Stolen Redemption (Texas SWAT, #2)

by Bristol, Sidney

  “What I’m hearing is that we need more evidence these two boys are our guys than one eyewitness account,” Sam said then glanced at Dina. “No offense, ma’am, but I’ve got to look at how this would be prosecuted.”

  “I understand perfectly,” Dina said. And probably better than the rest of them.

  “We need evidence that places them at all three crime scenes.” Alex glanced at Trevor. “Don’t we have surveillance from the hospital?”

  “We do, but it’s not clear,” Casey said.

  “If I may?” Trevor said.

  All eyes landed on them.

  He glanced at Dina who gave a little jerk of her head.

  “We know a real estate agent is helping these guys. We traced the license plate Pearl gave us to him. We know these two are after Dina, regardless of what’s going on between these two suspects.”

  “Use me as bait,” Dina blurted.

  Trevor winced. He’d wanted to put it more delicately, but the idea was still the same.

  “We set up a sting,” he said. “Leak it to a source, let it get back to them, and they’ll come to us. These guys killed a cop in a parking lot. They set another house on fire. They aren’t good or skilled. They’re desperate.”

  “That doesn’t help us put them at the other crime scenes,” Sam Taylor said.

  “Do we know what caliber bullet shot Rudy and Parson?” Dina asked.

  “Nine mil. Not sure if it’s from the same gun yet,” Casey offered.

  “It’ll be Little Tony’s gun, then. Phillip, well, he’s more of a cleanup guy than the murdering type. LT will have the same gun on him when we catch them.” Dina had no hesitation. Trevor had tried to poke holes in her theory, but she was resolute.

  “I believe we have a guy that could help us pass information along.” Alex glanced at the other Fort Worth officers who nodded.

  “Detective Walters, you’re here to advise only,” Sam said in a stern tone. He would chew Trevor out later for surprising them with a plan. Sam wasn’t fond of surprises.

  “It’s a good plan,” Trevor said. He didn’t have to like it to know that much was true.

  If he was going to be part of the solution in freeing Dina of her past, it would mean uncomfortable choices.

  “How would that work?” Alex asked slowly.

  “These guys, they think Dina is in hiding. They know she’s in Ransom. So we set her up somewhere. I don’t know. That house where Charles Ray was holed up in? We cover the house from all sides and wait for them to come. It’s not like they’re here to visit the JFK Memorial or anything. Let’s be honest. These two guys were sent to kill her and that’s what they’re trying to do.”

  Trevor didn’t want to use Dina as bait. He wanted to spirit her away from all of this and keep her safe. But that was only a momentary solution. They had to meet this head on if he and Dina were ever going to have the chance of a real relationship. And that meant taking risks. If he was going to put her in danger, he wanted it on his terms. Not someone else’s.

  “It would take a week to set that up,” Sam protested.

  “I think our teams are enough of a well-oiled machine we could pull this off.” Nigel glanced at Alex. “What do you think?”

  “Our boys are good and you keep the Ransom team busy.” Alex nodded then glanced at his Fort Worth officers. “We’d be happy to support.”

  The other men nodded.

  “Whatever gets us to the fastest, safest conclusion,” Nigel said.

  Trevor swallowed down the pride swelling in his chest. These people weren’t going to drag their feet. They were on his side.

  “We don’t want to give this pair the chance to keep killing,” Casey said speaking up. “I don’t want to work another scene and have my high schoolers watching me.”

  Sam crossed his arms over his chest. He could be cantankerous at times and he wasn’t the fastest moving guy when it came to things of this nature. His hesitation over the threat to Jenna hadn’t gone over well in town.

  “I want an operation assessment on my desk by noon and at least two run throughs before we leak the word,” Sam said.

  Trevor squeezed Dina’s hand. By the end of the weekend she could be a free woman.

