He sat forward, lowering his recliner gently. "I've no intention of taking him from you, but I will be a part of his life. I know I'll have to go slow, but I want to be involved with him."
"I'd like that, too." She sighed. "I'm dealing with a lot of guilt over this, even though I believe I made the best decision I could at the time."
He could hear the emotion in her voice. Was he still angry she'd robbed him and his son of ten years’ worth of memories? Of seeing him born, first words and first steps? Hell, yeah. Was he going to let the hurt go anytime soon? Probably not. Definitely not. But those were his emotions to deal with, as the guilt she was feeling was hers. He couldn't offer her solace for them anymore than he could negate what he was feeling.
Before the silence drew on too long, he asked, "Do you need me to bring anything on Saturday?"
"Dessert?" She cleared her throat. "Gage loves anything chocolate, so..."
"Got it. I'll see you at work tomorrow. We've got a briefing with the captain first thing in the morning."
They'd gotten back from interviewing Masters late. Terrell and Anderson had both clocked out. Nothing that Masters had given them was life or death urgent, so they agreed to brief the team leads in the morning.
She yawned. "I'll be there at eight."
"Good night, Amber." He hung up the phone without waiting for her to reply.
Visions of her tired and sated next to him in bed flashed through his memory. He groaned and dropped his head into his hands. How the hell was he going to manage? Everything about the woman was seared into his brain, branded there for eternity. He dropped back in his chair and looked up at the painted ceiling. Sleep would be a long time coming tonight.
Chapter 8
Amber sat beside Lieutenant Anderson and leaned in to look at the map. He’d asked her to bring him up to speed on what she and Brody had learned about the area yesterday. "The third house down is vacant with a for sale sign in the yard. Here." She took a pencil and circled the house. "But the house is at the back of the development. There is a house here and one here toward the front which have potential. This one can see the entrance to the housing development. I'd recommend it. The sales company was Ellis-Barker Reality. I took a picture of the sign, and I can send you the contact information."
"Thanks. Text it to me?" He smiled and held her gaze for a moment too long, making the contact personal and completely uncomfortable. Nipping any ideas he had in the bud needed to happen sooner rather than later. She dropped her eyes and grabbed for her phone, giving herself a reason to put some distance between them.
She strolled away as she sent the picture, praying the rest of the team looking into the Gray Death issue would arrive soon. She spun and took a step back. "Whoa, I did not hear you." She stiff armed Anderson and stopped his advance. "Listen, we need to get something straight here. I don't date people on my team." The lieutenant was good looking with broad shoulders, muscles, sandy brown hair, and hazel eyes. He was tall and yeah, he was sexy, but he wasn't... Brody.
"Really? Why not." He leaned in and planted his hand on the wall, pinning her to the plaster.
She narrowed her eyes and glared at the man. "I'm going to tell you this once. Move. Back up, or I will rack you so hard your balls will crawl so far up your insides they'll never drop down. Get it?"
"Damn, aggressive. That's the type of woman I like." The man chuckled, but he did step back.
"Never going to happen. I am not in the market for anything you're selling. Go cast your net somewhere else." She crossed her arms and dared the man to make a move toward her again. She could hear heavy footsteps coming down the hallway. Finally, the rest of the team.
"Well, make sure you let me know if the status changes."
"What status are you talking about?" Captain Terrell asked as he entered. "What's up, Logan? I thought you were working with Mozinga?" He glanced from Anderson to her and back again.
Brody walked in, and she saw the instant he registered the tension in the room. "Problems?"
Anderson chuckled and shrugged. "Nothing but communication between coworkers." He smiled salaciously at her and winked, but the men behind him couldn't see his expression.
Floored, her mouth dropped open. "No, oh hell, no. There was no communication. It was a one-way flow of information, and the message is, I am not interested. Period." She'd be damned if she was going to put up with his shit. "Captain Terrell, I don't appreciate being hit on at work."
"Hit on?" Terrell slowly turned his head toward Anderson. "Logan?"
