True Blue K-9 Unit: Brooklyn Christmas

by Laura Scott

  “Come, Sam.” He wanted his partner far away from any potential explosion. But as they made their way through the hallway, he was somewhat reassured that Sam didn’t alert at any other apartment doors. He used the radio clipped to his collar and asked for the bomb squad to be sent to her building.

  He glanced at Eden. “Who has a key to your place? Your brother?”

  “No way. I wouldn’t trust him and he’s never been here.” She frowned. “No one else has a key except my roommate, Anna.”

  Max swept his gaze over the area. There was no sign of anything out of place in the hallway. Sam had alerted only in front of her door. Did that mean someone had come up here, tried to get in and left? Sam had an incredible nose; he would alert at the faintest hint of oil from an explosive device.

  Had the guy from the subway come here first to look for Eden? Had he tested the door, leaving trace oil behind? The thought made his blood run cold. “We need to get out of here.”

  “But—Charlie, Anna’s tabby cat, is in there.” Eden’s dark eyes were wide with fear. Petite in stature, she was incredibly beautiful with her silky long straight dark hair framing her face and he had to swallow hard to keep himself from babbling like an idiot.

  No distractions, remember?

  “We can’t risk it.” He put his hand beneath Eden’s elbow. “Come on, we’ll wait to see what the bomb squad thinks.”

  They took the stairs down to the lobby level. The bomb squad arrived within minutes. The officer in charge took Eden’s key and immediately requested an evacuation of the building before heading upstairs to enter Eden’s apartment.

  Max took Eden outside, keeping her close within the crowd. As more and more people gathered around them, he found himself wondering if someone was out there right now watching, waiting for a chance to get at Eden.

  If so, they’d have to get past him and Sam first.

  After a long hour, the bomb squad called an all clear.

  “We didn’t find anything in your apartment or anywhere else.” The guy in charge returned Eden’s key. “There was trace oil on the door handle that must have caused your K-9 to alert.”

  “I guess that’s good news.” Her voice was faint, as if she were hanging on by a thread.

  The local cops who’d responded along with the bomb squad came over to question Eden. When she explained about the subway attack, Max readily corroborated her story.

  “Anything else?” the officer asked.

  He turned toward Eden. “Do you know if your brother’s friend, Tayron Lee, has ever played around with making bombs?”

  “Never.” Eden’s response came without hesitation. “He might be obsessed with asking me out, but creating a bomb? Trying to stab me? That just doesn’t sound like him.”

  “Anyone else fit the pattern?”

  “No.” Eden looked defeated. “Fortunately, Tayron is the only one I’ve had issues with on a personal level.”

  The officers exchanged a glance. “We’ll question him.”

  “Thanks.” The idea of Tayron harassing her was concerning. Even if he wasn’t responsible for the stabbing or leaving the smear of explosive oil behind, Max would love nothing more than to toss the guy in jail for simply being a jerk.

  Normally, a guy trying to get a woman to notice him wouldn’t attack her.

  On the other hand, a person with behavioral health issues could become obsessed and unbalanced enough to lash out at the woman he coveted. Which might include stabbing and making bombs. Was it possible Tayron Lee fell into the latter category?

  “By the way, he likes to call himself Tiger.” Eden’s wry tone had him lifting a brow.

  “Why?”

  She shook her head. “No clue. I guess maybe because he identifies with the animal. He calls my brother, Ricky, Rat.”

  That was weird, and he wondered about possible gang connections. The patrol officers took down that information, as well.

  After the local police and the bomb squad members had left the scene, he and Sam escorted Eden back upstairs to her apartment. It was well past midnight by now and as she unlocked her door, he put a hand on her arm. “I don’t want you staying here alone tonight.”

  She grimaced. “I’ll be fine. I’m sure the bomb squad wouldn’t have cleared my apartment if there was a threat.”

  “It’s not just the bomb scare, Eden. That knife attack was a close call. Would you mind if Sam and I bunked on the sofa?”

