It took Rogers ten minutes to get there and the cops that I’d called after timing him less than two.
I was close enough to hear the confusion. I needed that much satisfaction. “What’s going on? I didn’t do this.”
“Detective, drop your weapon.” Rogers tried explaining but the boys weren’t listening.
I’d specifically sent them on patrol in this quadrant tonight because I knew they hated Rogers’ guts.
I watched long enough to see them walk him out in cuffs and put him in the car cussing and proclaiming his innocence.
I could’ve killed him, wanted to end him. But what he had in store was much worse. I was going to make sure of it.
Once back home I took a quick shower downstairs before heading up to check on her. My night wasn’t quite over but I needed to put eyes on her, to reassure myself that she was fine.
She didn’t look like she’d moved since I left; only now her arm was wrapped around my pillow. I walked over quietly and stood looking down at her. Just one more step and I could give her all of me. I owed her that and so much more.
With one gentle swipe of my finger across her cheek and a soft kiss to her temple I turned and left the room headed for my office.
I’d been working on this little gem ever since the beginning, ever since I pieced together all the players. Information I’d grabbed from different places, information Rogers thought he’d destroyed so as not to leave a trail that would lead back to him.
I had it all in my little souped up home PC. Another little trick I’d learned from the girls and boys in tech. I dumped emails and phone calls making sure to get the dates straight so that when anyone looked they’d see just what I wanted them to.
I obsessed over getting everything just right before shutting it down and going up to bed. Tomorrow I had to be on my game. I was ready.
My phone went off as I was heading back up the stairs just as I knew it would. It had taken them a little longer but whatever. “Yo.”
“Sheridan, get your ass down here now we’ve got a situation.”
“You wanna tell me what?”
“No, just be here.” He hung up and I took the stairs two at a time. This time, I could wake her up.
“Babe, I gotta go in, wake up.” She fussed at me and rolled over, burying her face in my pillow. I kept after her until she peered over her shoulder at me.
“I got a call, don’t know how long I’ll be.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and held her mouth up for a kiss before rolling over and going back to sleep.
I grinned as I left the room and even managed a whistle as I made my way out to my ride.
18
Nick
“Cap, what the hell?” I led with anger as soon as I walked in. The place was a beehive of activity, and the asshole press was already swarming around outside like vultures. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve got a fucking mess on our hands is what.” He talked as he walked and I followed him into his office. “Close the door.” He dropped down in his chair after giving me that order and put his head in his hands.
He looked like he’d gone a couple rounds with a gorilla and the shit had only just started. It was gonna get a lot worst before it got better, but I couldn’t tell him that.
I stood in front of his desk waiting for him to tell me what was going on. “It was Rogers.” I gave him a quizzical look before taking the seat in front of his desk.
“The Savage guy, it was Rogers.”
“Come again?” I sat forward in my seat all ears. He nodded as if he was still coming to terms with it himself. “We caught him, red handed.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Tonight, we got a call. When patrol showed up they found Rogers in the old warehouse out on Decatur with Rossi. Rossi had his nuts and dick in his mouth, just like the others.”
“You’re not making any sense Cap, Rogers? Are you sure there isn’t some sort of mistake? Why would he do it?”
“I guess he got tired of waiting for the law to do its job and decided to take matters into his own hands. What a fucking mess. Did you see the asshole press out there with their shit?” He flung an arm out towards the window.
“I saw them when I came in, but I’m still not buying this. Rogers just doesn’t seem like the type.”
“You think you know a guy. They have him on the scene, we’re running ballistics on the gun patrol found there, I don’t know what else to tell you.”
“That brings me to my next question. Why am I here?”
“Because this is your case.”
“I’m not sure that would work Cap, Rogers was part of my team…”
“That was over a year ago, I already cleared it with the brass. You’re the best man we got for the case, you’re it. Get to work, I want to know what the hell went on here, how a good cop became this…this…whatever the fuck he is.” Oh you have no idea.
“I’ll get to work Cap but I gotta go on record as saying I don’t buy it.” I left his office and headed to mine. I already knew who I wanted working this with me and called them out as I walked through the bullpen.
Everyone stopped what they were doing as their eyes followed us. They will all have a lot of questions, all want to know what the hell was going on. It’s not everyday one of their own gets taken down and especially behind something like this.
I closed the door behind Rawlins and Simms. “I’ve just been handed the Rogers case. You two are with me. I don’t need to tell you we have to go over everything with a fine toothcomb. All eyes will be on us. He was one of us, so they’ll look for any screw-ups.”
“Why isn’t IAB handling this Lieu?”
“Don’t know don’t care. The brass seems to think we need to do our own internal investigation. I have no doubt IAB will be doing theirs. That means whatever we find we better be sure to keep it on the up and up. I know we all feel a certain loyalty to Rogers, but we have to do this by the book.” Shit almost burned a hole in my tongue.
“Let’s get to work. Simms I want you to dump his phones and have tech go through his computers. I’m guessing a team already went over his home and that stuff should be here by now.”
