James (Gates of Heaven Book 3)

by M. Tasia

  James knew they would be in their vehicles, racing after them in moments. He had to figure out how to lose them and fast.

  “Stay down for now, Jac.” Ross ordered as he turned back around in the passenger seat to face forward.

  “I have a plan,” James said. “I need you to get us out of the city.” He hadn’t been in LA long enough to know how to stay off the radar. He needed side streets and fast.

  “Which direction?” Ross asked, without even questioning to find out what the plan was.

  James would take that as a win. Ross trusted him. For now, anyway.

  “South.”

  “Turn left at the next intersection,” Ross directed. “Hand me your phones.”

  Jac’s shaky hand came up over the front seat and she dropped her phone beside her brother. James pulled his out and did the same.

  “Before you destroy them, maybe you should send your chief a message to let them know what’s going on,” James suggested. “Sparks killed those officers.”

  “Already on it, I’m also sending a copy through the precinct message board. Sparks won’t be able to hide,” Ross promised. “He’ll pay for what he’s done.”

  James turned the corner as instructed, while the noise of crushing glass told him that Ross was destroying each phone before throwing them out the window.

  “We’ll need a different car. This one is traceable.” James thought about getting his own vehicle, but Avante would already know which was his.

  “Turn right into this alley.” Ross pointed at a small alley between two rundown apartment buildings.

  “Why can’t we go to the station?” Jac asked, from her hiding spot.

  “Sorry, sis, we don’t know who else might be involved. It’s too big a risk,” Ross explained.

  Jac then asked, “Can you hand me my purse? I brought toys for Becca and animal crackers.”

  The little girl was so quiet James wondered how much of this situation a five year-old would understand. He prayed this wouldn’t scar her for life.

  “Turn right and then left,” Ross instructed. “We’ll stop and switch out cars before we get too far out of the city.”

  “Who are we switching with? Are they trustworthy?”

  “Yeah. I’ve known Bev for over twenty years.”

  “Won’t that be one of the first places they’ll look?”

  “At her home, sure, but we aren’t going there,” Ross assured.

  James could see the pain of betrayal in the detective’s eyes, and didn’t bother to ask, knowing Ross needed a few minutes to wrap his mind around everything that’d happened.

  After it settled, it would simmer, then burn in his gut. There was no help for that. Even making sure Sparks got what was coming to him wouldn’t bring back all the officers he killed today.

  CHAPTER 6

  They’d lost Avante and his minions about five minutes out of the city. Years of trolling every nook and cranny of LA and its environs had given Ross the edge they’d needed. For now, they were safe to find another vehicle and get on the road to execute James’s plan.

  Ross scanned the winding road, manicured yards and sprawling estates, before opening his car door.

  “I won’t be long.”

  James nodded, never taking his eyes off their surroundings. Ross knew to his core: his sister and niece were safe with James.

  Jac and Becca were now sitting up in the backseat. The anger radiating off Jac was only tempered when she glanced down at her daughter. Ross felt her fury and was certain it was amplified by the betrayal of a brother in blue. He had known Sparks since the guy joined their team four years earlier. Everything Sparks had done since day one was suspect. Every arrest they had made, every case they’d closed would be under scrutiny. Hundreds of criminals behind bars would be tagging their attorneys to file motions to get them out of jail. Fuckin’ Sparks. Had he been working for Avante the entire time?

  Now wasn’t the time to analyze and dissect. There’d be time for that later. He had to get another vehicle and fast.

  Ross walked up to the side door of a house he couldn’t afford in his wildest imagination. The electric bill would’ve been as much as a sensible mortgage payment. He pushed the doorbell and waited. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous about asking for help, but at this point, he had no one else to trust and he didn’t want to bring the Gates crew into this.

  A tall man with salt and pepper hair, wearing a dark navy suit answered the door. “Mr. Mayor, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I need to speak with Bev.”