  There was a brief flash of hope in her eyes, but then she shook her head. “I have Charlie the tabby cat here, remember? I don’t think Sam will appreciate sharing the space with a cat.”

  “He’ll be fine, and I’ll rest better knowing you’re protected.” He turned to his K-9 and bent over to rub his ears for a moment. After she unlocked the door, he led Sam inside. Eden followed behind them.

  Sam’s nose worked as they made their way into the kitchen and living room. A fully decorated Christmas tree was tucked into the corner with a baby gate around it, the lights brightening the space. A loud meow echoed from up ahead and an orange ball of fur barreled past him.

  “Woof, woof!” Sam let out two deep-throated barks.

  “No. Be quiet.” His tone was one Sam knew to obey. “Heel.”

  Sam dropped to his haunches but swiveled his black-and-tan head around, his nose sniffing the air to track the feline.

  “No,” he commanded. Sam glanced at him balefully.

  “Maybe they’ll make friends soon.” She offered a wry smile. After double locking the apartment door, she turned to face him. “Thank you, Max. You and Sam staying here like this is going well above and beyond the call of duty.”

  Her gratitude made him feel embarrassed. “It’s not a big deal. You know we always take care of our own.”

  Her gaze clung to his for a moment before she turned away. After shedding her coat, she took the computer bag strap off over her head and set it on the table. He’d noticed Eden always dressed in dark slacks with brightly colored blouses. Today’s was a deep vibrant blue. “Who would have thought my paranoia of being robbed would help save my life?”

  “Yeah.” The close call still bothered him. “I need to take Sam out one last time, would you mind lending me your keys so I can get in and out of the building?”

  “Sure.” She dropped them into his palm. “I’ll leave a pillow and blanket on the sofa for you.”

  “Thanks.” Max let himself out, taking care to lock the door behind him, then took Sam outside. There was a small grassy area not far from the apartment building. He couldn’t stop thinking about the knife attack and Sam alerting outside Eden’s door. Logically, it would seem that the attacker had initially checked her apartment, then set out to find Eden at the precinct. To his mind, there wasn’t enough time to get from the subway back to Eden’s place before he and Sam had escorted her home.

  Unless, of course, there was more than one person involved. The instant the thought entered his mind he rejected it. His gut told him this type of attack was one man’s obsession, maybe rooted in a deep need for control.

  Tayron Lee? Or someone else? Eden claimed she didn’t have any old boyfriends, but he found that difficult to believe. Eden was beautiful, smart and friendly to everyone within the Brooklyn K-9 Unit.

  No, it was far more likely she was friends with some guy who admired her from afar. Someone who wanted more from Eden.

  Someone a little like him. Max rolled his eyes and shook his head. No way. He wasn’t obsessed or imbalanced. And he’d worked hard to keep his admiration of Eden to himself. No one in their unit knew how he truly felt about her.

  And Max vowed to keep it that way. Loving someone and losing them was the most painful experience he’d gone through.

  He didn’t plan to risk his heart like that again.

  * * *

  Eden placed a folded blanket and one of he
r spare pillows on the sofa, then began searching for Charlie. Anna’s tabby wasn’t the friendliest cat on the planet, and he couldn’t be happy to have a Rottweiler invading his space.

  “Charlie? Come on, Charlie, I have a treat for you.” She held out the bit of tuna that normally worked like a charm to coax the feline out of hiding.

  Not this time. She searched under the beds and behind the sofa without success. She even checked the Christmas tree, which Charlie generally ignored thanks to the baby gate they used to protect it. When she heard the locks on the front door, she carried the tuna back to the kitchen where Charlie’s food and water dish were located. Maybe the cat would come out later to snatch up his treat.

  “Hi.” She was ridiculously nervous at having Max and Sam in the apartment, even though she trusted them with her life. It was her own stupid awareness of Max that kept tripping her up. “Um, I wanted to let you know that I need to be in to work early tomorrow, so I’m hoping to leave here by six thirty.”

