by Cheri Marie
“I know. Just give me a few more weeks. That’s all I need is a few more weeks!”
Suddenly there’s a loud knock on my apartment door, causing both of us to jump.
“Owen, open up! It’s me.”
“Fuck, it’s Cam. You need to get out of here… Now!”
Link sits on the couch, staring at the door, frozen in place. Her only movement is the rise and fall of her chest as she breathes. I snap my fingers in her face to get her attention as Camryn bangs on the door again. Her eyes shift to mine and I can see the fear and knowing in her eyes.
“Go. Take the fire escape and call me when you have something we can use. You have two weeks, okay?”
“Okay,” she says as she jumps from the couch and rushes to my bedroom to climb out the window onto the fire escape.
Once the door to my bedroom is closed, I walk over and open the door to a very pissed off Camryn. Stepping back and opening the door wide, I wave her inside.
“Did you really try to insinuate that I was fucking Murphy or something earlier? Not only that, how did you know he walked me to my car? Are you following me?”
“It doesn’t matter how I know, just that I know and that the two of you looked awfully comfortable together.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me, O. Do you really think I would do something like that? Murphy is a vile, cruel, inhumane human being. Not only that but getting involved with someone like that could cost me my job!”
“I don’t know what to think, Camryn. You disappeared on me eight fucking years ago with nothing but a pathetic apology text. Then I run into you at a club that is damn near run by gangs. You’re clearly different from the woman I fell in love with so I'm not really sure what you’re capable of.”
“You know, I can’t even look at you right now. The fact that you’d even consider that I would be that kind of person tells me you never really ever knew me at all,” she says, turning away from me. She opens her mouth to say something else but then her eyes lock on something and she shuts her mouth.
I watch her eyes zone in on the two half drank beer bottles on the table that are clearly spread apart because there were two people drinking them. I follow her eyes as they move to the bedroom door and notice it's the only door closed before her eyes shoot back to me.
When she looks at me, I know exactly what she’s thinking. The look on her face breaks my fucking heart and I want to tell her that it’s not what it looks like. But I can’t tell her that. I can’t tell her that even though she’s a cop and I know I can trust her with the information that my informant was here, and I made her leave out the fire escape. Because then she’ll ask why I made her take the fire escape. Then she’ll ask why she was in my apartment because informants aren’t supposed to have that kind of access. Because when she asks these questions, I can’t give her the answers she wants.
Without saying a word to me, she turns on her heels and heads for the door. And I let her, because letting her think I’m sleeping with someone else is far less painful than telling her the truth.
Chapter 15
Camryn
As soon as I hear the click of the door behind me, I’m sprinting down the hallway. Foregoing the elevators, I take the stairs two at a time needing to get out of there and as far away from Owen as possible. With every step, it’s like a knife to my heart. I knew better than to let myself get wrapped up in him again. I knew it would only end badly, again. I guess this is my karma though, for leaving him without so much as a proper goodbye.
The tears spring from my eyes as soon as I slide in behind the wheel of my car. Firing up the engine, I peel out, heading towards home. My burner phone begins to ring as I pull into the parking lot of my apartment, but I ignore it. I don’t have the energy to deal with Murphy and the rest of Donnely’s gang right now. I gather my things off the passenger seat and start to get out of the car when the phone rings again. I don’t recognize the number, but I give in and answer it anyway.
“Hello?” I say. But there’s no reply.
“Hello?” I say again, slightly annoyed but still no answer, then the call suddenly disconnects.
I slip the phone into my pocket and make my way inside. Remington is sitting at the dining room table when I walk in, and when she sees that I’ve been crying, she jumps to her feet to come to my side. She wraps her arms around me in a tight hug and the floodgates open again, letting all of my built-up emotions run down my face. Releasing me from the hug, she keeps her arm around my waist and leads me over to the couch to sit down. She sits down, facing me.
“What happened?” she asks gently.
I do my best to explain to her the events of the day as tears threaten again. When I finish rambling, she reaches over and tucks a strand of hair that was plastered to my tear stained face, behind my ear. It’s something she’s done when I’ve been upset since we met in college. The first time she did it, it caught me off guard but now it’s a comforting gesture.
“Oh honey, I’m so sorry. Are you sure he’s sleeping with someone else? Maybe this is all a big misunderstanding.”
I quickly shake my head. “No. The few other times I’ve been at his place, his bedroom door is always open. This time it was closed. It took him longer than usual to answer the door and there were two beers sitting on the table by the couch, one at either end. I get paid to pay attention to details and I’m good at it. My senses have never steered me wrong.”
“I’m so sorry, Cam.”
I sniffle, using the bottom of my shirt to wipe the tears from my cheeks. “It’s okay. I don’t need to be rekindling old flames when I need to be focused on Donnely’s gang and finding my sister.”
“Cam…” she says my name, giving me that ‘you’re not fooling anyone, especially not me’ look.
“It’s fine. I’m fine. I promise.” It’s not like we have any ties to each other.
