Atonement (Love Undercover Book 3)

by LK Shaw

  I leaned up and pressed my lips to hers. She was running on fumes. We all were. This would all be over soon though. It had to be.

  "Good news," Brody interrupted. "I hope anyway. Pablo talked to his supervisor in the narcotics division and after sharing all our evidence to the district attorney, he's pretty sure we'll get a warrant. In the next couple hours, if we're lucky. Until then, there's not much we can do."

  I glanced over at him. "What happens if he can't get the warrant?"

  My brother rubbed his hands over his face. "Then we'll have to keep searching for more evidence. We may even have to confront King. Let him know we're on to him. Try and force him to do something. Whether it's move his drugs to a new location or something else."

  "Well, then we better hope Pablo gets that warrant."

  Brody eyed the two of us. "Both of you look exhausted. Why don't you go home and catch some sleep. If we get this warrant, then it's going to be a long night."

  My brother was right. While we might not be involved in the actual seizure, we were going to make sure Pablo made it home safe and sound. Ines had already had one brother die in the line of duty, she and the rest of the family would have difficulty making it if they lost another. Plus, Victor would be with us. There was no way he was staying home while we were all out there. The one thing about the Rodriguez family, they were there for each other, no matter what.

  I stood from my chair and pulled Landon with me. "Call us when you hear something."

  Brody nodded. "Will do."

  We took my car back to Landon's house. She leaning against the window, and I could see her eyelids growing heavy. Once I parked, I helped her out of the car and inside. We headed straight to the bedroom where we both undressed and fell onto the bed, our energy completely depleted. Fatigue overcame us, and we were oblivious to the outside world.

  I was jerked awake by the ringing phone. Blindly reaching for it, I managed to grab it and swipe across the screen. Landon stirred beside me. "Hello?" It came out on a croak.

  "It's Pablo. I got the warrant, and we have a team lined up and ready to head to the warehouse."

  I shot upright in bed. "Seriously?"

  "Yes."

  I pulled the phone away from my mouth. "They got the warrant."

  Pablo was talking again. "I talked to Victor. I'm not going to try and persuade you guys to stay home, because I'd be wasting my breath. Just stay far enough away, and don't let anyone see you."

  "Of course. You be fucking careful in there. We don't know who you're going to be up against."

  "I will. Alright, I got to go. You be careful as well, and I’ll catch you all later."

  I tossed my phone on the nightstand. "They're getting ready to head over there. Victor, Brody, and I are going to stay close to keep an eye on Pablo."

  Landon pushed herself upright and glared at me. "I know you're not suggesting that I stay here?"

  "I can't worry about you and Pablo, too."

  She crossed her arms over her chest. "You did not just say that. I've been on countless narcotic seizures over the last seven years. You've been a PI for what, two months? And you just got fucking shot two days ago. Fuck that. I should be the one worried about you. Don’t you trust me to watch your back?”

  Despite her anger, I also heard the hurt behind her question. Shit. "Hey, come here."

  I tugged her arm and pulled her onto my lap. Her bright blue eyes shimmered. I tucked her hair behind her ear. "There’s no one I trust more.”

  She huffed and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Then why didn’t you say that?”

  With a single move, I flipped us so she was lying on her back and my body caged hers. She squealed in surprise. “I don’t trust you to just watch my back. I trust you with everything. My back. My front.”

  I placed one of her hands over my heart, holding it there. I whispered softly. “I trust you with my life. With my heart.”

  Lowering my head, I covered her lips with mine. I put all my love into the kiss, showing her exactly how I felt. If only we had time to make love, but we needed to get moving. "I'm tabling this for later tonight, after we put away some drug dealers. Be ready."

  She snorted. "Oh, I'll be ready. Now, let's go."

  Brody called as we were about to head out the door. "Pablo call you?"

  "Yes. We were about to head out the door."

  "Don't bother. Victor and I are on our way over there to pick you up. ETA ten minutes."

  "Guess we'll see you in a few."