  He looked a bit surprised but nodded. “That’s not a problem. We’ll go in together. That way we can review the camera footage first thing.”

  She was glad she wouldn’t be riding the subway alone, even if that meant spending more time with Max. She forced a smile. “Great. Well, good night, then.”

  “Good night, Eden.”

  Max’s low husky voice echoed over and over in her mind, following her in her dreams. His presence must have helped keep the nightmares at bay, because in spite of the nerve-racking events of the night before, she slept better than expected, waking up to a loud meow in her ear.

  Prying an eye open, she found Charlie’s nose mere inches from her face. He meowed again and batted at her, letting her know of his displeasure.

  “Hey, don’t yell at me. I offered tuna as an apology.” Great, now she was talking to the cat. She scrambled from the bed and quickly got ready for work. After choosing a bright purple blouse and sweater, she added matching globe-shaped ornament earrings in an effort to cheer herself up. She was determined not to let this situation ruin her favorite holiday. By the time she entered the kitchen, Charlie had disappeared again, no doubt hiding from Sam.

  She stopped short when she found Max cooking eggs on the stove. “Good morning.” Had that high squeaky voice really come from her?

  “Morning. Hope you don’t mind, but I worked later than planned and didn’t eat dinner last night. I was hungry and decided to cook breakfast. Although I couldn’t find any coffee.”

  “Oh, sorry, I prefer green tea. And of course I don’t mind you making breakfast.” She squelched a flash of guilt that he missed dinner because of her.

  “I already took Sam out, but I need to get him some food, too.” He flipped the eggs, making them over easy, then met her gaze. “I live close by, but there’s plenty of dog food at the training center, so we can just head to the precinct.”

  “You live in Sunset Park?” Again with the squeaky voice? Honestly, she needed to get a grip. “If you want to go to your place, that’s fine. I should have thought about getting food for Sam last night.”

  “That’s nice of you, but he’ll be fine until we get to the precinct. He’s not the one who missed dinner.” He pulled out a plate and used the spatula to move the eggs from the pan, then added two slices of freshly buttered toast. “How do you like your eggs?”

  “Um, over easy is fine.” No man had ever cooked breakfast for her, mainly because she hadn’t dated anyone seriously since her freshman year of college. Gregory had rudely broken her heart, making a fool of her among his friends, and she’d never fully trusted her taste in men from that point forward.

  It was easier to remain alone.

  “Here.” Max set the plate in front of her. “Mine will be ready in a minute. Eat before it gets cold.”

  She took a moment to bow her head, silently giving thanks for the food, then dug in. “These are delicious, thanks.”

  “They’re just eggs.” He shrugged off her gratitude, but the dimple in his left cheek flashed in a brief smile. The smile transformed his features, making him even more good-looking.

  She was almost finished with her eggs when Max dropped into the chair across from her with his own plate. “How long have you lived here?”

  “In Sunset Park? Just six weeks, but before that Anna and I lived in Dyker Heights. We’ve been living together since I graduated from college, roughly six years ago.”

  “Six?” He looked at her in surprise. “You look too young to have been out of college that long.”

  “I skipped a year.” She shrugged it off as no big deal. “I was one of four who received a special technical scholarship from high school. I had enough credits to go in as a sophomore, and the NYPD recruited me shortly thereafter.”

  “Impressive.” The admiration in his gaze made her blush.

  “Not really, my friends were recruited by bigger agencies. Darnell Hicks landed a job with the FBI, Tom Gellner, the CIA and Bryon Avery, the NSA.” She grinned. “We call ourselves the Geek Quad.”

  The dimple in his left cheek flashed again. “Why do I think you were also offered a job with the FBI, the CIA or the NSA?”

