She frowned. “I think I’d remember texting her. Maybe it was a glitch.”
We pulled into the parking lot of the dental office on two wheels. Lauren’s hands shook violently as she worked to get the door unlocked and the lights on.
We were dealing with a crime scene. Elizabeth’s coat and purse were lying in the floor near some blood and what had to be vomit. I grabbed my cell phone and pulled up the Find My Friends app just on the off-chance she’d made it out with her phone. It pinged her location south of town.
“Shit! Laur—call 911. Do not, under any circumstances, tell them I was here. David, get in the truck!”
She kept staring at the bloody handprint, with her hand pressed over her mouth. “Mike, what’s going on?”
I looked down to see that her phone was still tracking south; we needed to be on the road. “She somehow made it out of here with her phone on her,” I held it up to show them, “Whoever has her is outside the city, heading south.”
I pulled Lauren into my arms and kissed her gently. “Just do what I said. Tell them you came up here to meet her and found this—don’t touch anything.”
She nodded, but it was obvious she was still lost. I wasn’t waiting around to explain it to her. I knew if we waited and went through all the proper channels, Elizabeth would end up like Katya…or worse.
I retrieved my Glock and handed David my spare .40 caliber Smith & Wesson. “We’re gonna need these.” We were expecting the blizzard of the century tonight and I’d bet money that whoever took her was counting on that to delay a search.
I pulled out my cell phone and double checked her location again before firing off a quick text to Grey.
Me-
“911—33°17'04.4"N 101°56'52.4"W.”
“David, I’m gonna need you to pull up the app. Make sure her location doesn’t move from that spot. Okay?”
He nodded. “Just fucking drive as fast as you can, Mike. She’s twenty-eight weeks pregnant—who would take her?”
I had an idea. And if I was right, we needed to get there sooner rather than later. Grey texted back.
“10-4. North location.”
I nodded and tucked the phone back into the cup-holder. This time the club was going to get clean-up duty for me. David gave me updates, but otherwise neither one of us spoke. I wasn’t about to tell him I’d reached out to Grey for back-up. It was too reminiscent of Patrick.
“I want to kill this guy myself.”
I turned to David in surprise. “What?”
He continued talking, while staring straight ahead. “You told me that if there was ever a time that I needed it, you would cover up for me. I wanna cash in that favor now.”
I nodded. “Consider it done.”
We pulled up to an old farmhouse and jumped out to the sound of screaming. David didn’t hesitate, just ran inside, screaming Elizabeth’s name.
“Where the fuck is she?” He yelled wildly as I ran in behind him.
I pointed to a shut door and held a finger to my lips, trying to convey that the element of surprise could be the only thing that kept us alive. “Basement. Go.”
He didn’t heed my warning and ran down the stairs, gun drawn. I’d only made it down three of the steps when I realized my suspicion was correct. Landon Scott had his arm around Elizabeth’s throat, slowly choking her to death.
I was ready to end him, but I’d promised David. “David?” I questioned, but he just stood there, his gun trained on Landon, and a look of helplessness on his face.
He couldn’t do it.
Something jumped out of the corner and I trained my gun on it as it sank a screwdriver in between Landon’s shoulder blades. He immediately dropped Elizabeth and turned on his attacker, a woman. With his hand on her throat, he backed her into a wall.
I brought the gun down and fired a round off into the back of his left calf. His tibia and fibula broke through the skin and he fell forward onto the dirt floor with a loud exhale.
I rushed over to the woman and pulled him off of her. She reminded me of a documentary I watched on the Holocaust. A walking skeleton, covered by a thin layer of skin. I couldn’t imagine where she’d found the energy to stab Landon, to be honest.
I knelt down in front of her, trying to match her face to any of the missing person posters littering the station wall. “I’m Detective Michael Sullivan. Can you tell me your name, ma’am?”
“Ka-Katya.”
Holy fuck.
She looked nothing like the woman whose face was plastered across billboards and posters.
With wide eyes, I asked, “Egorichev?”
She nodded and I inspected the shallow cuts and purple bruises on her face. She winced and moved away from my hand. When Elizabeth groaned, I turned back to David.
“Mike, we’re going to need an ambulance. She’s in bad shape.” Elizabeth was panting heavily and trying to sit up as blood gushed between her legs. I knew next to nothing about pregnancy, but I was pretty damn sure that wasn’t normal.
She cried out in pain again before losing consciousness. “We’re going to need an ambulance for both of them. We just found Katya Egorichev.”
The motherfucker I’d interviewed repeatedly had her the entire time. The loving boyfriend who’d organized countless search parties and press conferences had been my number one suspect in the beginning, but there’d been no evidence to support it.
Left with no other options and praying that Grey was close, I called it in. Dispatch gave me the run around as I explained the situation and I lost my temper. “Fuck! I’m aware that we’re under a blizzard warning—I’ve got two women who need immediate medical attention!”
They finally gave in and told me they’d send a chopper to meet us at the nearest highway. I lifted Katya up in my arms, trying not jar her broken body as we mounted the stairs. David settled Elizabeth into the front seat, while I buckled Katya into the back. The case that had plagued me for months was going to be closed—why didn’t that leave me with a good feeling?
