She snapped her head up to mine and hastily wiped her eyes. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”
I smiled. “If this is how you react to everything being fine, I’m worried about how things go when they’re good.”
She untucked her feet from beneath her and grabbed a sheet of paper that was on the couch next to her. “Maybe they’re not perfect, but they’re going to be. Eventually. I got a letter from Jamie.”
I sat down across from her and nodded to it. “Threatening?”
She nodded. “Very. It isn’t his normal style, but it’s enough. Maybe the judge will take this seriously now.”
“If not, we’ll still be here, Jade. We’ll make sure nothing happens. Where did you find the letter?”
“It was in the mail. Between the newspaper and the water bill.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I just want this to be over so I can get back to my life.”
“Hopefully, the judge will see that this asshole is dangerous and will put him in jail. Then, things can get back to normal.”
Jade laughed and met my gaze with a hardened one of her own. “Normal? I don’t know if anything can ever be normal again. The man I thought I loved tried to set me on fire. Now he’s sending threatening letters like some sort of movie villain. I trusted him. I brought him into my house.”
I looked down at my hands and blew out a rough breath. “You’re right. Things probably won’t ever be the normal you knew again. They’ll be a different normal eventually. Maybe one that’s even better.”
“Maybe.”
I stood up and pulled my phone out of my pocket. “I’ll call the police over. We’ll get this process started so maybe it’ll be over soon.”
She put the paper back down on the couch next to her and sighed. “Let’s just hope the judge believes me this time. Last time, it was like he had something against me.”
I dialed the local precinct and looked back at her. “Probably just an asshole being an asshole.”
She sat silently while I talked to a cop and requested they get someone over at Jade’s house. When I hung up, she stood up and moved towards the kitchen. “Do you want something to drink while we wait? Coffee? Tea?”
I shook my head. “I’ll wait outside for them to get here. Unless you need me in here.”
Jade gave me a self-deprecating stare. “Would you mind? I’m kind of freaked out.”
“Stay inside instead of waiting out in the heat? Yeah, that’s not exactly a punishment.” I sat back down and crossed my ankle over my knee. “Get yourself something to drink and try to relax, Jade. I’m here.”
“Thanks, Vince. You’re great.”
I watched her disappear into the kitchen and typed out a quick text to Lauren and Mercer. Then I looked at the number of the woman I’d met the night before while searching for Carolina. I opened a message to her and asked her if she’d seen or heard from her friend.
The woman, Lola, had said that Carolina had the night off, but she’d also said that she’d be surprised if “Cookie” showed up after the shooting. At least for a while. Apparently, Frank Porter was one of their biggest customers. Shooting his kid wasn’t exactly great for business.
I’d tried to get Carolina’s address from Lola, but it was a no-go. They didn’t give out that kind of information, understandably. When I’d pressed, she’d told me to fuck off. I could appreciate that.
A few seconds passed and I got a text back from Lola saying that Cookie had stopped by the club and borrowed some clothes before heading out. She’d taken some time off from work. I asked if she knew where Cookie was going, but she said she didn’t. Then I asked if she knew Carolina’s last name, hoping that she’d tell me so I could look her up, but she just stopped replying.
I made plans to stop by Lenny and Letta’s after I got off duty. They’d know if anything else had happened with the case.
Jade came back out of the kitchen with a cup of tea and sat across from me while she slowly sipped it. Her eyes stayed on the saucer, even as she brought the mug to her lips and drank. “I’m boring.”
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to answer or not, but I couldn’t help it. “You’re not boring. You’re—”
“No, I am boring. And I like it.” She held up the saucer. “I went to a bunch of yard sales one weekend and I found this saucer and cup. It was exciting to find something so cute. That’s my fun time. I’m boring and I like it. I read and I clean and I work. It’s simple and easy. This… this stuff that’s happening right now isn’t boring and I hate it. I don’t want to live an exciting life.”
I didn’t think it was all that exciting, having to stay in and hide while your ex threatened you, but then again, my version of excitement was risking my life to do stupid shit like cliff jumping and skydiving. “This won’t last forever, Jade.”
“Good. Because I can’t handle it.”
I thought she might surprise herself. When pushed, a lot of people showed undeniable courage that they didn’t know they possessed. She’d be fine. “Hopefully, it’ll be over before you know it. I hear someone coming. It should be the cops.”
“Make sure before you open the door, please. I don’t want to give Jamie a chance to hurt you.” She looked so worried, clutching her hands together like she was praying.
I grinned and flexed my muscles. “I should be able to handle myself.”
She didn’t laugh and I got the impression that it’d be awhile before she really let herself take anything lightly.
It was a squad car I’d heard. They came in and the whole thing took less time than I thought it would. They seemed to take the note as nothing until they got a call from their captain. Then, it was gloves on and evidence bags before they went outside and made some calls. When they came back inside, they told us that the judge had issued an arrest warrant and that they were going to go pick Jamie up.
Just like that.
I could tell that Jade was surprised and slightly stupefied by the news. I couldn’t say that I was any less surprised than her. I’d never seen an arrest warrant issued so quickly, especially without testing the evidence. For all they, or the judge, knew, Jade had written the note herself.