“They wheeled it in just before you came. I’ll get right on that boss.” He left and I turned to Rawlins. “You gonna be okay, you sure you can do this?”
“It’s the job but…fuck it Nick, we knew the guy. He worked with us to bring these fucks down. How did he just go off the rails…?”
“Did you notice anything off with him lately?”
“No, not really. Last couple of weeks he’s been acting a bit squirrely but I thought we were all just on edge because of this vigilante thing and then he said he had some personal stuff he was dealing with.” I bet.
“Well, we’ll see what we see. I need you to go over his files, anything he’s been working on in the last six months. We’re gonna have to turn his life inside out, hope you’re ready for this.”
“I’ll get it done.” He turned for the door and I prepared myself to go into interrogation and face this piece of shit without putting a fist through his throat.
I braced myself before going trough the door. Everything I’d done the last few months boiled down to this. Of all the players involved he was the one I held most responsible. Rossi and his ilk were lowlife scum, I expect the worse from that kind. But a fellow cop, someone I worked close with, he deserved worse.
I opened the door and saw hope jump into his eyes; perfect. “Sheridan they got you on the case? Good, at least I know now I stand a chance.” I pulled out the chair and sat after greeting his Rep.
“Tell me what’s going on and I’ll do everything I can to make this go away. How did you come to be at the warehouse?” I opened the file in front of me as if I needed it.
“I…look I got a call okay…”
“You handed over your phone I gather?” The look on his face told me he’d just realized that he hadn’t had time to do his little erasing job. That mean
t Rossi’s text, the one I’d sent not to mention the call Rossi had made just before I shot him was still there.
“This call, who was it from?” I liked watching him sweat, loved knowing that I had him sewn up nice and tight with nowhere to run. I was already imagining his time in lockup. I’ll be sure he gets some face time with some of the less savory types he’d helped put away over the years.
“I don’t know, the number didn’t look familiar. The voice on the line just said they had some information on a case.” He was relying on the fact that he’d erased all the other calls from Rossi in the last two years. Too bad for him nothing ever really went away. It had been a bitch retrieving everything I needed but the long hours were worth it.
“We’ll see where that leads us. Anything else, did you see anyone hear anything once you got there?” He was really sweating now. I bet he was thinking of all the ways he’d fucked up tonight and he hadn’t even heard the worse yet.
“No, I didn’t see anything, someone’s setting me up I’m telling you…”
“I’m going to advise you not to say anything more for now Detective Rogers. I’d like a minute to speak with my client. Alone.” His Rep addressed me. I got up from my seat. “Okay.” I’d seen all I needed to for tonight anyway.
“Lieutenant, you’ve got to help me out here. I know how this looks but check, you’ll see. I wasn’t anywhere near those other scenes.” I know you weren’t but I made sure you don’t have an alibi. I thought even as I nodded my head looking grim.
The prostitute I’d set on him for the nights in question was back in Kansas somewhere getting her life back together with the money I’d taken off the asshole drug lords.
Of course she had no idea who I was. All our dealings were done over the phone and at pick up points. There was no reason for her to look back this way since she had nothing left here.
I didn’t bother answering as I left and went back to my office. I wasn’t in there five minutes before Simms followed me in. He didn’t look too good and I knew the news was going to be rough.
“Doesn’t look good lieutenant. Tech just started dumping his phone and going through his computer. They rebooted his hard drive or whatever the hell it is they were saying.” He rubbed between his eyes looking frazzled.
“Anyway, they were able to get back the stuff he erased and it doesn’t look like what the news types think it is.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Well, all along they’ve been saying this Savage guy was cleaning up the streets because the cops couldn’t right, like he was on the side of justice or something. But so far it looks like he was in bed with these guys.”
He dropped the files in his hands on my desk and dropped down in the visitor’s seat. “The guy is dirty as fuck, excuse my language Lieu.” He ran his hand through his hair and over his face before settling down again.
“What have you got?” I rested back in my seat barely containing myself. It was all coming together just as I’d envisioned. Like a play from a script I’d written.
He sat forward and flipped the file open. “Okay, so far we have contact going back between Rogers and all four of the men who were killed at least two years give or take. Most of his dealings were with Rossi. He was obviously on the take.”
“He tried to hide the money but they’ve already tracked a fucking sailboat that he bought under another name. Get this; he turned his name around the smuck. Then, there’s the safety deposit box we have to wait for tomorrow…” He looked at his watch, “make that later this morning, for the bank to open to see what’s in there.”
“I hate to say it Lieu, but it looks like he had a hand in what went down at your house.” For the first time since coming back on the job I let some of what I was feeling show.
“Why do you say that?” He pointed out some Intel on the page and I pretended to read it. It was a printout of a conversation between Rossi and Rogers the day before my house was blown to shit.
I was supposed to be at home that night, at least I wasn’t on the clock. But I was on the trail of something big, one of those things I had been keeping close to the vest. No one knew where I was or what I was doing.