  “How many times have I told you to call me John, outside of city hall?” Mayor Weere asked while glancing at the car Ross had arrived in. “Come in.”

  John held the door open for Ross as he walked into the spacious kitchen.

  “I’ll go let Bev know you’re here.”

  As the mayor was about to leave, Bev came racing into the kitchen, almost taking the swinging door off its hinges.

  She held her cell phone in her hand and said without looking up, “Babe, I’ve gotta go, Ross is in danger.” Bev looked up and took a stuttered step back. “Ross, what the hell is going on? I just read your message.”

  “I don’t have time to explain. I need to borrow a car. Sparks is working with Avante, and if it wasn’t for James my family would be as dead as the officers we found around the safe house.”

  “Shit. You can have mine,” Bev offered.

  “I don’t know how many people are involved, but at this point you’re the only one I can trust,” Ross explained.

  “When I find Sparks, I’ll squeeze that information out of him,” Bev said as she grabbed her keys off the kitchen island. “What else do you need me to do?”

  “Try to find out how far this goes. That’s the only way we’ll be able to stop Avante.”

  Until now, the Mayor had remained silent. “They’ll be able to trace your car, knowing that Ross would come to you. Take one of mine instead. No one will be looking for it.”

  “Good idea, babe,” Bev agreed as she went to a small cupboard beside the door and pulled out a couple sets of keys.

  Since Bev and John’s relationship wasn’t public knowledge, Avante wouldn’t think to look for one of the mayor’s vehicles. Clearly, Avante had his snitches in the department, but few people knew about her and John. Understandably, Bev wasn’t ready to deal with the media frenzy that would come with being the detective who was dating the mayor.

  “Give him the keys to the Tahoe. It has more room, tinted windows,” John suggested.

  Bev rifled through the keys and came up with the set for the Tahoe. “Here.” She stuck out her hand to Ross.

  He took the keys and said, “I’ll get James to move my car around back so no one will see it from the road. Thanks for this.”

  The two men shook.

  “I’ve destroyed our phones so I’ll reach out to you from a burner,” Ross said.

  “Understood.” Bev nodded. “I’ll figure this out on my end. You and your family need to stay safe until we have Avante and all those involved locked up.”

  “Thanks, Bev.” Ross hugged his friend before walking out the side door.

  He motioned for James to drive the car up the driveway as he walked to the back of the mansion. The four garage doors were sliding open as James parked in an empty space inside the right bay.

  Ross went to his car and grabbed his bag out of the passenger seat before opening the backdoor. “We have a new ride.”

  James looked around before resting his gaze on Ross. “Never figured you ran with the upper crust.”

  “I don’t,” Ross replied. “But friends do come handy in a pinch.”

  He helped his sister from the backseat, while James lifted Becca into his arms before grabbing his own bag. Quickly, they loaded themselves into the black Tahoe.

  “It’s going to be all right, Jac, I promise.” It struck him that he’d said the same thing to James last night. He hadn’t taken James’s concerns seriously, and now look w
here they were.

  “Between having you and James, I might actually believe that, bro,” Jac said, from the backseat.

  James stood inside the opposite backdoor, sliding the seatbelt around Becca. They didn’t have her booster so that was going to have to do for now.

  Becca held on tight to her stuffed toy puppy and James’s arm.

  Gently, he unattached himself and leaned down to look Becca in the eyes. “I promise to protect you and your mommy. Don’t be afraid.”

  “Like before, at home?” Becca asked, in a small voice.

  “Yep, Just like that.”

  Becca smiled for the first time today and lifted her puppy up. “And Puppy, too?”

  “Of course. We can’t let anything happen to Puppy,” James answered before kissing Becca on the top of her head and shutting the door.

  ***

  James climbed into the driver’s seat and Ross didn’t say a word. James figured Ross knew it was best to keep moving allowing the person with the plan to take the lead. Unless something happened to James, Ross would remain as the designated lookout.

