by Caisey Quinn
“I would prefer you follow fucking protocol so that he doesn’t get off on a technical—”
“Guys,” Vivien broke in. She gestured to where Lewis lay struggling to regain consciousness.
Chase sighed and waved his hand, indicating that Campbell could cuff him since technically it was his collar. Even though he’d gone about it in a fucked up way.
Campbell and Chan escorted Lewis to their cruiser. Once they were out of earshot, Chase turned to Vivien and reached for her arm.
She pulled it out of his grasp. “Don’t.”
He nodded. She was pissed then. She had a right to be. He’d acted like a maniac.
“For what it’s worth, I lost my head for a second.” He ran a hand roughly through his dark hair. “After everything, the thought of losing you again . . . I just . . . lost control of the situation.”
She swallowed thickly before diverting her gaze to where Lewis was being lowered into the backseat a few feet from them.
“This is my job too, Chase.” She sighed. “Maybe that bothers you but it’s important to me. I do what I do so that little girls don’t end up locked in closets while their parents are stolen away by criminals.”
“You went in without backup.”
She scoffed at him. “And you wouldn’t have?”
He couldn’t argue. Because he absolutely would have. “You were lucky he wasn’t armed.”
“Maybe. But I am trained. I could have dealt with him if he was.”
Again, he knew she was right. But that didn’t mean he had to like it. “You’re here because you asked to remain on the case, Viv. But I’m still in charge. I need to know you won’t put yourself in danger like that and jeopardize your safety or mine.”
A flash of pain flickered in her hazel gaze. “And I need to know you can work with me without getting all protective-caveman boyfriend. I asked to remain here to be with you but I’m not asking you to throw your career away for me. Don’t ask me to throw mine away for you.”
With that, she turned her back on him and made her way to the SUV. Chase stared after her.
It was a double standard, he knew that. Just because he had a dick didn’t mean he couldn’t get shot in the head just as easily as she could. But the thought of watching her faceoff with an armed madman made him feel something he hadn’t since he was a little boy vulnerable at the hands of an abusive alcoholic.
Scared.
Twenty
Vivien stood in the small, dark room watching Luke interrogate Eric Lewis through the two-way mirror. She wouldn’t move in until Luke gave the signal.
“I don’t know nothing about no explosives,” Lewis whined. “I was just having a few drinks when your guys jumped me for no reason.”
Luke flipped through a file that Vivien knew was full of everything they had on Lewis. Sadly it wasn’t much. “Says here you ran at the first sign of officers in the bar. If you have nothing to hide, why run?”
Lewis clamped his mouth shut and remained silent.
“I can do this all day, Mr. Lewis,” Luke informed him. “But I suspect you don’t want to hang out here for much longer.”
“Haven’t had good experiences with law enforcement in the past,” the man mumbled. Vivien watched a greasy strand of thin black hair fall into his eyes. Her obsessive-compulsive brain spasmed when he refused to move it.
“What do you mean?” Luke lowered himself in the seat across the metal table. “What kinds of experiences have you had?”
Lewis let out an unattractive snort while scratching incessantly at his forearms. “Like you don’t already know. I’m sure it’s all right there.”
Vivien used her phone to message Annalise.
Check everyone in Lewis’s family. See if negative history with police.
Annalise sent back the thumbs-up emoji and the words On it.
While Luke continued to question the man, Chase entered the small room with her.
“You still mad at me?”
The irritation with his earlier behavior was still there but she knew his idiocy came from a good place. A loving place. His heart.
“Not mad,” she answered, keeping her eyes on Lewis. “Just worried that our personal relationship might negatively impact our professional one.”
Chase’s jaw flexed and she longed to run her fingertips down the length of it.
“I don’t want it to,” he told her. “I promise to try not to be a jackass in the future.”
She smiled, turning to face him, and shook her head. “I know. It’s not easy watching you jump into the line of fire either. But I trust that you’ll come home safe to me at the end of the day, one way or another. I need you to do the same.”
“I’m going to try my best.”
Vivien gave him a half smile. “I’m going to see about transferring to the local field office and maybe working as a consultant for the Nashville PD. Think you could handle that?”
Chase grinned. “To be honest, I was kind of dreading moving to DC, but like I’ve told you, I lost you once. I won’t lose you again.”
Vivien’s heart felt as if it might sprout wings and flutter around the room. It was the kind of moment that warranted a kiss. A long, deep one that held dark promises of sweet sinful pleasure to come. But Luke was giving the signal for them to join him in the interrogation room.
“Duty calls,” she told Chase on a sigh.
He glanced at where Eric Lewis sat glaring at Luke and grimaced. “Yeah, this is why I usually stick to explosives and avoid dealing with the dirtbags.”
“Smart man,” she said as they exited. “But at least if he recognizes you, we’ll know he planted the device on your truck.”
Once they had entered the small gray room and shut the door behind them, Vivien pulled out a folder containing pictures of the storage room and Ethan Meadows’s injuries.
