by Lee Winter
In her left ear, she could hear Bruce’s soft panting. In her right was the distant, haunting cry of a ruru—the native owl some Maoris believed foretold the coming of an ominous event. Well, it’d be ominous as hell for those two.
A pair of Hornets were sneaking into the yard. One hung back, playing lookout, while the other ducked behind a small, brown service building, sticking to the shadows. Somewhere down there, a team of police would be waiting to pounce. She hadn’t seen them yet, but she’d recognized their unmarked cars on her walk here, hidden out of sight, four streets away.
The ruru called again, and the lookout Hornet turned nervously, peering into the darkness. Maybe he was a superstitious type. He pulled out a torch and aimed it at the low, sloping corrugated iron roof, lighting a path.
The first man climbed up an old crate and rammed a small, sausage-shaped black bag into the shed’s wide guttering. Sam pulled out her phone and started video recording as he repeated this twice with other bags. It was grainy as hell, but the Hornet shining torchlight on the guttering for his friend had illuminated their faces for a few seconds.
A scuffle in the distance drew her eye. She turned to see a swarm of officers surrounding a stooped man next to the main railyard building, holding a paper bag. He twisted away and a streetlight caught him. Why the hell were they bothering Larry the crazy hermit?
They were shouting now: “Police! Drop the package and step back!”
For God’s sake! Wrong man!
The Hornets she’d been watching froze, then pinned themselves against the wall, well out of sight from the police, looking agitated and fearful.
Sam cursed, ended the recording, and texted Murray.
Behind brown shed. North end. 2 Hornets. Packages in roof gutter.
One of the figures surrounding the cursing hermit stepped away from the crowd, pulled out his phone, then turned slowly, surveying the area. Murray, obviously. He pointed at the brown shed, said something, then bent over his phone.
Sam’s phone pinged seconds later.
U shouldnt be here.
Jesus, Murray, just take the damn tip. Sam scowled, wondering how much shit he’d put her in. She texted a reply.
Just passing thru while out for a jog
She looked up. Oh crap! She fired off a new text.
Theyr on move!
Police broke cover, emerging from every dark corner, and bolted toward the brown shed. The pounding of booted feet alerted the two bikies, who took off in opposite directions. One turned directly into the face of a cop who had him faceplanted and cuffed in seconds, only feet from the Hornet’s motorbike. Efficient.
“One down,” she told Bruce in approval.
The other sprinted for the cliffs. Toward her.
Bruce sat up, ears pricking.
“Yeah, I know, boy. Not too lucky, is he? He’s gonna be toast, one way or another.”
She pulled out her phone again.
Cliffs. Northeast
This guy was much faster than the first and had a pretty good head start on police below.
The bikie’s head eventually bobbed up above the cliff edge, his wheezing announcing him long before she saw his round, brown face.
“Hi.” Crouching at the top, Sam met his startled eyes. “Going somewhere?”
He eyed her outfit. “Who the fuck are you?” He hauled himself over the ledge, rising to an enormous height, and sized her up properly.
“I supposed you’d know me as hukapapa.” She stood.
He scowled. “The fuckin’ cop. Shit.” He looked around as if he was deciding whether to run or attack her. He probably could flatten her quite easily with one swat of his meaty fist.
“I wouldn’t. Best you just sit down right now.” Sam injected cool menace into her voice.
“Or what?” He snorted.
“Or you’ll piss off my dog.” She pointed at Bruce, who was now happily sniffing out the exciting new smells of the intruder’s boots, tail quivering with delight.
“That thing? Doesn’t come up past me ankle.”
“True, he’s small,” Sam agreed, “but Balltearer can jump to crotch height, which is all he needs.”
“Ball…tearer?” He eyed Bruce. “You’re bluffing!”
“Am I? Well, let’s see. How brave do you feel?” Sam asked curiously. “How much do you like your bits where they are?”
Five minutes later, the drug squad arrested a surly Hornet frozen on his knees at the top of a cliff, his wary eyes fixed on a small, ancient Jack Russell terrier.
