Vendetta (WeHo Book 7)

by Sherryl Hancock

  Lyric’s eyes searched hers again. “No, but it’s the way I want to kiss you,” she said, her tone strong, as she lay Savanna on her back and kissed her again.

  “Oh, my God…” Savanna said then, her tone awed.

  “What?” Lyric asked, grinning.

  “The real Lyric Falco just showed up…” Savanna said, her eyes starting up at Lyric like she’d just met someone completely new, because she knew she just had.

  Lyric smiled softly, knowing exactly what Savanna meant. Savanna’s words had made something click in her head, and she knew she was right. It was why no man had ever been quite right.

  “Hi…” Savanna said then, her smile seductive.

  “Hi…” Lyric said, smiling back at her as she kissed her again.

  Lyric pulled back then, her look unsure.

  “What?” Savanna asked.

  Lyric grimaced slightly. “I don’t know exactly what to do,” she said, her tone hesitant.

  Savanna moved her hand to touch Lyric’s cheek, her eyes looking directly into Lyric’s.

  “Yes you do,” Savanna said. “Do to me what you wanted them to do to you…”

  There was heat instantly in Lyric’s eyes, as she nodded. In the end, Lyric took the time to slowly remove every article of Savanna’s clothes, kissing her skin as she did and reveling in the beauty of Savanna’s flawless body. Savanna pulled at the tank top Lyric wore and Lyric obliged by removing it, along with her underwear.

  “Oh my God…” Savanna murmured admiringly as Lyric climbed back onto the bed.

  Savanna sat up, sliding her hand over Lyric’s incredibly toned stomach, shocked by the tattoo on her lower right abdomen. It was a black falcon; an artistic rendering that looked tribal in nature, with the name “Falco” in script letters under it in a rich blue. She looked up at Lyric then, her eyes wide and Lyric simply grinned, and moved to kiss her.

  Savanna slid her hands over Lyric’s shoulders and arms, feeling the corded muscles and feeling extremely turned on by the strength that Lyric held just under the surface.

  Lyric made love to her then and only afterwards did they discuss the tattoo.

  “Is that the only one you have?” Savanna asked, her fingers brushing over the tattoo again.

  Lyric grinned, her look amused.

  “What?” Savanna asked.

  Lyric surprised her by sitting up and turning her back to her. Savanna was stunned to see a large tattoo, at least a foot long, of a black panther with blue eyes. It looked like it was climbing up Lyric’s back, its long black tail curling down by Lyric’s waist, its head turned and its mouth open in a roar. It was an amazingly detailed tattoo and Savanna had a hard time believing what she was seeing. She shook her head.

  Lyric lay back down and grinned at her.

  “I have to say I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Savanna said. “But it’s very you.”

  “My father had a fit when he saw it the first time,” Lyric said, grinning.

  “I’ll bet,” Savanna replied.

  Lyric reached over, pulling Savanna into her arms and making an “Mmm” sound as Savanna’s skin slid over hers. “God this feels so good,” she said, sounding slightly amazed.

  Savanna smiled, moving to kiss Lyric’s shoulder before she put her head against it. “Yes, yes it does.”

  Lyric lay marveling at how good she felt, it was insane to feel this good. Turning onto her side, she looked down at Savanna. Savanna caught an odd look on her face and canted her head.

  “What?” she asked.

  Lyric curled her lips in a grin, shaking her head. “Nothing, it’s crazy.”

  “What is?” Savanna asked.

  Lyric blew her breath out, shaking her head again. “It’s going to sound nuts,” she said, her look wondrous. “But I’m pretty damned sure I’m in love with you…”

  Savanna widened her eyes, truly shocked by what Lyric had just said.

  “Crazy, right?” Lyric said, rolling her eyes.

  Savanna smiled. “No, not crazy,” she said. “I know that I’ve wanted you desperately since the minute I met you.”

  “You have?” Lyric asked.

  “Oh yes,” Savanna said nodding. “From the second I laid eyes on you.”

  “And it took you this long to get around to jumping me?” Lyric asked, her eyes sparkling humorously.

