by S. K. Lessly
As the elevator opened to the lobby, the smile on my face instantly dropped. I was met with the most frustrated and angry face I had ever seen. I froze in place, not sure what to do next but knowing I was caught. I walked off the elevator and into the hands of the police, Lockhart Mills to be exact. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t ask him how he knew where I went. He also remained silent, except for the silent disappointment in his eyes, turned from me and started walking. Like a child who was caught with her hands in the cookie jar, I walked behind him with my head down. As I walked toward the front door of the hotel, I stopped dead in my tracks, catching a scent I knew so well and looked around. I could smell him, but I couldn’t see him. I quickly moved to put my arm around Lock’s and it startled him at first, but he saw the fear in my eyes and instantly looked around.
“What’s wrong?” he asked me, in a short clipped tone.
“Allen is here or he’s been here,” I told him still looking around, waiting for bullets to start flying.
“How do you know?”
I could tell Lock tensed up and as we made it outside, I could see Scott standing by the car. He gave Scott a head nod that made Scott become acutely aware of his surroundings too. He pulled his gun instantly and started moving toward us.
See what I mean? A well-oiled machine.
I almost felt bad for sneaking out… Almost.
I answered him, “It’s going to sound strange but it’s his cologne. You could actually smell his dumbass from miles away. He wears too much cologne and the cologne he does wear is loud and cheap.”
“And you smelled it in the lobby?”
I nodded.
When Scott got to us, Lock said, “I need you to stay here for a while and keep an eye out for Allen. Ayana thinks he’s here or he’s been here. Check the cameras the hotel has around the parameter and inside to see if anyone shows up.” He looked at me. “I’m assuming last night you didn’t suspect he was here?”
I shook my head, feeling admonished by just his eyes on me.
He just looked at me and shook his head. “You two are fucking hopeless, you know that?”
I smiled and nodded my head.
“Unfucking believable.” He looked back at Scott. “Let me know what you find. I’ll send a car back for you in a few.”
“No need, sir. I’ll take care of it. I’ll keep you posted.” Scott looked at me, then placing his gun back in his holster jogged inside the hotel.
Lock and I moved to the car Scott was standing by and got in. He looked over at me as I put my seatbelt on and said. “I’m starving, and I could use a shower. What about you?”
“Yes, I could use both.”
He nodded and we drove in silence to his house. Once inside, he told me I could go first, and I moved quickly to Brad’s room and took a long hot shower. The water felt amazing and it also brought back a flood of memories of me and Brad up against the shower wall, me on my knees in front of him or him on his. Whew, our sex life is amazing, despite my lack of experience with anyone else.
I know what I have and I know what I will lose if I don’t get this right.
After I showered, I washed out my panties and bra and laid them out in the bathroom, ready to move them to the dryer the moment I was dressed. Bradley left a few of his clothes here, so I took a t-shirt and a pair of shorts that I had to make a knot in in order to keep up. There was a light knock on the door. When I opened it, Lock was standing there with clothes in his hands. His eyes shifted to the clothes he had and my eyes. I could smell bacon cooking behind him and my stomach instantly growled… loud.
My eyes grew and he burst out laughing. I laughed too, but I will tell you it was more at hearing the sound of laughter coming from a man that I always saw frowning. It was a glorious sound that I hoped I’d get to hear often.
The nervousness came back on him as he said, “Uh… I know you don’t want to put those dirty clothes on again, so I brought you some. I think you and MJ are about the same size. It’s just a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.”
He handed me the clothes. I smiled graciously and said, “Thanks, Lock. I really appreciate it.”
He shrugged, grunted his reply and walked away.
This I will tell you was a huge accomplishment for him. I mean, a monstrosity of an accomplishment. For him to allow me to wear MJ’s clothes meant he was healing.
