by Brandy Ayers
Even with as well as things had been going between them lately, Justice still felt as if something had been off the last few days. As if Ana held something back. He needed to get to the bottom of, but whatever festered in the air between them.
Justice took care of business in the bathroom, then made his way down the hall to his kitchen. His empty kitchen. Where the hell is she? Just as he was about to turn to look in the makeshift gym in the garage, a piece of paper caught his attention. Sitting in the exact same place her thank-you note had been sitting after that first night together.
Justice, I had to leave early for work. Briefing at 9 a.m. sharp.
“God damn it!” Justice crumpled the note in his hand as he strode back down his hall to throw on his uniform. It was already eight thirty, so no time for a shower. As it was, he would be walking into the briefing late.
Two minutes past nine, Justice threw open the station’s front lobby doors, trying in vain to control his breathing and his anger. Ana had no need to hide anything. Had he not shown her time and again in the past two weeks that he could hold his natural urges to protect her in check?
Ana’s voice filtered out through the closed door of the briefing room, already started on her portion of the meeting. Justice ground his teeth together, willing his mouth to stay shut until he could get her alone.
As quietly as he could, he slipped into the room and took up a free space against the wall. The room was at full capacity, every officer on their roster present, as well as the recently returned Chief and his now fiancé, Camille. Apparently, they had all been informed about today’s update. Everyone but him. Had Ana conspired with Luke not to tell him? The blood in his veins heated to boiling, and his hands fisted at his sides.
For a split second, Ana’s eyes flicked over to take him in. If he hadn’t been watching her so closely, he would have missed it. But when it came to Ana, he tried not to miss a thing. She returned her focus to the men and women sitting in front of her.
Even with as angry as he was, he couldn’t help but admire the woman he loved. She commanded the attention of everyone in the room. Projected confidence and intelligence like no one else he knew. Watching her up there, in her element, had him fighting to keep his dick in check.
“To date we have either arrested or taken out all of Artiga’s henchmen. Henry Complese is still in the hospital recovering from wounds inflicted by me at Shady’s Bar last month. Chief Gallo shot and killed Mac York during an attack on Camille Artiga three weeks ago. The other two men injured at Shady’s were low-level goons who had never met with Artiga face to face. After the attempt on Ms. Artiga and Chief Gallo, we were able to trace evidence left in the vehicle of Mac York back to a three-block neighborhood on the edge of town where we believe Richard Artiga is currently holed up.” Ana glanced down at the papers in front of her. Though everyone else might have thought she was merely checking some fact hidden there, Justice knew from the stiffness in her shoulders that she was gathering her strength around her like a cloak. “Additionally, an informant has come forward with information that we are perhaps not the only people looking for Artiga, and there is a reason he has not fled the area as of yet.”
Shady. Justice knew there was no one else who could possibly give any information that would be of use. But Ana had told him that no one had heard from him since they were forced to release him weeks ago. Had she lied to him?
“We will be taking volunteers for a stakeout task force to surveil the neighborhood and the buildings most likely to be a good hiding place for Artiga and his men.”
Several officers raised their hands, Justice included. He’d be damned if he was going to let Ana put herself in danger without him by her side the whole time. No more of this staying in a van down the street shit.
“Please see me or Luke after the briefing to coordinate schedules. This is the best lead we’ve had to date, and we need to take advantage of it while we can.”
As Luke walked back to the podium to hand out the rest of the assignments, Justice tracked Ana, never letting her out of his sight. Most people under that intense level of scrutiny would squirm and fidget. Not Ana. She stood stock-still and refused to look in Justice’s direction.
Once the room was dismissed, it took Justice two seconds to approach Ana. People still milled around the room, so he called upon every iota of patience he had in his body to keep his voice down. But he needed answers from her before he lost his mind. “Why are you still hiding things from me? You snuck out this morning, kept a briefing from me, and met with Shady behind my back? Do you really not think I support you in this case? Am I really so overbearing that you felt the need to lie to me for weeks?”
Though he kept his voice low, there was no way to keep the anger from creeping in. Justice got some small bit of satisfaction at the regret and shame on Ana’s face, but she quickly wiped it away, putting her tough mask on that she used for everyone else.
“What did you expect, Justice? Every time I interrogated Shady you stood outside the room and shot daggers at him as I escorted him in. No way was he going to relax and talk to me when the fucking Hulk was standing outside waiting for him. Luke had to work your patrol schedule around my interrogations so you wouldn’t be here at the same time. But you kept dropping in, glaring at whoever I was with at the time, criminal or officer.” Ana shoved her fists into her pockets, though Justice didn’t miss how they shook. “Of course, I had to meet him outside the station. As for the briefing, I asked Luke to let me tell you so I could warn you about everything, but I admittedly chickened out.”
“Wait. If you weren’t interrogating Shady here, where were you?” Dread spread through his veins, anticipating the answer. If she had lied to him this long, he knew he wouldn’t like the answer.
“A neutral location.” And that was all she would say. Her lips clamped shut and the stubborn glint in her eye made that all too clear.