  “Well, you’re not gay… remember?” Savanna said, her eyes sparkling as well.

  Lyric grinned, nodding her head. “I remember.”

  They were both quiet for a bit, then Savanna heard Lyric sigh.

  Glancing up at her, Savanna could see a worried look on Lyric’s face.

  “What are you worried about?” Savanna asked, pretty sure she already knew.

  Lyric looked down at her. “I’m sure you can guess.”

  Savanna nodded, “Your family.”

  “Yeah,” Lyric said, nodding and blowing her breath out.

  “We don’t have to tell them anything if you don’t want to…” Savanna told her, knowing that Lyric’s family was really important to her.

  Lyric looked at Savanna for a long moment, obviously considering the suggestion. Then she shook her head.

  “No,” she said, “I don’t want to lie to them, not about you.”

  Savanna couldn’t help but feel warmed by Lyric’s statement. Reaching up she touched Lyric’s face, her eyes soft.

  “You know,” she said, “I think I just might love you too.”

  Chapter 4

  Cody had gotten everything she needed to bust John Tucker. She’d found that he was a low down scum, and she was very happy to fill out the request for his arrest warrant. To her incredible relief, she had actually completely cleared McKenna of all guilt in the case. Even though John had done pretty much everything, he could to make sure that McKenna went down if he got into trouble. Cody had been smarter. Questioned Documents had determined that even though McKenna had signed the bank documents to start the account, every other signature on every other document was forged.

  McKenna and John were asleep at five o’clock in the morning when they heard a pounding on their door and the words “Police!” yelled right before the door was broken open. To McKenna’s shock, John jumped out of bed, and grabbed a gun he had in the nightstand.

  “What are you doing?” McKenna asked him, shocked.

  “Shut up!” he yelled at her, his eyes wild.

  The police entered the room then and there was a tense moment where they yelled at him to drop the gun, their weapons trained on him. John finally dropped the gun, while McKenna looked on in horror. The officers moved to him, shoving him to his knees, and reading him his Miranda Rights.

  A woman identifying herself an Officer Laslow took McKenna into the kitchen and talked with her at length about what John was being arrested for.

  “Human trafficking?” McKenna asked, blinking in disbelief.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the officer said. “We have evidence that links your husband to at least four girls that have been forced into prostitution.”

  McKenna couldn’t believe it and she still couldn’t believe it two hours later when the last of the officers left her home. She was shocked when one of them handed her an envelope just as they left, with her name handwritten on the front.

  Due to her undercover status, Cody had only been able to be at the execution of the arrest warrant because she wore black raid gear including gear that hid her face. She did, however, give one of the officers who was remaining on-scene for clean up a note to give McKenna when they were ready to clear out. She left the house, and walked to her car parked two blocks away and took off her gear. She climbed into the car and left the area. She never saw the car parked across the street with two men it, nor did she see one of the men’s eyes narrow when she took off her cover, exposing her face. He looked over at the other man, the “SUR” tattoo on his neck clear.

  “Ese es su, pequeno coño,” the man said, that’s her, and calling Cody a “little cunt.”

/>   McKenna opened the envelope and took out the folded piece of paper. The handwriting was neat, what McKenna would consider ‘cop handwriting.’The note read simply, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t tell you. If you want a full explanation, please meet me at the below address. It’s up to you.” It was signed, “C” in a kind of cursive letter. There was an address printed below in the same neat handwriting.

  When McKenna walked outside she saw that there was a patrol car still there. The officer, who’d been leaning on his car, walked over to her.

  “Taking her up on her offer?” the officer asked.

  McKenna looked back at him surprised, but then nodded. He led her to his car and opened the front passenger door for her.

  “She asked me to escort you if you decided to go.”

  She wasn’t sure she knew who “C” was, but she had her suspicions. Cody had not been back to the house since the day they’d kissed. While part of her hoped that it wasn’t Cody that had written the note, part of her did hope it was her, because it would mean she was okay.