  Her blush deepened and she quickly rose to her feet and carried her dirty dishes to the sink. “I was, but I wanted to work with the NYPD.” She decided not to mention the fact that she’d been contacted by a federal government recruiter again just a week ago. They wanted her to reconsider working within one of their agencies, even offered to double her current salary. It was an honor to be considered for such a prestigious position, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to leave her job with the Brooklyn K-9 Unit. She glanced at him over her shoulder. “My father, Kent Chang, was a police officer for twenty years. He loved fighting crime for this city, but cancer took him when I was eighteen.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” Max’s tenderness made her throat swell with emotion. “I’m sure that was difficult for you and your brother.”

  “It was.” Ricky had gone a little wild afterward, which she partially blamed on Tayron Lee. “But I feel like working for the NYPD and now with the Brooklyn K-9 Unit is my way of honoring my father’s memory.”

  Max nodded thoughtfully. “Understandable.”

  She stacked the dirty dishes, cleaning up a bit as Max finished his eggs. At six fifteen, they were bundled in their winter gear, her computer bag hidden beneath her coat once again, and on their way.

  “You okay with taking the subway?” Max glanced at her with concern.

  “Yes.” No way would she allow the stabbing to prevent her from using the subway to get to work. Rideshares were expensive.

  Max stayed close at her side. The wind was brisk, but the snow had stopped falling at some point during the night.

  The subway ride back to Bay Ridge was uneventful and despite the early hour, the train was packed, making idle conversation difficult. Which was okay with her, because she had no idea how to make small talk with Max.

  “Any word on Tayron?” she asked, when they made their way to the precinct.

  “Not yet.” Max scowled. “I spoke to Officer Clayborn earlier this morning. They’re looking for Tayron, just to talk to him as a person of interest.”

  “The video may clear him,” she felt compelled to point out.

  “Maybe. But the attacker could be someone Tayron knows.” They arrived at the limestone building that housed the K-9 Unit, Max holding the door open for her.

  The front-desk clerk, Penny MacGregor, was already seated when they walked in. “Hi, Eden, Max.”

  “Hi, Penny.” Eden was glad to see Penny was smiling. The young woman had been so much happier since her parents’ murderer had been brought to justice recently and K-9 Detective Tyler Walker had proposed marriage.

  Max smiled at Penny. “Has the rest of the team arrived yet? Your brother, maybe?” Penny’s brother, Bradley MacGregor, was
a detective with the K-9 Unit.

  “Not yet. Bradley’s actually out picking up coffee, and I expect everyone else to start trickling in soon,” Penny answered.

  Max nodded and turned toward Eden. “I need to take Sam to the training center. Wait for me before going through the video from last night, okay?”

  “I’ll bring it up and have it ready.” She didn’t want to wait, but understood Sam needed food and water.

  “Oh, before you go, Eden, there was a package for you when I came in this morning,” Penny said.

  She froze, the tiny hairs standing up on the back of her neck. “What kind of package?”

  “A box addressed to you from Secret Santa.” Penny reached beneath the desk and brought up the small square box wrapped innocuously enough with brown paper. “I didn’t think we were doing the Secret Santa thing this year.”

  “We’re not.” She made no move to take it. “There’s no return address.”

  Sam whined and pushed between them to sit directly in front of the desk.

  The same way he had at her apartment door last night.

  “Everyone out.” Max didn’t hesitate. “We need to evacuate the building.”

  “What’s going on?” Penny asked, coming out from behind the desk.

  “Sam is alerting on the package.” He ushered her and Penny outside. “Are you sure no one else is here?”

  “I’m—sure. I just opened and unlocked the door ten minutes ago.” Penny’s voice shook.

  Max used his radio to call the bomb squad once again.

  “You better let Sarge know.” Eden finally found her voice. “Especially if it’s related to the stabbing.”

  “Stabbing?” Penny’s voice rose in agitation.

  “I’ll fill you in later.” Max shrugged out of his coat and offered it to Penny, who slipped it on gratefully.

  Eden stared through the glass doorway at the small square box still sitting innocuously on Penny’s desk.

  Who on earth would send her a bomb? And why?