Murray came to stand beside Sam. “Out for a jog, eh? At eleven-thirty at night?” He took in her black beanie, matching dark top and pants, and heavy boots. “Very, ah, sporty. Cool monochrome, too.”
“Black’s slimming,” Sam drawled. “I’ve emailed you a video of the drop since you were all busy roughing up the wrong suspect. Don’t want those two wriggling off the hook. Just don’t make me regret it.”
Murray checked his phone, eyes widening at what he found. “Thanks. No probs. After all, you were just out for a jog.” He nodded, then smiled. “Did ya hear the Hornet HQ raid got the entire bloody meth factory? They’re toast. Whole lot of them. The Tauranga drug squad are losing their shit they’re so happy, cos that one factory was drowning their whole city in drugs.”
“Good.” Sam relaxed. So it really was over. No more climbing bikie walls or trailing dopehead couriers around town. “Couldn’t have happened to better assholes.”
“No arguments from me. Closer to home, they just caught a local man trying to collect the drugs at the drop site.” He waved vaguely at the railyard below. “Not too bright. An aggressive little shit called…” He rummaged through his pocket and pulled out his police notebook. “Fletcher Norton. They’re rounding up his mates now for questioning.”
Sam’s eyes widened. That asshole was who’d hooked half the town on this crap? “Just when I thought I couldn’t hate someone more, they prove me wrong.”
“Well, he’s in deep shit now. You won’t have to see him for a long while.” Murray turned at the shout of his name. “Gotta go. But this feels great, doesn’t it? It’s why I became a cop!”
Sam watched him jog away, envy surging through her. Yeah. It was great. They’d done it. Cut off the snake’s head. And now it was over. And maybe that was the last arrest she’d ever attend. She might never get to feel this way again; the sense she’d helped serve justice. She rammed her hands in her pockets at that bittersweet thought.
“Come on, Bruce,” she said gently. “You did great, boy. Really intimidating. I totally felt it.” She snorted. “Let’s get you home.”
As she headed off, her mind filled itself again to the brim with the blur of questions, riddles, and stress she’d been pushing from it for the past hour. Sid’s betrayal flooded her mind once more and she scowled, picking up her pace. What. The. Hell.
CHAPTER 23
Being There
Alex woke to a thumping on her trailer door. Blearily she rose, glancing at the red numbers of the clock on the microwave. 1:02 a.m. She opened the door a crack.
Sam was outside, agitation all over her face, hair mussed. She looked more disturbed than Alex had ever seen her. “Sorry to wake you.”
“Don’t be.” Alex widened the door and shivered against the cold air Sam was letting in.
Sam’s gaze trailed over Alex’s sleepwear—striped blue pajama bottoms and a faded Clannad T-shirt. Alex suddenly wished she’d worn something less tragic than her favorite Irish band shirt.
“I shouldn’t have come,” Sam said, regret troubling her eyes. “It’s so late. I was having the worst night trying to get my head straight, and I found myself here. I don’t know what I was thinking, bothering you.”
“I’d say you were thinking pretty clearly if you chose me.” Alex smiled. “Get your ass in here before we b
oth freeze.”
After a second’s hesitation, Sam clambered inside and closed the trailer’s door.
“Want a drink?” Alex asked.
“No.”
“To talk?” Alex asked, curious about Sam’s strange mood. She’d never seen her so unsettled.
Sam glanced around. Her gaze shifted restlessly from the kitchenette to the couch, the ajar door to the bathroom, and finally the rumpled bed.
Alex lifted her eyebrows. “Oh.” She smirked.
Sam’s cheeks reddened.
“Is that why you came?”
“I…” Sam looked uncertain.
Alex’s low tone contained heat. “You know, I’ve been thinking about you all day. My wandering thoughts haven’t exactly been G-rated.” Alex tilted her head and a smile ghosted around her lips. “So if you felt the same, if that’s why you came, I have no objections. So…is it?”