  PHILLIP STEERED THE new loaner car up to the curb outside the gate at DFW International Airport. It was busy, with a constant stream of people and cars. People were more polite ad patient, with much less honking involved. Still, if Little Tony had overheard when and where they were supposed to pick Dominick up he could be out there, waiting and watching.

  The car behind him laid on its horn. Phillip ignored it in favor of peering at the glass sliding doors. He mopped his face with a rag. The AC was cranked and the interior quite chilly, yet he couldn’t stop sweating.

  He’d tried to kill his best friend, and now that same, much more dangerous friend, was trying to kill him back.

  A familiar dark head of hair exited the airport, head swinging left then right.

  Dominick.

  Phillip turned and scanned the parking garage, other vehicles, but he couldn’t spy Little Tony.

  They had to get gone quick.

  Phillip popped the trunk and got out.

  “D! Yo, Dominick, over here.”

  Dominick stepped out onto the curb. He had a duffle bag in one hand and at his side was a young woman no older than eighteen.

  “Christ,” Phillip muttered.

  She looked like Rosie.

  Fuck.

  What was D up to?

  “Come on, load up.” Phillip took Dominick’s bag.

  He peered at the car and frowned.

  “Where’s LT?” he asked.

  “We have to talk about this.” Phillip glanced up at a second young woman.

  There were two of them. The second one was curvier, older. But they both looked like Rosie.

  “Come on. In the car.” He rushed to open the doors.

  The two girls got into the backseat without further urging. They didn’t appear to be here by force, but they could be coerced. Dominick had a plan.

  He frowned at Phillip over the roof of the car.

  “LT’s not dead,” he said.

  “Fuck.” Dominick shook his head then sat in the passenger seat.

  Phillip dropped into the driver’s seat, shifted into gear and merged into traffic before buckling his seatbelt. The hair on the back of his neck and arms rose, yet no bullets shattered their windows. No one stopped the car. They just kept going out the south exit and onto the highway.

  “Where would you like to go?” Phillip didn’t have one fucking clue what to do next. This whole thing had gone to shit.

  Before Dominick could answer, Phillip’s phone rang. He pulled it out of the cup holder and frowned.

  “That’s the guy who owns the gambling stands, the one who got Dina on surveillance.” He handed it to Dominick.

  “Hello?” He pressed the phone to his ear. “This is Dominick.”

  Phillip listened to the one sided conversation. He glanced into the rearview mirror.

  They really did look like Rosie. It was unsettling.

  “Head to Ransom. Dina’s still there,” Dominick said.

  Really?

  After everything else, she was staying put?

  Phillip didn’t like it. This wasn’t how she operated.

  18.

  TREVOR WANTED TO PACE. To move. To do something.

  The only thing he could do was stare at the monitors showing four shots of Charles Ray’s house and three shots inside the house. Every available SWAT officer was on hand for this, stationed in the windows of neighboring houses, in blind spots, in the shadows. The street was crawling with hidden cops as the sun began to dip below the horizon.

  Dina passed in front of the interior house camera. She was in there by herself.

  Was that smart? Was this the right way to go about catching these guys?

  They knew these two were going to come for Dina no matter what. It made sense that the best
thing to do was control the environment where the suspects made their approach. The plan was to take them out before they got to the house. Which meant their set-up had to be believable.

  Dina had her bag, the new laptop, something to eat. There was no officer in there with her. They couldn’t risk blowing the op by having someone in full tactical gear spotted.

  The closest officers were eight feet from her door in the next house.

  Casey was stationed in the open window of the house on the right. Liam was up in a tree house across the street with his sniper gear. Val was back on the team in the house on the other side of Charles Ray’s place. They had people everywhere.

  But he wasn’t with Dina.

  “Try to relax,” Alex said in a low voice.

  “I am.”

  “You’re grinding your teeth.”

  “Do we have every exit covered? On both street?” Trevor didn’t have a view of the adjacent streets.

