by Erin R Flynn
“She’s upset,” Dain warned.
“I know,” Brian whispered, pulling me against him. “I won’t take them again. I got jealous they could keep up and I’m having trouble.”
“Do you need them? Those can hurt people,” I mumbled.
“No, I get hard for you just fine. I thought… I’m sorry. I wanted to… I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry I made you feel you had to,” I rasped, that being what bothered me so much. “I’m sorry, Bri.”
“Don’t be. Fuck, please don’t apologize, babe. You didn’t do anything, and you certainly don’t make me feel inadequate.”
“It’s a guy thing, Sera,” Carter muttered. “Plus, there’s such a range of reactions. I’ve tried them.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I would not recommend them for vampires,” he drawled. “My fucking dick itched, and every time I had blood for the next week I would get stiff for a couple of hours.”
“I’ve tried them,” Hagan confessed too. “I didn’t like how fast I finished, lots of times before you, and I worried I just couldn’t hold out.”
“Please don’t do it again?” I asked Brian, not thinking I had any right to, but did it anyways. “Please? We have so much—please. With our luck you will be some one in a million case that has a heart attack or whatever. I was sated a while ago. You give me what I need, I promise. I’ll let you use every toy in the world, but don’t take even prescription pills to try to keep up with us or whatever.”
“Besides, cock rings work really well,” Jonik added, shrugging when we looked at him. “I had trouble staying hard with the last woman I dated. Our parents pushed for the match, and she was pretty and we could hold a conversation, and I thought that enough. It wasn’t, and meeting Sera proved that to me.”
“Wait, you had that emotional orgasm thing with her and it still didn’t work?” I checked.
He nodded. “It turned out we were both forcing ourselves because even that wasn’t close to the ones we have.” He looked at Brian. “You are not the only one with doubts, my friend. We all have them, immortal, supe, or human.”
“Or female,” I muttered, snorting when they all gave me surprised looks. “Oh please, it’s well known women worry about everything more than guys. We’d be here until the morning if we listed every worry or insecurity I have. I expect people to abandon me for one, so even as I try to work past it, Phobie says that’s a third of my agreeability with people.”
“The other two thirds?” Dain asked gently.
“I don’t understand what’s going on because of my lacking social skills or being an introvert, or it’s not something that bothers me, or I just want to.” I forced myself to sit up and moved on Brian’s lap. “Would you want me to take anxiety medicine so I was more extroverted or lost some of my IQ so maybe my brain got social stuff better?”
“No, no, I’d hate that,” he whispered, kissing my hair and hugging me to him. “I get it. As long as I don’t need the stuff, I won’t take them. Let’s just chalk it up to trying something new and now we know.”
I could accept that. Part of me hoped it wouldn’t be an issue because he decided to come to our team, but that was selfish of me to want that. I wanted him forever, to live forever and never die. That wasn’t for me to decide or push on him, but it was getting harder to be neutral when he showed signs of feeling older.
Instead of saying any of that, I fed him energy, making sure he felt his youngest self possible. And then I was seriously ready for bed.
19
Brian got his wish, and my ass was definitely tender Sunday morning. I might have played it up a bit, as I healed so fast—I was pretty sure he knew that—but we did snuggle with me on his lap. Which was the nicest way we’d ever spent a weekend working because we did have something to handle.
“Are you sure?” I asked him quietly. “Are you sure this is a fight we want to really take on, Bri?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” he promised, kissing my hair. “It’s a battle worth fighting, and if the fallout gets bad, my parents are retired, so Grammy and them can go take a trip to Greece or something. I talked to Jimmy, sat him down and told him what was going on. He was with us. He might not get it all, but he knows this is important because I came to him and was worried he could get dragged in.
“If the blow back is bad, we do what we have to, but I believe in this fight as much as you do, as much as I did in New York. I’m with you on this, and so are our teams.” He hugged me to him. “We got this, babe. We’ve taken on other fights this bad, but you just weren’t the boss or the face of it. It’s harder then to give the orders or be the one people point at instead of undercover.”
“Yeah, it is harder to be the boss,” I sighed, hugging his arms to me. “I just worry that my pushing and causing trouble as everyone says won’t cost me, but others. What if it’s your career too? It’s not just the crazy level but someone could go after you again like CPD tried to. I don’t want your career blown over me.”
“It wouldn’t be. I chose this fight. You didn’t do it. I made the decision as well because it’s a good fight. If I lose my job and pension, I will still have thought this a worthy fight.” He peppered my cheek with kisses. “Besides, I hear the woman I love is rich. Maybe she needs a pool boy.”
“Asshole,” I chuckled, giving him a real kiss. But he’d done what he’d meant to and lightened the mood, eased my worry.
Things were going well with Louisa, and not only was the FBI on board with the idea the interrogations went public, but so was the AG’s office, as they were getting slammed after New York and constantly. People didn’t pay attention to facts or reality sometimes and either jumped to fear and hysterics or any thread they could find to try and unravel it all.
