“And when it’s done? When you don’t need me anymore?”
“I don’t have any family left,” Zayn stated. “Stella only has Mercedes. We will need you to be our family. Are you saying you don’t want to be part of us?”
Rogue didn’t let him answer.
“My mother will die. I’ll have no one. I haven’t gotten the girl yet, Dakota. I may never get there. You’re my brother. I won’t walk even if this is done. We’ll always be this,” he promised.
Dakota turned around.
“I don’t know how to breathe without her,” he said, his eyes filling with tears.
Rogue took one for the team and hugged him.
“Hey! You can fix this. You can make this into anything you want it to be, Dak. You just have to let that anger go. You’re so damn angry.”
“She told me that too.”
“She loves you.”
“She bought the bar as an exit strategy,” he stated, “in case our relationship went south. She expected it to fail.”
“So, prove her wrong,” Zayn stated. “You have to prove to her that you’re not going to let it fail. She’s got to be scared,” he stated. “You saw her face when she came upstairs after killing Danforth. I checked on the body when I was looking for a hooker’s hideout.”
“And?” he asked.
“It’s bad. She needs you. Don’t give up. It’s not over yet.”
He wiped his eyes on his shirt.
“I’ll try.”
“Do,” Zayn stated. “When I first met you, I didn’t like you at all. I thought you were a bossy, pushy, douchebag who would make me kill you within the week.”
“And?”
“I like you. I still want to put a hole in your face, but that’s my thing. You’re a good person, Dakota. When you look at Sarah, you can tell. When she showed up here, you lit up. She’s the one. I can tell.”
“I can too,” Rogue stated, trying to help him. After all, the man helped him with Cordelia.
He took a deep breath.
“Let’s get back to work. I’ll talk to her later. You’re right. I can’t give up yet. I still have some fight in me.”
He poured some coffee and headed into the next room.
“And if this gets worse?” Rogue asked.
“We kidnap them, lock them in a room together, and let nature take its course.”
“Death?”
Zayn laughed.
“Nah. Sex. It’s Dakota. We all know what’s going to happen.”
And he was right.
Back in the room, Dakota was ready to go. He had to be. This was important.
“I think our best plan of action is to head to the madam’s first,” he stated. “It’s the off-hour for dealing with all her happy minions. She should be at her home address,” he added, giving them his game plan for the start of the day.
“Then where to?” Zayn asked, willing to let the man play leader. He needed something to focus on for the time being.
“We have Jasper’s address. Let’s see if he’s around. We might get some answers from him.”
“I can help,” the detective asked. “My partner and I…”
Rogue shut that one down and fast.
“No. She’s not getting involved. They like women, and there’s a potentially dirty cop. I don’t want to play the game ‘find Cordelia after she’s been taken’. Storm had been a cop, and we all know that they abused her even more because of it. If they get Cordy….NO. Just no.”
The way he said it had EVERYONE’S attention.
“Someone likes a cop,” Boone teased. “I think you have intentions that are not so innocent with my partner.”
“Oh, they fucked already,” Zayn teased. “Day two. He’s a dirty, dirty, rich boy.”
The red flush spread up Rogue’s neck.
“I’m going to kill you,” he warned Zayn.
The man laughed.
“Take out your checkbook and write me to death. I’m soooo afraid.”
Stella slapped her husband so he’d knock it off.
“Oh, that’s a rarity,” Boone said. “And you lived? You’re a lucky man. She’s tough on a good day.”
He was well aware. Rogue was NOT out of the woods yet on this one—not even close.
“Can we focus on work?” he asked.
“Yeah, we should. After we deal with Jasper, we’ll head to Purgatory. I don’t want to run headfirst at a dirty cop until we know what’s going on with Julius. Phil King will have to wait. I don’t know if Sarah will have any hint to where Julius lives, or if he’s involved in this.”
They got it.
Two stops, then Purgatory.
Merry, Boone, and Stella headed into the dining room where she had all her chemicals on the table. It was time for them to get down to work.
Dakota glanced over at his partners in crime.
Literally.
He was sure they were going to commit some felonies for the day.
“Ready to do this?” he asked.
“We have your back.”
God!
He hoped so.
Someone needed to. Dakota, without his girl, was one hell of a hot, freaking mess.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
New Orleans Police
District Nine
Homicide Division
Captain’s Office
He was waiting for her when she came in. Since she was late, Cordelia brought the man some beignets. Maybe, just maybe, they would save her ass. She could say that the line was long, and it wouldn’t be unbelievable.
Certainly, she couldn’t tell him she was dropping police information off at a house where criminals were working on her case.
Yeah, no.
It also gave her time to make up one hell of an excuse and to practice it in her head. She knew there were missing women. Now, what was she going to say?
This was going to be interesting.
When she took a seat, he, immediately, opened the bag of warm beignets.