  I didn't get a response, because he'd already hung up.

  "The cavalry is on their way. Be here soon."

  "I'll be ready."

  My curiosity was peeked watching her dig around in her closet. What was she looking for? She stood and turned, and I got my answer. In Landon's hand was a gun. She checked her ammunition and slung the holster over her shoulders. Seeing her armed was actually a huge fucking turn on, and I couldn't stop the grin from spreading across my face.

  "What?" She sent me a confused glare.

  "Nothing. I've just never seen you wearing a gun before. It's pretty hot."

  Landon rolled her eyes. "Oh my god."

  She rammed her shoulder into me as she passed, and I fake stumbled. "Maybe later you can pull out your handcuffs. You do have a pair, don't you?"

  I waggled my eyebrows drawing a burst of laughter from her. "Come on, Romeo. Your brother should be here any minute."

  Sure enough, we reached the living room, and the bell rang. Landon opened the door. Brody glanced between the two of us. "Let's do this."

  Chapter 29

  Preston and I were seated in the back. It was a little surreal to be heading to a drug seizure with Brody and not actually being the ones doing the arresting. If my father could see me now. Regardless of all his faults, and how awful I'd treated him after the divorce, he'd always been proud of me. He'd told me how smart I was and how far in life I was going to go. I wish he could have been here to see this moment. Hell, to see me fall in love. My eyes took a quick glance upward. Maybe he was.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Preston watching me. I turned to him with a reassuring smile and grabbed his hand, pulling it into my lap. There was a heavy tension in the car. No one spoke, but we were all alert and observing our surroundings. Especially as Brody slowed the car. He cut the headlights and pulled as near as he could to the warehouse where we wouldn't be spotted. Next, he cut the engine, and we all watched Pablo and his team swarm the front of the building like little ants. If not for the full moon and the flashlights they carried, I didn’t think we’d have been able to see them.

  We couldn’t hear from this distance, but I saw someone pound on the door and his mouth moved. There was a short pause where nothing happened. Maybe nobody was inside. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than madness erupted in the form of gunfire.

  On instinct, I reached for the door handle, ready to dive out of the car and rush over there.

  “No,” Preston and Brody both hollered.

  “Stay put.” Brody tempered his voice. “We can’t go rushing in there. It will only distract them and put us at risk.”

  Fuck. I sank back into the seat. That was Victor’s brother. He had to be going insane. I sat behind him, so I couldn’t see his face, but his shoulders were rigid. Then, through the crack between his seat and the paneling that divided the front seat from the back, I caught a glimpse of his fingers digging deep into his door’s arm rest. Sitting here must be torture for him.

  My eyes returned to the scene. The front door of the warehouse had been busted open and all the police were squeezing through the entrance. Pablo was nowhere in sight. The side windows of the car were beginning to fog up from the heat of our breath, but no one bothered to swipe it off.

  We could see flashes of light burst one after another through the warehouse windows. Long minutes passed until they gradually wound down. Brody turned the key in the ignition a half turn and cracked his window. We all craned our heads and
strained to hear, but there was only the slight breeze. The window slid back up. The faint sound of sirens grew louder, flashing red and white lights lit up the sky around us and fire trucks, cop cars, and an ambulance rolled past us and into the parking lot of the warehouse. EMTs jumped out and raced inside the building.

  A blaring ring from a phone scared the shit out of me, and I almost jumped out of my skin. It was Victor’s.

  “Hello?”

  Pause.

  “Motherfuck…”

  Another pause.

  "I’ll be right there.”

  He stabbed his finger against the phone screen. I glanced at Preston and then, boom, Victor punched the dashboard.

  Brody tried to calm him down. “Hey, talk to us, man. What’s going on? What happened? Victor, you have to breathe. Come on, you can do it.”

  With ragged, gasping breaths, he finally settled back into his seat. “I have to go in there.”

  “Okay,” Brody assured him. “But tell us what happened first.”

  “Pablo took a bullet.”

  I smothered a gasp while Preston and Brody cursed.