  The safest place James could think of, on a moment’s notice, was owned by a volatile veteran who’d been on James’s team. He hoped Jack had calmed a bit over the last five years since he’d been honorably discharged. This could blow up in their faces real quick if Jack hadn’t settled.

  The engine roared to life and James pulled out of the garage. The woman he had met before, Bev, stood on the back deck with a tall older man.

  “Is that the damn mayor?” James asked.

  He had seen the guy’s picture in the newspaper.

  “Yeah. But that stays between us.” Ross nodded at Bev.

  “Fair enough. As long as you trust him.” At this point they couldn’t be too cautious. They’d already trusted one rat.

  “Bev does, and that works for me.”

  James slowly drove down the driveway. It would look suspicious if he sped out of the estate. Everything needed to appear as normal as possible until they cleared the gated community. He headed towards the I-5, obeying every traffic law and the speed limit, even if it pissed off the other motorists.

  “There’s a small television on the back of each of your seats,” Jac remarked. “There’s even remote controls.”

  “See if you can find anything for Becca to watch.,” Ross suggested before he turned his question to James. “Where are we headed?”

  “To a friend’s.”

  “And where is that exactly?” Ross asked as upbeat music from a cartoon began playing in the back.

  “A former teammate. Jack’s a private man. His place is off grid. It’s at least a couple hours from here. You need to trust me, Ross.”

  “We’ll need to get food soon for the girls.”

  Without any further inquiry, Ross confirmed that he trusted him, and James didn’t know why he felt so gratified about that fact.

  “Since we’ll be on the five for a while, you’ll need to stop at a gas station that has food to hold us over.”

  “Gotcha. We have a good hour on here.”

  “Okay.” Ross replied as he pulled out a paper map from the glove box.

  “They actually still make those?” James asked.

  Ross shook his head and began unfolding the map.

  They stopped once to pick up some food and two burner phones, where Becca and Jac used the restroom. James grabbed a phone for himself, knowing Finn would’ve found out what’d happened by now, and was likely upset. James would call his brother the moment he had a chance.

  “You know the phone numbers from your old phone?” Ross asked as he began setting them up.

  “I only had four phone numbers on it, so I’m good,” James explained.

  “Only four? Now I have to know. Finn, obviously. Miguel, and maybe this Jack guy.”

  James nodded as Ross named them off. It was not like some big secret or anything.

  “Saint must be the fourth.”

  “Nope. That would be you, Detective.”

  “Me?”

  “Don’t look so surprised. It’s not as if I just proposed. It was only a number. Hell, you were always around anyway, so I really didn’t need it.” James had no idea why he was getting so defensive.

  Ross had a strange look on his face. “I’m glad you included me among the four.”

  James didn’t bother answering, and decided to concentrate on the road ahead. They’d exited the freeway a while back, and were now making their way up a winding road, heading east into the mountains. This wasn’t the time or place to be getting any notions of hooking up. Shit, he didn’t even know if Ross was gay. Probably best to leave well enough alone. But when had James ever done that?

  Another hour went by before James began seeing subtle signs that they were getting closer to Jack’s property. A black ribbon tied around a tree, an old shirt left dangling from a wire, and finally, the row of granite rocks weighing at least a ton each, blocking the goat path they had turned onto.

  “Doesn’t look like your friend wants visitors,” Jac said from the backseat. “Are you sure about this?”

  Becca had fallen asleep about twenty minutes ago, which was fortunate considering the welcome they were sure to receive.

  “I wouldn’t have brought you here if I thought any of you would get hurt.”

  James backed up the SUV and set the four-wheel drive. He didn’t fool himself into thinking that Jack didn’t already know they were there. He was probably watching them through a scope right now. The engine revved as James carefully made his way around the roadblock and up the pitted trail. Surprisingly, it appeared that the rest of the path had been cleared.

  Several minutes later, he pulled the truck to a stop outside a steel shed set against a steep incline, its large garage door slowly rising. He could feel the tension in the truck skyrocket when he began driving into the shed.