"She's full of it, Ryker. Like I'd need to shit where I eat?" He shook his head and looked disgusted. "Looks like we have a drama queen in our midst. Isn't this going to be fun." Anderson turned and jacked a thumb in her direction. "She called me in here to show me something about a case I'm not even involved in."
"That isn't true." Amber ground her teeth together. Anderson had approached her in the break room but there was no one there who could corroborate her side of the story.
Brody spoke clearly, "As you're aware, I've known Agent Swanson for a long time, Lt. Anderson. I've never known her to cry wolf. I'm curious, do you do this to all the new female team members?" He glanced at Terrell. "Hardin and Clausen left the team shortly after arriving." Brody turned back to Anderson. "You insinuated both of them were drama queens, too."
"Oh, I see. You want her even after she ditched you. I'm not getting in the middle of this shit. The woman is fabricating drama." Lt. Anderson shrugged. "Either way, not my problem, and I don't appreciate being caught up in this shit. Ryker, you and I need to talk about this situation."
Amber couldn't believe the man—of all the bullshit moves. Captain Terrell's eyes narrowed. "You're right, we do. Anderson, my office. Swanson, I want a sworn statement on my desk in the next ten minutes. King, you've got this meeting until I deal with this mess. Tell Rayburn and Watson to brief you on what they got from our informant." Captain Terrell spun on his heel and bellowed Anderson's name as he strode down the hall.
Anderson narrowed his eyes and mouthed the words, 'Fucking bitch,' as he shoved past her.
"Oh my God, what the hell was that?" Amber looked at Brody and plopped her ass down quickly on the first available chair. "I've never had someone approach me like that."
"Get to your computer and write up the statement."
Brody's anger-laced growl snapped her head up.
"You're mad at me? You can't think I started that!"
He jerked back and narrowed his eyes. "I'm not mad at you. I'm pissed someone on my team could be creating a hostile work environment. As if dealing with criminals isn't hard enough."
"Oh." She took a breath and closed her eyes. Thank goodness he believed her. "How did he know about us?"
"He knew I asked you to marry me, and you said no. I let it slip the first time I saw you. That's all he knows. Everything else is an assumption. Go write your statement. Terrell is an excellent leader; he'll make this right." Brody dropped the file he was reading and produced his phone. "Rayburn and Watson will be here in a couple of minutes. Go do your statement and send it to Terrell."
She nodded and drew a deep breath. "I won't be long." She got up and headed to the bullpen. She didn't need this shit. With each step she took, the more she regretted saying anything. She was the new team member, and she wanted to make a good impression, but what Anderson had tried to do... that was reprehensible. She squared her shoulders and steeled her resolve. No. Hell no. Had he acted like that at a bar; she'd have been prepared. She would have racked him if he’d persisted.
The threat wasn't idle, but assaulting a teammate, even one using his position as one of her superiors to coerce her for sex? Something like this could get her ass shipped back to the DEA with a black mark scratched across her folder. She'd be lucky to pull anything but shit assignments for the rest of her career. She called up a new document on her computer and let her fingers fly, putting the facts and only the facts in the sequence of events. She attached it to an ema
il and fired it off to her new captain. She locked her computer and headed back to the conference room.
Watson looked up and smiled. "Hey, morning. We brought breakfast." He nodded to a brown paper bag with grease stains.
"Fabulous.” She headed straight to the bag and drew a deep breath. "Oh man, are these breakfast biscuits?"
"Grease included, free of charge." Rayburn reached past her and dove into the bag. He grabbed two from the bag and tossed one to Watson. "Sarge?"
"God, yes." Brody leaned back and caught the paper-wrapped sandwich. She chuckled and removed the last one from the bag.
"Okay, what did you guys get?"
Rayburn chewed quickly, lifting a finger until he swallowed. "We corroborated what our shooter was telling us. Bonzo said Peña's crew is starting to bring the shit in, but there isn't much out there yet. The product is already broken down and packaged, and word has spread on the street for the dealers not to touch the opened product. Bonzo was sweating it, man. He knows he has to push it, but he ain't liking it."
