live camera might reveal additional differences.”
“How long do these things usually take?” she asked.
“Depends,” Sabina said. “It’s a big house. He’s a bit of a minimalist, so that will reduce the time, though. I’d say the initial pass will take a couple of hours.”
“And he’ll be there the entire time?” The thought of seeing him, maybe hearing him, twisted her stomach. Spencer’s warm, reassuring hand curled over one of hers while Daphne did the same on the other side. Forcing in a slow, deep breath, she fixed her attention on the other side of the table.
“It’s likely he will be present,” Callie replied, her voice gentle. “He may even call his lawyer in, but the warrant is airtight. The lawyer won’t be able to stop the search; he can only ensure the agents stay within scope.”
“Okay,” she said on an inhale.
“We got this,” Daphne said. Spencer squeezed her hand.
“I know,” she replied, the words coming slowly. She did, too. But sometimes, marrying what she knew with what her body felt didn’t come easily.
“If you need a break, we can take a walk any time,” Spencer said. “We can even FaceTime Adrian and Clara. I know Stone was bringing Sherman over today for Zoe to play with.”
That brought a ghost of a smile to her face. “She does love that dog.”
“Sherman’s hard not to love,” Spencer said.
“He even has Gabe and me thinking about getting a dog,” Callie said, setting a hand on her belly.
Amber still wasn’t quite used to hearing the Falcons being called by their given names, even though she’d started doing the same with Spencer.
Philly would always be Philly to her, though he’d been Gabe to Callie since they were kids.
And Lovell would always be Lovell, although Daphne called him James.
That thought brought a smile to her lips.
Daphne almost never just said James’s name.
She had a little bit of an Etta James purr going when she spoke of him.
“We’ve thought about it, too,” Chad said. He and Sabina had two children. She couldn’t remember their ages but thought they were both under five. Not a bad time to get a dog.
Ethan chuckled. “Kara found a litter of kittens in the hospital parking lot about six months ago. We kept two, Brad and Scarlett took two, and Ryan and Olivia took the fifth. There will be no dogs in our immediate futures,” he said, referring to his cousins and their partners.
“Well,” Daphne said, drawing the word out.
“James and I went to the shelter a couple of days ago.” Nodding to her sister’s belly, she continued.
“I figured you wouldn’t want to deal with a puppy and a newborn at the same time, but I remember how much we both wanted pets growing up.
I figured James and I could get a puppy now, and my niece or nephew could spend time with it.
Then, when you guys feel ready for one, he or she will be used to being around a pet already. ”
Callie blinked the tears gathering in her eyes. “Really? You’re going to get a puppy?” A moment of kinship wrapped around Amber. At least she wasn’t the only emotional one these days.
Daphne smiled. “We are. There’s a litter of four, and we can’t decide which one we want. We’re going back tomorrow to pick one.”
“Maybe we should come with you,” Spencer said.
She jerked her head in his direction. He shrugged.
“I know life is going to be a little complicated until we find a rhythm to things, but if it’s already complicated, why not throw a puppy in the mix and then when we find that rhythm, it will already include the dog? ”
“Uh, um, I’m not sure that’s how it works,” she said, although the idea of a dog and a house and Zoe and Spencer had taken root before he’d even finished speaking. “But maybe we can talk about it tonight?”
He grinned, as if knowing full well he’d convince her. Admittedly, it wouldn’t take much. But still.
“Mention it to Mantis, too,” Leo said. “Joey said that he and Charley were talking about getting one. Joey likes the idea of having a shop dog that stays with them during the day, but she and I don’t have the space to have one at home.”
“Maybe we can adopt the whole litter. I don’t think Viper and Lina are up for a dog, but Monk and Helia might be. I know Kendall would lose her mind,” Spencer suggested.
“Done,” Daphne said, phone in hand. “I just texted James. He’ll talk to his brothers. We get first dibs, though.”
“Any idea what they are?” Amber asked.
“Some kind of Lab/shepherd mixed breed. They can’t say for certain, but think they’ll grow to about sixty pounds. Smaller than Sherman but still decent-sized,” Daphne said. “There are three tricolors, and one all black. Two are male and two are female.”
The screen suddenly came to life in a crackle of indistinguishable sounds, and a painful jolt of adrenaline shot through Amber’s body.
Spencer’s thumb brushed hers, and Daphne, who’d released her hand to text James, reached for her again.
A few seconds of silence filled the room, then Grace’s voice came over the audio.
