Indulgence

by Liz Crowe

  So far, so good.

  Kozinski nodded. “It wasn’t something I approved. Sam used his own judgment, under the circumstances. Ton of Scorpions at the bar. Backup was needed. At least, that’s what I was told.”

  “But I didn’t call for backup, sir, and it would have been my call to make.” Gina was going to keep tossing hooks out there, hoping one of them would snag Sam. “And even if I did, he’d be the last person I would request.”

  Her jab began to work as she heard Sam’s quick inhale and the squeaking of his steel-toed lace-up boots.

  “Just who the fuck do you think you are, Gina? A rookie pulling rank?” Sam was red-faced, and exactly the right kind of belligerent to make Gina’s case to the sergeant. She could have kissed him, she was so happy at the display.

  “Hold it, Sam. Back off,” Kozinski warned.

  “Maybe you better tell Kozinski about your little lap dance in the back seat with the SEAL?” Sam spewed, ignoring his sergeant.

  “You have no idea what went on in the back seat, Sam. I’m working the case the best way I can.” Gina tried to sound calm, but she was feeling the ground falling out from under her.

  “What’s a SEAL doing here? Someone talk to me,” Kozinski asked as he shifted his gaze from Gina to Sam. He finished eyeballing Gina. “Gina, what the hell’d you do?”

  “Nothing, sir. I was playing the part I was asked to play. We noodled around a bit. Nothing I can’t handle. And we’re both adults. I’m single. So is he.” She glared at Sam and could see her gaze left its mark. She glanced down at his left hand and noticed his wedding ring was gone. “It won’t be a problem, sir.”

  “This SEAL the brother of Mia Guzman?” Kozinski asked.

  “Yessir,” Gina and Sam said in unison.

  “Wish the hell he’d butt out. You best get unfriendly with him in a hurry, Gina.”

  “Easier said than done, sir.” She could feel Sam’s intense stare. She could smell his anger brewing.

  “Well, then your cover will be blown, Gina. And that will be on you,” her sergeant answered.

  “Understood, sir.”

  “Honestly, sir,” Sam began, “I think we should get another officer to do the detail. Gina has shown a total lack of objectivity.”

  Gina’s blood boiled. Her few minutes of Heaven were being tarnished by an abusive ex-boyfriend who had about as much objectivity as a man dangling from a rope in a climbing accident.

  “Sir, that was an unfair comment. Sam is the one who inserted himself and almost cost us the entire mission last night. He is the one who needs to be removed. He is jeopardizing all the efforts I’ve made so far.”

  “Bullshit, Gina. You call it effort, screwing that SEAL—”

  Sam’s voice carried into the bullpen. Several heads on the other side of the glass turned in their direction.

  Kozinski muttered obscenities to the floor. “I’m going to have both your badges in about a minute. Jee-ZUS officers! Get a grip. I feel like I’m talking to a couple of kids who got in a fight on the playground in junior high.”

  They both apologized. Gina worked hard not to smile. Victory was nearly in her grasp.

  “If Sam stays on this case, then you won’t have to replace me. I quit.” Gina couldn’t believe she’d just said this. Her insides were cheering.

  “I sure hope you know what the hell you’re doing, Gina.” Kozinski paused to look at Sam. “And I could say the same for you.”

  Sam started to object and he suddenly faced the palm of the sergeant’s hand. “Save it. You’re off the case, Sam, except for working with the informants. You’ve done some damned good police work here. Let’s not screw with it, okay? I’m going to back Gina this time. You’re to physically stay out, unless otherwise requested.” Then he turned a wizened eye on Gina. “Young lady, you better not fuck this up.”

  Sam left the office, without being granted permission, leaving the door open. Gina knew Kozinski was about as fair as they made them. He’d let Sam sulk off this time, but if there were a second time, Sam would get something that would show up in his file.

  “I’m sorry, sir. You know we have a history, right? He doesn’t seem to want to let it be.” Gina felt perhaps the sergeant might have compassion for her under the circumstances.

  She was wrong.

