Chapter 6
Chapter Six
B rynn crept quietly through the darkness, careful not to make a sound. She was dressed all in black, blending in with the shadows.
If Hunt knew she was here alone, he’d be pissed.
But there was a good chance she’d finally nail down who the new dealer was.
The last few days, she’d spent a lot of time at the Iron Wanderers garage, supplying parts, and subtly pumping bikers for information.
Slowly, they were starting to trust her a little. Not Grill. He avoided her, and glared at her when they crossed paths. He had a killer black eye.
And just like that, she thought of Vander.
The hard, powerful body. The face. The cool, controlled facade. The way he’d destroyed Grill without breaking a sweat.
She fought back a shiver.
His text message today had been a surprise. She shouldn’t be thinking about him, let alone texting with him and making wagers on hockey games.
He’d also managed to star in her dreams, damn him. Last night, she’d finally given in and pulled out her vibrator.
And come hard, imagining Vander Norcross inside her.
Her womb clenched, and she cursed under her breath.
She was creeping around an empty warehouse facility in the middle of the night, so she needed to focus, not fantasize about the most dangerous man in San Francisco.
At the Wanderers, she’d overheard whispers about a drug deal with the Blades.
It burned her to let any drugs into the hands of gang members, but she had to stop this dealer. She couldn’t screw this deal.
“I am going to stop you,” she whispered.
The deal was happening at a delivery center. The large parking lot was empty at this time of night, except for a row of parked delivery trucks. The huge warehouse loomed above her.
From what she’d heard, the deal would go down soon. It was scheduled to happen at the southern end of the warehouse at midnight.
She’d parked blocks away and slipped in over the fence.
She eyed the building. The best bet for a good view, and not getting caught, would be the roof.
Brynn found a drainpipe and then tightened the straps of her small backpack. She gripped the pipe and climbed.
She was grunting and straining by the time she reached the top. Thank God she worked out frequently. She was always giving Jankowski a hard time for being unfit, and dragging him out for a run. She also ran with her brother, when their schedules meshed.
She pulled herself onto the roof and crouched. It was cloudy tonight, so there was no stray moonlight to spotlight her. Staying crouched, she walked across the large, pitched roof.
She crested the peak, and carefully climbed down the other side.
An engine rumbled, and she saw a flash of headlights.
Brynn ducked low and watched. A nondescript van pulled into the yard below.
Hello .
She silently crept closer to the edge, carefully slipping her backpack off her shoulders. Another vehicle followed the van.
A dark-colored truck. Ford F250. Four Harleys rumbled in line behind the truck.
Near the roof’s edge, she lay flat and unzipped the backpack. She pulled out her binoculars and zoomed in.
The van was parked, with four men who were obviously Blades beside it. They moved to the back of the van.
As the truck and bikes pulled up, she scanned the faces, but the bikers didn’t look familiar. Damn .
From this angle, the dark, tinted windows of the truck made it impossible to see who was inside.
“Come on,” she muttered.
A Blade member wandered over to the truck. The passenger door opened on the far side.
Nervous energy filled her. They were talking, but she still couldn’t see the dealer.
The bikers began to unload boxes from the back of the truck, and two Blades opened the back of the van.
Dammit, from this vantage, unless the dealer got out, she wasn’t going to get a good look.
“Spot anything, Detective?”
The low murmur beside her made her jolt. Only her training kept her hands tight on the binoculars.
She whipped her head to the side. Vander was just a dark shadow settling in beside her.
Dammit to hell . She hadn’t heard him or sensed him at all. Damn, he was good.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“Heard a deal was going down tonight. Have you seen the dealer?”
She released a breath and looked back at the transaction taking place below. “He’s staying in the truck. I can’t see him.”
“Shit.”
“You shouldn’t be here.” She lifted the binoculars. Still no dealer. She handed them to him.
He took them and looked through. “You can’t hog all of the action, Detective.”
“This is my case. I don’t need you butting in.”
He kept looking through the binoculars. “I like to keep my finger on the pulse of everything going down in my city.”
“You mean you’re a control freak.”
“Brynn—” he lowered the binoculars “—it’s much better to stay in control of things than to get blindsided when you least expect it.”
The darkness was back. She heard it in his voice, and if it wasn’t nighttime, she’d no doubt see it in his eyes. It lurked in him, and he obviously did his damnedest to control it.
“Hey, stay here with me,” she said.
He gave the tiniest jerk. “I’m right here.”