So that at least put me in a good spot with my own workload when I showed up Monday morning at court for the preliminary evidence hearing and to handle a few motions. One of which was a dismissal, which was insane given I’d caught them with the murder weapon. The prints and everything matched with the illegal sawed off shotgun. The guy was guilty, and so were the others for shooting at me.
Or, you know, trying to run me over.
I sat there and listened to everything the Assistant District Attorney had to present. I heard the defendant’s lawyer poke holes in it that were like trying to poke holes in Kevlar, but he seemed confident. Most lawyers did, but there was more to it. There always was.
I gave my testimony when I was called on what I’d seen, keeping it succinct and clinical as I did every report or time I testified. The last time with Marshall from the AG’s office was different because I was pushing for an argument, not part of the evidence.
“So you didn’t see him take the shot, Chief Thomas?”
“As I said, I arrived moments after to find at least two people on the ground and the defendant fleeing with the murder weapon,” I answered calmly. “No other possible suspects were within the range of being able to have pulled the trigger and not still been there.”
“Well, you could have. You were a good distance away and just appeared at the right spot to see this. It’s like a miracle.”
“It’s not actually, but I can run the distance and clock it if you’d like and that makes my testimony more believable over the defendant’s prints, the gunshot residue, the bullets matching, and the other list of evidence.”
“How can you be sure no one else was that close, Chief Thomas?”
“There were no other people I smelled or heartbeats I heard to back up what I visually witnessed before they tried to run me down when I showed them my badge.”
“And you didn’t help the victims? You decided to attack my clients instead?”
I bit back a smirk. “I’m so sorry they were ‘attacked’ when they tried to use their vehicle to kill me. As to the other matter, I’m a shifter, and I’m not allowed to aid when the victims are humans.”
“So if you’re so awesome, how come you didn’t know there were three victims
? How can we take any of your testimony?”
“I could only see two from my position, there was a lot of blood to scent, and I heard one heartbeat only that was fading.”
“So with that much blood how could you have scented anything else?”
“The same way you can smell strong coffee brewing and not be completely oblivious to other scents in your kitchen or if something’s cooking. I’m not a shark where blood distracts me.”
“But you were a good distance away.”
“Yes, but others confirmed what I stated after the SUV was stopped.”
“You mean you made it crash.”
“I shot out the tires. The crash happened because they didn’t stop when I ordered them to,” I corrected. “That was going to be the outcome, and they chose it, not pulling over when I jumped on the roof.”
“So you did attack them. You just said you jumped at them.”
“I jumped up to avoid the collision, as that would have hurt a lot, and I landed on the roof.”
“Where you shifted your hands to claws and did damage to the vehicle.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “How much damage would they have done if they’d hit me? They didn’t swerve and try and avoid me. They were going to use that SUV as a weapon like your client used that illegal sawed off shotgun to murder three people. I made sure they were taken in alive while shooting at me. Would you prefer I shot the guys shooting at me and this would all be resolved?”
“I don’t find your tone and attitude amusing.”
“I don’t find any of this funny, and I’ll file your concerns somewhere behind my reminder to sharpen my lawnmower blades. Do you have any more viable questions for me, or are you just going to try and blame me for something else? I think we made a pothole worse that they drove over while I was on the roof. Are you going to blame me for that too?”
I wasn’t shocked when the ADA gave me a look that I wasn’t helping. No, probably not, but I knew more than he did about what was going on.
The others testified as well, and the defendant’s lawyer was downright dismissive and belligerent to them. Axel and Eugene looked ready to eat the guy for implying they’d basically been zookeepers when they’d worked for the Shifter Council. Dain was used to the bullshit, so when the lawyer made a veiled Tinker Bell reference, Dain said he’d show the wings, but his sword also came with, as he was a warrior.
And the guy should remember that. Nice.
The vampires were basically leaches and sharks in the water who couldn’t determine if it was night or day once blood was involved. No matter how much the ADA objected, the judge let it go. The whole thing was a joke, and it honestly made me sick.
The judge shot me a quick glance and swallowed loudly before giving us his decision. “I find the evidence insufficient against the defendants to take this to trial. I’m dismissing the case.” The second he banged the gavel, I let out a whistle to Carter who was waiting in the hall.
“Mark McClousky, you are under arrest for corruption,” I told the judge as I pulled my cuffs off my hip and headed toward the bench.
“You can’t touch the judge,” the bailiff warned me.
I nodded to Brian and his people coming into the court. “Yeah, we can. This was a sting op. We just needed them to go through with it.” I looked at the shocked and terrified judge. “You should have turned them down when they called and offered you money, Your Honor. We were listening.”
“How? That’s illegal?”
“The warrant we got said otherwise,” I chuckled. I glanced at the bailiff. “Please step aside. This is an active FBI investigation, and he’s not the only one going.”
The guy was smart and held up his hands, taking a few steps back.
“What the fuck is going on?” the ADA blew.
I glanced at Brian before I answered, and he nodded it was fine. “We got Vang. We just need the judge and attorney.”