“You do not need to be putting yourself out there like that. Please tell me you at least took someone with you.” The reddening of Ana’s face told Justice that he had just stepped in it. Immediately, he knew his mistake. He shouldn’t have insinuated that she couldn’t go out and do her job without someone with her.
Ana stepped closer, looking around and growing redder once she realized everyone had been looking at them. “This is not the place. I will talk about this with you in private, Officer Reilly.”
He watched as she turned on her heel and strode from the room, leaving a wave of tension in her wake. As soon as she disappeared into the hall, he looked around the room, his hard stare connecting with Luke. His commanding officer shook his head, frustration clear in his eyes.
“What the hell were you thinking letting her go out and meet with Shady on her own? Who knows what he could have had waiting for her at whatever the fucking location was.” Justice found it hard to draw in breaths. Just thinking about her alone with Shady made him want to rip his skin off.
Luke grabbed him by the bicep and dragged him down the empty hallway and into his office. “Ana was never at any point in danger. At every meet, I had another officer with her, something you would have found out had you not come at her like some disapproving father instead of the man that is supposed to support her in everything.” Letting go of his arm, Luke gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk, where Justice sat begrudgingly. “It was Ana’s choice to keep you away from the situation with Shady. He trusted her because of what happened in that bar. But you made him jumpy. Ana found a way to get the information we needed. Thanks to her, we now know that there are members of the Columbian cartel who are not happy with Artiga. Shady has been approached by several criminal elements who are looking to put Artiga’s head on a spike as an example to anyone else who tries to cut out the big distributors and make their own way in the drug world. We don’t want any of that shit near our town. So Shady has been using his network to help us pinpoint where exactly Artiga is hiding. All of this is thanks to Ana.”
“This is
n’t going to be just a stakeout, is it?” Justice leaned back in his chair, feeling like the biggest asshole in the world. Here he had thought he was being such a big man, accepting his woman’s career and not interfering in any real way. But everyone saw through him. They all knew that Justice was always two steps away from stepping in if the situation required it.
“No, it isn’t just a stakeout. But we aren’t telling many people what is really happening. Artiga is getting information somehow, and we can’t risk this getting out. Thanks to the data from York’s phone and the information Shady has given us, we have narrowed down Artiga’s location to two buildings. The plan is we will watch the buildings from a neighboring apartment complex. Once we determine the patterns of the neighborhoods, we will send one team into each building to find this asshole and bring him in. Make him answer for everything he’s put this town through. Rumor is Artiga has gone off the deep end, Howard Hughes-style. No one has seen him in weeks. Those who have talked to him on the phone report that he is near incoherent, mumbling and spouting crazy shit.” Luke picked up a folder that lay on the corner of his desk, then threw it down in front of Justice. “Theory is he had been dipping into his own stock. Now that we’ve brought his operation to a screeching halt, he has no way of getting the product he craves.”
Justice flipped through pages upon pages of interviews, forensic reports, and evidence, all gathered by Ana and Coy. “And I was left out of all of this because of my need to protect the woman I love.”
“You were left out of this because you couldn’t see past her to do your job.” Luke glanced at a framed photo on his desk. Justice knew from the countless times he had been in the office that it was a photo of Sophie from the day they moved in together. “I know something about acting like an idiot because you think you’re protecting the woman you love. I stayed away from Sophie for two years thinking I was saving her the heartache that went along with being the wife of a cop. But all I really did was rob us of time. We both know that can be fleeting in this line of work. So, listen to me when I say you need to be able to trust in the people you love. Trust that she knows what she is doing, what she is getting into. Trust that she will come home to you every night. Once you give in to it one hundred percent, she’ll be able to trust that you will be there for her, without trying to clip her wings.”
“Fuck.” The truth of Luke’s words hit like a bullet to the brain. He’d been such an idiot. Saying the words Ana wanted to hear, but never fully backing them up with his actions.
“I want you on this task force, Reilly. You are a great cop. Someday you are going to make a great detective. But you need to be able to let Ana lead, follow orders, and as hard as it will be, put away your protective instincts when it comes to this case.” Luke ducked his head, forcing eye contact with Justice. “Can you do that?”
“Yes. I can. For her, I can do anything.”
***
The rest of the day was spent in meetings with the rest of the task force, ten men and women who would be part of the teams to finally bring Artiga into custody. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Association would also be sending in agents to help with the planning and execution of the operation, but they were leaving the majority of the heavy lifting to the MPD.
Through it all, Justice and Ana stayed away from each other, knowing that no conversation they had at the moment would do any good. Even while he purposely kept a physical distance from her, Justice’s eyes never left Ana. He tracked her just as a lion tracks its prey. Their bodies were so attuned he could sense when she left the conference room and when she returned. Luke’s words played over and over again in his head. Trust that she knows what she is doing, what she is getting into. Trust that she will come home to you every night.
Two halves of Justice warred with each other. One swinging at every windmill he saw as a perceived threat to Ana. The other half desperately wanting to lie down and do anything to make her happy. To make her stay. Even if it meant ignoring the other half completely.