She introduced herself and got straight to the point. “The Nashville PD might be happy to entertain you, Mr. Lewis, but at the Bureau we aren’t quite as hospitable, so I’ll get right to the point.” She waved a hand at the pictures she’d laid on the table between them. “You recognize any of this?”
The man barely lowered his gaze for a millisecond. “Sure don’t.”
“Look again,” Vivien instructed. “How about this?” She pointed to a picture of the storage facility. “You ever been there?”
“No, ma’am,” he said with an edge that made ma’am sound like an insult.
“How about me? You recognize me?” Chase leaned against the wall and folded his arms across his chest.
“Can’t say I do.”
“Then why blow up my truck? You not a Chevy man, Lewis?”
“I have no idea what you’re referring to. I didn’t blow up no truck.”
Vivien tried a different tack. “You lived in Nashville long, Mr. Lewis?”
He let out an exasperated breath. “Most of my life.”
Vivien nodded. “This is only my second visit. I kind of like it. The music. The energy. Friendly folks. That feeling—hope mixed with ambition—permeating the air. It’s a fun city, wouldn’t you agree?”
Eric Lewis watched her walk the length of the room. “If you say so.”
“I have to admit, I haven’t had much time to sight-see. Anywhere in particular you’d recommend?”
He lifted a noncommittal shoulder. “Couple bars around town are all right. Until the cops show up to ruin your good time.”
Vivien nodded. “I was thinking about checking out a few spots. Trying to avoid the touristy-type places though. Gets a little crowded.”
He eyed her skeptically.
“Crowds aren’t my thing. I’m a little claustrophobic,” she admitted. “Childhood fear that followed me on into adulthood. Even the four of us in this room is a little too cozy for my taste.”
Eric Lewis re
mained silent.
“But I was thinking about seeing a show at the Ryman. Maybe pop in a few bars on Broadway.”
“Those will all be crowded,” he informed her. “The bars, I mean. The Ryman holds over two thousand people but it’s an old cathedral. High ceilings. Pews instead of seats. They call it the Mother Church of Country Music.”
Vivien smiled, relieved at having gotten him to crack. “Good to know.”
“The back alley joints where locals hang out are better. If you’re trying to avoid a crowd, that is.”
“I’ll make a note of that,” she said, attempting to sound as earnest as possible. “Can I ask you something, just out of curiosity?”
He nodded.
“How did it just so happen that you knew the capacity of the Ryman off the top of your head? Go there often?”
Eric Lewis blanched, blind panic flashing in his pale eyes. “Went on a tour. They gave out a pamphlet and the tour guide mentioned it.”
“Recently?” Vivien inquired.
“I don’t know. Week or so ago.” The man swallowed hard, scratched his neck, and looked away as if he wished she’d drop the subject.
“I might have to check that out,” she said without a trace of emotion. “Say, did you hear about a bomb threat there last week?”
Lewis made a job of studying the table. “I don’t watch the news.”
Vivien smirked. “I don’t believe I mentioned it being on the news.”
His head snapped up, his demeanor changing drastically. He pinned her with a menacing sneer. “Look, bitch, whatever you’re trying to pin on me, you need proof to hold me. And you obviously don’t have it or we wouldn’t be chatting about tourist attractions.”
“Manners,” Luke broke in. “We’re here to help you help yourself, Mr. Lewis. No need for name-calling.”
Vivien smiled slowly, letting him know he hadn’t rattled her. “I’m not here to pin anything on you, Mr. Lewis. Like Detective Foster said, I’m here to help you. The Bureau would like to offer you something in exchange for information on the contents of the storage container.” She placed a form on the table. “See, we know you’ve been there before because you rented storage space at that exact facility before it was foreclosed on.”
“So maybe I did. You ever forget something?” His leg bounced steadily beneath the table.
She nodded. “Sure. But what you forgot makes you a viable suspect. And if you’re the only suspect, you’re looking at hard time. But if you cooperate and tell us who you’re working with, we might convince the DA to go a little lighter on the sentencing.”
He frowned deeply, looking much older than his file said he was. “And what is it you’re offering exactly?”
“Since we can place you at the scene of two crimes already, you confess to plotting to make confetti of downtown, name any accomplices you have, and we keep your sentence around twenty years instead of life in prison.”
“Make it five to ten and I’ll think about.”
Luke laughed. “That’s cute. But we have matching signatures on the devices from Officer Fisk’s truck and the Ryman, where you just admitted being, not to mention you were dumb enough to get gasoline at a station two blocks down from the auditorium the day the device was planted.” He leaned forward and made eye contact with Lewis. “We have all the pieces, Eric. It’s just a matter of snapping them together. And we when do, it will be just like the military. You’ll be the one bearing the brunt of the punishment. Unless you come clean now.”
The man’s beady eyes swept the room before landing on Vivien. “Twenty years is the best you can do? I’ll be an old fucking man by then.”
Before Vivien could answer, Officer Campbell opened the door to the interrogation room. He ignored her but tilted his head toward Luke. “His lawyer is here.”
Vivien wanted to smack the idiot. Just when they were making progress. Surely the guy could’ve stalled the lawyer a few minutes.