“Thanks, I needed breakfast,” he stated, dipping one in his coffee cup as he got powdered sugar all over his uniform.
“No problem. The line was hell.”
“Oh, I bet. You don’t live over by the café. Were you out and about?”
“I was working on the case,” she began, which wasn’t exactly a lie. She was working.
Technically.
Cordelia was working on figuring out why the hell she was all hot and bothered over a jewel thief.
“What did you find?” he asked. “Have you encountered any issues from the Feds?” he asked.
And so the lies began.
Cordelia prayed Alessandro bought them.
“No, no one.”
He was waiting.
“Well, I was thinking,” she said, trying to figure out what to say. “Charlotte was a mystery.”
He listened.
“And?”
“She had to have something going on in her life. Innocent people don’t get shot in the throat at an airstrip unless they’re up to no good, right?”
“I agree. Which direction are you taking it?”
“I’ve been working on the ex-boyfriend angle.”
“And?”
She shook her head. Oh, there was no way she would even point any cop at Rogue. Cordelia believed him. He didn’t have anything to do with her death.
“I interviewed him, off the record, of course, sir, and I did it so nicely, he won’t be complaining about harassment.”
Yeah, because she’d been riding his dick and the one in handcuffs at the time.
“Good. I don’t need a Blackhawk riding my ass over some sex trafficking issue, and I don’t need a rich man doing the same. That is NOT how I want to start my day.” Alessandro stated as he brushed his uniform of the powdered sugar.
“You have some right here, sir,” she said, pointing to the corner of her own mouth to show him.
“Oh, thanks!”
He wiped it away.
<
br /> “Anyway, sir, I’m going to dig deeper on her to see what I can find. I think I’ll see if she has any family, or close friends, who might have an idea of what she was into. I don’t buy the good girl act. Good girls might get shot in a drive-by accidentally, but good girls aren’t at an airstrip getting shot in the throat.”
“What about the text message she sent?”
“We traced it to a disposable phone, and I haven’t figured out what she was talking about. YET.”
Oh, she knew.
Only, she’d protect Rogue’s daughter with her own life. A child shouldn’t be a pawn in any game, and if this was a sex ring…
No.
That little one would remain anonymous.
“So that’s my plan, sir. Is that good?” she asked, holding her breath and praying that he’d buy it.
He nodded as he popped the last beignet into his mouth.
“Yes, Detective. Carry on. Again, let’s keep this quiet. I’ve seen the Blackhawks in action. WE DO NOT want them here in New Orleans. They were here not too long ago, and it was pandemonium.”
She remembered the media trouble.
“On it, sir.”
She headed out, trying not to celebrate that she didn’t get nailed to the wall by her boss. She wasn’t lying. She was going to focus on Charlotte.
Cordelia wanted to know who she was.
REALLY was.
If Rogue’s mother was right, and she didn’t like her, there had to be a reason. Maybe she could ‘interview’ her, and she’d tell her something.
Yeah, that was a good, solid, idiotic, dangerous plan, but she couldn’t help it.
She had Rogue on the brain.
BIG TIME.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Purgatory
Wednesday
Morning
When Sarah arrived at the bar, her father was already up and at ‘em. She found him stocking the joint. The man was her hero. He’d worked late into the night, and still, he looked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Someone missed owning a bar.
Here was the proof.
“Hey, Dad,” she said, locking the door behind her. “Do you ever need sleep?”
“Peter used to tell me we’d sleep when we were dead. Since losing him, I realized he was right. I don’t want to miss any part of this really amazing thing called life. Thank you for letting me be part of this. I really am having a good time here.”
“You told Zayn something yesterday, and it hasn’t left my head,” she stated, pouring some coffee that he’d made.
“What?”
“You called it MY bar.”
He glanced over and knew it was time.
“I want to buy it.”
“What?”
“It’s miserable in San Francisco without Peter. I hate it there now that he’s gone, and you’re gone,” he said, leaning his big, bulky, bear body against the counter. “We lived such wild lives, but since his cancer…”
She got it.
“I want to buy you out. A bar isn’t any place for a woman, Sarah. I know it’s sexist, and all kinds of funny coming from a gay man, but from what you told me, the woman who died was in over her head. I can’t live with that. Let’s make this official. I want Purgatory.”
And there it was.
Her out.
While she told Dakota she was happy there, being apart from him, not being his partner, was killing her. She crept out of the house on Chartres Street so she wouldn’t have to see him. It hurt her heart to be away from him.
“I killed someone today.”
He stared at her.
Then he uncorked some Irish Cream and poured a shit load of it into her coffee.
She knew the routine.
When she first tried pot, she told him, and he’d done the same, but to HIS and PETER’S coffee.
When she first had sex with a boy, again, more.
The only difference was now she was old enough to drink, and it looked like they would be doing it together.
That alone helped. You couldn’t always go home, but home could come to you.
