Randy just nodded.
“But you got it all worked out?”
“Yes, all worked out.”
“Good.” He reached out, touching her under the chin and guiding her face down to his. Their lips met as he kissed her softly. Her hand slid over his chest and he groaned at the contact. Randy shivered in response, still thrilled that even after all these years he still responded that way to her touch. They kissed for a long time, his hands touching her, caressing her, and Randy doing the same to him.
“Joe, please…” she breathed eventually, her body aching for him, her hands grasping at him to pull him ever closer. Joe grinned against her lips, knowing he was driving her crazy and enjoying himself thoroughly in doing so.
When his body finally entered her, she moaned loudly, but it was lost against his lips. They made love, enjoying the closeness that comes from being together for years, knowing what the other wanted, giving and taking, and reveling in the excitement of being together.
Afterward, Randy lay in his arms, happy and sated. She could hear Joe’s heartbeat, since her head lay on his chest. She’d noticed that he’d coughed a few times while they were making love, but she’d figured she’d wait till afterward to ask him about it. She knew that a lot of the time his cough was a prelude to catching pneumonia, an illness he’d been prone to since childhood. It was a fleeting thought as she drifted to sleep, lulled by the warmth of his body against hers and the feeling of complete fulfillment. I’ll ask him in the morning, she thought, and fell asleep.
The next morning he was up and gone before she even woke. He left a note to say that he had a search warrant and was going in with Rick’s team. She told herself she’d ask him about the cough that afternoon, but time got away from her again. Their lives were so busy these days, it was astounding.
Tiempo paced the floor in the rented penthouse suite of the Hotel Intercontinental. The view of San Diego was spectacular, but he didn’t notice. Dave Dibbins was late for his deal.
Stevie leaned against a nearby wall, her arms crossed in front of her chest, looking bored. She was hiding the fear rising in her well. She couldn’t figure out where Dave was; he’d dropped her off at her house at 11:30 that morning and told her he’d see her at 1:00, but he wasn’t there. It was 1:15, and Tiempo was getting very edgy.
There was a knock at the door. Stevie pushed off from the wall and walked over to check the peephole. It was Dave, and he looked back at her as if he could see her through the hole. He seemed perfectly calm, as usual. Stevie tamped down on her irritation. What was he doing? Was he really crazy? No one kept Tiempo waiting. She opened the door, giving him an “Are you nuts?” look as he walked by her.
“Tiempo,” Dave said, strolling over to the other man. “Sorry I’m late—had a last-minute call from another connection.”
“You are shopping around still?” Tiempo asked disbelievingly.
“Never miss an opportunity,” Dave replied evenly. “Now, I’ve been offered three keys for three hundred. Can you match that?”
“For three hundred? You lie!” Tiempo yelled, shaking his head. “You push me too far, señor.”
“Hey, you don’t want to deal, we won’t deal, but I need my product and I’m not paying five hundred for it when I can get it for three.”
“Bah! It is crap if you can get it for three. Probably cut with baking soda. My stuff is pure.”
Dave looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “If your stuff is good, then I’ll pay four for it.”
“No! We had a deal. Three keys for five hundred thousand.”
“I don’t see the product here,” Dave said, glancing around.
“It’s here,” Tiempo said, snapping his fingers at Stevie. She reached into a closet and withdrew a valise.
“I’ll test it and we’ll see how good it is,” Dave said, sounding skeptical.
He proceeded to produce a butterfly knife, expertly flipping the blade into place. He stuck it into a block he pulled out of the bag and withdrew some powder. Producing a small kit from his pocket, he tested the cocaine, dropping the powder into a vial of liquid and shaking it. The results showed that it was indeed high grade.
“Okay, I’ll pay four for it,” Dave said, his tone still very serious.
“The deal was five, pendejo,” Tiempo gritted out, his anger mounting. Stevie raised her head warily, recognizing Tiempo’s fury. Her senses were working overtime; she was trying not to tip Dave’s hand, but desperate to keep this from going bad. She couldn’t handle any more deaths in her life.