I removed Bradley’s clothes and put the clothes on that Lock gave me. He was right; they fit perfectly. When I walked in the kitchen, he looked at me and I could see the pain in them. He awkwardly stood there looking at me, then replied, “I ah… breakfast is done. I’m going to go and take a shower. I won’t be long. Um… well, I don’t have to tell you to make yourself at home. Just don’t open the door for anyone, and I mean anyone, until you tell me. I don’t care if it’s one of my guys, understood?”
I nodded and he walked off.
I ate silently, went to get my panties and bra, placed them in the dryer, then laid down on the couch in the family room waiting for him to get done. I don’t know how long it took because I dozed off but when I felt him tap my shoulders I jumped up and almost jumped out of my skin.
“Holy shit!” I exclaimed, and he rolled his eyes
“Alright, get a fucking grip,” he replied and walked back to the front of the house.
I got up and followed. “Oh my God, Lock, you look…” When I got to him, he was making a pot of coffee. The moment his eyes fell on mine, I grinned from ear to ear. “You are a very sexy man there, Lockhart Mills.”
“Fuck you, Peters,” rolled off is tongue and he sipped his coffee.
My grin faded though, leaving a warm smile that I hoped he felt. I said softly, “You clean up nice, Detective.”
Lockhart Mills is just as I said, sexy as shit. Lock’s hair was darker than Brad’s and a little longer, but his eyes were a piercing grey with the beard. Now that he had finally shaved, I could really see how cloudy grey they were. His face was hard and chiseled, like he was carved from stone, but in a sexy mountain man sort of way. He was the blue-collar, alpha looking male, rough and rugged.
He was built bigger than Brad too, but, with the clothes he would wear, you couldn’t tell. They were baggy and wrinkled, and that’s where your eyes always went to, how haggard he looked. Now, he wore a nice pair of jeans that fit and were ironed with a long sleeve thermos looking shirt that fit close to his body, showing an impeccable set of arms, chest and shoulders.
Yeah, Lock was hot!
“Yeah, yeah. You can stop drooling over me. Are you ready to go?” he asked me. I nodded, went back to get my panties and bra out of the dryer and put them on because going commando in a pair jeans wasn’t the best idea.
We drove quietly back to Ice’s. As he parked, he looked over at me. “Ayana, for my brother’s sake and yours, I need you to stay put, understand? I can’t do my job if you go off and no one knows where you are.”
I sighed deeply, knowing he was right. I needed to put my libido in check. “I will stay put.”
He nodded and we got out. We went to the side of the building and he unlocked a door. As we climbed up the steps, he said to me, “There will be someone here with you at all times, so don’t think you’ll be able to sneak out like you did last night.”
“He said he needed me, Lock. I couldn’t say no,” I told him.
He shook his head and unlocked the door. Sol was sitting on the couch watching television when we walked inside. He did a double take, then smiled and nodded. “It’s about fucking time you showed up.”
Lock gave him the finger but smiled.
I’ve never been up here before, but the place was small with a living room that had a couch and television in it. The dining room/kitchen was just a large space on the opposite side of the living room. It had a small table with four chairs around it and a small galley type kitchen.
The hallway in the apartment led you to the bedroom and bathroom down the hall.
“Where’s Noelle?” I asked him.
“Don’t worry about Noelle. She’s somewhere else being heavily guarded,” Lock told me, then moved closer to Sol. I watched Lock and Sol talk briefly, then moved into the kitchen to see what was inside the small fridge.
Lock said behind me, “Sol bought a few things; milk, eggs, cereal, and water, shit like that. If you need anything else, let him know and whoever comes to relieve him will have it.”
“Okay.”
Lock moved close to me and put his hands on my shoulders, something that he’s never done in his life. I tried to act natural, but I wanted to smile. I was feeling all bubbly. Maybe he doesn’t hate me anymore.
“Listen, Ayana, I don’t want you to worry about anything. All the information you gave us is helpful, and we are going to keep the two of you safe while I figure out what we need to do. Noelle’s offer to testify if we need her is going to help the case tremendously.”
“How are you going to get into the fights?” I asked him. “They are brutal. Lock.” I took a deep breath. “If you need me—” He cut me off before I could finish my sentence.