“Excellent timing, Soup,” Luke muttered under his breath.
Eric Lewis looked strangely shocked to hear that he had legal representation. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Well, then, guess I don’t I have nothing else to say.”
Twenty-one
Long after his shift was over, Chase stayed at the precinct finishing up paperwork for his report on what had happened with Eric Lewis.
The more he read over everything, the more irritated he became at how Officer Campbell had handled the situation. Firing an unnecessary shot before pistol-whipping a man into unconsciousness was not what they’d been trained to do.
Chase hated paperwork with a passion. But he hated impulsive, obnoxious, rogue officers even more. He made a mental note to discuss his concerns about Campbell with Captain Raeder.
If he were being honest, he hadn’t hung around to finish his report. He’d stayed to wait for Vivien. After the shift he’d had, he couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than to be buried deep inside her wet heat, both of them working out the frustrations and stress from the long evening.
It was well past four in the morning when Vivien finally emerged from the briefing in his Captain’s office.
Her hair was mussed as if she’d been running her hands through it. Her clothes were rumpled and there were dark rings under her eyes.
She was still the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.
“Ready to go?” he asked once she’d approached his desk.
She nodded. “They had to release Lewis due to lack of evidence, but they’ve got a tail on him, so maybe he’ll lead us somewhere.”
“The only place I want to be led tonight is to bed,” Chase said low enough that only she could hear.
He waved at Aiden, who was currently on his way in for a day tour, draining an entire Red Bull in preparation for his shift.
“Luke at the house?”
Aiden shrugged. “No idea, honestly. Dude has been a ghost lately.”
“The bomber case. It’s stretching us all pretty thin,” Chase answered. Part of him wondered if there was more to it than that, but he had enough going on as it was. If Luke wanted to talk, he would. He practically talked for a living.
“I hear you,” Aiden answered. “So they let the only suspect go?”
Chase nodded. “Had to cut him loose for the time being. Not enough concrete evidence to hold him.”
Aiden’s shoulders lowered. “Sometimes I wish the law was a lot more black-and-white with a lot fewer gray areas.”
“Me too,” Vivien agreed.
Once she and Chase told Aiden they’d see him later, they made their way outside the building. The sun was coming up when they reached Chase’s rental SUV, a black Chevy Tahoe he was actually growing to like.
He nodded to the glow of the sunrise illuminating the downtown skyline. “Looks almost peaceful from here.”
Vivien yawned. “Ever wish you didn’t work in law enforcement? Wish you could enjoy a sunrise or a sunset without thinking about all the ugliness that lurks in the shadows?”
Chase looked lovingly at the profile of her perfect face while she watched the sun come up.
“Sometimes. But I figure there are two kinds of decent people in this world. People who bask in the glow of the sunshine and the people who guard the darkness, holding it at bay, so that they can.”
Vivien turned to face him, her eyes full of emotion. “You’re my favorite guard dog, Chase Fisk. You always have been.”
He grinned as he held her door open. “Let’s go home, babe.”
“Your house, you mean?”
Chase picked up a note of something he couldn’t identify in her voice. “Yes . . . mine and Luke’s and Aiden’s. Is there somewhere else you’d rather go?”
Vivien’s eyes lowered. “No. I just . . . I guess it’s been a long time since I’ve called anywhere home. I don’t even re
member what that feels like.”
For a moment his strong girl looked wistful and very much alone. He planned to see to it that she never felt alone again.
Wrapping his arms around her, he placed his lips gently against her forehead. “It feels like this, sweetheart. For me, anyway. For me, home feels like this.”
Vivien smiled up at him, and suddenly he wasn’t tired at all. Once they were both in the Tahoe, he reached out and took her hand over the center console.
“My parents used to do that,” she said while regarding their hands.
“What? Hold hands?”
She nodded. “In the car. I remember seeing their joined hands from the backseat.”
Chase gave her hand a squeeze. “And one day our kids will see their parents holding hands in the car too.”
Vivien gaped at him.
He chuckled. “Too soon?”
She gave a slight shake of her head. “No. I just didn’t know you thought about things like that.”
“Like what?”
She gave him a half smile. “The future. Our future.”
He swallowed thickly. “I didn’t . . . before. I do now.” He rubbed his thumb gently across hers.
A comfortable peaceful silence settled between them. Until Vivien cleared her throat. “Chase . . . if we don’t stop Lewis or figure out who’s really behind this . . . there won’t be a future. For any of us.”
He expelled a deep breath in hopes of clearing the tension that had settled on his chest the day Ethan was injured. It didn’t help much. “I know. And one way or another we will find whoever is behind this.”
Vivien’s brows dipped inward. “It’s the one way or another I can’t seem to figure out.”
“We are definitely missing something. I just don’t know quite yet what it is. But we’ve covered most of the angles, and Annalise is one of the best in her field. As soon as she finds a lead we’ll all be all over it.”
“I know.” Vivien stretched her legs and leaned her head back in the seat. “I’m just frustrated. You saw Lewis. He can’t be the one outsmarting us. So who is?”