“The FBI is leading the operation. Once they are in, we’ll follow,” she said without preamble.
“I have you on a different channel than the team, so you won’t hear anything that’s said and I won’t hear you, either.
I’ll open the line if I have a question, and Leo knows how to click through if you need to reach me.
Otherwise, I’ll stay on the team channel. ”
“Copy that,” Leo said.
“Switching now,” she replied. The room fell quiet again, and Amber fixed her gaze on the screen.
Through the camera, her old neighborhood rolled into view from what looked like the windows of a van.
Not much had changed in the year she’d been gone.
Perfect gardens lined both sides of the road, pristine houses dominated the large lots, not a soul in sight.
No neighbors visiting on porches, no kids riding bikes, no dogs making the rounds.
Silent and isolated. Just as she’d been in the years she’d lived there.
Lost in her memories and the discordance of her past flashing on the screen as her present, and future, flanked her, the sudden appearance of her former home startled her.
Within seconds, the team pulled into the familiar drive, blocking all three bays of the garage.
Like the rest of the neighborhood, the brick exterior and white trim hadn’t changed.
Nor had the landscaping that came into view as Grace climbed from the van.
Still precise. Still lovely but characterless.
Still giving no hint as to what happened within the walls of the house it surrounded.
Grace remained at the back of the group, giving them the best view possible from her body cam. Although given the position of it and the way it rotated, Amber wondered if it was attached to a helmet or hat rather than positioned on her body.
That thought cut off, severed abruptly, when the door opened and Anthony stood framed in the entry.
Daphne’s other hand encased hers while Spencer brought the one he was holding to his cheek, dropping a kiss on it as he did.
Anchoring her. Her best friend on one side and her…
future? Her lover? Her other best friend on the other. He was all those, and more.
Yet despite their support, her body tensed and her breath grew short.
And to her chagrin, the familiar feeling of shrinking in on herself, of preparing to protect herself from a blow, took over.
Her chest caved, her shoulders hunched, and she ducked her head, even as she kept a wary eye on the screen.
She tried to fight it, she tried to straighten, but the rapid fire of her heart rate made it hard to move.
“Fuck this,” Spencer muttered. She flinched at the words, even knowing they weren’t meant for her. In the next breath, he lifted her, scooted over to her chair, then set her back down on his lap, curling his warm, steady arms around her.
“I’m sorry,” she said as the scene played out silently on the screen in front of them.
Anthony’s hands alternated between gesturing wildly and being planted on his hips, his face a mottled red, his eyes narrowed.
Unlike all those years when she’d faced the same behavior and cowered, none of the agents looked concerned about Anthony’s temper.
Or the vehemence with which he argued with the lead FBI agent.
“Nothing to be sorry about,” Spencer said, tucking her even closer against his body.
He was all but wrapped around her, except for her one hand that still clung to Daphne’s.
She rested her head on his shoulder, preparing to hide her face against his neck if the scene got to be too much to watch.
But as she inhaled his warmth and his scent, breath by breath, something different happened.
Memories, different ones, pushed to the forefront.
Laughing in the kitchen with Dottie. The appreciative cheers of the Falcons when she pulled off a new dish.
The laughter and smiles of the people of Mystery Lake on Youth Day.
The feel of Spencer curled around her as she slept.
The smell of Zoe fresh from the bath and the sound of her giggles as she scrambled after Sherman.
Spa days with Daphne, chats with Craig at the grocery store, hikes she’d taken with Joey and Charley to places of impossible beauty.
She’d always carry the trauma of her first marriage with her, but she had a different life now.
A life she loved, one she’d fought for. One with people in it who would fight beside her when she needed a reminder.
The way Spencer and Daphne and Callie and Leo were now.
The way Ethan, Chad, and Sabina were, even though she didn’t know them well.
Inhaling deeply, her body released its anxiety on the exhale. Sensing the change, Spencer leaned back and looked at her in question. She angled her head and smiled. “I’m good,” she said.
His eyes searched hers, then his lips tipped up at the edges.
“You are,” he said. Then dropping a kiss on her forehead, he turned his eyes back to the screen.
She drank in the lines of his face, his sharp cheekbones, the curve of his eyes, the angle of his jaw, then brushed a kiss on his neck, under his ear, before turning her attention to the screen, too.
She had no idea how the raid would turn out. No idea what, if anything, the agents would find. But she wasn’t going to miss a second of it. Because whether it happened today or tomorrow or a week or a month from now, Anthony Ely was going to pay for his crimes. All of them.