“The times of you being in danger are over, Ana. I won’t jeopardize your safety. Besides, my brother would fucking kill me.”
I smiled as he stepped back from me. He looked over at Sol. “Call me if there are any issues, and I’ll see you tonight.”
As he walked out the door, I hoped and prayed to get this thing finished by my deadline. I didn’t think Brad’s patience was going to last any longer.
Lock
Lock drove across town to the edge of Plano and Frisco to a townhome off Preston road. He pulled up and unlocked the door to find Derek sitting at the dining room table playing cards with Noelle.
They both looked up at him and Derek smiled. “He’s back!”
Lock grunted and closed the door. Noelle looked puzzled at Derek. “Who is that?”
Derek laughed and stood. “Did you find her?”
Lock nodded, ignoring Noelle and her puzzled stare. “Yeah, she was with Brad, as I thought she would be.”
“Lockhart?!” Noelle exclaimed eyes wide. She looked at him up and down, then blushed red. “Wow!”
“Yeah, yeah I know I clean up good.”
“I’ll say… Holy crap!”
“Noelle, will you excuse me?” Lock asked looking at Derek. “I want to talk to Derek alone on some other police business.”
She nodded and left the room. He heard her climb up the steps, then heard a door close faintly. He sat down at the table while Derek went into the kitchen to grab a water. He returned and gave it to his boss.
“Did you talk to the chief?”
Lock nodded. “Yeah, I called him. He wants me to come down to the station and give him a complete brief, but for the most part, he’s letting us see this through. Homicide is going to want some of this, but he said he’ll let major crimes continue working this case.” Lock paused and ordered, “I need to know everything you found out about Nora Reynolds, and how in the hell did you manage to get to the warehouse when I had you specifically watching Nora.”
Derek sat down and brought his boss up to speed. “Nora Reynolds is clean when it comes to finances, she doesn’t work, and is a member of the socialites of Houston. Mother and father are well off… father is a surgeon and mom is a stay-at-home wife. Nothing jumps out to me, except a call that came in a few weeks ago. It was a cell phone call from a division of the government based out of Washington, DC, but the call was made here in Dallas. I didn’t think anything of it until the techs noticed she kept calling the number well after that date. They spoke for a long time on many occasions. At first, I thought she might have been cheating, until I found out that the number belonged to a Ramone Allen of the Federal Bureau of Investigation organized crime unit. I got a picture of him from a buddy of mine from the Bureau and they told me agent Ramone Allen was working on a case dealing with a kid trafficking racket that involved a few organized crime families within the area of Dallas.”
“Did you call and talk to this David Martins guy that Ayana told us about?”
“I did this morning. He wasn’t forthcoming at first, until I told him Allen was still working this case with Ayana. That got him all forth right with me, saying how Ramone told him Ayana wasn’t working out. He said that he got the girl hidden in one of their safe houses while he worked another angle. Apparently, Allen told him he was in good with one of the guys in the circuit working with his crew and he was getting real close to making an arrest. Martins said he was even reporting regularly and sending his reports in on time. You know how the Feds are with their paperwork.”
“Goddamn Feds… don’t know their dick from their ass.” Lock sighed and ran his hands through his hair.
Derek grunted and nodded. “So after I told Martins that his guy is actually planning on selling Ayana to the Santos family, he told me he was on his way. And get this; he’s hoping for some inter-agency cooperation.” Derek leaned back in the small awkward dining table chair. “Fucking assholes. It takes us to tell him his guy is fucking off the reservation and he wants us to work with him.”
“You know what’s going to happen once they get here, don’t you? They’ll take the credit for everything.”
Lock nodded his head, knowing that was true. However, he couldn’t worry about that. He needed to keep everyone safe. That was his main goal until the Feds got there, then they could get their man and go fuck themselves out of his city. He hated the Feds.
Lock finally opened the water bottle and took a few gulps before asking, “So tell me how you got to the warehouse?”