  “Take your hand off your gun for the next few minutes, man.”

  Ross nodded and did as asked.

  The door slid shut behind them, plunging them into darkness. The only the vehicle’s running lights provided any illumination. Everything remained quiet as James searched for any sign of Jack among the oil drums and crates.

  Sure enough, a small red dot blazed on James’s chest. Ross reached for his gun.

  “No, take it easy or you’re going to get one of us hurt. I’ll deal with this.” James lowered his window and yelled, “Rocket man, I have a woman and child in here so put that shit away.”

  “Like that’ll help,” Ross muttered.

  The lights turned on.

  “Yep.” James nodded. “It did.”

  A rope dropped from above in front of the truck, and they watched as Jack, in black fatigues, his long red hair tied at the nape of his neck, climbed down from his perch, his rifle tied to his back.

  “Seriously,” Ross said.

  “Safest place you’ll ever be, besides with me.”

  James assured without breaking eye contact with Ross, willing the detective to believe him even though his buddy had repelled from the rafters like some hopped-up GI Joe.

  When Ross didn’t argue, James took it as another good sign and reached for the door handle. Jack waited until James stepped out, to approach the vehicle. When he did, Jack took a long look inside.

  “You sure about this, man?” Jack asked.

  “If they couldn’t be trusted, I wouldn’t have brought them here.” It seemed both sides of this equation had the same thoughts.

  Jack stared him dead in the eye. “On your life?”

  “At the moment, my life is already on the line.”

  James was pulled into a back-thumping hug by his wired-for-sound teammate. Jack may’ve looked rough around the edges, but he was harmless. Or at least sane enough to know the difference between friend and foe.

  “It’s good to see you, buddy. What’ve you been up to, other than pissing off crime bosses?” Jack asked.

  “How’d ya know?”

&
nbsp; He sure hadn’t put that in the text.

  “Wallflower’s been taking a poke around in the police department’s servers since you told me you were coming.”

  James should’ve known. Wallflower aka Wendy, would have been busy checking out the police chatter, the Internet, and the dark web.

  “The police servers?” Ross asked as he joined them in front of the truck.

  “Detective Ross,” Jack greeted. “Don’t worry, we never do anything illegal. But having intel is a must around here.”

  “And what is around here?”

  “You didn’t tell them?” Jack asked.

  James shook his head. No need to explain. Ross would find out soon enough.

  “Well then, welcome to our little community of preppers,” Jack said. “El Hogar. We’ve been preparing for the end of our civilization for over fifteen years.”

  CHAPTER 7

  What the hell have I gotten us into? Ross scanned the area that Jack had led them to with his truck, which had been hidden behind the shed. Small wind turbines and solar panels covered every roof in the community of ten large prefabricated houses. True, he trusted James, but he wasn’t the man Ross was worried about.

  Each house looked similar to the others. The only difference he could see was the paint colors. They varied between sandy brown to light green, and blended in well with their surroundings. For obvious reasons.

  Ross looked over at Jac to find her staring at the other Jack’s ass. “For God’s sake, this isn’t a social visit. Don’t get any ideas.”

  “Sorry, bro, but ideas are abounding.” Jac said as she waved her hands in the air.

  “Shit.”

  Ross looked up at James, who was carrying Becca in his arms. She was still fast asleep. The kid could sleep through a tornado. Becca was becoming attached to James and Ross worried what would happen when all this was over. Before James had been forced into the safe house, he’d intended on heading out of town for parts unknown.

  Jack continued to point out various things out as they walked in-between the houses. He seemed proud of what they’d built, and Ross couldn’t fault him on that. They appeared to be completely self-sufficient. Members of the community began coming out of their houses and following their little group, until they reached the front of one of the houses painted green. They followed their host up the steps to the front porch. When they were at the top, Jack turned around to address the other members of the community.