Chapter Eleven #2
“Guess your bed isn’t warm anymore, Chief,” I noted, trying not to smile. I’d heard a rumor from Grayson that Leon always followed her on her nighttime callouts.
She sighed and shook her head at the car. “I’m gonna kill him too.”
“Too?” Jake parroted as she turned back to her vehicle. “What the hell do you mean by too?”
She shook her head. “He’s always on my list.”
“How romantic,” I muttered.
“But you two, as of half an hour ago, are at the top of it. Follow me to the station, or I’ll put a warrant out for your arrest.” She got back into her SUV.
When she turned onto a different street, Leon’s car pulled out, slowly trailing behind.
Though the tint on his windows was too dark to allow me to see him, I could feel him looking at us.
I also had the feeling the smug street racer was laughing.
“Well, looks like we aren’t getting home for breakfast,” Jake sighed, climbing into the car.
I took my spot in the passenger seat. “You’re always so fucking hungry.”
“I’m a growing boy, you pissant.”
“You going to drive or what?” I clipped, tired.
I wanted to get back to the other side of the country.
I wanted to check in on Angel. I wanted to lay eyes on her, see her gentle smile, and feel the warmth of her radiance.
I didn’t want to be here anymore. The hunt was done and the client had paid us, but now, the legal shit was weaving a web I had no intention of being caught in.
Once we were headed to the station, I could feel something shift between Murphy and me, the air around us filling with thick silence. I ran a hand through my hair and looked out the window, studying the Gateway Arch.
“What is it, Jake?” I asked, my voice low.
“She’s all right,” he said, answering the one question that had been running through my mind since the second I left her. He parked in front of the station, and I heard him turn in his seat.
Slowly, I looked over at him. The jokes were gone and the job was done. Now something more detrimental was in my path. “You checked on her?” I asked.
“Of course,” he replied.
“I didn’t ask you to do that.”
“But I knew you needed me to.”
I swallowed. “Why you?”
He sighed deeply and started pulling his hair back into a bun. “Because I’m not going to judge you for loving someone you can’t have.”
I flinched, and before I could find the courage to say something back, he was already out of the car.
“Pennick is going to be transferred to Washington in the coming weeks. Maybe sooner if his lawyer can have a deal arranged,” Amara said, taking a seat behind her desk.
Jake and I had just taken our seats, settling in for a debrief that would likely last until sunrise.
Amara had put a pot of coffee on, and it was just starting to brew, the rich scent reminding me of Rossy’s when there was a gentle knock on the door.
Her eyes flicked up from the file her deputy had handed her on the way in and her pupils dilated slightly. “Told you to go back home.”
“In a minute, Butterfly,” Leon replied smoothly.
Jake and I looked over our shoulders at him.
Leon Torrance was one of the leaders of Oasis, an underground street racing hub that partnered with the mafia to move product.
Amara was aware of this, and because of the mafia’s cooperation with the FBI, there was nothing she needed to do on her side.
She loved Leon, and he loved her more than air.
He came to stand behind her, assessing us, taking in our facial expressions and body language.
“Boys,” he greeted.
“Leon,” Jake and I replied.
He looked down at the file in his wife’s hands. “This…Pennick. Is he going to be any more trouble?”
The underlying question: Does Oasis need to get involved?
“No,” I said. “He’s just a fentanyl dealer.”
Leon let out a long exhale through his nose. “You’re sure?”
“He’s a mid-level player,” Jake answered, putting his ankle on the opposite knee.
“I ran thirteen backgrounds on him; they all told me the same thing. He had a few aliases. One in Canada, two in Europe. But I’ve already sent word to their embassies.
His passports, US included, are no longer valid.
” He paused, looking at me, a silent question hanging in the air. Do I say more?
I cleared my throat. “He’s going to be in prison for a long time.”
Amara turned the page in his file. “Any connections?”
Jake shifted in his seat.
The chief’s brown eyes flicked up, searching my face for the truth. “Devil’s Den,” I told her, shooting a look at Leon.