I felt like I should’ve known where she was all along. If only we’d had a tail on Landon twenty-four hours a day. She kept a death grip on me, even as I tried to back out of the truck.
Knowing what was about to happen back inside, I handed David my phone. I didn’t need anyone looking into my location. “Go, I’ll catch up with you! They’ll get you to the chopper. Hurry—this storm won’t hold back much longer.”
I released Katya’s hands from the front of my shirt and pointed back to the house. “I’m going to take care of him. I will come to you, I promise.”
I was thinking I had maybe ten minutes to get Landon out of the house when Grey roared up in his truck.
“What do we have?” He asked somberly.
I clenched my jaw. “Found my missing model…and David’s wife holed up in here. The fucker’s wounded, but I need him alive. I promised David.”
He didn’t question my logic, just nodded, and headed into the house with his gun drawn. “The boys should be pulling up in about thirty seconds.”
We dragged Landon up out of the basement as he cursed us both and bragged about his exploits. “You cops think you’re so fucking smart, but you’re not. You’re all just a bunch of lackeys, standing around until your shift ends, hoping the next peon is the one who cracks the case for you. It’s just laziness, Detective. Sheer laziness.”
Grey had simply given him an amused smirk, while I’d snarled, “Your death is going to be a slow one, asshole.” I’d put in countless hours trying to find Katya and he’d been toying with us from day one. Shift work? I’d sacrificed a real relationship jumping through hoops for the bastard.
He’d nodded. “Yeah, rotting away in a prison cell. I wonder how much free time I’ll get to write letters. If I’m a model prisoner, I might even get early parole.”
Grey swung his steel-toed boot out and caught Landon in his wounded leg, sending him face down in the front yard with a yell. “Oh, Jesus, son. You’re gonna have to watch wh
ere you step.”
He’d bitten his tongue in the fall and spewed a mouthful of blood as he screamed, “And who the fuck are you? The bad cop to Sullivan’s good cop?”
Grey grinned. “I’m the motherfucking Pres of Silent Phoenix MC. I’d say that’s about the furthest thing from a cop, wouldn’t you?”
Landon’s face paled as Grey slipped on his gloves. He forced Landon into the driver’s seat of his own truck, making sure to dump as much blood in the floorboard as possible.
“It’s a shame you tried to outrun the cops in this weather,” I told him just as the cavalry arrived.
The Comedian was the first one to walk up. “Well, well. Looks like this one found himself some trouble.” He yanked Landon from his truck and dragged him over to his. “Let’s take a trip,” he grinned.
Landon shot a helpless look toward me. “You’re a fucking cop, Sullivan. You can’t just hand me over to a bunch of bikers. It goes against your fucking oath to serve and protect!”
I nodded. “You’re right. I see that as more of a guideline than a rule though. You know, following my own code—kinda like you did.”
Landon began fighting to get out of my father’s truck. “I’ll see you in Hell, Sullivan. You hear me?” My father caught him with an elbow and he immediately slumped over in the front seat.
“Looking forward to it,” I muttered. I’d solved the case and kept my promise to David. My hands were clean as far as I was concerned.
Grey directed another member to drop the truck as far away from the farmhouse as possible before turning to me. “We’re heading out. He’ll be up north when you’re ready. You know the coordinates.”
It was done.
Well, almost.
I pulled my burner phone from my back pocket. “Nikolay? It’s Detective Sullivan. We got her. She’s been taken to the hospital.”
“Who was it?” His tone was brisk.
I rubbed at the back of neck and sighed, “Landon Scott.”
He gasped and went silent for a full ten seconds before replying, “My deal stands. Forty thousand if he never makes it to jail. I won’t have Ekaterina subjected to him any further. Either you take the money or I’ll find someone else, but that man’s life will end soon.”
It’d been a discussion he and I had multiple times throughout the investigation. Once I’d ruled him out as a suspect, he’d turned to plans of revenge. “Detective, I know people who could make her kidnapper disappear. They would never find any trace. I could make it worth your while.”
Once he’d mentioned the cash, I was in. It didn’t matter to me how his guys dealt with it as long as I got the money. Then, Elizabeth got thrust into it. My promise to David trumped my promise to Nikolay.
“Niko, my best friend’s wife was found with your daughter. Trust me when I say that it’s being dealt with.” What the fuck was I doing? I never involved civilians in club business.
There was no way in hell that Nikolay was just a civilian though. After several meetings with him, I’d left feeling like he’d been interrogating me. My guess was CIA operative— or spy. Either one would explain the cash he had readily available to pay off lowly detectives like myself.
“Call me when it’s done and I’ll get you the money. I want proof though.” He disconnected the call as sirens wailed in the distance.
For the first time in a long time, I worried that I’d gotten in over my head. I was no longer just an accomplice to the club. I was now a dirty cop who accepted bribes to look the other way.
I’d lived with the man in the mirror for thirty-two years now. I just hoped after it was all said and done that I’d still be able to.
Lauren
December 2014
Elizabeth winced and I sprang into action. “Do you need me to recline you? Water? The nurse?”