Here was her proof.
“Was he an innocent man?” he asked, finally ready to have the conversation with her.
“No, he was anything but innocent.”
Sarah told him all about it over that coffee, and the entire time, he listened—like a good bartender always did. When she was finished, he kissed her in the middle of the forehead.
“I like you as a redhead,” he stated.
“Uh, deflecting.”
“No, I’m not. There’s nothing to make you feel better about what you just told me. You killed someone. Remember the first time you shot someone, and you called me?”
“Yes.”
“What did I say?”
“Did he deserve it?”
“And?”
She got it.
It was the same thing. This was still justice, but it was in a much darker, grayer place. Sarah had to hold onto that so she could face her new life.
The bar wasn’t it.
She wanted Dakota.
“I think I will sell you my part of the bar,” she stated, “but you should know that this place is where all of the bad guys go to get jobs, find people, and network.”
He laughed.
“Sweetie, your fathers ran a gay bar in the eighties when it wasn’t cool. People went there to get blowjobs, find people, and network. I’m tougher than I look,” he said, lifting his shirt to show her the gun he was carrying.
She smiled.
“Don’t shoot yourself in the junk. Putting it at your back is safer.”
He grinned.
“Yeah, but then I have two back there.”
Sarah chugged her coffee.
She needed that drink.
It made her father laugh.
“I love you, my little angel.”
She snorted.
Well, then he was going to really need a lesson on what New Orleans was like. The only angels there were the ones adorning the crypts.
She was halfway to sinner and saint.
“I have work to do. I need to help my team. Let’s open up and see what we can find out for them,” she said.
He closed the cash register and gave her a grin.
“That works for me.”
He could do down and dirty.
Again.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Arielle Newman’s
Home
When they arrived at the madam’s home base, they were all tense. The mood was tense.
Why?
Purgatory.
While Dakota had forgiven Rogue for going behind his back, he was still having a rough time with the fact that the bar was dangerous, and Sarah was stuck in the middle of it.
It was clear that there was still some talking left to do.
God!
Dakota held onto shit way too long. Zayn was going to kick his ass at any moment to get him past it.
They needed to focus.
NOW.
So, Zayn took the time to get him to talk it out.
“Here’s how this is going to go. You talk it out, or we shoot it out. I can shoot righty and lefty, so you’re both dead. How I see it is if you don’t let go of this stress, we’re all going to die. That sucks for me since I’m the one getting laid on a regular basis.”
“I’m fine.”
“BULLSHIT,” they both said.
“You’re not going to shoot anyone,” Dakota stated.
“God. When I had street cred.”
“I’m worried about her.”
“Sarah, right?” Zayn asked. “I’m trying to follow this. Before, you were pissed at Rogue. We’re past that, right?”
“Yeah, I’m not angry anymore.”
Well, there was that.
“That place is going to get her hurt. I’m scared shitless for her. I think it was a mistake.”
“But it was her mistake to make,” Rogue stat
ed. “You can’t police everyone, Dak. You have to give her space to find herself. She’s fighting to find herself. You both are.”
The man was right.
“To lose her would hurt.”
Rogue got it.
Charlotte had only been with him to steal his connections and watch him. He’d been scammed when he wanted to protect her. That had stung the most.
“I get that, but Sarah…her one sin in life is she’s over-the-top when it comes to doing something. When she interrogates, she’s over-the-top. When she kills, she’s over-the-top. When she tried to find herself…”
“About the killing. That needs to stop.”
“Why?” Zayn asked. “She’s good at it.”
“We aren’t from your world. You live and play in this dark area. It’s harder for us. We’re indoctrinated that the law comes first. She’s feeling it.”
They got it.
“I know I have to let her do this on her own, here,” he said, pointing at his head. “But here,” he said, pointing at his heart, “I want to protect her. She’s still mine, even if she doesn’t want to be with me. I love her. She was the one.”
“She’s still yours,” Rogue said. “Purgatory may save our asses. She made a decision, and I have a feeling that in the end, it’s going to be a worthwhile gamble.”
He hoped so.
“Rogue is right,” Zayn said. “Having that bar…that is big time advantage for us. We will hear everything from the place and we can trust it coming from Sarah. She’d never hurt any of us. She’ll be in the midst of it, but she’s smart.”
And her dad was there, but he didn’t go there. Oh, Zayn recalled them busting his ass about being a virgin. Well, payback was coming.
Soon.
“I miss having her as my partner.”
“Ask her to come back,” Rogue stated. “She will.”
He hoped he was right. He prayed he was. There was a hole in his soul, and it was only filled when she was near.
“I guess she can handle the bar. You’re right. Sarah is smart. I did train her.”
Both men rolled their eyes.
“We’ll need a fulltime bartender or three,” Dakota stated. “She can’t work around the clock.”
Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two) Page 38
