“Number four. It’s number four.”
Chapter Twenty-Three: Nate
I couldn’t remember ever caring about something as much as I cared about Rose. I was so afraid for her, I just felt nothing but unease whenever I was around her, or when I knew she was alone. I watched that interrogation like I was studying it. Like it was the first one I had ever seen.
That was years ago. I was a rookie cop that just busted someone for possession. I brought the woman in for processing, thinking it was an easy arrest with minimal paperwork. I was thirty minutes into it when the fucking DEA and the FBI came busting into the precinct. Apparently, I had taken down one of the freaking ring leaders. I watched behind the glass for the seven hours it took to break her into giving up every one of her partners. I would never forget her for that reason alone. I had seen many more interrogations after that, but this was the only one making my blood boil.
I watched the asshole sink back in his chair like he owned the place, and like he didn’t do a damn thing wrong. It was all such bullshit, and I had to actively keep myself from busting in there. I distracted myself with Rose, sitting right by me. She was being so strong, and I wondered what was really going on in her head. I wished she would open up to me more, but I knew it just wasn’t in her nature. Being around her reminded me a lot of myself growing up. Reserved, but willing to take anyone down who got in my way. Rose was really holding her own and I wished she would just relax. But there was a criminal just a few feet from her, someone she watched in the middle of a crime. That wouldn’t be easy on anyone.
“How long do you think it will take?” she whispered after an hour of silence. I had gotten her some coffee, but she hadn’t had any of it to drink.
“I don’t know. Alex is pretty good at a shake down, but this guy seems hard core,” I answered, looking down my nose at her.
“What about Max?”
I shrugged. “He’s a little tougher to get around. Mostly because the people he usually interrogates are creeps—child molesters and kidnappers. So, he treats almost every suspect like that,” I told her.
She nodded and leaned her head on my shoulder. We were sitting in the private viewing room, and no one else was around. We all decided to keep this on the down low. If he was part of the mob, we definitely didn’t want them getting word of it. That would blow the entire thing up and then they would all get off on so-called technicalities with the crime lab.
“We’ve got your prints on three different crime scenes. How do you explain that?” Alex leaned over the desk, up in the guy’s face.
He was built like a wrestler, the kind on television that take enhancements and shit. His face was all rugged like he got beat up at least twice a week, and nothing ever healed right. He had the sleeves of his white tee shirt rolled up, and he was covered in tattoos and scars. According to Rose, only one of those tattoos mattered. They started off with that, asking if it was some kind of branding. He didn’t even budge. He had a thick accent that told me he hadn’t been in the states long. If anything, he got here just in time to do the damage on all three victims.
“I don’t believe you,” he said. Which he was right to, because there was no evidence left behind. The only thing even putting him in that room was Rose’s ID, and we all trusted she was good for it.
We just had to get it out of him.
“Okay. How about you just tell us why you went after one of the biggest investors in the city? I bet you didn’t know he was ex-Navy, which is why he knocked you on your ass.” Max was sitting in front of him, staring him down like he had a personal vendetta.
I guess we all had one. He was directly putting our Rose in danger, and sitting there all smug about it too. We weren’t going to have it anymore and our patience was running thin. The only reason I wasn’t in there was so I could sit with Rose. I didn’t want her going home alone, and I couldn’t leave the station to watch her.
They went back and forth for a good while.
“Is the coffee not good? I can have someone make a Starbucks run.” I nudged Rose. Her slender fingers were wrapped around the cup tightly. The only calm thing about her were her sky blue painted nails. She was shaking her leg like it had done her wrong. I rested my knee against her and she stopped.
“No, I’m fine. I guess I’m more nervous than I thought. It’s weird how I can eat in the middle of an ER rush but not right now, sitting here doing nothing. I even ate during surgery once, isn’t that crazy? I don’t know. I guess this is worse.” She blew out a shaky breath. “Sorry.” She laughed nervously.
I smiled at her and prompted her to look at me. Staring into the watery gray globes of her eyes almost made me dizzy. “That’s okay. I just wish I could make you relax.”
She giggled. “That won’t happen.” She shrugged. I flicked my finger over her nose and her smile widened, her shoulders loosening up just a bit. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and focused back on our suspect.
His name was Owen. If that was even his real name. When we ran his prints in booking we got nothing and he screamed criminal record. It must have been overseas, back in Ireland or where ever he was before he came here.
“I don’t know what you’re on about, so why don’t you just take me back to my cell.” He didn’t look at them as he spoke and that told me he had something to hide. He knew he wasn’t a good enough liar to let them see his eyes.
“Not happening,” Alex said first. He was now leaned against the wall behind him, trying to make him uncomfortable, remind him that he didn’t have any control of the situation. He must have a pretty rough past or some hard training to not have folded already.
“Look, we know you aren’t working alone. And you definitely aren’t the brains of the operation,” Max said. He had gotten up, and was leaning in a corner where we couldn’t see him, but could hear him.
