by Riley Storm
He could probably easily find out, if he’s as well connected as he says he is.
Her mind was still trying to puzzle out just what sort of illegal operations were occurring on this case. She kept coming back to one thing.
Gang warfare. Vying groups of crooks fighting one another. That would explain why Pace was so unwilling to give her everything. He was holding back still, and they both knew it. So far, she hadn’t called him on it, because she knew he would just clam up and refuse to answer any of her questions.
It fit, however, including the pattern of not notifying the police. Gangs preferred to settle things between themselves. That would be why he hadn’t told her about his car, and why his brother hadn’t called the police when he was robbed. They’d gone after the perpetrators themselves.
So why bring me in now? What’s different this time around?
Maybe Pace’s gang—he really didn’t seem like a gang member. Maybe it was rival mob bosses that were after one another. Could the Five Families be at war with each other? Carla didn’t have an answer to that either.
Still, it’s not like Five Peaks was a hotbed of criminal activity of any sort. If the Five were all criminals, they were so far out of the spotlight that she’d never even heard a peep about whatever they were into. In fact, the only reason she really had any suspicion about them, was because they were inordinately wealthy, for no apparent reason. But there simply wasn’t enough crime in Five Peaks to pay that much.
She rubbed her temples, confused by it all. If there was a crime war going on, they would have had some sort of inkling. Somebody would have.
Carla sat taller as inspiration struck her.
“What is it?” Pace asked, looking at her intently.
“I’ve had an idea,” she told him. “On where we can go next, to continue our investigation, to gather more information about what’s going on.”
“Oh yeah? Nice. So after we stop at home for…whatever it is you have to do, where is it we’re going next?”
Carla slowed, turning onto her street. It was a short cul-de-sac, and she lived at the end. Police work didn’t pay great, but it went a lot further this far out in the country, to the point she could afford to live on her own, at least. It wasn’t a mansion, but it was hers.
“We have to stop so that I can look after Barton real quick.”
Pace stared at her blankly.
“My dog. Barton. You know, after the character from the movies? With the bow and arrow?”
He just shook his head.
“My God, man,” she gasped. “It’s only the biggest film franchise ever. How do you not know it?”
“I’m not big on movies,” he said slowly. “Sorry. My, uh, brother Asher is huge into pop culture though, he’d get it.”
“Right. He sounds way cooler than you,” she teased. “Maybe I’ll have to show you them.”
Carla wanted to slap her forehead. Show him some movies? Netflix and chill? No! No, no, no! He was still a potential suspect, and here she was flirting with him?
Get it together!
Chapter Twelve
Pace
“Nice place,” he said, trying to change the subject, yet keeping the conversation going.
“Thank you,” she replied tightly. “I like it. Not huge, but it works.”
She parked in the driveway and they got out.
There was barking already audible from the front door.
“You should probably stay here,” Carla said as he made to follow her up the paved walkway.
Pace shrugged and sat down on the front of her car. Why did she not want him to go up to the door? He already knew where she lived, so what difference did it make if he got a peek inside?
Maybe there’s someone else in there. Someone she doesn’t want you to know about.
Pace resolved to find out what it was she was hiding, what she was trying to prevent him from knowing. The dog exited the front door, straining at a leash. It was big, brown, short-haired and with a tail that was whipping back and forth. It tested the air and immediately, it focused on him.
He wasn’t surprised. Humans couldn’t pick up on the fact that he wasn’t quite human, but animals seemed to notice right away. They often gave his kind a wide berth, but then again, it wasn’t like dragons often tried to interact with them either. Pets weren’t really for them.
Crouching down, he got on eye-level with the dog, meeting its eyes, extending his hand. The animal pulled hard on its leash.
“It’s okay,” he told Carla as she tried to rein him in. “It’ll be fine. Trust me.”
The pair came over, with Carla stopping a bit short, so that the leash didn’t quite reach him.
Pace crab-walked a few steps closer, maintaining eye contact. The tail had paused now as the dog sniffed at him, trying to identify what he was.
“Hi Barton,” he said quietly, raising his hand. “I’m Pace.”
The dog growled softly.
“It’s okay,” he said to Carla as she tried to pull him back. “Let him be.”
The pair continued looking at each other. Then Pace winked at the dog. “Who’s a good boy,” he said.
Barton whined and his tail started to wag. Then he jumped forward and started whining excitedly as Pace pet him firmly on the flanks and gave him a good scratch behind the ears.
“Yeah, who’s a good boy, you’re a good boy,” he said. Their playing escalated a bit, into more of what he supposed would be called “rassling”. He and the dog went back and forth, side to side, and the entire time Barton was making excited noises.
“I don’t get it,” Carla said at last. “Barton doesn’t like any men. Never has.”
“Not even your husband?” Pace asked, standing up, though he kept his hand out so that Barton could continue to bump it with his head and give him slobbery dog kisses.
What a good boy.