"Where is he getting it from?" Brody took a bite of his sandwich. "Won't give up his supplier." Watson answered for Rayburn. "He's willing to give us general intel, but he ain't filling in the upper supply chain for us."
Amber swallowed a bite of the greasy, cheesy, eggy heaven. "Can you pressure him?"
"If we do, we lose a good source of street level info. He deals, but he isn't a snitch when it comes to the supply channels. We've decided the information we get from him is more important. We went another route." After he finished speaking, Watson took the last gigantic bite of his sandwich.
Rayburn continued, "We hauled in Little K."
Brody leaned forward. "Did you link him to the drive-by you've been working?"
"The guys in the bullpen corroborated with street cameras."
Brody wadded up his paper wrapper and shot it into the trash can. "The ADA willing to work with him?"
"Yeah." Watson grunted.
She liked these guys. They got it. Sometimes bad people got deals in order to take down worse criminals. It sucked, but it worked.
Watson leaned in and looked at her. "Little K gave the guys in the pen a fuckton of information, and not only on this case. Once word hits the streets, the man will be a target, but Little K has protectors inside. He's probably safer in jail than he is on the streets at this point. K said they're bringing the GD in from Florida. Flying it in."
"We still haven't tied the import of this product to any specific neighborhood." She sighed and shook her head. There were a hundred different ways the cartel could be flying the drugs into the city.
"K said they were flying the shit into suburbia. He didn't know anything else." Rayburn tossed his paper wrapper into the trash.
Brody stood and went to the map spread flat on the far side of the long table. "It's enough. We can work a cursory surveillance." He pointed to the house she'd told Anderson about earlier. "This is the best observation point available. We'd need a minimum of two cameras at each point, long range and wide angle, covering the closer area. We could install them outside. About every house had some type of alarm system."
"I've been thinking about it. The neighborhood seemed pretty friendly."
"You mean nosey." He chuckled.
"Yeah, they are going to know if we are doing a rotating surveillance. The team will probably have to have someone move in, and since you're the pilot..."
"I guess I'll be sleeping on an air mattress for a couple weeks if the captain and the lieutenant determine this is a workable situation. It comes down to money right now."
"We have two fingers pointing this direction. Masters, and now Little K. Is the bullseye directly on this location? No, but we have Masters' movement in the area; and the purchase of a house for a client he wouldn't disclose. Add to that, Little K's indication it is coming in via suburbia, and Bonzo's assertion it is coming in by air, and we have enough. We need to find which houses have been purchased in the area lately and make sure we have good observation on those houses. This house might not be the best place to set up if the one his client purchased is further inside the neighborhood."
"I can get the information." Rayburn rubbed his hands together and stood up.
"Good. We'll need the statements from Little K, and make sure you write up your conversation with Bonzo. Keep him covered as a confidential informant. We don't need him disappearing on us."
"Halfway done with the report already. We presenting this to the captain?"
"We are. Rayburn, when you get the information, bring it to me, and we'll grab the captain."
"Done deal." Watson and Rayburn headed back toward the bull pen and the rest of the team.
"Grey Death is extremely dangerous. What kind of upper middle-class resident would risk dealing with it?"
"Someone who needed the money." He shrugged. "Or someone Peña has dirt on, perhaps."
She rolled her wrapper into a ball. "Yeah, I can see both of those scenarios. I can't work out the logistics of Peña's route though. They fly the drugs up from Florida, probably Jacksonville if my sources are right, and then what? Soccer mom drives the shit to a waiting drug dealer?"
"That's what we need to find out, and that's why we're pinpointing this area and these recently purchased houses. Nothing else has sold in that development for years. We'll set it up so we can monitor the other residences without being noticed." Brody's voice stopped her when she moved to stand up. "I need to check with the captain about this, but what if we ask some of your counterparts in Jacksonville to watch for planes we know are hangared in the neighborhood?"