  They pulled up outside a house and McKenna walked up to the door. It was a nice, newer home in a pretty good neighborhood. She wasn’t sure what to think at that point. Not knowing what else to do, McKenna rang the doorbell, feeling incredibly stupid at that moment. A woman answered the door, wearing jeans, black boots and a black tank top. Perhaps more importantly, a nasty-looking gun at her hip and a badge clipped to her belt. The woman’s eyes were bright blue and they glanced over McKenna’s shoulder, seeing the patrol car leaving. Her eyes went back to McKenna then, narrowing slightly, and then she gave McKenna an expectant look and that reminded McKenna why she was there.

  “I’m here to see…” McKenna began to say, suddenly realizing that the note had said “C,” so she didn’t even know if Cody was the other woman’s real name.

  “You’re here to see Cody,” the woman said, looking at McKenna her look icy. “And you’re McKenna,” she said then, her tone acidic.

  McKenna nodded, not sure what to say at that point.

  “Cody’s my daughter,” the woman said. “I’m Lyric Falco.”

  McKenna blinked a couple of times. “Is that her real name? Cody Falco?”

  “Yeah,” Lyric said, her tone clipped. “And I’m telling you right now, if you’re here to eviscerate my daughter, you’re not getting through this door.”

  McKenna’s eyes widened and that not too thinly veiled threat. Lyric Falco did not look like the kind of woman McKenna wanted to mess with Regardless, she drew her courage around her.

  “Cody actually asked me to meet her here,” McKenna said, holding up the note she’d received from the officer.

  Lyric spared a second to glance at the note. “My kid likes to take her lumps all at once,” she said, indicating that she thought her daughter was crazy. “That doesn’t mean that she deserves them or that it’s not incredibly stupid of her to do it.”

  Again, McKenna had no idea what to say, she knew she was facing a ‘mama bear’. McKenna couldn’t decide if it gave her comfort or made her mad to know that Cody had her so thoroughly convinced that she had no one in her life that cared about her. This woman very obviously loved her daughter dearly and was willing to do whatever it took to keep her from coming to any kind of emotional harm.

  “You need to know this, though,” Lyric said, her tone softening slightly. “Cody did everything in her power to protect you in this. If it hadn’t been for her, you probably would have been the one being marched off in cuffs this morning.” Lyric paused to make sure she was getting through to the girl. McKenna’s eyes widened in reaction to what she was hearing. “You are married to a very bad man, Mrs. Tucker,” Lyric said, purposely using McKenna’s married name to drive home her point. “He pretty much had you set up to take the fall for this, and it was Cody that cleared you as a suspect. So, you think about that before you lay into her about whatever slights you feel she dealt you. She was doing her job, and you can rest assured that your husband is going down for a long time for his part in this and that’s because my daughter did her job.”

  Lyric waited, wanting to make sure that this woman knew that Cody had practically turned herself inside out trying to make sure that none of the case touched McKenna.

  When McKenna drew in a deep breath, her look appropriately affected, Lyric nodded to herself and stepped back, opening the door wider.

  “Cody’s in the back,” she said, gesturing for McKenna to enter.

  McKenna walked into the house. Cody definitely lived in a nice home, certainly better than McKenna had ever believed. She was still trying to reconcile everything her head when it came to this girl… woman she thought she’d known. Lyric led her through the house. In the kitchen, McKenna saw a woman with long red hair, standing looking out the window. When Lyric walked through, the woman looked over and her eyes connected with Lyric’s who nodded in return.

  “This is Savanna, my wife, and Cody’s other mother,” Lyric said, gesturing to the woman.

  McKenna nodded to Savanna, seeing the concern in her eyes. Apparently, Cody had two women who loved her a great deal. Then McKenna saw Cody through the back sliding door. At least she thought she did, Cody’s back was to the door. Gone was the green hair; it was now the same white blond as Lyric’s, and instead of being loose and unruly as she’d always seen it, it was slicked back. She stopped, suddenly afraid to see what else was different about Cody. She could already hear music playing and it sounded like rock music, she wondered if this was the kind of music she was always listening to when she had her headphones in her ears at the house. Yet another thing she didn’t know, McKenna thought.