  Kozinski had quietly closed the door to his office and stood, his hand on the doorknob. “Hell, Gina, the whole department knew about your torrid little romance. You honestly think I’m that dumb?”

  “No, sir.”

  “We’re all adults here. Takes two people to fuck each other’s brains out. You could have always said no.”

  “But Sam was senior to me. At first I was worried—”

  “God dammit, Gina. I wasn’t talking about Sam. I was talking about the SEAL.”

  Armando and Kyle, LPO for Team 3, were waiting for Gunny to open the gym. The retired Gunnery Sergeant was getting slower and slower. He’d been the father confessor to all the young SEALs from Team 3, especially Kyle, the Team’s LPO, and his crew. Armando and Kyle had been inseparable all throughout the BUD/s training, and they’d deployed together three times.

  Gunny had a hand in helping Kyle, Cooper and Fredo rescue Armando from the Mexican gang who had kidnapped him after abducting Mia. For this Armando would be eternally grateful.

  Kyle had told him privately Gunny wasn’t in the best of health. He sported a scar going from his belly button to his neck where they’d opened him up and then stitched him closed. He’d refused further treatment for his lung cancer. Everyone knew the only reason the cancer wasn’t growing faster was because Gunny was just too damn ornery.

  The older Marine wheezed and spat a wad of something thick and dark before he set his shaking hands on the keys, trying to thread the lock. Kyle looked worried.

  “You’re here early for a Saturday, you two. Have a frustrating sexual encounter, boys?” Armando could see Gunny’s attempt to change the focus fell flat.

  “Shut the fuck up, Gunny. How was your night?” Kyle asked.

  The front door opened, tinkling the tiny brass bell over the doorframe. Gunny punched a combination into a newly installed keypad nearby. The gym had nothing but rusty old equipment, but a string of vandalisms had Gunny trying to protect what little he had invested there. Duct tape repaired the display case, which now stood empty. The thieves made off with the T-shirts and a case of bottled water, leaving the old gym equipment behind.

  Gunny coughed up more phlegm and spit it into a tissue behind the display case. He discreetly dropped it into a trashcan. “Watched Dancing on Air last night. Double elimination. Reba, the one with the big boobs, made it, so all’s well.”

  Armando smiled and slung a towel around his neck as Kyle headed for the bathroom. “I shoulda come over and kept you company.”

  “Gee thanks. Nah, all you boys got your own lives these days. I’m starting to feel like a third tit on a stripper.”

  Armando felt the sadness and knew Gunny wouldn’t be around long enough to see him married and starting a family of his own, like Kyle and Cooper were doing. It made him a little sad.

  “So I take it you feel like shit, then?” He kept his back to the older man, working his first rep of free weights. He ended his set by throwing the dumbbells down on the rubber mat, which was the standard protocol. Placing them gently on the ground would get you tossed good and proper from the gym.

  “That pretty much sums it up. But I do have some good news.” Gunny was staring out the front plate glass window.

  “What’s that?” Armando asked as he began his second rep.

  “Got a son coming to see me all the way from Thailand.”

  “No shit? When?” Armando threw the weight down again as Kyle came back into the gym.

  “Next week. Says in his email he wants to meet me. He’s twenty-two.”

  “Didn’t know you had a son,” Kyle added as he walked over to pick up the barbell Armando had thrown.

  Gunny chuckled, which
turned into a full-on hacking cough. “Well I knew the odds were 50-50 there’d be a son. He found me on Facebook through the gym. I sure as hell enjoyed knocking up all their mothers, and I understand I’m a virile son of a bitch.” He spit again into a tissue. “Just never met any of them.”

  “Well, timing’s good. We got a few days off before we go on the training mission.”

  “Yeah? Where to?”

  “I figure Alaska, Mexico or Vegas, baby. But they don’t tell us until just before. Sucks, but it doesn’t really matter. We’re always ready.”

  “Right you are,” Gunny said as he wiped down his rusty old equipment.

  “So what day is it, and we’ll come back you up.”

  “Wednesday. Probably scare the shit outta the kid, a bunch of SEALs showing up at the airport.”