When they were gone, Jade and I just looked at each other for a few seconds. It was a weird interaction. Coming from someone who’d had nothing but shit interactions with the cops in recent months, I was floored that they’d turned out to be so… willing to please after the call from the captain.
I didn’t tell my worries to Jade, though. She seemed relieved. She even called her uncle and told him the news. She smiled, like she thought it was all over. I couldn’t make myself tell her that it didn’t feel over. She seemed lighter, something I’d just been sure she wouldn’t be again for a while. Yet, there she was. Lighter.
She still seemed hesitant about being in the house alone, so I stayed inside with her and played cards while the hours passed. I was just about to go off duty when she got a call telling her that Jamie had been picked up and would be sitting in jail at least until the morning, when the judge heard his case. The cop on the phone seemed to imply to Jade that Jamie wouldn’t be making bail and that she could rest easy.
She cried and I felt like an asshole for doubting it all. Something was too easy. If there was anything all my years in the SEALs had taught me, it was that things that were too easy were just that. Too easy. Nothing was that easy and simple. Nothing.
Jade actually gave me a quick hug, though, and I couldn’t make myself stay negative when she was beaming suddenly. She thought all of her problems were over.
I guessed that, technically, for the night, they were. With Jamie locked up, she could rest easy. When her Uncle Marshall came home to celebrate with her, I headed outside to let them have their time together before I switched shifts and left.
Mercer was outside waiting on me. He nodded to me when he spotted me and then nodded over to Marshall’s car. “Everything okay?”
“Better than, it seems. What are you doing here?” I looked
around for Tucker or Cooper, but came up empty-handed. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be working anything right now.”
“Fuck that. We’re swamped like all hell right now. Everyone’s working. We can’t afford for me to not be working.” He paused. “What do you mean, better than?”
I shook my head and told him what had transpired that day. He frowned a lot and then mumbled to himself while kicking at the rocks under his prosthesis. “I know. It’s too good to be true—right?”
He just nodded. His silence told me what I needed to know. Mercer had intuition like no one I’d ever met. He didn’t just have gut feelings, he had gut feelings.
I winced. It just confirmed what I feared. There was something going on that we couldn’t see. I didn’t like it. The whole situation with Jamie was too easy. Things didn’t happen that way. Especially when dealing with an incompetent police force like the local one we were dealing with.
Without anything else to do besides wrack our brains for what we couldn’t see or possibly know, I took off for the day after telling Jade goodbye. I had a stop to make in my efforts to protect a different woman.
Letta grinned at me and tossed her rag down on the counter when I walked in. “I must be seeing things. Vince coming around two times in less than a week? What’s the world coming to?”
I grinned. “I hate to admit that I’m here for more information.”
“About the same woman?”
I nodded once and settled on a stool in front of her. “Same woman, indeed.”
“She’s not a case, but you sure are curious.” She tilted her head and stared at me with a knowing look. “Something going on that we should know about?”
I grinned. “Would you believe me if I said that she gave me a lap dance at a bar and I can’t stop thinking about it?”
Lenny popped out of the back and scowled. “Don’t come in here talking about lap dances and God knows what else. I run a clean establishment, son. And you still haven’t called or gone by to see your momma!”
“Uncle Lenny, come on! I’m working.”
“I don’t care if you’re becoming president. Call your mom, at least. She’s worried.”
“She’s always worried.”
“Well, maybe she has a reason to. And that reason is six foot four and standing right in front of me.”
I sighed and looked to Letta. “Help me out here.”
She held her hands up. “All I can tell you is that you need to go see your momma and that the redhead was cleared of all charges and that really pissed Porter off. I heard a house over on Randal was broken into by some of Porter’s men, looking for her.”
My chest tightened. “Did they catch her?”
“Doesn’t seem so. They’re still looking for her, according to the local chatter.”
I grabbed her hands and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “You’re amazing. Thanks.”
Lenny smacked my head and scowled even harder. “Keep your lips to yourself, asshole.”
Chapter 10
Cookie
When I was a kid, I’d been all over the place. Changing states and cities was as common as changing the oil in the car. I’d been everywhere. Until the state took me from my mom and I was put into foster care. Then I ran away to everywhere I could get. I’d really been everywhere, it felt. For some reason, though, I couldn’t make myself leave this town when I needed to the most. My house, The View, my dream. They were things I hadn’t had as a kid. A foundation.
I couldn’t make myself walk away, even though my life depended on it. I was in this town, for better or for worse. I knew places to hide, thankfully. My last foster home before I aged out of the system was in town. When home got rough, I ran away. There was a shelter downtown where a woman named Rosie worked. She took me in each time.
I’d stayed in touch with Rosie and she thought nothing of opening her doors in the middle of the night to let me in. She gave me a warm blanket and a corner bed that let me see the rest of the shelter so no one could sneak up on me. She also let me use her personal bathroom to clean up in.