“Fuck off,” the suspect laughed. He crossed and uncrossed his arms. I took it to mean he was finally getting uncomfortable.
“Someone has to be paying you. You don’t look like the kind of guy who beats people up for free. So, who do you work for?” Alex spoke that time.
“I don’t work for anyone. But I did like beating you up though.” He smirked, and Alex did well to ignore him. At least we knew who jumped him, finally.
“But you are working?” Max pried. The suspect’s face fell just an inch, and he caught himself before giving anything else away.
“Whatever.”
“You’ll get tired of lying soon,” Alex said.
“I’m not lying. I don’t work for anyone. I don’t know that man I attacked.”
“We never said you attacked anyone,” Max jumped in.
The suspect glared, and his nostrils flared at his mistake. Alex chuckled and came around the side, looming over him like a dark shadow. I could feel it in the air. The moment when the interrogation takes a turn, and it becomes a confession. You could almost smell it, when you work in the job for long enough. It becomes a feeling that is as real as fear and it was in the air.
I felt Rose look at me and I squeezed her shoulders.
“This is the part where you tell us everything,” Max said after a while, after giving the suspect time to really stew.
He just shook his head and twisted up his mouth. I had a feeling he knew it wasn’t worth it. That, or he decided he would get out of this easy enough as well.
“Those men were dirty, money hungry. That’s why it was so easy to get them.”
“Okay. Get them to do what?” Alex leaned on the table in front of him, crossing his arms like he wanted to keep from hitting him. Next to me, Rose sat up and leaned in.
“For years they were our way in. The back-door trade deals, that’s how we make our money. They help us, they get a cut from the goods.”
“What goods?” Alex pried.
Rose looked at me and I nodded to reassure her.
“Guns. We sell guns. First, we buy them to flood the market. And then we sell them again. They get a cut, we take
most of it. But they start stealing from us, so we teach them a lesson.”
“Okay. You teach them a lesson about stealing, I get it. Who are they stealing from?” Max asked.
The suspect smiled and laughed like we should already know, which we do. “You know all about us. We run this city.”
“Oh sorry, thought that was the mafia,” Alex said.
The suspect glared at him and shook his head. “We sometimes have an alliance.”
“That’s great, now what did you do to the victims in question?” Max opened the folder and laid out the crime scene photos from the last three murders, and the attack from earlier that day.
The suspect sighed and sucked his teeth. “The rats, they deserved it.”
“Fine. What did they do? These men are dead, and we want to know who killed them, and why. Was it you?” Max tried, but I had a feeling the suspect wouldn’t give in that easy.
He seemed like the kind who liked to tell a story. Liked to make himself important to the situation so he could reassure himself for whatever reason. There were all kinds of suspects that came through that room and I had pretty much seen all of them.
“They steal. When we sell the guns, we mask it as trade investments; that’s why we need the little weasels and their impressive financial accounts. The only thing that makes them useful. When these rats,” he pointed to the photos, “started selling the guns for more than we wanted to price them, so they could pocket for themselves, we caught them. Boss asks them to stop, they don’t. So, I go and…teach them a lesson. It’s simple. I don’t care about the guns and technical bullshit, I was just told to get their contacts in the trade and they wouldn’t give.”
“So, you killed them?” Alex goes in for the kill.
“Maybe.” He shrugged like he didn’t already give himself up.
“And what about the woman you’re been stalking?”
Rose goes stone still next to me. I rub her knee and tell her to relax.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You said that about an hour ago about these, too.” Max points out the crime scene photos.
“I have not been given any orders to follow any woman.”
I got angry. He had to have known, he was their guy for all intents and purposes.
“Of course you haven’t. I’m sure you wouldn’t try and pin down a witness, who saw you kill this man.” Alex pointed to the picture of the most recent victim.
The suspect just chuckled like he didn’t give a shit. And he probably didn’t.
“I don’t have any idea. But if she has anything to do with us, she should get very far away from here.”
Chapter Twenty-Four: Rose
Watching that interrogation was like being way too invested in a movie. Except the movie was my life and I did have everything to do with it.
For the past few weeks I had wondered why someone would seemingly shoot three people in cold blood, and attack another man who hadn’t done anything. Maybe that was the problem; I considered all of those men innocent, that they hadn’t done anything to deserve being shot and killed. Though no one could ever deserve to just be killed in my eyes, they had done something.
They were participating in so much illegal activities, that if the cops got to them first they probably would have been spending most of the rest of their life in prison. The mob had just gotten to them first. That was another thing; I never even thought the mob was a real thing, I thought it was just over-exaggerated for the movies. Sure, I believed that there were Irish people who organized crime, but never a real mob with all the ridiculous ‘family values’ and shit.
But there they were, sending out a real hit man to get rid of the people who had crossed them.
It was visibly obvious when Alex realized that the whole thing was bigger than he had imagined, than any of them had imagined. Still, they held their own in the interrogation and got him to crumble like a petty thief. It was somehow interesting to watch and even though I was scared it was very arousing. Seeing them in their element, taking control. It was downright sexy.