“Well, I’m changing the deal,” Dave said, staring into Tiempo’s almost-black eyes.
“You pendejo!” Tiempo spat, reaching for his pistol. Stevie drew her weapon, only to find that Dave had amazingly produced his own gun in that time and had it pointed at Tiempo’s head.
“Not this time, Tiempo,” Dave said, his voice deadly calm.
Tiempo held his hands out to his side, narrowing his eyes at Dave in thwarted anger. “You will die for this.”
Dave grinned, not looking concerned. “I think you’re a lot of talk, Tiempo.”
“Oh, you think so, do you?”
“Yeah, I do. I mean, who have you really killed?” Dave said conversationally.
“I have killed many.”
“Yeah, like who?” Dave sat down, keeping his eye on Tiempo the whole time. “Anyone important?” His voice said he didn’t think Tiempo could have killed anyone that mattered.
“I am going to kill you,” Tiempo said, his anger stepping up another level.
“It’s a capital offense, you know,” Dave said, his tone still conversational.
“What?” Tiempo said, looking at Dave like he was crazy.
“Killing a cop.”
“What cop?”
Dave grinned benevolently as he produced his badge and said, “This one.”
“You won’t be the first.”
“Oh, really?” Dave replied mildly, his skepticism clear. “You’ve killed a cop before?”
“Just one, but I almost got his partner too.” Tiempo was obviously ready to brag right now because he was sure Stevie would somehow get him out of this.
“When did this supposedly happen?” Dave asked, looking bored.
“Four years ago. He tried to make the mistake you’re making now.”
“And what mistake is that?”
“He tried to arrest me,” Tiempo said, spinning to face Stevie and yelling, “Shoot him, now!” With that he dropped to the floor, expecting a hail of gunfire. When nothing happened, he looked up in surprise.
Stevie stood gazing impassively down at him.
“What are you doing?” Tiempo screamed.
“She’s doing the smart thing, Tiempo,” Dave supplied as he stepped over and grabbed a handful of the other man’s shirt to haul him up off the floor.
The door to the suite was thrown open and in walked Joe and Rick, guns in hand but held down to the floor. Rhiannon Templeton came in behind them, followed by Midnight. Kyle Masterson strolled in last and leaned against the back wall, merely observing the proceedings.
Dave turned Tiempo around to face Rhiannon.
“Tiempo,” Dave said mildly, “you might remember Rhiannon Templeton.”
Tiempo’s eyes narrowed at her.
“I’m the partner you almost got,” Rhiannon said. Her voice could have cut ice. “The one you got was my husband.” Her emerald green eyes burned into Tiempo.
“And my brother-in-law,” Stevie chimed in.
Tiempo’s head snapped around. “You?” he said, his voice so choked it was almost pleasurable to hear it.
Stevie walked over to stand next to Rhiannon, and it became very apparent the two were sisters. “Yeah, Tiempo, me,” she said.
“You bitch!” he screamed, suddenly realizing he’d been played, and that everything he’d thought was secure was no longer so.
“Hurts when everything you know is ripped out from under you, doesn’t it?” Rhiannon said, sou
nding a lot like the narc she used to be. Everyone in the room heard it.
Dave leaned down to whisper in Tiempo’s ear. “You’re over.”
Tiempo didn’t reply, just stared back at Stevie with intense hatred.
“She’s no cop,” Tiempo said, grasping at straws now. “She’s not wearing a badge.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right—I almost forgot,” Midnight said with a baleful smile.
Tiempo’s eyes widened as Midnight produced a badge from her pocket and tossed it to Stevie, who caught it deftly and clipped it to her belt.
Stevie stared back at him, and finally said what she’d held in for so long. “Marco Tiempo, you are under arrest for narcotics trafficking and the attempted murder of a peace officer. You have the right to remain silent…”
And so it went. Stevie finally got to take down Marco Tiempo. Unfortunately, at that moment she couldn’t arrest him for the murder of her brother-in-law, but she knew she could produce records for Midnight and the DA that would prove he was dealing at the time he had been killed in an accident while pursuing a fleeing Marco Tiempo, which would show that he was evading arrest at the time of the incident.