After spending some much-needed girl time with Remington, I jump in the shower to get ready to head to the club to meet up with Murphy. I’ve become unusually comfortable with him, yet tonight I can’t shake this uneasy feeling that has taken up residence in the pit of my stomach. I do my best to ignore it as I shimmy on the beautiful ruby red, bodycon dress, pairing it with thigh high black boots.
Grabbing my burner phone, I slip it into my clutch, check my hair and makeup once more and then I’m out the door. When I arrive, the place is packed as usual any other Friday night, so I decide to forego using valet and find a spot around the corner. I hit the lock button on my key fob to secure my car as I step up on the sidewalk to adjust my dress before making my way around the corner and into the club. Once I have myself put back together, I turn to walk towards the club when I’m quickly surrounded by Richy and two guys I’ve never seen before.
“Well, well, well look at you, dressed like the little slut that you are for the boss.”
“Awwe Richy, are you jealous?” I taunt him, making sure to be aware of where the other two goons are.
Richy steps towards me and I take a step back, but his buddies stop me. He brings his hand up to caress my cheek before sliding his hand around the back of my head and grabbing a fist full of my hair. His other hand feels up my leg as he attempts to slip his hand under my dress. My fight or flight kicks in and I begin to struggle to get out of his grip.
“Let me go, Richy! Let me go or so help me god I will scream at the top of my lungs.”
“Is this what you came here for dressed like that, Anya? Isn’t that why bitches come to the club dressed like this? Because they’re looking for someone to ravage that sweet little cunt, or am I not good enough for you? You want that pompous asshole, Murphy, huh?”
Richy moves his hand to try to rip my panties from my body, when someone grabs him from behind. I don’t waste time trying to see who it is as I spin around, kneeing one of his goons in the balls, and swinging with all my might, my fist connects with the other one's nose. Fumbling with my clutch, I quickly pull my pistol from my bag, pointing it betwee
n the two of them.
“If you even so much as think of taking a step towards me, I will blow both your brains out.”
I position myself so that I’m able to keep an eye on Richy’s goons, while I turn my attention back to who pulled Richy off me. I see the back of a well-dressed man and I don’t realize it’s Murphy until he turns to face me.
“You okay, Anya?” he asks.
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
He nods. “Good.” He turns his attention to the two assholes standing a few feet away to my side. “You two fuckers get out of here and if I so much as see you in the vicinity of this club again, I will kill you both myself,” he growls. Both men nod in acknowledgement and take off down the block.
Murphy turns his attention back to Richy who is laying on the concrete with his arm wrapped around himself. Murphy pulls back and gives him a swift, hard kick to the ribs. Once, twice, before squatting down beside him.
“Now, Richy, since I’m now confident that I’ve sufficiently broken at least a few ribs and probably your nose, this will be your very last warning. You’ve been shown mercy twice because we grew up together and you’re like a brother to me. But if you ever touch Anya again, or if you ever disrespect me again, I will kill you. And it won’t be a simple gunshot to your head or through your heart, no. I will take a knife and stab you through every major artery in your body and watch you slowly bleed out until your body falls lifeless. Do I make myself clear?”
Richy shakes his head yes.
“Good. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some business to take care of.”
Standing, Murphy takes my hand, and we walk past Richy and down the sidewalk to the club. Once inside, instead of heading up to VIP like we usually do, Murphy leads us into a back room of the bar where the other guys I met are waiting for us.
“Where’s Richy?” The one guy asks when we enter.
“No need to worry about him; I will fill him in later. Right now, we have some business to attend to.”
Chapter 16
Owen
My phone rings and I sleepily reach over and mute it. It’s three in the morning and I have an early shift. Immediately it starts ringing again. Without really opening my eyes to see who it is, I grab the phone from the nightstand and answer the call.
“Whoever this is, it better be for a damn good reason.”
“O, it’s me. It’s time. There’s a shipment of drugs and weapons coming in at the docks tonight at midnight.”
Suddenly, I’m wide awake as I crawl out of bed to start getting dressed to head into the office early. We’ve been waiting for something, anything big enough that we could take down Murphy and the rest of the gang.
“Perfect timing. I have to get to the office and fill Malone in on everything that’s transpired and get a team ready to go by 2300 hours.” My mind is spinning, and my adrenaline is pumping. I continue rambling but Link cuts me off.
“That’s not all. They’ve intentionally had someone drop word to the El Diablos about the shipment. The whole gang has been requested for this shipment. Not only are they bringing all this shit into the city, but they’re seeking out revenge for what the El Diablos did to their guys two weeks ago.”
“Well, that’s even better. That means we can bring them all in.”
“No, I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m saying. They were all requested.”
Suddenly, realization hits me. If Murphy is requesting everyone to be there for this shipment, that includes Camryn.
“Cam.” Her name slips from my lips like a whisper.
“Exactly! Owen, you have to keep her out of this. This is going to get really messy, and it will kill both of us if something happens to her.”
“So, what am I supposed to do? She thinks I’m sleeping with someone else, so she isn’t even talking to me right now. If I try to ask her not to go, she’s just going to tell me to go fuck myself.”