  “Yes. Did you look at the diagram?” Alex pulled a tablet out from under his arm and brought up some kind of fancy mapping software. “These green dots are the Ransom officers focused here. The yellow dots are my guys stationed out in a two block perimeter. We’ve got every street covered in the neighborhood.”

  Trevor nodded.

  Was it enough?

  “Are we sure we can trust your guy?” he asked.

  “The informant?” Alex shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine. My detectives said he’d run with anything they dropped, so we’re hoping that’s the case here.”

  “How long can we hold the perimeters?” Trevor knew they’d put everyone they could on this in the hopes that desperate criminals would act on opportunity. If the suspects took the wait and see approach they could blow the operation.

  Dina walked to the front windows, stepping into the frame of the camera pointed at the door. His heart squeezed, and he had to keep himself from reaching for the mic to tell her to stay away from there.

  When this was all over, they could get a fresh start. They could try again.

  “Guys, don’t be jealous right now, but I’m getting cookies,” Casey said through the headsets

  Alex glanced at Trevor.

  “Cookies?” Liam muttered.

  Alex covered the microphone on his headset. “You know who lives in that house?”

  “Wish you guys could smell this. It’s amazing. I think those are chocolate chip.” Casey was laying it on thick.

  Oh, no...

  Trevor stared back at Alex.

  “That’s the Campbell house...”

  “Yup.” Alex nodded.

  Trevor covered his mouth. Despite the severity of the situation, he chuckled.

  Casey had no idea what was coming.

  Trevor shook his head and rubbed his face, all while Casey continued to tease the others about the upcoming treat.

  “He doesn’t know about the pinch tax, does he?” Alex said, microphone still in hand.

  “I guess not. If I were in there, I’d push those cookies away. I learned my lesson.” Then again, Trevor had raised enough hell as a kid he couldn’t fault a few grannies a little pinch.

  Dina turned in the camera frame, the burner phone she’d been using in hand. A moment later Trevor’s rang.

  He pulled the headset off and turned away from Alex and the other two men manning the cameras.

  “Hey, how’s it going in there?” he asked.

  “It’s quiet. Is it supposed to be quiet?”

  “It’s quiet until it’s not. This is the part of ops that suck, sorry. Hang in there.”

  “I’d feel better if I weren’t alone.”

  “You aren’t alone. We’re out here.”

  “I know.” She sighed.

  “Hey, when this is over, why don’t we do a weekend trip down to San Antonio or Austin? Just get away. Relax.” He was more than likely going to get put on shit duty for the foreseeable future, but he could hope for a pair of off days at the least.

  “That might be nice. I’ve never been further south than Fort Worth.”

  “Well now, that’s a shame. San Antonio’s got some great Mexican food. There’s the River Walk. A haunted hotel. The Alamo.” Things he’d seen a dozen times, but were new for her.

  “Haunted hotel? Really?”

  “Well, it’s either haunted or really old, take your pick.”

  “I’ll have to see it for myself then.”

  “Trevor?”

  He turned toward Alex who pointed at his headset. The corners of his mouth curled up, which was an extreme expression for the stony faced man.

  “I’ve got to go. We’re right here with you, okay?”

  “Okay.” She sighed then hung up.

  “What did I miss?” Trevor asked.

  “Cookies just came out of the oven.”

  Trevor slid his headset back on.

  “Liam, can you smell this across the street?” Casey asked.

  “Fuck you,” Liam muttered.

  “I’m getting a plate all to myself in a few minutes.”

  “I bet you are,” Val said.

  “You sure you want to eat those?” Sean asked.

  Trevor shook his head. Even when times were tense, they could still find something to laugh about.

  “Here they are. Thank you so much, Mrs. Campbell. These look delicious. I don’t know if I’ll be able to save any.” Casey made sure to chew and smack as he ate the first cookie, carrying on like he was in the throes of an orgasm.

  Trevor continued to watch the footage of the darkening streets.

  “Silver Toyota turning on Maple,” the woman manning the street cameras said.

  “Ow! Ouch!” Casey yelped.