But I was also glad that Nate was there watching me, especially when they asked him about me.
Which was even more frightening being that I knew he was lying when he said he didn’t know about me. I was the one who had put him in that room, who had the cops on his tail since that third murder. There was no way something as powerful as the mob wasn’t going to try and get rid of a primary witness in their case.
I was so afraid I was shaking. I didn’t think I could ever calm down, or ever process my thoughts correctly again. Every time I left my apartment, I would be looking over my shoulder. I would always feel watched, always feel like I was being followed. I had no idea how I would survive it.
“Are you okay? Maybe that’s a stupid question, but still.” Nate offered me a sweet smile as he tucked hair behind my ear and cupped my cheek softly.
I looked up into his eyes and they grounded me for a moment.
“I’m…good as I can be right now.” I hugged myself like I was trying to keep myself together. I probably was.
I didn’t want to fall apart in front of them, and I wanted to be as strong as I could. They had enough to worry about me without hoping I wouldn’t break down, so I tried not to. But still, it was scary. Someone had already been following me, taking photos of me. And I had no way of knowing how much they saw of me and Nate that night. And now this; a suspect in custody who more or less confessed to everything. I thought that would make me feel safe, but it didn’t.
But if she has anything to do with us, she should get very far away from here.
I thought of him saying that over and over. With his thick Irish accent that was scarier than anything else. I used to read a bunch of romance novels where the hero had an Irish accent and I always thought it would be sexy; it wasn’t. Especially not when it was practically warning me to skip town and disappear altogether.
Alex and Max had taken him—Owen—to central booking. It felt weird saying his name like he was a regular person. He wasn’t. Nate kept looking at me like he was waiting for me to break out into a panic attack.
“Where is the restroom?” I asked him. His hand was warm and heavy on my lower back as he led me to it.
After I used the bathroom and washed my hands I let everything I was holding in go, not caring if anyone else was in the bathroom. I hadn’t cried that much in a bathroom since sophomore year of high school. Every emotion I felt since the whole thing started just came barreling out. When I finished, I tried to make my eyes look like I hadn’t just cried them out, but it was no use. I almost wished I wore eyeglasses at that point. Finally, I left to go and face them.
I rounded the corner and they all stood outside of Alex’s office. Their eyes fell on me at the same time and I knew they all saw the truth in my eyes, but I tried to fake a smile anyway.
“I need to head home,” I announced. I wanted to be around them for comfort, but they reminded me of the whole ordeal, so I really didn’t know what I wanted.
“We’ll drive you.” Alex stepped forward, his voice stern and imposing. It made me shiver with submission and excitement.
“Don’t you have to work?” I gestured to all the people bustling around, working on the new case. They hadn’t seen something like that in a while, apparently.
“It’s fine, you shouldn’t be out by yourself,” Max said, and I gave him a funny look.
Nate sighed and explained. “We want you to be safe, and that means you’ll probably be seeing a lot more of us for protection. When you aren’t at work, we want to be with you.”
I stared back at him like it was something new. But it had just gotten increasingly suffocating. Not the being around them part, but just needing protection. Knowing I wasn’t safe on my own. I had been safe on my own for my entire life.
“Okay. Fine.”
Chapter Twenty-Five: Rose
They drove me home and I didn’t say much the entire way. It was comp
letely different than that first night. Things were more serious now. It was obvious I was in danger and it didn’t sit well with them at all.
They walked me inside my place and Parker went crazy trying to break through his crate. He had never been around them all at once, so he thought I was in danger.
“Hey boy, it’s okay,” I rushed to calm him down, scratching behind his ear as a signal things were okay.
His barks calmed down to quiet snorts and I let him out of his crate. He immediately went to his food bowl. I set my bag down and looked at my three protectors, who didn’t mean to start feeling like captors.
“You should eat something, it’s been a long day,” Max suggested. Glancing at the clock, I realized it was after four, and we had left so early in the morning. I couldn’t believe the day was already gone.
Though it was Sunday, so I didn’t have any shifts. Lucky for me, because I was exhausted and might have called in sick anyway.
“Okay. I don’t feel much like cooking though,” I answered. Nate sat on the couch and took his glock out and put it on the table.
“We’ll order something, just relax.” Alex gave me a reassuring smile.
I glanced at Nate who gave me an inquisitive look before I sat down on the couch. I turned on the television and let HGTV play in the background. Alex brought me water after he ordered, I didn’t pay attention to what. And we just sat there silently, with Max and Alex on either side of me and Nate on the love seat. There was so much I wanted to say but didn’t know how.
I am attracted to all three of you, I am also afraid that I am being watched this very moment and I don’t know if I can ever get past this. Something like that.
Instead I just ate the turkey and cheddar sandwich and drank my water down. About an hour later, when the sun started going down and Parker excused himself to the dog bed in the corner, something passed in the air that loomed like a dark blanket. The three of them exchanged some sort of silent cue before Alex stood up and looked down at me.
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