I take back the lead so to not draw attention to us, and we creep inside the room. Nathaniel is so engrossed in yelling at the girl, he doesn’t hear us come in what seems to be offices. I shuffle Ryan and myself behind a bookcase. Ryan grunts at me, but I give him the shushing motion.
“Ember, I know you’ve been dealing here. I know you fucking gave Nastassia the heroin. Are you trying to fucking kill her? Are you a little idiot? Don’t you know that you’ll be arrested? What the fuck were you thinking?”
The girl named Ember laughs shrilly. “Of course I’m trying to kill her, Nate. You dumped me for her. I was yours. You were mine, until her. I haven’t been dealing though. I just gave her some and told her that you said to take it. She’s such a good sub, maybe better than me. Did it with no questions asked. Too bad it didn’t work.” She laughs again.
“Ember, what the fuck? It wasn’t Nastassia’s fault. We ended our agreement a long time ago. We were never exclusive either, you knew that. Stop acting like a crazy bitch, or I really will go to the cops and turn you in. If you aren’t dealing, then who is?” Nathaniel takes her by the upper arms and starts to shake her, causing her to laugh hysterically. He flings her away from him and turns his back. Ember then draws a gun from her garter.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, Nate? You can’t let it get back to your precious club, can you? You can’t let anything negative happen to it. But me? You don’t care! We were fucking exclusive! You let me be shared, and you let other skanks put their hands on you! Don’t call me a crazy bitch!” she shrieks.
Nathaniel whirls around and his face goes white as he brings his hands up. Ryan is out from behind the bookcase in a flash with his own gun raised. I follow a second later, with mine in my hand.
“Drop it!” I shout, and Crazypants McGee faces us, narrowing her eyes. She then turns the gun on me.
“I know you. How do I know you?” she muses, but I ignore her rambling.
“Do what she says, Ember. You don’t want to shoot either of us, we’re cops.” Ryan’s growl causes her to flinch but giggle again.
“Cops won’t save this town. They’re moving in. And we’re helping them. I really don’t like your face, but I can’t remember why.” She says the last part to herself, referring to me, then raises her gun and points it at me. I’m frozen. I can’t seem to pull the trigger on her; all I see is my mother. I hear a bang and I jump. I see her crumple to the floor as her gun clatters uselessly away from her, and my head whips to see Ryan standing there, left arm raised, with his gun smoking. His eyes lock on mine.
“She was gonna shoot you.” I nod a lot, and he rushes over to check if she’s alive. She’s breathing, having been hit in the side, but unconscious. Nathaniel is there, immediately pressing his hand to the wound. There’s a mess of blood pooling around her quickly.
“You guys are cops? What the hell!” Nathaniel yells and pulls out his phone. “Nikolai get your ass down to Free-for-All; Ember tried to shoot me. One of Briar’s cop friends shot her first.” He pins Ryan with a stare, who looks down at them grimly.
“I won’t apologize for shooting her. She was a very obvious threat and about to fire on us. I hope your friend gets here in time, but she still needs to be arrested,” Ryan tells him coldly. Nathaniel’s jaw hardens and he nods once.
The door bursts open and Nikolai enters, followed by Jensen and Briar. Nikolai sets to work, immediately utilizing a black medical bag he had brought with him. Briar is staring at the scene incredulously. Jensen stands directly behind her and she seems to lean into him before straightening.
“Amber, what the hell happened? I told you nobody gets shot!” Briar says in a high voice.
“She was going to shoot me! And she confessed she gave Nastassia Bennett the drugs.”
Danny and Titus rush into the room, having heard my last exclamation. “Did she say who supplied it to her?” Danny asks me.
“No, she was higher than a kite. Wouldn’t say, but she said we couldn’t save this town, that ‘they’ were moving in. I have no idea who she meant.” My voice trails off and Ryan places a hand around my waist.
“The ambulance will be here shortly, Nikolai. We have no choice. She needs to be taken to the hospital, and if she makes it, arrested,” Nathaniel tells Nikolai, loud enough for us to overhear. Paramedics rush into the room a few minutes later, followed by uniformed officers who immediately recognize Ryan and Titus. Their faces would be hilarious if we weren’t in such a grave situation.