“You can’t control everything, Vander.”
He stiffened. “I can try.”
“You can’t just do what you want, when you want to. This is my investigation—”
“I’m not trying to take over.”
“You should have called me and told me about the drop,” she whisper-yelled.
She could feel him looking at her through the darkness.
“How come you’re here alone, Detective? Shouldn’t you have back up?”
She sniffed. “This is just surveillance.”
“I think you don’t mind bending the rules when it suits you,” he said.
“At least I don’t skirt right along the rules like they aren’t even there,” she hissed. “You do that long enough, you tip right over the edge, Norcross.”
“Brynn—”
“I told you my father was killed in the line of duty. He got killed because his partner started taking bribes.”
Vander was silent. “You’re comparing me to a dirty cop.”
She sighed. “No, dammit.” She knew he wasn’t anything like the man who’d betrayed her father.
“I do everything I can to help, not for my own selfish reasons.” His voice was like a blade.
“Life is messy, Brynn. It isn’t neat and tidy, and it doesn’t always follow the rules.
We need the law, and we need people like you to uphold it.
But sometimes, you need people like me who can sidestep things for the right reasons. ”
She stared at his dark shadow, her heart beating hard. She didn’t entirely disagree with him, and the more she got to know him, the more she believed he lived and operated by his own private code.
One that would never see him take a bribe or hurt an innocent.
“ Fuck ,” he bit out.
Brynn looked up and spotted another set of headlights approaching.
She snatched back the binoculars and zoomed in.
“Crap. The security company.” She saw the logo on the side of the white sedan.
“Some rent-a-cop with a hero complex,” Vander said. “He should’ve called it in.”
Vander rose into a crouch.
Down below, the bikers and gang members scrambled.
She watched the familiar motions of pulling weapons.
No, no.
The security car stopped, and the doors opened.
“This is private property.” Someone spoke through a megaphone. “You’re trespassing. The police are on the way.”
Brynn groaned.
There was a deep woof . A German Shepherd darted out of the security car and bounded towards the bikers and Blades.
Shit . She ground her teeth together.
Gunfire broke out.
Shit, shit, shit . The two security guards ducked down behind their vehicle. The bikers and gang members kept firing.
The dog leaped and hit one of the bikers, taking the screaming man down.
“This is a clusterfuck,” Vander said. “We should go.”
“We can’t leave those guards.” The gang members were advancing on the vehicle. “They’re sitting ducks.”
“You want to break your cover?”
She gritted her teeth. Shit. She knew the greater good was at stake, but she couldn’t leave these men to die.
“Go,” Vander said.
“Dammit, I can’t—”
Vander lifted a Glock. “Get moving, Brynn.” He aimed and fired.
A biker jerked and cried out.
Then Vander fired again and again. Pandemonium exploded below. Bikers and Blade members dove for cover.
Brynn leaped up and ran along the roof.
She glanced back and watched the security car screeching in reverse, the dog running after it. Vander sprinted up the roof behind her, moving like a big, dark shadow.
Together, they scrambled down the other side.
“This way.” He grabbed her hand and she felt that he was wearing gloves.
He pulled her to a stop at the edge, and she saw a rope dangling off the side of the warehouse.
Then he grabbed the rope and held it to her.
After a deep breath, Brynn gripped it and lowered herself over the edge. She climbed down. She wasn’t elegant, but it did the job. Finally, her boots hit the concrete.
She looked up. Vander slid down the rope with an athletic grace that made her breath catch.
He landed beside her.
The sounds of shouts echoed through the night. The Iron Wanderers and the Blades would be looking for them.
“Time to run, Detective.”
She nodded.
They sprinted across the lot, running behind the trucks. Vander stayed beside her with an easy stride that she suspected he could keep up for hours. They reached the fence.
He pulled out a set of wire-cutters and snipped the wire.
“Off you go,” he said.
“But what—?”
He gripped her arm and their gazes met.
“Get out of here. There’s nothing more you can do. Get home.”
She hesitated. He was right, dammit. “Vander?”
His fingers tightened on her arm.
“I don’t think you’re anything like that dirty cop.” She nodded, then climbed through the hole in the fence.
When she looked back, she watched him melt into the darkness and disappear.
Brynn turned and jogged all the way back to her car.
She slid inside. He’d be fine. It was an absolute waste of energy to worry about Vander Norcross.
She reached for the ignition and her phone vibrated.
Safe?
She’d saved his number as Badass Number One.