I went over to the ADA. “One of the officers on this was dirty. I knew that, and so did the others with me. Not only that, but he harassed Eugene who works for the FBI, leaving voicemails they needed to meet and he had questions for him after learning Eugene worked for the Shifter Council and wanted to know the location of their facility.
“When he didn’t immediately answer, Vang left another message threatening to have Eugene’s visa pulled and a whole bunch of other crap since Eugene’s a citizen and lived here a hundred years or so. That plus this hearing when the evidence was so stacked and a few other things gave us enough probable cause for a few warrants to listen in. The defendants’ attorney contacted the judge and made a deal.”
“Fuck, warn me next time, Chief Thomas,” he sighed, scrubbing his hand over his head roughly.
I shrugged. “I couldn’t know you weren’t involved, and the judge had to break the law instead of a conversation where no money changed hands yet.”
“I’m not involved,” he snapped.
“I know that, but I’ve not worked with you before because I’m federal, so I needed to know.”
“Yeah, I guess you did,” he whispered, glancing between the judge and the attorney, both of whom were being read their rights and searched. “Fuck. I don’t even know what happens next.”
I winced. “Sorry for that mess. I don’t know either.”
“Why are you doing this?” the lawyer bellowed as he was dragged out of court in handcuffs behind us. “You are stupid to pull this. They weren’t your family. You didn’t know them. This isn’t personal for you, so why do you care enough to risk all you are?”
I spun on him and moved closer, sneering at him. “Because I took an oath to protect people whether I know them or not. Because you think you can buy your way out of trouble or threaten to get what you want, and some of us will stand against that with every breath we take. Because I was once the child no one could or would help. I remember that feeling well.
“I remember what it was like to not have anyone fight for me or save me when people didn’t care or wouldn’t step up. I’m doing this because I can, because this badge gives me every right to take you down so the next people aren’t hurt or killed. I do it because I’m division chief of the FBI, and Chicago is my home, and Chicagoans deserve to be safe and the system work as it should.”
I left and decided to get out in front of another potential mess of fallout. I knew Brian wanted this fight and was prepared, but I didn’t think I could ever forgive myself if he lost someone he loved because I’d started this.
Dain, Axel, and Eugene had already gone back to training once they were done, as that was important and there was a lot to do there. That left me with my security detail, Carter giving me an apprehensive look when I told him the address.
“I don’t like this play.”
“I know,” I muttered as we drove along.
“Let them fuck up and join the others.”
“I’d rather leave the play for the bosses, not the lower level. They could be sloppy and—do you want to attend Gayle’s funeral because they shot up the club? Beth and Simone would probably survive that, but we have weaker wolves. What about Lillie’s kids when they don’t have a mom anymore?”
“I agree with her,” Emilio cut in. “You don’t have to cut off the whole arm and be so drastic like New York because it was all interconnected. This is like some focused lipo or shrinking a tumor so it’s easier to remove. I do have a few ideas how we could trim a bit off the top a little at a time.”
“The turtle wins the race and all of that,” I agreed.
“Fine, but we need to have a discussion about your anger,” Carter said gently after a few moments. “Your rage is growing. It’s justified, and we all get it, but it’s a lot, Sera. You’re snipping when you normally wouldn’t, like that guy in court today.”
“No, that was pretty normal for me,” I sighed. “I’m professional until poked, and then I poke back. I don’t disagree with you, but it’s more what happened with Ashley and the others, that whole fucking situation and
how easily people were ready to brush it off. What a fucking joke except I’m not laughing.”
We stopped at the address, and I got out, letting the guys guarding the house see me. I took off my holster and handed over my guns to Carter while grabbing the folder.
“You have a warrant?” one of the guys hanging out front asked me.
“No, and I’m not here to bust anyone, just talk to your boss,” I answered him. “He can check me for wires inside, but they’ll hear everything said and know if I need them.” I gestured over my shoulder to the ancients on my detail standing across the street menacingly. Someone went to move their jacket, and I locked gazes with him. “You flash a gun at me, and I have to act. I have to.
“I’m not here for that. Put everything away I’d have to act on and let me in.” I sighed when they didn’t move. “Or I go through you. Your guys were stupid and got caught. You’re not my jurisdiction, so just hide it all, and believe me, he’ll want to hear what I have to say. Check with him and don’t make the calls he’d want to. I’m here about that.”
There, nice and vague, but I really didn’t want them calling their lawyers. They were part of the problem after all, and I was trying to keep the lid on something volatile flowing over.
It took about five minutes, but then they waved me to follow. I went with them, not even worried as I smelled fear and confusion but no one about to react.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the guy who was clearly the boss said.
I shrugged. “I haven’t been told to stay away from you by your attorneys, as that would give names as to who else was part of your gang.” I nodded to a chair across from him. “May I?”
“Sure, but I believe you promised we could check you for a wire.” He nodded to someone, and the guy came towards me with a wand.
“Nice you didn’t try and pull shit to get me naked.”
He shrugged. “You said I’d want what you have and you’re risking shit because we normally have eyes on us.”