“No husband,” Carla said, shaking her head. “No real men. The job doesn’t really allow for much of that. Which is probably why Barton is so unsure of them. Except you, it seems. He loves you.”
“Us animals have to stick together,” Pace said lightly, sensing that he’d hit a bit of a nerve with Carla on this topic, though he hadn’t meant to.
Now he knew why she hadn’t wanted him near the house though. It was just about her dog, not about something she was hiding. For some reason, that sent an enormous wave of relief flooding through his system.
What was it about this woman?
He looked back up from Barton and caught her staring at him. She looked away quickly, but after a moment, her eyes returned to him. It was obvious now, there was tension growing between them. He could feel it. Pace wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was her tenacity, in not wanting to abandon the case, or perhaps it was her willingness to help others and put herself in harm’s way as a police officer in general.
Whatever it was, the pull was undeniable now that he’d acknowledged it. Carla, it seemed, was feeling it too. She must know that he was prying into her life. Asking if she was married, things like that.
And she’d made it clear there was nothing blocking him, no other man in his way. Did that mean she was interested in him, though? Heck, was he interested in her? Just because there was tension didn’t mean Pace necessarily wanted to pursue anything.
What did he want?
The answer to that question still eluded him.
Carla blinked first, looking away. “Um, so about next...the case,” she said.
“Right.” Pace pulled himself together, forcing his brain back on that train of thought. “You said you knew where we should be going next? Some place for us to go looking?”
“I think so, I—eep!” Carla yelped in surprise as Barton suddenly started straining in the other direction. “Okay, okay boy.”
Pace chuckled as they walked over to the green of the lawn so that he could do his business. “When ya gotta go,” he joked.
They both laughed. Maybe a little too loud, a little too fast, but it ea
sed some more of the tension as well. Pace was able to breathe a little easier.
Gotta keep my wits about me around her. She’s a big distraction.
“It was actually a comment that you made that got me thinking about it,” Carla explained, getting back on track.
“Told you I could be helpful,” he said, pretending like he knew what she was talking about.
“You have no clue what I’m talking about, do you?”
So much for that.
“No,” he admitted. “Not a clue. What are you talking about?”
“The thieves guild.” She snorted, shaking her head. “Who talks like that? But it got my mind thinking about possible crime syndicates, anything like that. We don’t really have a lot of organized crime here, you understand. Five Peaks is, um, not exactly a big market for drugs or other illegal things. The biggest thing we have to deal with is what the Aterna and other mountain families are doing.”
“What the heck is that supposed to mean?”
Carla grinned. “If someone new is setting up shop in town, and it’s not you or your usual cronies doing the grunt work, then there’s only one other solution for us.”
“I don’t like that insinuation, but will you please just stop being so smug and tell me what it is?” he growled.
“Here I thought you would appreciate my imitation of you,” she said.
Pace gaped. “I am not like that. At all.”
Carla raised her eyebrows. She didn’t believe him. Not one bit.
“I am not,” he protested. “Confidence and arrogance are two separate things.”
“Right. Cause you’re the one I trust to know the difference. But,” she added as he sputtered, “I digress. We’re going to talk to the local crime boss. The guy who runs what little crime there is in Five Peaks.”
Pace nodded. Then he frowned. “Wait. I don’t get it. You know who this guy is. You know what he does. But you don’t arrest him?”
Carla nodded, tugging on Barton’s leash and heading back up the walkway. Pace followed, wanting to get a glimpse inside her house. If she was crazy and obsessed with unicorns or something and had her house filled with them, he wanted to know now, so he could have a solid reason to get her out of his mind.
So far though, he hadn’t come up with one.
“Knowing what he does, and being able to prove it, are two separate things. Plus, he’s not violent. People are going to get drugs one way or another. That’s just a fact of life. This way, we know who’s doing what, and we can ensure that it doesn’t get too out of hand. In return, Wilson finds a way to let us know if something more extreme is going on.”
“I…”
“If we got rid of him, it would take us some time to find out whoever replaced him. They might be far less amenable to working with us. It’s not a perfect system,” Carla said with a sigh. “But once you accept that people will find sources of illegal items, you understand it’s better to try and control that source, instead of cutting it off completely.”
“So we’re off to see this Wilson character then? The Five Peaks crime boss?”
“Exactly,” Carla said, opening the door just a crack for Barton.
The dog paused, unsure.
“Well come on, Barton. Inside,” Carla said.
Barton whined and looked over at Pace.
“Go on boy,” he said, urging the dog onward.
Barton trotted into the house, tail wagging.
Carla stared in shock.
Chapter Thirteen
Carla
Wilson operated out of a warehouse on the other side of the highway, at the east end of town.
Calling it a highway was a bit of a misnomer. It was one lane in either direction. The only thing that really made it a highway was that it had a higher speed limit and didn’t intersect with every side street. Otherwise, it was just a road.
Still, Carla thought of it as ‘getting on the highway’ as she zipped along, watching her cars speedometer go up.
“Why did this guy target you?” she asked.
“What?”