  “Yup. That would be scary as hell. Not like meeting his crusty old dad for the first time. Nah, that would be a piece of cake compared to meeting the likes of us.” Kyle winked at the retiree.

  That got a snicker out of Gunny. “Not nearly as scary as the time I showed up with his mother in the wedding cart. First time most of her relatives met me, and I’m not so sure I left a good impression. Kinda happened real fast-like.”

  “Love has a way of doing that to a man, doesn’t it?”

  “You’ve never taken the plunge, even got close, have you, Armani?”

  “I’ve had relationships that have lasted longer than your marriages, Gunny.”

  “That’s not sayin’ much.”

  Armando knew in his heart that he wasn’t the marrying kind. He loved women and all the exciting sex play, but he wasn’t a good one for commitment, since he was really married to the Navy and his SEAL brothers. But Kyle and Cooper had found theirs, so perhaps…no, he had to change his train of thought right now or he’d fuck up his day.

  “So Gunny, your wife was Thai?”

  “Yes. Beautiful girl. Only knew her for about a month before we shipped out.”

  “Time enough to get married. Get her pregnant.”

  “Always time to get married. But then, I don’t believe in divorce.” He slapped Armando on the back as the dumbbells hit the mat again. “I just figured it out the other day. I’ve been married six times, but never divorced.”

  Chapter Eight

  A few days later, Gina met Mia at the coffee shop around the corner from Mia’s house. She noticed her charge looked unusually weary. Something was bothering her. The baby was sleeping in his stroller.

  “You been out for a run, Mia?”

  The girl stared back at Gina looking annoyed “No. You know I don’t do that.”

  “I hear you. Don’t much like the exercise either,” Gina lied.

  “Girl, I know when I’m being sold a story. Your arms are as buff as I’ve ever seen on a girl. You mean to tell me you don’t bust your buns at some gym somewhere?”

  Gina blushed. Confusion and the sense of Uh-Oh descended like a blanket, wrapping itself stubbornly around her. She shivered. It had been a stupid remark, and she should have known her physical conditioning wouldn’t be lost on Mia. She’d almost crossed the line again and revealed too much. The girl noticed everything, and Gina’s cover depended on no slip-ups.

  Gina masked her fear as best she could. “Had a friend once who was a body builder. Now that’s what I call working out.”

  She got a sneer in response. “Nah, that’s some freaky shit. I mean, getting man titties and having your unit climb up into your belly, and then look like some hairless baked potato dude in your 40s. No thanks.”

  The baby began to stir. Mia picked the fat toddler up and nuzzled him.

  “Lunch is on me,” Gina said, happy to change the subject. She loved the way little Ricardo’s fat hands reached for Mia’s hair, her jewelry and anything else he could grab. Despite Mia’s poor choices in men, the baby looked well cared for.

  Mia turned Ricardo facing out. He gave Gina a big smile. Mia eyed the menu absent-mindedly while the baby’s arms moved through the air, looking for something he could grab. “You sure you can afford all this breakfast and lunch stuff, Gina? For a girl who works in an office, you sure spend a lot of money eating out.”

  Gina noted Mia’s observation as another crack in her disguise. Was she questioning their relationship? “Just trying to be nice. You’ve had a pretty rough couple of days. I can start meeting you at McDonald’s, or just show up at your house, but I know how you like your privacy.”

  The comment worked. Mia chuckled as she tried to keep the menu from Ricardo’s stubby fingers. She fanned herself, which made the baby reach for it. “Privacy. My fuckin’ brother won’t leave me alone,” Mia said.

  I wish that were my problem.

  “I think Armando is a good guy, Mia. Maybe he’s just trying to protect you. I can understand it.”

  “Well, why doesn’t he get his own woman, then? He could order her around and have a hissy fit, and judge all her fuckin’ friends. Not me. I’m his sister. I don’t want or need it.”

  The thought of Armando ordering Gina around and being possessive was actually very enticing. She remembered the feel of his kisses on her flesh. She hadn’t been able to get enough of him. The man was pure sexual eye candy. The fact that he cared about how she’d felt afterwards made her miss him terribly. More than she should.

