by Stormy Glenn
I was enchanted by the pure bliss on Sal’s face. I couldn’t look away. I doubted there was another soul on the earth that was as sexy as my Sal when the man was aroused.
“My caro,” Sal whispered.
“Yours,” I murmured.
I was only ever his.
Sal leaned in and claimed my lips. I eagerly opened for him, hungry for every taste of the man I could get, every feel. No matter how long we had been together, or how many times we had sex, I could never get enough.
Sal was perfect for me. He was strong and fierce, but gentle and loving. He fought the world on a daily basis, and yet he could speak words of love that made my heart melt.
And I loved him with every fiber of my being. I was just glad I had the rest of our lives to show Sal how much he was loved. I had been truly blessed the night my SWAT officer had saved me from a beatdown.
I laughed when Sal handed me a sponge and faced away from me. Sometimes the little things meant the most.
Chapter Twelve
Salvador
I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Lany as we finished dressing. I didn’t know if I was afraid he would suddenly disappear or if I was I would disappear. I just knew I didn’t want him more than an arm’s length away.
When Lany walked over to my side of the bed, I snaked an arm around his waist and pulled him between my legs. “Hey.”
Lany’s face was glowing when he smiled at me. “Hey.”
“So, I was thinking…”
Lany raised an eyebrow.
“I was thinking that after this is all over, we should take the girls and go on vacation, just the four of us. We could go someplace warm where you could wear those sexy boy shorts of yours. What do you think?”
“I think we should take Marcus.” Lany frowned. “And maybe Eddie.”
“Marcus I can understand, but why Eddie?”
Lany gave me that ‘duh’ look he used when he was exasperated with me because I didn’t get something. “Who’s gonna watch the girls when you and I want a night out on the town?”
“Right.”
I knew that.
“Okay, so we take Marcus and Eddie.” I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of taking others with us on a vacation, but I could see the merits of it. Just because we weren’t home didn’t mean our life would be free and easy.
Our karma wasn’t that good.
I slid my hands up Lany’s slim hips and under his shirt, gently caressing him. He had the softest skin. I could touch him all damn day long.
“Are we going to get out of this one, Sal?”
I glanced into Lany’s eyes. The worry and fear in those amber-green depths concerned me. I hadn’t realized Lany was so worried.
“We’re going to get out of this, caro. I refuse to have it any other way.”
“But we don’t even know who’s after us. I mean, we have a few ideas, but nothing truly concrete.”
I felt my eyebrows draw together as I frowned. “You have a few ideas?”
Lany nodded.
“What sort of ideas?”
I was still kind of clueless.
“Oh, when I was going through those body cam tapes of that incident you were supposed to testify on, I recognized a guy in some pictures in the perp’s house. It was the doctor that treated me at the hospital when I lost my memory.”
“Dr. Cruz?”
“Yeah, but he’s not Dr. Cruz. The real Dr. Victor Cruz died in an automobile accident six months ago. He didn’t even practice medicine in this state. He was from Arizona.”
Sal’s heart refused to beat. “Are you okay? Have you seen another doctor? Did they do another MRI?”
Lany laughed as if it wasn’t a big deal.
It was a big deal, damn it.
“I’m fine, Sal. I already planned on making an appointment to see my regular doctor, but I just haven’t had the chance. I was too worried about you.”
Okay, that was fair.
“Tell me what you’ve found so far.”
“Not much,” Lany replied. “You might have a better chance of finding out what we know if you go talk to Clarke.” Lany’s cheeks flushed and he dropped his gaze. “I’ve kind of been preoccupied.”
I knew exactly why Lany had been preoccupied. I had felt that way more than once since meeting the man. I wrapped my arms around Lany and gave him a big hug before lifting him up and tossing him over my shoulder. Lany’s laughter as I carried him out of the bedroom made finding my way home all that much better.
Pretty much everyone looked toward us when we walked into the great room, most of them smiling. Jerry rolled his eyes, but I did see a smile curve his lips as the man glanced away.
I set Lany down on the couch and grabbed his blanket, draping it over him. I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Have you eaten, caro?”
“Lyn made me something a little while ago.”
I knew my baby better than that.
“Did you eat it?” I asked.
“I ate,” Lany replied.
“Don’t believe a word he says, Sal,” Lyn called out from the dining room. “He’s had toast, juice, and coffee in the last twelve hours and that’s about it.”
I narrowed my eyes.
Lany huffed. “Fine, I ate the toast.”
“Uh-huh.” I walked into the kitchen, hoping the order from Mario’s had been picked up, and it had. My gaze narrowed in on the sandwich platters sitting on the counter. I grabbed two plates and loaded them down, one with all meat and one with no meat.
After grabbing a couple bottles of juice from the fridge, I carried everything back to the living room. I wasn’t a huge fan of eating in the living room, but there were always exceptions—snuggling with my Lany while watching movies and feeding each other, and when I refused to be farther away from the man than I had to be, especially after being kidnapped.