“God dammit,” he clipped under his breath and walked to the windows.
The tension in the room was thick. Damn near suffocating. “Before you two step into the panic room, please listen to us,” Jake said, pushing his glasses up.
“Devil’s Den is not a fucking game,” Leon growled, turning back to face us, his body rigid.
“You think we don’t know that?” Jake returned, dropping his leg and leaning forward. “My best friend was trapped there for months.”
Amara turned to me, giving me a sympathetic look.
Our contacts in St. Louis knew nearly everything about my time in Devil’s Den—except for Angel.
They had no idea that I’d gone in to save her and they never would.
The last thing I wanted, then and now, was for these people to have her on their radar.
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them; it was that this group had enemies.
Bigger and far more dangerous than the ones we had.
“Does Cain need to get involved?” Leon finally asked, breaking the thick silence.
I shook my head. No.
Cain Donovan, another Oasis leader, had been involved with Devil’s Den a few years back. He used to be in the Bratva, though not by his own will. And his old boss had forced him back into the dark depths I’d barely survived. I shouldn’t have survived it, but Grayson had found me in time.
“If I call him, he can be here in ten,” Leon pressed.
Jake waved his hand. “This was supposed to be a cut-and-dry hunt. Pennick was a target assigned to us by Seattle PD. Ash chased him here, shit got dicey, and that’s it.
He’s behind bars.” He stood up and moved to the coffee station in the corner of the office.
“There’s nothing more to be done. He was working alone and always has. ”
Amara looked uncertain, but given everything she’d been through, I didn’t blame her.
“Look,” I said, leaning forward on my elbows, my hands hanging between my knees.
“We know shit can go south really quick in this line of work, and we’ve learned our lesson.
Jake has done the work. What he is telling you is fact. Concrete.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “It’s not that we don’t believe you,” she started, shooting Jake an apologetic look. “We just have to cover every angle.”
“If you want, run your own checks,” Jake offered. “For peace of mind, I’ll email you everything I have, and your department can dig through it with a fine-tooth comb.”
“It wouldn’t be law enforcement combing through it,” Leon interjected, scratching his jaw. “Cain would do it.”
Jake blinked. “Cain?”
He nodded. “He possesses the same skill set as you.”
I pressed my lips together and looked at my shoes, knowing what was coming. A forced laugh came from Murphy not even a second later. “Wonderful. Let’s see if he can come up with anything.”
I heard him pour a cup of coffee. I lifted my head, found his fury-filled eyes, and jerked my chin. “Get me one too.” I glanced at Amara. “I have a feeling we’re far from done.”
“You would be correct,” she chirped, leaning back in her chair.
We didn’t walk out of there until the sun was up, the warm golden light stretching over the river beyond the Arch. Jake took a deep breath once we were outside, his third cup of black coffee in hand. “That went better than I expected.”
“Of course it did,” I muttered. “We have a good relationship with this city. If Pennick had pulled that shit anywhere else, I would definitely be sitting in a jail cell.”
“Good thing you’re too ugly for prison,” he drawled, looking down the street toward the baseball and hockey stadiums. “God, I miss this city.”
I did a double take. “When the fuck do you come to St. Louis outside of work?”
He took another sip, watching the city wake up. “It was before I started slumming it with you four fuckers.”
My lips twitched. “Who knew Jake motherfucking Murphy would have secrets.” I clicked my tongue. “What’s happening to the world?”
“I’ve always had secrets.” My brow furrowed, and he turned to look at me. “I just have no interest in sharing them.”
I took note of the tension in his bearded jaw, the crease between his brows. “Why’s that?”
“Because they no longer hold value. It would be best if I let them die with me, you know?” He started walking to the car. “You coming, or am I leaving your ass here?”
When we got home, Grayson put me on mandatory forty-eight-hour bed rest. As much as I wanted to fight it, I was too sore and drained too. I gave in and told Margo to pass along the message that I was home to Angel.
Then a body washed up on the shore just outside Astoria.
I’d never driven so fast in all my life.
All I could see was her.
All I could feel was her.
My starlight.