  How the hell am I going to complete my mission while I’m melting like a schoolgirl for the wrong guy?

  Gina decided to do some digging. “He doesn’t have a girl? I’d think a guy like that would have his pick. Ladies in San Diego throw themselves at SEALs every day. He must be some kind of celibate priest.”

  Mia spit out her coke. “Excuse me while I barf.”

  Ricardo started giggling, sounding like a kid in the back yard who’d found a sprinkler.

  The waitress brought a rag over and cast a critical eye at Mia, who appeared to be oblivious of the effect her outburst had on anyone else.

  “Armando had a girl he really liked in high school,” Mia started. “He was the goalkeeper the year we went to the soccer State Championships. He could kick the ball downfield, or pass and dribble and then run like hell, and he used to score, leaving the box open, he was so confident. He had some moves.”

  You’re telling me?

  “Ginger. I think her name was Ginger. Her dad was an Irish cop, and she had the red hair and a temper to go with it, just like her dad. God, Armando loved that girl, and she treated him like shit. I mean, she got with other guys on the side, and he was the last to know. Get my drift?”

  “I do.”

  “They broke up. He had to. She was making a fool of him. He sulked for weeks. And then, she was killed in a car accident, along with a couple of others. They’d been drinking. Armando began the dark period again.”

  “Again?”

  “You think Caesar and his guys are bad dudes? You should have seen the guys Armando used to hang out with when we first came here from Puerto Rico. Only difference, he wouldn’t let them touch me. I was eight or nine at the time.”

  “But he changed.”

  “He fell in love with soccer. It was like he was married to it.”

  “Bet your mom was pleased.”

  “Answer to prayer,” she said. “Mom prays about everything. Obsessed with it.”

  Gina wanted to ask more about Armando’s second “dark period,” after the death of the girl, but thought it wasn’t safe.

  “So Gina, your big friend Sam stopping by tonight?”

  Gina cringed at the thought. “I don’t trust him.”

  “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that, or do you still have some flame for him?”

  More like the fires of Hell. “Mia, we’re done. But he’s not a very good dude. I wish you wouldn’t get mixed up with him.” She recalled Sam and how much he loved bondage sex. She knew he had to work very hard to control his temper, keeping it within what she thought would be acceptable parameters befitting a cop, but under the right circumstances it could expl
ode. Part of her had found it exciting. The other part wished she’d never met him. That was what she and Mia had in common. Both had hooked up with the wrong kind of guy

  “Who said anything about not liking bad dudes or getting mixed up? Just want some good times. Dancing. Make them spend money on me. I like that. I like to tease the shit out of them and then look for the next one before I drop this one for that one. The badder they are, the more fun for me.”

  Gina forced herself to laugh at Mia’s dangerous posture. Inside, she was sad for the beautiful woman sitting across from her and wondered how she could possibly be Armando’s sister. It didn’t fit. Armando was such a decent guy. He willingly protected his mother and his sister, and without complaint.

  “You got something you hate about good guys?” Gina asked.

  Mia looked away immediately. When she drilled back at Gina, her eyes were cold, black, and filled with malice. “There are no good guys.”

  And there it was. Mia had a dark period too, except, unlike her brother, she was still living it.

  Gina thought about it all afternoon and over the next couple of days. She was supposed to get cozy with what was left of Caesar’s old gang, the Scorpions. But both the girls would be safer with the Department guys running backup. Sam could give them intel on the gang’s illegal activities, so Gina could get snagged up in one to be able to testify to bring them down or make the arrests herself. Except that plan wasn’t safe at all for Gina because she knew Sam would have a hard time staying out of it. And the really safe guy was one she wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with.

  What a messed-up world.

  Gina felt as if she was at a fork in the road. She had some serious decisions to make about the future of the investigation and how she was going to be able to successfully carry it out. As much as she considered it a bad option, she had to talk to Sam. No way around it. She needed Sam’s expertise and his informants. She just hoped she could convince him to reel himself in.