Marco Tiempo was going to jail for a very long time, and Stevie finally felt some vindication.
Joe and Rick took custody of Tiempo, handing him off to some officers just outside the room. Rhiannon hugged Stevie, whispering, “We’ll talk later.” She followed Tiempo and his escort out.
Midnight turned to Stevie, her look appraising. Stevie suddenly felt like the scum of the earth she had become, and was basically expecting to be the next person led away in cuffs.
“You did quite well for yourself, O’Neil,” Midnight said, her tone all chief.
“Thank you, Chief,” was all Stevie could manage. She’d always idolized Midnight Chevalier as the person she wanted to be when she grew up. She still did, and now she felt like a lowlife.
Midnight was silent for a moment, looking straight into Stevie’s eyes. “Your father would have been proud,” she said, very seriously. “I want to see you in my office at nine a.m. the day after tomorrow.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Stevie managed around the sudden lump in her throat, trying desperately to hold back the tears caused by the mention of her father.
“And Stevie?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Call me Midnight.”
With that, Midnight turned and walked out of the suite, leaving Stevie standing there feeling stunned. She stared down at her hands for a long moment. They were shaking.
When she glanced up, she noticed Rick Debenshire looking at her, a lopsided grin on his lips.
“You impressed her,” he said, canting his head to the side. “That’s not an easy thing to do, ya know.”
Stevie grinned rakishly, her soul already beginning the mending process. “Gotta get lucky sometime, right?”
Rick threw his head back and laughed, nodding in agreement. Stevie noticed that Joe Sinclair was smiling too, and nodding in what looked like approval. Wow, she thought. This is what it’s like to be approved of by the Gang.
The “Gang” was how everyone in the department referred to Midnight’s inner sanctum of friends, comprised mostly of the original core members of FORS and extended family. Everyone in the department was jealous of the Gang, and would kill to be accepted as one of them. It wasn’t so much the idea of promotions, because not everyone in the Gang was of a high rank, but there was a level of accepted excellence involved with being part of the group. Every person in the Gang was the best of the best at what they did. Just like the most popular kids in high school, everyone wanted to be one of them.
“Hey,” Dave said, his voice bringing her out of her ruminations. “You still with me?”
She turned to him, her eyes meeting his. “Yes.”
His eyes were searching hers, as if trying to discern something. “You okay?”
Stevie took a deep breath, blowing it out in a long, relieved sigh, then nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. This was much easier than I expected it to be.”
Dave grinned. “Yeah. Fun, huh?”
Stevie laughed. “So much fun.”
“So, now what?”
“Oh,” she said, sighing dramatically, “think I’ll go get my nails done, have a massage…” She started to laugh. “I don’t have the faintest notion.”
“Well, how about you start by having dinner with me at my place tonight?” he said, his grin engaging.
She smiled back. “I think I can manage that.”
Later that day, she had a talk with her sister. Stevie was in the apartment Tiempo had paid for, packing the few things she had there. Rhiannon was still stunned over the fact that Tiempo had finally been arrested and would eventually face charges related to Jason’s death. She was also very intent on making her sister understand how much she had risked in accomplishing this task.
“Stevie, don’t you realize that getting yourself killed wouldn’t have brought Jason back?”
Stevie sighed deeply. “Yes, Rhi, I realize that.”
Rhiannon leaned forward over the clothes they were folding and putting into boxes and hugged her little sister close. “I love that you cared enough about Jason to do this, Stevie, but you have to understand how much you mean to me.” There were tears in Rhiannon’s eyes. “You and Mom are all I have left. I couldn’t handle losing you too.”