For a moment, Sam didn’t speak, and then she looked down, a blush feathering around her cheeks. “You mean more to me than that. You’re not just someone I want to…you know…whenever I’m out of sorts.”
“I know. But is that why you came? For…you know?”
“Not…consciously.”
“Subconsciously then?”
Sam’s gaze darkened and her chin lifted. “Yes.”
Alex couldn’t believe how arousing that admission was, torn from Sam’s throat like a naughty secret. Her nipples tightened and want coursed through her, leaping from nerve ending to nerve ending. “Then I think you’d better kiss me.”
Waking in Alex Levitin’s arms was glorious. Sam breathed in the scent of her skin, the aroma that was all Alex. Intoxicating. Sweet. Subtle.
She only barely remembered how she’d wound up here. Her talk with Sid yesterday had started an emotional tsunami that kept rising the longer she thought about it. It turned up all sorts of issues, including the choices that led her to stay in Ika Whenu. It was all so confusing.
But one thing that wasn’t confusing was Alex. Her warmth and easy acceptance, her comfort, had been a steady presence in the darkness. It went deeper than their attraction. Of course their chemistry burned and arced between them. But this was something else. It felt like where she was meant to be.
She studied the sleeping woman, curled up tight against her, just like the sparrow she’d likened her to the day they met. The memory of Alex surrounded by Wild Boars made her want to tug her closer. Sam’s relief at finding her unharmed that day had been overwhelming.
What was it about Alex Levitin that got under her skin? Why did Alex feel so different to any other woman she’d dated? Why did she crave her so much?
Sam trailed her fingers down Alex’s arm. Clever, funny, focused, dedicated, and adventurous. She was someone who picked up and saw the world on a whim. How amazing that must be.
Playing with a tuft of red hair at Alex’s temple, Sam tried to imagine existing in Alex’s life. It was so foreign. Everything Sam did was so cut and dried. Seek out crime, stop crime. That was it.
Alex is so beautiful. She smiled at herself. Funny, given Alex looked so rumpled.
The woman she was admiring stirred, confusion filling her eyes for a moment as she focused. Alex’s expression cleared and she smiled. “Morning, beautiful. I love that look you have for me.”
“I don’t have a look,” Sam replied, confounded.
“Sure you do. You look at me with wonder and…hmm…a hint of envy.”
“Envy?” Sam’s eyebrows rose. “I don’t.”
“I don’t mean it in a bad way. It’s like a wistfulness. I must seem to float around the world on a whim. You find that very attractive.”
“I…” Sam deflated. Was Alex a mind reader? Was it written on her forehead?
“Sorry.” Alex hesitated. “Sore point?”
Sam sighed. “I didn’t know it was obvious.”
“Well if you put the clues together, maybe. You stare at postcards from distant places, listen to world music, race out of town every spare minute on Tiger. I see someone craving escape.”
“Maybe,” Sam conceded. “Is that so bad?”
“Of course not. It’s only natural. Why do you ask? Do you feel like it’s bad?”
Sam couldn’t answer that now any more than she could last night when her feet had taken her straight to Alex’s door. It was too confusing.
“A rare sight.” Alex’s eyes crinkled. “Senior Constable Keegan looking stumped.”
Sam regarded her thoughtfully. “You never did take my police officer side too seriously, did you?”
“How do you mean?”
“You always say my rank like it’s something admirable or even amusing. But it’s never a negative.”
“Why would it be negative?”
“Try being a police officer for a day. All anyone sees is the uniform. When I enter the pub, conversations often switch topics, in case I hear something that’ll get them in trouble. It’s human nature. Not with you, though.”
“Well, it’s not that I don’t take it seriously. It’s just that’s not even close to everything you are, is it? I like all of you. In and out of your uniform.” She smiled at the double entendre.
“You see me.”
“Yes. And I like what I see a great deal.” Her fingertips trailed Sam’s arm. “Besides, I know what it’s like, being only seen as your title.”