Michael walks into the room followed by Captain Marshall and we all watch as Ember is loaded up and taken out on a gurney. One EMS worker keeps his hand on Ember’s side to staunch the blood flow. Michael looks at me and I cringe.
“I thought you said this was the best way to find the dealers, Agent Jennings. This, in fact, does not seem like the best way. It seems like somebody got shot the moment you brought Narcotics in,” he says as he glares at Ryan, Titus, and Jensen separately. I start to argue with him, and he puts his hands up.
“Just go home. All of you. Go home. Sergeant Stone, you’ll need to report to IAB tomorrow morning for discharging your weapon. You know the drill. Everyone is dismissed,” Michael tells us all, his voice tired.
For once, I do what I’m told without complaint.
Chapter Thirty-Four: Ryan
Thank God for twenty-four-hour coffee shops. Jensen drops Amber, Danny, and I off at Starbucks after we change, and takes off with Titus to go to the hospital. If Ember lives, they’ll arrest her. If she doesn’t, they’ll let us know. Briar stayed back at the club to help Nikolai and Nathaniel sort the mess out. I jerk open the door and Danny waves Amber and I inside, gesturing to his phone.
“Gotta call Delilah and tell her what happened.”
Amber nods and heads on inside with me on her heels. She orders a tall Americano and I order a Red Eye, then we sit down in the corner to wait. Amber puts her head in her hands, and I reach out with my good arm to caress her face. She looks up at me with tears shining in her eyes, and my heart clenches. I thought she was going to be taken from me earlier. I grab her hand and hold it tight.
“I’ve screwed everything up. Years of work is wasted. They’ll never let us back into Exile now. Fuck.” She blows out her breath and I squeeze her hand.
“You didn’t screw anything up. It was me. I shot her. She was going to shoot you. I’m sorry, I had no choice.”
“I couldn’t pull the trigger. I saw what you did, I knew she was going to shoot me. I just could only see my mom. I don’t know what about me set her off though,” she tells me in a broken voice.
“She was high as a kite and obviously very disturbed. Anybody would have set her off,” I reply soothingly.
“No. She said I looked familiar and before, when Nathaniel was dragging her towards that room, I thought she looked familiar too. I just can’t place where I know her from.” Her frustration is obvious. Our coffees are placed in front of us by the same male barista, Todd. I smile at him slightly and he gives me a thumbs up.
Like that, a lightbulb went off in my head. The girl looked similar to someone I had seen before as well. Someone at Dark Angels. Someone who was just as fixated on Amber.
“Amber, holy fuck. She looks like the little douchebag at your work. Kenny. She looks like a female version of him!”
Amber’s eyes grow wide. “Oh fuck, she’s probably related to him! That’s where he was getting the drugs. That’s why they were so connected. That’s why we couldn’t find a connection to Dark Angels besides Briar!” she all but yells.
I start to say something when the door is jerked open and Danny stumbles inside. He catches himself on the door. His eyes are wild and he’s holding his neck. He finally spots us and takes a step forward but staggers back. Amber is on her feet and to him in a flash. He stands but stumbles again, and sinks to his knees. Amber is trying to help him but failing because of his weight. I’m there a second after she is, trying to help him too. His eyes are glassy, and he vomits on the floor
. The baristas shriek as the interior of the Starbucks erupts into chaos.
“Moose, honey, what’s going on? What’s wrong? Moose, you’re scaring me!” Amber is yelling at him as Danny’s eyes drift closed. His knees buckle and no amount of holding him up works. He sinks to the ground. Amber shakes him awake.
“Danny! Moose! Come on, what’s going on? I don’t see blood. Are you hurt? Talk to me!” At that moment, I see a blown vein on the side of his neck.
“Amber, fuck, someone gave him a hotshot!” Terror spikes my blood. “Somebody, call an ambulance!” I shout to the baristas, who scramble to do what I say.
“No, no, no, no! Moose, come on, talk to me! You’re gonna be okay. Delilah will have my ass. How could somebody sneak up on you? You need to open your eyes! Please! Who did this?” She all but screams the last part into his face as tears start streaming down her face.