What she didn’t have were clothes for me. That was a problem easily solved by stopping into The View early in the morning to grab clothes from my locker. Lola had also been there and had tossed me a few of her things, too. Steve hadn’t been happy about giving me a few days off, but he couldn’t really argue. Not when one of his top clients was trying to kill me. Talk about a conflict.
By lunch that day, my new reality was setting in. I was running and hiding from a mob boss who wanted to kill me. It fucking sucked. I was bored and I wanted to go home. Or go to work. I also couldn’t help thinking about my money stashed in the vent at home, the money I hadn’t been able to take to the bank. Had Porter’s men found it?
I needed advice about what to do, but I knew I couldn’t go back to the cops. The detective was a raging asshole and would probably happily serve me up to Frank without a second thought.
The only other person I felt comfortable asking for advice was Lauren. I didn’t know her super well, but I knew that she worked at a security firm and that she was a badass. She could outlast me on any pose during yoga class. She was my class friend and I was about to abuse that relationship to the fullest by dragging her into my mess. I needed help, though. I needed to know what to do.
It was Monday night and our yoga class met at six thirty. Callie Conn led it with a gentle firmness that I wished I could tap into at that moment. I’d put my mat down next to Lauren for over a year. We’d always talked after class, but we’d never managed to get together for the drinks that we always mentioned. My hours directly coincided with normal drinking hours. For all I knew, hers did, too.
Elizabeth, who was always on the other side of Lauren, smiled at me as I set up next to Lauren. “Hey. I like the au naturel thing you’re doing.”
I reached up to touch my bare cheeks and made a face. I hadn’t been able to grab my makeup bag on the way out of my house, for some odd reason. “That makes one of us.”
Lauren looked over at me and nodded. “You look good. Minus the stressed-out look you’re wearing. You okay?”
“Okay, class. Let’s get started.” Callie strolled into the room with all the grace she always possessed.
I wanted to skip the class and just talk to Lauren, but I figured she wouldn’t want to miss the class. So, I stayed there and went through the poses with everyone else until I was ready to scream.
“What is going on with you? Stress is rolling off of you in waves.” Lauren’s quiet whisper was a welcome opening.
“I need to talk to you, actually. I’m in some trouble.”
Elizabeth peeked over. “What’s wrong?”
“I may or may not have shot Frank Porter’s son.”
“Who’s Frank Porter?”
Lauren gave Elizabeth an incredulous look. “The mob boss, Frank Porter. You shot his son? That was you? Jesus, Cookie.”
Callie glared over at us and motioned for us to be quiet. We were definitely interrupting the class. People were starting to stare.
“I don’t know what to do. His men showed up at my house.”
Lauren stood up straight and forgot about yoga completely. “They showed up at your house?”
I’d told myself to keep it together and not be too dramatic. So much for that. “He’s going to kill me.”
Elizabeth stood up and joined us. “We’ll help.”
Lauren nodded. “Of course we will.”
“Ladies, if you’d be so kind as to move your meeting outside of the room.” Callie and the rest of the class were just staring at us.
I realized we’d stopped everyone and felt panic rising in my chest. I’d made such a mess of things and it didn’t seem to be getting any less messy. “I’ll go. Forget I said anything.”
Lauren grabbed my hand. “No way. We’re helping you.”
I started to argue, but out of the large front windows, a flash of light caught my eye. I looked to see what it was and saw the end of
a gun pointed into the studio. “Everyone, get down!”
My scream sent everyone into motion, but gunfire followed it too closely. Screaming erupted as the deafening shots filled the room. Everyone seemed to be crawling around on the floor, panicking. We had to get out of the room, though. We were sitting ducks.
I grabbed Lauren and Elizabeth and yanked them towards the door. “Stay down and get out of here! Everyone! Move towards the door. Keep your heads down!”
Screams drowned me out, but I just started crawling towards people and shoving them in the direction of the back door. It all seemed to last forever. Breaking glass and the constant firing of the gun. Guns, maybe. I finally ended up plastered under the window, straining to hear if someone was coming close to me.
I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t more scared than I was. I was freaked out, but I felt relatively calm for the situation. My mind had slowed down and kicked into gear, getting everyone away from the gunfire before they were hurt. I felt like more of a badass than I had any right to.
When I realized the shooting had stopped, I stayed where I was, terrified to lift my head and get it blown off. I counted to two hundred and then slowly crawled towards the door to get out of the room. I was the only person left inside and by the time I got to the door, I was shaking. The adrenaline that had been coursing through my body had definitely started to wear off. Not so much of a badass as I thought.
In the hallway, women were huddled down and crying. Callie was openly sobbing and my rattled brain wondered how to reconcile that version of her with the Zen master version. Lauren was closest to the door. She grabbed me and yanked me to her side as soon as my hands cleared the door.
“What the actual fuck was that?”
My teeth chattered as I pressed my back against the wall and sucked in deep breaths. “Frank.”
“Not that! You! You’re not fucking Bruce Willis! What were you doing in there?”
Elizabeth leaned forward and I saw that she looked a little green. “I, personally, am grateful for your superhero antics. If you hadn’t pushed me…”
Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series Page 53