  Trevor winced.

  “I think Cookie Monster over there just found out nothing is free,” Liam said dryly.

  “She pinched me,” Casey muttered.

  “Yup,” Val drawled.

  “Guess no one told you about the pinch tax?” Sean drawled.

  “Are you boys going to keep carrying on, or are we working here?” Heidi’s no-nonsense tone couldn’t tone the boys down.

  “Guys,” Alex barked over the snickers. “Silver Toyota heading toward the house.”

  The snickers silenced and the tension in the room went up.

  The silver car stopped in front of Charles Ray’s old house. A young woman got out from behind the wheel, but left the vehicle idling.

  “I need to know who that is,” Alex said.

  “It’s too dark to make an ID,” Casey replied.

  The young woman approached the door and lifted her hand.

  Who the fuck was this?

  Trevor jabbed the call button on his phone.

  Dina stood with her back pressed against the wall out of sight of the windows. She lifted her phone to her ear.

  “Dina? Dina, do not open that door. We don’t know who it is,” he said.

  Unknowns were never good.

  Trevor pulled his phone away from his face.

  It was still ringing.

  DINA KEPT HER BACK against the wall and squinted at the frosted glass panes in the front door.

  “Dina? Dina, open up. It’s Giada Volta.” The woman’s voice was muted, but there was no denying the name.

  Dina took a step away from the door.

  No.

  That wasn’t possible.

  Had she heard the young woman right?

  Giada Volta.

  As in Rosie’s younger sister Giada?

  Not the youngest, Alessia. Giada had been just old enough Dina and Rosie would let her hang out with them after putting Alessia to sleep. Giada had always wanted them to put make up on her and dress her up. She was a future fashion diva, so much more forward thinking in terms of style than either Rosie or Dina had been.

  Dina had always felt like Rosie’s sisters were hers.

  And now Giada was here.

  Why? How? What had Dominick done to her?

  That couldn’t be good.

&nbs
p; “Dina? Dina, can you hear me through the ear piece?” Trevor whispered. She’d felt her phone vibrate, but she couldn’t move.

  Giada was on the other side of the door.

  Dina crossed the room.

  “Giada, is that really you?” she called out.

  “Yes. It’s me.”

  “She can’t hear us. Fuck,” Trevor said in her ear.

  Dina reached up and plucked the earpiece out. She slid it into her pocket. Whatever Giada had to say, it was between them. It was important. Dina unlocked the door and swept it open.

  She stared at the young woman standing on the mat.

  Giada stood there in a silvery, slinky party dress. Her hair was up, a few tendrils of overly bleached blonde hanging down. Her skin was pale. Glitter stuck to her here and there.

  Funny, Dina had always imagined Rosie’s sisters would look like her with dark curling hair, tan skin and lively eyes.

  Giada had grown up, there was no denying that.

  Her cheeks were no longer round and pudgy.

  She had Rosie’s cheekbones and height.

  And skinny to the point Dina could have balanced golf balls off her collar bones.

  Dina should say something. She’d always thought that seeing Giada and Alessia would be like seeing Rosie’s ghost. It wasn’t. Giada had grown up into her own woman.

  When was the last time Dina had seen her? Before Rosie’s death sometime, but she couldn’t say when. Dina had often felt guilt over leaving the girls behind. They’d been innocent in all of it, robbed of their sister in a horrible way.

  “This is all your fault,” Giada said through clenched teeth. Tears welled in her eyes even as she fisted her hands.

  “I am so sorry. Gia, I’m sorry.”

  “You should be. My sister is dead because of you.”

  Dina opened and closed her mouth.

  Rosie dead because of her?

  “You’re the reason Alessia and I are here.”

  “Where is Alessia?” Dina peered out onto the street. Alessia would barely be eighteen. Still a child, but also an adult.

  “Your brother’s going to kill her unless you come with me, but you don’t care about that, do you?” Giada crossed her arms over her chest.