  “He’s alive. That’s all I know.”

  “Go. Make sure he’s okay. Call us when you find anything out.”

  Victor nodded absently, but he was already halfway out the door. I watched him take off at a clip toward the building, eventually slowing with his hands up as an officer from one of the cruisers spun on him. They spoke for a minute and then Victor disappeared inside the building.

  “There’s nothing more we can do.” Brody started up the car and drove us away from the scene.

  Preston squeezed my hand. I returned the gesture with a faint smile. The next time I blinked, we were in front of my house. We were here already? He helped me out of the car and leaned down to speak softly to his brother. So softly, I couldn’t make out what he said. Brody cast a quick glance in my direction before returning Preston’s gaze. He gave him a single nod before he pulled away from the curb.

  Hand in hand, we headed into the house. After the first time I’d had trouble putting the key in the lock, because my hands shook so bad, Preston took them from me and let us in. Sherbert greeted us with his standard chirp, and I picked him up to cuddle him against my chest. His purr revved louder, and my body shook with it.

  “Landon, baby, it’s okay. Pablo is going to be fine.”

  My head jerked up, and Preston was nothing but a blur. Why did my chest hurt so bad? Sherbert let out a small yowl and scrambled out of my grasp to drop to the floor. Then the floodgates opened. I couldn’t breathe. Only sob. Strong arms wrapped around me and the smell of spring and sunshine penetrated my senses. I clutched Preston to me, my fingers gripping him so hard my knuckles hurt.

  He scooped me up, and I had a vague awareness of him carrying me down the hall. The lights stayed off, and he gently laid me on the bed before crawling in next to me as my tears drenched his shirt. All night he held me as my cries raged on, whisper reassurances until eventually, with a hiccup, I fell into an exhausted sleep.

  Chapter 30

  It had been three days since the bust at King’s delivery company. As suspected, an entire cutting lab had been located inside the facility behind state-of-the-art security. At least three skids of pure cocaine worth millions of dollars had been confiscated. There’d been enough there that the D.E.A. had been officially called in. Landon’s co-workers, Crawford and Brickman had shown up along with a few other agents.

  Silas and Eli had been killed, and King had disappeared without a trace. Pablo was still in the hospital, but he was being released tomorrow. He’d taken a bullet to the leg, directly above the knee, breaking his femur. He’d had to have surgery and wasn’t going to be able to put any weight on it for however many weeks until it healed.

  Landon had taken the last couple days off work. She’d called her therapist and I’d taken her in for her session the day after the raid. After she’d come out, her eyes had been red and swollen and she’d been quiet. We didn’t talk about her reaction to what happened. I’m not sure even she knew what had triggered it. Instead, we’d spent a lot of time on the couch with her in my arms.

  I’d come into the office this morning, and she said she was feeling well enough to get out of the house later. She promised to go out to lunch with me. Which meant she would be here any minute.

  “So, how does it feel to be a big hero?" I leaned back with my arms crossed behind my head and a shit-eating grin on my face.

  Brody shot me the finger. "Fuck off."

  “You were the one who discovered the coinciding shipments and had the bright idea that King was getting and keeping his shit in that warehouse of his. I guess it's true that you got the brains and I got the beauty in the family."

  "You're such a dick. You know that, right? I still can't figure out what the hell Landon sees in you."

  "My charm is undeniable, what can I say?"

  Brody just shook his head.

  "Speaking of my lady love, she should be on her way over her soon. We're grabbing something for lunch. Do you want us to bring you back anything?"

  " Where are you guys going?"

  "I was thinking about this Italian...oh, here she is. Hey ba—” My mouth snapped closed and the word broke off.

  “Fuck,” Brody whispered beneath his breath.

  “You.” Spittle flew from Elliott King's mouth as that single word came out as a curse. In his hand was a gun, and he waved it back and forth between my brother and me. He stepped further into the office, closing the door behind him. "This is all your fault. The both of you have ruined everything."