“Oh, yeah, so I was keeping an eye on Ms. Reynolds like you asked. She’s staying at the Marriott behind that mall in Frisco. We have a room next door to her. We lucked up there. We planted some listening devices. We’ve heard nothing really out of the ordinary. She’s really portraying your brother like an asshole to her parents by the way. ..”
Lock waved his hands dismissively and leaned back in his chair.
“I don’t care about that shit. What made you leave post?”
“Yeah, right, so later that night she actually got a visitor. She used his name, specifically asking him why it was taking so long for him to get rid of her.”
Lock sat up. “Her who? Did they specifically use Ayana’s name?”
Derek shook his head. “No, not specifically, but the man just said, ‘Santos wants to buy her. All I have to do is get her to show up at this fight and she’s good as gone.’”
Lock folded his arms. His gut was telling him there had to be more to this connection then just Ramone calling her out of the blue, some type of trigger.
Locked looked at Derek and said, “Did you see any type of history with these two? Meaning did they speak to each other prior to now? Do they know people in common?”
Derek shrugged his shoulders. “Not sure, but I can get the techs to look though. You’re thinking they’re connected in some way?”
Lock nodded. “Yeah, it seems too much of a comfortable setting if you ask me. Why would he just show up like that and tell her about Ayana?”
“Do you think she hired him to get rid of Ms. Peters?”
That was something Lock was thinking, but he doubted it. He shook his head. “No, I don’t think up until my brother left did she feel threatened by Ayana, but I don’t want to speculate. I want to weed through all this shit and get to the real story between those two. So after you’ve identified who Allen was, you followed him?”
Derek nodded. “Yeah. I left Suarez at the hotel to watch Ms. Reynolds while I followed this guy. I wanted to see if he led me to where he was staying or some place of importance. He first drove to Ms. Peter’s place and that had me on alert. I sent a text to Scott to let you know when he could. Then he went to this place out in Lewisville. It was an abandoned looking warehouse of some sort. He was there for a while, for about thirty minutes before he left with some heavy hitters. And that’s when I followed him to your locale. Shit happened so fast I didn’t
have a clue that was the same warehouse you were at until I saw Scott.”
Lock nodded but didn’t say anything else. Ayana told him she was avoiding Allen’s call so he had to have been getting frustrated and decided to maybe use Noelle as leverage to get her to come out of hiding. They really had to make sure to keep Noelle out of sight.
He looked over at Derek. He had some good men surrounding him, except for Jonesy. That idiot was useless, which is why Ayana got away so easily. But his core group of guys were solid. He knew they wouldn’t fall for any shit, much less get distracted.
“Did you give Suarez the address to the place you followed Allen?” Lock asked.
Derek nodded. “Yeah, I did. He told me it belongs to a company by the name of Dominguez Holdings, which happened to be owned by the Santos family.”
“Alright, I need a body on that place like yesterday. See what kind of traffic goes in and out of that place. I also want someone sitting on the Aloft hotel, where my brother, is at all times. Have them speak with the manager and get them behind the counter, if need be. I want them to be visible, understand?”
“Yes, sir. I’m on it. Do you want Suarez on your brother?”
Lock nodded then stood. “Yeah, do that. Scott will be relieving Sol, and he’ll get some rest, then come and relieve you. I need you guys awake and watchful. They may come for either of the women and if they get them, we will never see them again. Stay frosty and alert, understand?”
“As always.”
******
Lock reported to his precinct and updated his first and second in command. Lieutenant Bruce Wayne, who was affectionately called Batman by people that knew him well, was tall and thin with skin as dark as night, nothing like the character’s namesake. He wore glasses and looked like he should be an accountant rather than a police officer, but he was extremely good at what he did and he didn’t take any shit from anyone. Wayne had been on the force for twenty years and counting. Captain Drew Carmine had been on the force for the same amount of time as Lieutenant Wayne, but he was on a faster track to lead. He was a good cop in his day and a great detective, but he’d proven to be a better Captain leader. His precinct is the best in the district with closing their cases and getting convictions.