"Resources and money would be the issue. I do have a few agents in the Jacksonville area who owe me a favor or two. If we could narrow down the times they'd need to be at the airports..."
Brody nodded. "This is workable. It could narrow our list of suspects. Hell, for that matter, it could give us the person bringing the stuff in."
"True. Lots of moving parts though." There was a trail, a ghost of a trail, but it was a place to start.
"All right. We move along this path. I'll need the contact information for the realtors in the area. Call them and see if any of these houses would be available for rent. If they've been on the market for a while, maybe the sellers will consider renting the houses."
"On it." She stood and headed to the door. "Oh, and thanks, for earlier. For having my back."
"I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this issue. Lieutenant Anderson has a lot to lose. He won't go down without a fight."
"I'm not looking to take him down. I want him to stop using his position of authority to make sexual advancements." She shrugged. Maybe she did want to take him down after all.
Chapter 9
Captain Terrell stood in front of the map and listened as Brody outlined the information he'd just forwarded his team leader. "Do we have options as to housing?"
"Here." Brody pointed to the house at the end of the neighborhood. According to Rayburn's digging, two houses had sold recently. They'd be able to get damn good coverage of both with cameras installed on that house.
"We need a warrant."
"Yeah. I've compiled the information in the zip file I just sent you. I don't know if we can get approval, but I put everything I could into the narrative."
Terrell nodded. "I'll print it up and get it to Judge Freemont. Hell of a good job. I think this will float," he said as he moved to the massive chair behind his desk. "Now about Anderson."
"Sir?"
"He denies everything. I've worked with Logan Anderson a lot of years. He's a womanizer, but I've never seen him push himself on anyone." He held up a hand before Brody could jump in. "But I trust your judgement where Swanson is concerned. So, we're doing it this way until I can find Hardin and Clausen and ask some direct questions. Swanson reports directly to me. Your past eliminates you as a supervisor. I don't want Anderson having anything to do with her. I've told him point blank not to be around her unless there are others present
. I'm telling the same thing to Swanson when I inform her I'm her supervisor. I've looked at Swanson's jacket from the DEA. Only commendations and no indication of any improprieties. I also examined Anderson's and evaluated it the same way. Again, commendations and no mention of any difficulties. So, I'm at a standstill for the time being. I'll be talking to Lawrence, Patel and Driggers, and I'll be digging. This isn't over, but it is stalled for the moment."
Lawrence, Patel, and Driggers were the three other women on the team. They were street-toughened cops, and Brody had complete faith they'd be honest with the captain. "I understand. Thank you." He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced to the bullpen where Amber and Rayburn were working. Before he made changes to his life insurance and pushed the paper across his boss' desk, he needed to fill the captain in about Gage, but he wasn't going to tell his supervisor before he told his family. It could wait until Monday.
"You need something else?" Ryker arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but it will wait. I have to do some legwork before I bring it to you."
"Perfect. I'm contacting a person I know. He owns a large real estate brokerage firm and construction company. If he doesn't control those agencies, he'll know who does. We need to be rent free. Money is tight, especially with the overtime we've been logging."
Brody peered at his boss. "Ops and payroll from the same pot?"
"No, but when it comes down to paying our team or using the money for operations and equipment, our team comes first. I haven't had to go there, yet." Ryker's forehead furrowed. "The budget this year was a little more than half of last year’s and our workload has doubled."
Brody stared at his shoes. "What would you think about introducing asset forfeiture as a way of funding the unit?"
"What?" Ryker shot him a look.
"That phone call you asked me to make after duty hours. I did. I learned Hope City PD utilizes asset forfeiture. We can request a percentage of the funds and assets we seize as a means to update equipment and fund training. The lab requested funding from forfeitures. That's what got them all new equipment and the remodel. If we requested a percentage to upgrade the infrastructure, equipment and comms, would it alleviate the pull on the operational side of the house?"
Brody (Hope City Book 3) Page 8