  Lyric and Savanna exchanged a look. Cody had told them what she had done with giving McKenna the address to the house. Lyric had thought she was completely insane and Savanna had been beside herself since then. The last thing she wanted was for Cody to have to face a possibly raving lunatic when she was still so sensitized to everything. Cody had explained that she had always planned on facing McKenna when the case was done, she just didn’t know if McKenna would be willing to see her.

  “Yeah, except she might be willing to see you long enough to rip you apart, Cody,” Savanna had said, her voice fierce in her concern for her daughter’s well-being.

  “I can take whatever she needs to say,” Cody had said, her voice complacent.

  “You think you can,” Savanna had responded.

  Cody had looked at Lyric then who looked just as worried as Savanna, but she shook her head and shrugged. “You did what you felt like you needed to do. Just know that I’m going to do what I feel like I need to do too.”

  Cody had looked back at Lyric, wanting to ask what she meant, but not sure that Lyric would tell her anyway.

  Savanna had heard everything Lyric had said to McKenna at the door, and she sincerely hoped that this girl, who was, according to their daughter, working to become a psychiatrist herself, would watch her words with Cody. Whether McKenna Tucker knew it or not, Cody was far from the hardened undercover cop she might believe. This case had drawn out every insecurity and fear Cody had ever had and right now, she was completely raw. The last thing she needed was for someone to rip into her for doing the right thing and her job.

  Taking a step forward, McKenna opened the sliding door and stepped out. Cody’s head turned and her eyes widened slightly at seeing McKenna. She’d just managed to convince herself that McKenna had opted not to come. Cody glanced behind McKenna and saw Lyric standing in the kitchen, her hands on her hips.

  “I hope my mom didn’t give you too hard a time,” Cody told McKenna.

  McKenna was looking at the cigarette in one of Cody’s hands and the coffee cup in the other. It took her a minute to realize that Cody was looking up at her, waiting. McKenna blew her breath out, shaking her head.

  “No, she was just letting me know what you did to keep me out of handcuffs this morning,” she said, moving closer to get a better view of Cody.

  Gone was the frumpy c
lothing and the heavy makeup. Instead she wore simple black capri work out style pants, a black tank top, and black tennis shoes with no makeup. Her eyes were no longer downcast and there was no sign of the clearly simulated shyness.

  “Do you want to sit down?” Cody asked, her hazel eyes looking gold in the morning sun.

  McKenna nodded, and sat in the chair that Cody had gestured toward.

  Cody eyed McKenna warily. “I’m guessing you have questions,” she said.

  “Yeah, you could say that,” McKenna said, doing her best to keep anger out of her tone.

  “Ask,” Cody said. “Whatever you want.”

  With that said, Cody sat back, her look open, far from the Cody that McKenna thought she knew. Even Cody’s posture was completely different. She sat leaning to one side in the chair with one foot on the seat of chair. It was a very open, easy posture, not the closed up, pulled in posture of the person that McKenna had come to know as Cody Wyatt. The questions swirled in her head, and she did her best to put them in some semblance of order of importance to her.

  “So you were in the home to figure out what John was doing?” McKenna asked.

  “Yes,” Cody said, “we were pretty sure he was getting the girls in the home to the Sureños so they could prostitute them.”

  “Were they being forced?” McKenna asked, looking worried.

  “They were being threatened, yes,” Cody said, sure that McKenna really wouldn’t want to hear the details.

  McKenna shook her head, looking disgusted. “How could he do that?” she asked, her tone reflecting her loathing.

  Cody’s lips curled in distaste. “Oh you’d be surprised what the nicest guys do.”

  “I just can’t believe I thought I loved that man! Was he just fooling me the whole time too?

  Cody grimaced, shaking her head. “I don’t know,” she said honestly.

  “How did I not know? Am I really that stupid?” McKenna asked, looking absolutely morose at this point.

  “You’re not stupid, McKenna.” Cody sighed. “He’s just a bastard, and a sneaky one.”

  McKenna pursed her lips; it was obvious she was trying to decide if she should believe what Cody was saying. Then she looked at Cody.