She shook her head and pointed at the cup of water. “Just water,” she mumbled.
Landon had beaten her so viciously that her jaw, finger, and three of her ribs were broken. The surgeon wired her jaw shut and it was hard to understand what she was saying unless you were right next to her. Unfortunately, her baby had taken the brunt of the trauma and had to be taken by emergency C-section. Kaden weighed two pounds and eight ounces and was currently fighting for his life in the NICU.
It was senseless.
Had Mike not insisted that we all have Find My Friends, she would’ve bled to death. I brushed a stray tear off of my cheek and went back to rambling. “We’ve got to quit meeting like this,” I gently teased and her lips turned up in the slightest of smiles.
I didn’t even know what I was talking about, but I felt like I needed to talk enough for both of us. If I was talking then I wasn’t questioning where Mike disappeared to that night. I wasn’t left wondering why he wasn’t returning my calls or texts. I could pretend that everything was fine.
Elizabeth squeezed my hand and laid against my shoulder as we sat side by side in the small hospital bed. After finding the office like I did, I wasn’t sure that I’d ever see her again. I’d answered countless questions for the police and resisted the urge to call Mike for updates as they searched the office and wrote up their reports.
The commercial for fabric softener disappeared and was replaced with a breaking news banner.
“We’re back tonight with the latest on the search for Landon Scott, the man behind the disappearance of Katya Egorichev. Egorichev was found severely dehydrated and suffering from malnutrition. Her injuries are considered non-life threatening and she is recovering in a local hospital tonight.
“We’ve just learned that Elizabeth Greene was the unidentified female rescued along with Egorichev. Greene, twenty-eight weeks pregnant at the time of abduction, was severely beaten. She was taken by medical helicopter to an undisclosed local hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. Both mom and baby are recovering in the hospital and are expected to make a full recovery.
“Landon Scott was injured in an altercation with a police officer, but managed to flee the scene. His vehicle was found yesterday morning buried in a snow drift. Blood inside the vehicle matched that found on scene. If you have any information on his whereabouts, you are urged to call…”
Elizabeth’s face paled and she began shaking her head while making a choking sound. “Elizabeth?”
She shook her head harder and began hyperventilating. I held her arms down and glanced helplessly around the room. “David? A little help please…”
He jumped up out of the hospital chair and ran over to us. “Beth—deep breaths, baby. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
Her chest heaved and she forced out through clenched teeth, “He’s going to come back for me and Kaden—he’s going to hurt him. I can’t let him do that. David, you have to warn the doctors and nurses.”
I grabbed the call button, but David shook his head, stopping me. “Beth, look at me. He can’t hurt you anymore. He will never hurt you again.”
That sounded like…
“David?” I asked, before stopping myself.
He shook his head again. “He’ll never be found.”
How would he know that?
Elizabeth placed her hand on his. “You did something, didn’t you?”
He used his free hand to stroke her hair before replying, “I took care of my family. That’s all you need to know, baby.”
She thanked him, but I sat silent in shock. David killed someone. It didn’t make sense. There was no way a construction worker could kill someone in this day and age without the police finding out.
Unless the police were in on it.
Oh, Jesus.
“Excuse me,” I mumbled as I slid out of the bed and toward the door.
“Lauren, wait,” David called after me, but I ran around a corner, losing him by the nurse’s station.
Oh my god.
Oh my god.
I pressed the down button on the elevator frantically, each breath more labored than the last. The doors finally opened and I jumped inside before hit
ting the close button. I couldn’t get my thoughts straight.
If it were me, would I have made the same decision? I leaned my back against the cold metallic wall as the car descended, fighting with my morality. It wasn’t right, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t the right thing.
Halfway across the parking lot and I knew why my boyfriend had gone MIA. He’d crossed a line that he knew he couldn’t come back from. As I started my car and let it heat up, I wondered if I was capable of crossing over to join him.
I’d just come to accept the fact that my mother was cozied up with an outlaw biker. I didn’t know if I could fit a crooked cop into the mix too though.
If it came right down to it, was I even capable of walking away from him?
I told him I loved him. Did that love have an expiration date? Or was it covered under a lifetime warranty? When it came to transactions of the heart, what was the return policy?
I pulled down the familiar dirt driveway a little after midnight. That’s how long it took me to decide. I paced my apartment and played the ‘what if’ game.
In the end though, it came down to raw emotion. Mike had been the only man for the last four and half years. After that night in Galveston, he was it for me, flaws and all.
I parked and zipped up my jacket before stepping out onto what had become a skating rink as the snow had melted and then frozen again over the past few days. Thirty harrowing seconds later, I made it onto the porch and knocked softly at the door.
Two minutes after that, I realized that I was going to be dead and frozen by the time he decided to let me in. I tried the door handle and felt like jumping up and down in excitement when it opened into a warm house.
“Mike?” I called softly, but the house remained dark and silent. I half expected Betsy to jump out at me with steri-strips in her hands. That was a sight guaranteed to send me to an early grave.
I knew he was home. His truck was parked outside. I crept silently from the dining room into the living room, both were empty. I found him in the kitchen, hunched over the table with a bottle of tequila in his fist.
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