“I know,” Stevie said, not sure how to explain that she had had to do something. It had been a deep, burning need, one that she had known would never go away. Jason had been the big brother she had never had. He’d been so nice to her, always treating her like his own sister. She had loved him so much, and losing him like that had been like losing their father all over again. Stevie wouldn’t let Tiempo get away with it—she couldn’t. The bastard that had gunned their father down had gotten away with it; they’d never found out who’d done it. There was no way Tiempo would go free, not while Stevie could do something about it—and she had.
“Where are you going to stay?” Rhiannon asked after a long silence.
Stevie shrugged. “I don’t know yet. Just know I need to get out of here, before Tiempo’s associates find out what happened today.”
“True, they’re a little funny about cops working them over,” Rhiannon said with a sly grin, sounding for a second like her old self. She looked at her sister for a long moment. “Why don’t you come stay with me?”
Stevie seemed surprised by the invitation. She shook her head slowly. “I dunno, Rhi. It’s been a long time since we’ve shared the same space…”
Rhiannon laughed, looking around her. “Yeah, and I can see you’re still a slob.”
“See?” Stevie said, grinning in spite of herself. “You’d go crazy with me there messing up your perfect little world.”
Rhiannon sobered for a moment. “Maybe I need someone to mess up my perfect little world.”
Stevie’s lips tightened in consternation. She knew her sister had no actual life, that she existed in a haze of memory and work. She didn’t date, she didn’t go out—she just worked and stayed away from people. Maybe it would be a good thing to move in with her.
“Okay,” Stevie said. She grinned at her sister. “Just remember you asked for it.”
That night, Stevie showed up at Dave’s for dinner. He opened the door and gestured for her to enter. She followed him back to his kitchen and stood watching him finish up cooking. He’d made spaghetti, telling her that was about the only thing he knew how to cook. They sat down to eat. He had an oak kitchen table, with matching chairs that had deep blue cushions on them. Everything about his home seemed natural and very much him. Stevie couldn’t get over how different he was from what she had always imagined he’d be like.
Dave caught her looking at him again and asked, “What?”
“I just…” she began, not sure how to put her thoughts into words without sounding stupid. “You’re very different from what someone would imagine a narc to be.”
&nbs
p; “What do people imagine narcs to be like?” Dave asked, sitting back.
Stevie grinned, feeling like a silly kid all of a sudden. “I just mean, you’re so ultra-calm, so into earthy things… I don’t know, just different.”
Dave nodded, then pinned her with a look. “Is it a bad kind of different?”
“No!” Stevie assured him, grinning at her own outburst. “You just seem, I don’t know, so… sweet.”
“Sweet?” Dave sounded both surprised and perplexed.
“Yeah,” Stevie said, her voice softening. “Like the other night, when I got out of hand. Instead of giving me the ass-whipping I really deserved, you took care of me, and in the end put your own life on the line to give me what I wanted. Sweet doesn’t really cover all that—more like fantastic.”
Dave seemed to be assessing what she’d said, his brows furrowed in thought. Then he looked up at her again, his sky blue eyes staring right into hers, and stunned her with his next statement.
“That’s what family does, Stevie.”
“Family?”
“Yeah,” he replied softly. “You are part of our family. Midnight wanted you back in, and after I met you, so did I. You risk your life for family.” His comments were made so simply that Stevie was quiet a long few moments, absorbing what he was saying.
“Wow,” was all she could manage when she found her voice again.
Dave grinned at her, understanding what she was feeling. He’d felt it too, many years before, when he’d become part of something much bigger than himself. When he’d joined FORS and suddenly had people willing to die for him, ordinary Dave Dibbins was no longer alone or ordinary. Suddenly he had people who would back him up, no matter what the fight. It was scary and incredible all rolled into one. And it had come as a shock, and Stevie was going through that shock right now.
It took her a few minutes to gather her composure, but Dave had to give her credit; she regrouped faster than anyone he knew.
She took a long drink of her wine. “You know, it would have been nice to know what your plan was today.”
“What do you mean?” Dave asked, surprised by her change in topic.
Past in the Present (MidKnight Blue Book 9) Page 18