Danny opens his mouth and his eyes flutter open. He’s staring at Amber, opening and closing his mouth. She shakes him again with fists full of his shirt. She looks over at me helplessly, and I glance around wildly out the window. I see the same fucker we were just talking about, Kenny, smirk at me. He flings a syringe at the window, flips me off, and darts away. I rise and move to go after him, but Amber catches my arm.
“Please don’t leave us. He needs us,” she pleads, and it takes everything in me not to run after the creep.
“It…was…the guy you work with. He…snuck up…on me…while I was…on the phone. Tell…Delilah…I love her,” Danny pants to Amber.
Amber starts screaming as his breathing stutters and then stops completely. I grab her and pull her away. The barista, Todd, vaults over the counter before I can process what just happened. He scrambles to Danny’s side and starts administering CPR. Amber is still screaming as the paramedics show up seconds later, and I quickly tell them what happened.
“I’m Sergeant Stone, Narcotics. He’s been administered a hot shot of some combination of drug. If you have Narcan on you, it would be the time to use it. He’s a DEA Agent. Please help him.” My words are as logical as I can make them. My mind is wild and the woman I’m holding is keening. The paramedics take over CPR and administer Narcan as they load him into the ambulance.
Amber is still in shock, unable to climb in the ambulance. I gather her to me.
“Amber, baby, we need to go. We need to go to the hospital.” Her keening ceases at my words. She looks up at me with rage-filled eyes, and is silent for what feels like an eternity, just staring up at me. When she finally opens her mouth, her words are like ice.
“No. Take me to Dark Angels. Now.”
“Amber, you don’t know that that’s where he went. You said he was fired from there.” I try to reason with her, but she stares at me with a cold face.
“I do know that’s where he went. He did this to taunt me. He’s going there. Take me there, Ryan, or I’ll find my own way.”
I sigh and lead us to the vehicle we had left parked outside earlier. I’m praying to whatever higher power is listening that Danny survives. I don’t know him that well, but if he doesn’t make it, Amber will be irrevocably changed.
I help Amber into the passenger seat of my Range Rover and shut the door. Amber is staring straight ahead with a completely emotionless face. Without knowing precisely what to do at this point, I fire off a text to Collin and Jensen before I enter the vehicle, letting them know what just occurred. What Amber is doing now, it may be outside of the law, and she’s part of our unit now. Just like Zaydra. We need to come through, for my woman.
I climb inside the car, and Amber is still staring forward. I keep my eyes on her while I put it in drive before I focus on the road. After a few beats of silence, her soft voice floats to my ears.
“I’m going to kill him, Ryan. If you don’t want to be involved or considered a co-conspirator, I suggest you drop me at the front door and wait for me.” Her cold matter-of-fact tone both worries me and pisses me off.
“If you think I’m going to let you face Dick-for-Brains alone, you don’t know me at all. I love you, we’re in this together. And if we get arrested, we’ll do jail time together. Orange really is your color.” I try to lighten the mood a bit, and her lips quirk for a moment before pressing into the harsh line again.
“What a moment to tell me you love me when we’re both fully awake. Right before I commit murder,” she tells me harshly.
“What can I say? I love your crazy side…he’s going to be okay, baby. He knows he has to fight. Like you said, his wife would have your ass. He won’t leave her, he’s stubborn like me, and I survived being shot because I wouldn’t leave you.”
My words cause a single tear to slide down her left cheek before she swipes it away. The beats of silence elongate as the miles between Starbucks and Dark Angels slide by. I barely hear her whispered words as we arrive.
“Kenny is fucked because orange really is my color.”
Chapter Thirty-Five: Amber
I push my way past Lance, the door guy, with Ryan right on my heels. Once inside, I hear the music pulsing a heavy beat. I look around, but don’t see Kenny anywhere. I move through the crowd of patrons up to the bar, where Haven is bartending for Briar and I, and wave to get her attention. She comes over, looking frazzled.
“What’s up, sweets?” she yells over the music.
“Did you see Kenny come in here?” I call back. She nods and jerks her chin towards the private rooms, as she multitasks, mixing drinks and talking to me.
“He came in and jerked Tara off a bar stool. Said she owed him a dance, among other things. He dragged her back towards the rooms. Lance didn’t see it, and I’m a little worried. It was maybe five minutes ago.” I glance at Ryan grimly and a muscle jumps in his jaw.