Could he find a middle ground? Someplace where the thought of her doing her job didn’t make his heart race and his palms sweat?
He had to. The only alternative option was not being with Ana.
And that was not an option at all.
Chapter Eleven
Ana
Guilt wasn’t an emotion that Ana had all that much experience with. Growing up she had been a rule follower. Goody Two-Shoes had been a name thrown at her more than once. So, she’d never had to deal with going against her parents and then the resulting guilt. It never factored into any of her adult relationships because she believed in being straightforward and honest with everyone. She certainly never felt guilty about any of the suspects she arrested. She investigated her cases down to the smallest detail so that she knew the people she put behind bars belonged there.
But lying to Justice. Making him doubt himself and his instincts to protect her—she felt guilty about that. The night of the standoff at Shady’s, Justice had admitted he didn’t know what he was doing. The absolute truth of the matter was that neither did Ana. Every relationship she’d ever been in had been a joke compared to the strength of her feelings for the young cop she spent every night with now. There had never been any need to compromise because no one in those previous relationships cared enough to have a problem with any of her career or personal choices.
Justice cared about everything. It was disconcerting to go from men who she knew would have no problem moving on if she decided to leave them, to one who she knew would chase her to the end of time if she even thought about leaving.
How could she be both a strong, independent woman focused on her career, and so completely desperate to have her man next to her at all times. Hell, Justice stood only ten feet away, going over blueprints for one of the buildings they would be infiltrating in only a few days’ time, and yet she missed him. Ten feet was too much, damn it.
Ana shook all thoughts of her guilt from her head. If they were going to do this operation, she needed to have a clear mind.
“Each team will have five MPD officers, two DEA agents, and two ATF agents.” Ana looked around at the officers surrounding her. She’d known most of them for only a few months, except Luke, whom she had known back in their training days. But they all looked at her with trust and respect. Only one set of eyes looked back at her with love as well. “The timing of the operation may be tweaked slightly after observing the neighborhood a little closer this week. However, as of now we will have both teams enter the buildings at exactly ten hundred hours. Most of the neighbors will be at work or in school at that point. Both buildings are vacant, so we won’t have to worry about civilians getting in the way.”
“Why are we going in both buildings? Isn’t there any indication which one Artiga is staying in?” A rather subdued Wright spoke up from the back of the group. He’d just come back from his paternity leave the week before. Even not knowing him very well, Ana could tell something had changed about the normally goofy cop.
“According to my conversations with Complese, he had met with Artiga in the south building several times. However, the GPS on York’s phone indicates he had made frequent visits to the building on the north side of the street.” Ana brought satellite photos from the folder in front of her. “The theory is that Artiga is using a maintenance tunnel built between the buildings to travel back and forth. We’ve studied traffic and security cameras from all over the neighborhood, and no one other than Artiga’s top two men have gone in or out of those buildings in weeks. Deliveries of groceries and supplies are made once a week.” Anna shuffled to a surveillance photo from the check-cashing place across the street and held it up. It showed a delivery boy dropping two brown paper bags filled with food on the porch of the south building. “The timing of the deliveries and the drop locations don’t follow any discernible pattern. However, they are always picked up in perfect synchronization with the bus schedule.” She flipped to the
next two photos. One had a bus blocking the camera’s view of the building. In the next, the bus and groceries were gone.
Luke came to stand beside Ana, his hands propped on his hips above his utility belt. “We’ve known for some time that Artiga is smart. The only reason we even know his name and the names of his top-level associates is because his sister escaped from being held in a basement and tortured at his hands for a month.” Luke scanned the table full of evidence. “But his whole organization has crumbled around him. Several high-level drug lords have taken notice of him and want him out of the picture. According to Complese, his paranoia is at an all-time high. Artiga is not going to continue sitting in one place for long. He’s known for moving operation headquarters on a monthly basis. As far as we can tell, he has been in this same spot for almost two months. We need to strike now, while we know where he is. Otherwise, we might lose this chance.”
***
Four hours later, the team was up to speed, and Ana was exhausted. All she wanted to do was collapse into bed and fall asleep. But her bed now had a big hulking piece of man meat attached to it, and they needed to hash things out before she could even consider closing her eyes.
Ana pulled the pins from her hair as she pushed against the door to the station’s gated rear parking lot. Her scalp was tight and aching from having her mass of curls confined for most of the day. The groan slipping past her lips couldn’t have been stopped even if she had tried to contain it.
“If I had known playing with your hair got that kind of reaction, I would have added it to my arsenal of moves long ago.”
Ana froze midstep. Leaning against his car, which was parked directly next to her own, Justice eyed her with a wariness that caused her actual physical pain.
“Well, now that you know, you can amend that oversight.” She tried for a smile, but the stiffness of it made the awkward atmosphere worse, so she let it drop once again. Instead, she crossed the parking lot and mirrored Justice’s stance against her own car. “I should have grown some balls and just told you.”