“Oh? Are directors treated in some weird way I don’t know about?”
“It’s more how the film industry is. People are so desperate for their big break that anyone with a whiff of power is fawned over. It’s disconcerting. I get actresses flinging themselves at me—as if I can’t tell what they’re really after. Worse, most are straight. God, it’s exhausting. So, I get where you’re coming from. People often don’t see you.” Alex’s eyes suddenly lit with amusement. “Although I notice you never cared that I was some Hollywood director either, did you? In fact, you hated me for it.”
“Hate’s a strong word,” Sam suggested, tone teasing. “I’m protective of Ika Whenu. If there was any hate, it was about your appalling driving skills.”
Alex laughed. “Damn—sexy, and a sense of humor.”
“Who’s joking?” Sam deadpanned.
“Uh-huh. So tell me: What had Ika Whenu’s sexy cop out of bed and on my doorstep at one a.m. in the first place?”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“I think that’s self-evident.”
“I have a lot on my mind.”
Alex paused. “Us?”
“No. Well, yes. But that’s not what had me up.” Sam inhaled. “All my life, I’ve done everything I could for my family. I love them and I’m grateful for them, so I never minded. They made me feel like I belonged.”
“You do belong,” Alex said. “Gina adores you. Sid, too.”
Sam’s whole body felt tight. “He adores me so much that he admitted yesterday he was behind the set sabotage.”
“What?” Alex’s eyes snapped open. “No!”
“I had to find that out from Dino. That was lovely.”
“Why did Sid do that?” Alex demanded. “Was he being paid by someone?”
“He wouldn’t say. Whatever the reason, it hurts. Years ago, Gina begged me to move back home and help Kev. I made a promise to her that day to always be there for them, because that’s what family does. But now…I’ve been wondering if the respect goes only one way.”
“Oh, Sam. They respect you.”
“Do they? Or maybe it’s a sign.”
“A sign of what?”
“Nothing. Never mind.” Sam shook her head. “Anyway, in the middle of it all, I realized I have no idea where I’m heading. For years I’ve assumed I’d die here with my boots on like the last cop.”
“You have so many choices for the first time,” Alex said. “It must b
e overwhelming.”
“And this afternoon the Police Commissioner wants to see me. If I’m sacked or lose my station, then what?”
“Okay.” Alex studied her. “Close your eyes. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say, Sam Keegan, what would you most like to be doing right now?”
“I’m on a beach.”
“Ooh, nice. Where?”
“There’s a beach I always wanted to go to. Pfeiffer Beach in California. I saw a documentary on it once and I’d never seen anything like it before. The sand is a purple color because it contains crushed garnet. There’s a keyhole arch the waves burst through, too. And the ocean is clearest blue. The temperature’s perfect, not freezing like here. I always fantasized about camping near my beach and gazing out over the sea.” She hesitated. “My first girlfriend, Nicole, knew that was my dream place—”
“Wait, her postcard? That’s Pfeiffer Beach?”
“Yes. It’s why she sent it. She was mocking me, saying, ‘Look, I went to your precious beach because you never will.’”
“She really is a bitch.” Alex scowled.
“She was hurt. We’d always planned to go there together but I had priorities here I couldn’t ignore. Maybe she was right, though. Maybe I never will see my beach.”
“Why do you believe that? Even if you stay in Ika Whenu, you could still have a holiday anywhere you like.”
“This probably sounds silly for someone like me who enjoys her own company, but I never wanted to be at my beach alone. I don’t want to travel alone at all. My dream is to enjoy the adventure with someone. The world’s meant to be shared.”
“I understand,” Alex said. “And now you’re at a crossroads, wondering what you are going to do now.”
Sam regarded her pensively.
“You’re allowed not to know,” Alex continued. “You don’t even know right now if you have a job. So why don’t you table all this till after your meeting with the Police Commissioner?”
Silence fell. Finally, Sam said, “That’s a good point. Okay.”