“We’re gonna handle it, babes. Could you maybe pull a fire alarm? Trust me, all these people need to get the hell out of here.”
Her eyes grow wide and she’s giving me a “she’s crazy” look, so I pull out my DEA badge. Her mouth opens and closes like a fish, and she nods a bunch of times. I know I should care I just blew my cover, but I don’t give one single fuck. Taking Ryan by the hand, I lead him back to the private rooms. I trust Haven to get these people out. I slam open doors, trying to find Tara and Kenny, when the fire alarm sounds. I fling open the last door to see Tara standing with Kenny behind her, holding a knife to her throat.
I immediately draw my gun, but he grips her tighter. I can feel Ryan behind me with his gun drawn as well. Kenny smiles at me maniacally.
“I knew you’d follow me. Because you’re a crazy bitch. You don’t have any sense in your head? Who sold you a gun? I didn’t think they let psychos own guns?” He laughs at his own jokes while he accidentally cuts Tara’s neck, who looks calmer than I was in the same situation.
“Kenny, you need to put down the weapon and let Tara go. I’m DEA, that’s why I have a gun. You just attacked a federal agent. This ends badly for you, no matter how you look at it.” Kenny turns white but throws me a pissed off glare.
“There’s no way you’re DEA. He’s the cop, not you,” he spits at me, gesturing to Ryan, who is making his way slowly, to try to find a clear shot.
“Kenny, you’re looking at the death penalty if Agent Evers dies. If you surrender now, then maybe they’ll go easy on you,” I say in a soothing tone.
“Fuck you, bitch! You fucked it all up. Snooping around, asking too many questions. That’s why your apartment got trashed; so you’d leave shit alone. Then you go and get me fired, that’s why I told my sister’s boyfriend to put a hit out on you. After that, you go and shoot her! What the fuck? You deserved to hurt as bad as I’m hurting. That’s why I gave the big guy a hotshot; you treated him like a brother. No way you’re DEA; you take your clothes off here! Besides, Pablo would have known. He would have killed you before now. He just said you were a nuisance. A hot piece of ass he could probably get a lot of money for.” He’s rambling and shaking. I’m guessing he’s high on something.
&nbs
p; “Who’s Pablo, Kenny?” Ryan’s voice lashes out like a whip. Kenny jerks his head to stare at Ryan’s hard face, pulling Tara tighter. She’s trying to tell me something but I’m terrible at reading lips. Kenny laughs maniacally again.
“You should know, Detective! He shot you!” Kenny says with laughter lacing his voice, and rage pours through me.
“Who is Pablo, you piece of shit?” I spit loudly, pointing my gun higher at his forehead.
“Pablo Ordonez. He’s a cousin of the cartel leader or something. He was sent to bring the trade to St. Louis. As he said, to kill as many gringos as possible. He told me it’s happening in every major city. It’s retaliation against the president. He wanted my sister and I to distribute the product around. He’s got a lot of dealers throughout the city. He’s gonna kill you because he said you’ve seen his face.” Kenny hisses the last part.
Sudden realization slams into me. Ember didn’t look familiar because she looked like Kenny, even though she does. Ember looked familiar because she was the busty blonde I saw having anal sex at Club Exile. The gorgeous Hispanic man…was the kingpin I’ve been looking for all along. Son of a bitch.
My eyes connect with Tara’s again. Her eyes dart down, and she cocks her head. Finally, in understanding, I give a barely imperceptible nod. I glance at Ryan and he nods as well, since he hadn’t been able to get a clear shot with how tall Tara is.
Kenny starts rambling again before the breath whooshes out of his lungs as Tara knocks her butt back into his midsection. She steps on his instep and elbows him in the face as the knife clatters to the ground. She pulls his arm behind his back and puts him in a hold. To our shock, she then draws her own gun from somewhere beneath her tiny dress. She presses it right against his temple.
“You’re going to add another charge to your pending sheet. Attempted murder to a second Federal Agent. I’m FBI, bitch,” Tara hisses in his ear as he groans. Ryan and I lower our weapons with bewildered looks. She holds her hand out to Ryan and he’s looking at her strangely.
Wannabe: An Against The Odds Novel Page 18