Right there in black and white for all to see was Rogers plotting with Rossi to kill me. It didn’t matter to either of them that there was an innocent little boy in that house that night. Seeing the words were just as infuriating as they were the first time I’d read them.
Thankfully, I’d had months to deal with it so that now I could have the proper reaction of surprise.
“This might mean I won’t be on the case much longer. No way the Cap is gonna let me work the case now, not with it hitting so close to home.”
That was fine by me. I was expecting all of this. I also knew that with Rawlins and Simms on it I would be kept in the loop and would be there to help guide them in the right direction if they started to veer off course.
“We have to let the captain in on this.”
“I’m sorry Lieu, this is fucked in so many ways.” I nodded with a decent amount of anger and disbelief on my face as he left the room.
I went in to the captain and gave him the news. “What the fuck? Are you serious?” He jumped up from his chair and paced the room. It was hard to figure if he was this pissed because of what had been done to my family, or if his only concern was for the shit storm that was about to be unleashed on the department.
I could almost feel sorry for him, for what was yet to come. Almost but not quite.
“I’ll pass the case off to someone else. If I may suggest, Rawlins and Simms are the best we have to take it from here. They’re already on it anyway.”
“I guess you’re right, a defense attorney would have a field day if we left you on the case. Shit, once this gets out there’ll be no way to keep the shit from spilling over. The fucking rat squad’s gonna be up my ass for the foreseeable future.”
“I gotta go Cap. I can’t be here…”
“Of course, of course, I’m sorry. Sheridan, are we sure about this?” My only answer was the look I gave him before I turned and walked away.
It was pretty obvious the word was already leaked from the looks I got when I walked through the squad room to the outside.
It was almost three in the morning. In another three hours she’d be getting up and ready for work. I’m thinking she’s gonna be taking a sick day. I needed her.
I sped through the streets to home, to her. Taking the stairs two at a time I reached the bedroom and pushed the door open. It hit me, all of it, all at once. I stripped as I made my way to the bed.
“Nick…” That was far as she got before I had my tongue shoved inside her pussy. I knew I was holding her ass too tight, digging my fingers into her flesh as I pulled her onto my tongue.
She came fully awake when I left off eating her pussy once she was wet enough to take me and drove my cock deep into her with one stroke.
“Just take me baby, I need you.” I buried my face in her neck so she couldn’t see my eyes. I didn’t know the anger would hit me this hard, thought I’d already dealt with the worst of it. The way I fucked into her told me different.
She didn’t question, didn’t say anything, just wrapped her arms and legs around me and accepted. I fucked into her in a frenzy trying to outrun my demons, to escape the shit in my head.
Only here, with her like this could I keep my sanity. I wanted to be back at the station tearing that fucker limb from limb, but since that wasn’t a viable option, this was the best way I could see to relieve some of the pent up rage.
“I’m sorry baby.” I pulled out and put her on her hands and knees before nosing around her pussy with my dick. I lined up just right and slammed in hard.
“Why did you fucking leave me? Why did you have to be so fucking stubborn? Couldn’t you see that I was only trying to protect you? Didn’t you know…?” I lost it.
Everything I’d held inside for thirteen years came pouring out and into her poor abused pussy. My hand fiste
d in her hair while the other held her around her middle so she couldn’t escape my punishing thrusts.
I accused her with each thrust, blamed her with each stroke into her womb. The rage wasn’t for her I knew, but dammit hadn’t it been her hardheadedness that derailed us? What would our lives be like had it not been for that fateful day?
I broke off when her sobs reached my ears and like a switch going off inside my head the anger left me just as suddenly as it appeared. Where the fuck had that come from? I didn’t know I had that in me, didn’t realize.
“Shh, shh, I’m sorry, look at me baby.” I turned her face to mine. Her eyes were bruised and hurt. I was gutted by that look, felt like crying myself.
“I’m sorry sweetbaby.” I took her mouth as I held still, relaxing my hand in her hair, running the other up and down her middle. “I didn’t mean it baby forgive me I’m so sorry.”
She calmed and relaxed and I started to move again. This time I was softer, gentler and she responded by pushing back into me, taking me, forgiving me for being an asshole and taking shit out on her when she didn’t deserve it.
We’d agreed to put the past behind us, to move forward and build a future together. “Forgive me?” I nuzzled her cheek as she nodded and once again I was humbled by her.
I wrapped my arms around her tight, and where a few seconds ago I was a raging beast full of anger, I held her now with all the love I felt for her.
I stroked gently, touched softly and whispered praise and gratitude instead of anger and blame. When I came, I brought her along with me with my fingers on her clit and my tongue in her my mouth.
I didn’t pull put once our breathing had come back to normal, but instead went down on my side taking her with me, our bodies still joined.
“What happened Nicky?” I should’ve known she’d realize that something was wrong. That something had set me off tonight. I looked towards the window where the soft predawn light was making its way across the sky.
Savage: A Second Chance at Love Page 13