“The Aterna family. Why you? Have you done anything recently to anger people? Something that would make them want to retaliate at you?”
“No,” Pace said quietly from next to her. “Nothing like that. Though we asked the same question, we came up with a different answer.”
“Which is?” she asked, playing her part in the conversation.
“To sow division amongst the cl—ah, that is, the families. The Five, as you call them. It’s no secret that we’re rather reclusive, but we talk a lot amongst ourselves, and these days, things are quite civil. In the past though, that hasn’t always been the case. We think whoever these people are, they’re trying to stir up the old animosities. Make us want hate the other again.”
Carla frowned. The way he talked… “You even talk like you’re a part of a crime syndicate. The mob, the mafia, whatever you wanted to call it. Old issues that are settled, but being dug up? Hate each other? Seems like an excuse for you to go to war. I don’t want your feud spilling over into town,” she said pointedly.
“There is no feud,” Pace replied. “They’re just trying to make one. You can trust me on that, Carla.”
It didn’t escape her attention that he used her first name, instead of Deputy. She was beginning to understand that it was his way of indicating his level of seriousness. By purposefully including her name, he was trying to say that he was telling the truth.
“Still, there must be some reason they went after you instead of the others. Leaving that to chance seems too risky for our guy. He chose the Aterna family specifically. Think, Pace, why would he have done that?”
“I have been,” he growled in frustration as she slowed, their exit approaching. “Trust me. But none of us have come up with anything.”
“Well that sucks.” Carla didn’t know what else to say.
They fell into that same comfortable silence again, both of them lost in thought, but lacking the need to fill the silence with pointless talk. It wasn’t something Carla had felt often, and it surprised her how easily she’d fallen into that habit with Pace. It just…worked. It was a little scary how well they seemed to complement one another.
She glanced over at him. His mouth was doing that thing again, where he clenched it while deep in thought, emphasizing the jawline.
God he’s handsome. If I could—Stop it.
Shaking her head, Carla focused back on the road.
“Everything okay, Deputy?”
She snickered at his choice of word for her. Could he have known what she was thinking?
“Just dandy,” she drawled. “We’re here.”
Pace made a noise. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s home.”
“Maybe they’re taking a nap,” she said, having wondered the same thing. Was Wilson out on business? She didn’t want to have to wait around for him to come back. That could take ages.
“What does that have to do with the lack of cars?” Pace asked, opening his door, letting in a blast of warm air.
“Obviously nothing,” she said with a roll of her eyes, getting out. Almost immediately, the sun began to beat down on her.
Even though Carla loved being warm, standing outside on a day like today in full police uniform would leave her thoroughly sticky quite quickly. She was eager to get inside.
The warehouse that Wilson used as his base of operations had a small office attached to it, with a door and windows to either side. She walked up to the door and gave it a tug. To her surprise, it swung open easily.
“Come on in,” she said, propping it open for Pace, who was quick to follow.
“Hello?” Her voice echoed through the office, but wasn’t met with a response. “Anyone home?”
“Did they just forget to lock the door?” Pace asked, pausing at the entrance into the warehouse itself. “The lights are off.”
“They’re on up here,” she pointed out, lifting a finger to the ceiling where the fluores
cent bulbs were emitting their usual dreary white light.
“Weird.”
“Very weird,” she said. “Let’s go check out the warehouse.”
“You sure?”
“Oh sure. We have to give Wilson a hard time every now and then anyway, otherwise he thinks we’re getting complacent and he can get away with other things instead. If there’s some good stuff to confiscate back here, we will. But he’s usually more careful than that.”
Pace shrugged and waited at the doorway. “I’ll follow your lead. Deputy.”
She giggled, then smothered all reaction as her face burst into flames, the heat trailing down her neck. This was not the time to be flirting with him! Carla needed to pull it together, to get a hold of herself. She was an adult, an officer of the law. She needed to focus!
“Anyone home?” she called, but her voice just bounced down the aisle until it disappeared in the darkness.
Behind her, Pace grunted.
“It was worth a try,” she said, not sure why she was justifying herself. It wasn’t that wild to call out to see if someone was back there.
A moment later, there was a clatter from behind her. She whirled to see Pace collapsed amid one of the shelves, barely holding himself up.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, until she got closer, noticing the massive bump on the side of his head.
“Something hit me,” he mumbled, sliding to the floor.
Carla was suddenly alert, looking around. Someone had hit Pace. They weren’t alone in the warehouse.
The warehouse was mostly dark, as they hadn’t found the switches for the lights yet. There was some illumination filtering through from the open office door, and the service lights above, but it was just enough for them to see.
Crouching over Pace, she drew her pistol. “Stay down,” she said in a quiet voice, not using a whisper so it didn’t carry as far. “I’ll call for backup.”
“I’ll be fine,” Pace replied woozily. “Just cover me for a moment.”
She frowned. “You just got beaned in the head with something. Stay down, you might have a concussion.”
“It wasn’t that bad, I—”