  Normally a well-put together man in his designer suits with his salt and pepper hair perfectly sculpted with pomade and his wingtip shoes polished to a high shine, but not this version of him. This King's hair stood on end in several places as though he'd been running his hands through it. His suit jacket was unbuttoned, and the starched white dress shirt was half untucked. His shoes were scuffed and his chin was covered in three days growth.

  "Mr. King," Brody spoke calmly. “You need to put the gun down."

  I needed to draw his attention away from my brother so he could reach for the gun he kept secured under the desk. King was not a stable man. His eyes were wild and crazed as he darted glances back and forth between Brody and me.

  "Shut up," he screamed. "Just shut up. Do you have any idea what you two have done? I was making millions. For what? To have some dope fiend decide he's found God and come in and destroy what I've worked hard for?"

  King paced, his gun still trained on us. I'd been shot once already. I had no desire for it to happen again.

  "Everything was going so perfectly. It was a win-win for everyone."

  I couldn't take it any longer. "No one was winning but you, asshole. Your shit product was killing people. Kids. You were making money while sons, daughters, sisters, and brothers were dying. Fuck you."

  King sneered and swung the gun back in my direction just as the door opened.

  "Honey, I’m—” Landon froze.

  It all seemed to happen in slow motion. My heart stopped in my chest. King pivoted in Landon’s direction. The gun pointed straight at her. Brody jerked his 9mm out from under the desk. Pulled the trigger. Landon screamed, and I lurched from behind my desk to race over to her. King was writhing and moaning in pain on the floor, clutching his leg, blood pooling beneath him. Brody kicked the gun away that had fallen to the floor. He then ripped his shirt off over his head.

  "I need to try and stop the bleeding. Call an ambulance."

  "You okay?" I asked Landon who frantically nodded her head.

  "I'm fine. Go." She pushed me away and then went to help Brody.

  I made the call while I watched the two of them wrap the shirt around King's leg to try and stop the bleeding. Jesus, there was a lot of blood.

  "The paramedics are on their way," I told them. "How's he doing?"

  Brody shook his head. "Not good. The bullet must have nicked an ar
tery. I'm trying to put as much pressure on it as I can, but he's losing a lot of blood."

  I let the two of them do whatever they needed to do and stayed out of their way. Finally, the paramedics and firemen showed up and they got King loaded onto a stretcher and taken away. He'd long since lost consciousness. Things didn't look good for him. Within a few minutes the police arrived. I collapsed into my chair and tugged Landon down into it with me. Leaving Brody to deal with the cops was probably a shitty thing to do, but my heart was still racing even with my woman safely in my arms.

  "When you walked through that door, I swear to god my heart stopped. I thought he was going to shoot you. He was out of his mind with rage."

  Landon's arms tightened around my neck and she raised her head from my shoulder. "But he didn't. We're both okay."

  I glanced over at Brody. "Do you think King's going to make it?"

  "It's hard to say. He was losing an awful lot of blood. I guess we'll have to wait and see."

  Finally the police left and Brody joined us.

  "They took my statement and are going to let me know how King is once they find out. If he pulls through, he'll be under arrest."

  A breath of air left my lungs. I couldn't believe it. We'd actually managed to take down an entire drug ring. It was completely unimaginable.

  "Why don't you two get out of here. I'm going to take the rest of the day off. I need to see Ines."

  Once again he rose from his chair and grabbed his coat without another word. I couldn't imagine how Brody was feeling right now. He'd just shot a man. One who could die. That was a lot of responsibility to take on. It wouldn't be the first man he'd killed, but over the last year I’d learned a lot about my brother. He did what needed to be done and made no apologies for it. Still, it must weigh on him. It made me glad he had Ines. She loved his broody ass, flaws and all. And she'd take care of him. My eyes shifted to the woman in my lap. The woman I loved more than anything. I needed to take care of her.

  I tightened my grip on her hips. That same electrical charged surged through my fingertips every time I touched her. “Come on, let's go home. It’s finally over.”