“I don’t know, arrest her for something.”
“I can’t arrest her. She’s a federal agent. The Chief would have my head on a platter.”
“I’m sure you can figure out something, I have to go. Stay safe!”
“Ten-four. Talk soon.”
I hang up with my informant and decide to quickly shower before getting dressed and heading into the office. I shoot off a text to Malone, so he’ll know what's going on as soon as he wakes up. Thirty minutes later I’m showered, dressed, and on my way into the precinct. Of course, no one is here at this time of night, but I don’t care. I need to make sure everything is in order for this bust. Everything needs to go perfectly, not just because the city needs to be rid of these criminals, but because I have so much to lose if everything goes awry.
Chief Malone and I spend the day pulling officers from every special task force that we possibly can for tonight. I do my best to keep focused on the bust, but I can't help thinking about what is going to come after. When I finally don't have an excuse to not tell Camryn the truth about everything.
I did find a way to keep her out of the action though. A couple detectives are posted outside her place. When she leaves to go to the warehouse, they'll be bringing her in for questioning. It won't last long when she pulls her agent card, but I'm hoping it'll buy us enough time to secure the scene. My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out to find a text from my informant.
Link: They're on the move to the warehouse. Fifteen men and they're heavily armed. Please be careful.
Me: Ten-Four. Stay low key. I’ll come for you once we’ve wrapped everything up.
“Murphy and fifteen men are on the move to the warehouse now.” I tell the Chief.
“Good, let’s move.”
My phone rings in my pocket again as we make our way out to the vehicles to load up and move. Pulling it from my pocket I answer the call.
“Branson.”
“Hey, Branson, it’s Carrington. I just wanted to let you know we’ve picked up Miss Barrett to bring her in for questioning.”
“Great. Thank you. She knows her shit so she’s going to call you guys on every turn but try to keep her there as long as possible.”
“Will do.”
I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that for now, Camryn is safe. Malone and I load up into mobile command with the SWAT team and head towards the docks. We pull up to our post and I push all thoughts of Camryn from my mind. For now, I need to focus on the matter at hand. Malone gets busy setting up mobile command while I make sure all of our officers are in position and that we have ideas on what's going on.
A separate team is set up at the other entrance to the docks to keep a lookout for the El Diablos. Our eyes on the water radios in, letting us know a large yacht has just docked and a couple of Murphy’s guys are on the move.
Show time.
A team of our men move into position, ready to take down Murphy’s guys as soon as the exchange is made. Something in my gut feels off, though. Why haven’t any of the El Diablos shown up? Suddenly gunshots ring out and a panicked voice comes through the radio.
“Officer down, officer down!”
I immediately call for medical help and any available backup. Malone and I secure our vests and slip out of the van, careful not to attract any attention to us as we move to cover the other officers. It isn’t long before backup units arrive and we’re able to gain control of the scene, but it isn’t without its casualties between Donnely’s gang and the El Diablos.
“Great job, Branson,” Malone says, patting me on the back as we walk back towards the mobile command bus while the crime scene unit secures the area with yellow tape and gets to work collecting evidence.
“Thanks, I couldn’t have done it without you and everyone else here.”
He shakes my hand, giving me another pat on the back before he steps up onto the bus. I’m about to follow when I hear a voice call out my name.
“Owen!” She calls out and I spin around to find my informant sprinting towards me.
“What are you doing
here? I thought I told you to lay low until everything was over with.”
“You did, but I heard about all the gunfire and I had to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine. We had a couple officers get hit, but nothing that they can’t bounce back from.”
“That’s good. I’m just really glad that this is all over.”
“Yeah,” I agree, knowing that this may be the end of this fight, but I have a whole new fight ahead of me now. “Listen, I need you to go to my place and stay there until I can get there. Camryn could show up here any minute and she’s already going to be pissed.”
“I should tell you something, which will probably piss you off, too.”
“Tell me what?”
“I, uh, well, that day at your apartment, when I had to go out the bedroom window…”
“Yes… go on.” I wait for her to continue.
“Well, I may have snuck into your phone and gotten her number... and called her.”
“You did what?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t say anything. I just wanted to hear her voice again.”
“Do you know what could have-” I stop mid-sentence as my eyes connect with a very pissed off Camryn making a beeline in my direction.
“I know, I said I’m-” Link stops her apology when Camryn’s voice rings out across the parking lot.
“Branson! You have a lot of fucking explaining to do!”
She’s on a mission and I’m her target. Before I can process what’s happening, my informant spins around stopping Camryn in her tracks just ten feet away from where we stand. A look of confusion comes across her face as she looks at me, then my informant, then back to me. That look of ‘I’m going to fucking kill you Owen’ completely gone from her face, at least for now.
She takes a few steps closer, blinking a few times to be sure she’s seeing what she’s actually seeing. Link takes off the hood on her jacket allowing Camryn to really see her. When realization processes, her hand flies to her mouth to stifle the sobs as tears stream down her face.