I sat down on the couch and handed Lany his plate, lifting an eyebrow. “I expect to see that plate clean, Lany.”
Lany’s eye roll was much better than Jerry’s could ever dream of being. Lany had more experience.
I chuckled as I leaned back and started eating. I hadn’t realized I was so hungry until my plate was empty and I was going back for more. When I went back to sit down, Lany looked at my plate, then looked at me.
“I expect to see that plate clean, Sal.”
“Yes, dear.” I grinned at Lany before taking a bite of my second sandwich. I took several more bites before waving Clarke toward me. “Report.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Sal,” Lany admonished. “It’s rude.”
I turned to look at Lany and opened my mouth, sticking out my tongue and the half-chewed food on it. Gross? Yes, without a doubt.
But revenge was mine when Lany gasped.
He started hitting me with a throw pillow. “That’s disgusting.”
I laughed as I fought him off with one hand, the other one keeping a firm grip on the remainder of my sandwich. It felt good to laugh after the intense anxiety and fear of the last twenty-four hours.
I also wanted to finish my sandwich.
“If you two are done acting like five-year-olds?” Clarke asked as he sat down across from us.
Lany, bless his little golden heart, stuck his tongue out at the man.
Clarke’s eyes roll was even more impressive than Jerry’s. It was accompanied by a heavy sigh. It still wasn’t up to par with Lany’s.
My baby was special that way.
“Okay,” I said once I had finished my sandwich and chewed all the food in my mouth. “Report.”
“Well,” Clarke started, “we were able to figure out what was on those tapes.”
I nodded. “Lany told me. Dr. Cruz is a fake.”
Clarke’s gaze shot to Lany. “Did he tell you—”
“He did.” I nodded. “And that’s where my confusion comes from. I was there when this man worked on Lany. He knew what he was doing. I may not have any medical training, but even I can tell if someon
e is feeding me a line of shit or not. This guy is either a doctor or medically trained in some manner. Lyn should start looking there.”
“Right now, he’s trying to find a link between this guy and our perp.”
“And we’re positive here is one?” I had to ask.
I was not thrilled when Clarke nodded and said, “I’ve seen the tapes.”
“I have too and—”
Clarke held up a hand as if telling me to stop. “Once Lany showed me what to look for, it all started to make a weird sort of sense.”
I was lost.
“What did?”
“Drugs, man. Remember that this guy is in protective custody because he is going to turn state’s evidence. The authorities don’t just let everyone do that. You really have to have something good in order to get the kid glove treatment.”
Meaning the guy really had to know something about someone or something.
“So, here’s what I’m thinking,” Clarke continued. “This Dr. Cruz guy, the fake one, he’s up to this to his neck. The perp knows that, but he’s feeding us intel on someone else, someone not as high up on the food chain.”
“And how do the tapes come into it?”
“Because the tapes prove that he’s connected to Cruz.”
“But we never would have known that if he hadn’t flipped out at the courthouse. He just would have done time for smacking his wife around.”
“But he doesn’t know that. As long as we didn’t make any connections, he could lay blame wherever he wanted to. Once we saw those tapes, we’d know the truth, especially you. You’ve had direct contact with Dr. Cruz. Once your name was on the witness list, they knew there was trouble. If those tapes had gone public, we might have made the connection between the two men.”
“I’m missing something here,” Lany said.
I glanced at him, curious about the frown on his face. “What are you missing, caro?”
“What does it matter if the two men are related? I mean, Eddie is related to several underworld people. That doesn’t mean he’s in the same business. Hell, even you are related to someone behind bars. You’re still you, a SWAT officer. So what if Dr. Cruz is related to this scumbag? Doesn’t mean he’s not a good doctor.”
“But, don’t you see?” Clarke asked. “He’s not a doctor at all.”
And there was the connection.
“If I had taken a deeper look at those tapes, which I didn’t see the need to do, but if I had, I might have recognized the good doctor. And I might have started digging, thus figuring out that the doctor wasn’t a doctor. And I might have started investigating him.”
“That’s a lot of mights, Sal.”
“True,” I agreed with Lany, “but there is a reason this guy doesn’t want to be identified. That’s what this whole thing was about, trying to keep his real identity a secret.”
“That would be because one Dr. Victor Cruz is really Eben Juarez,” Lyn said as he walked into the great room. He had a tablet in his hand and was reading off of it. “Eben Juarez is wanted by the Colombian government in connection to the killing of three medical personnel at a hospital where he worked. Juarez is a former doctor whose license was revoked for prescribing illicit drugs He is suspected of diverting orders of temazepam and selling them illegally.” Lyn glanced up. “I think that is why he is masquerading as a doctor.”
“You lost me,” I said.
“If he’s manufacturing temazepam, which is a strong hypnotic benzodiazepine and highly addictive, he most likely has a jellie lab somewhere.”
“I’m sorry, a what lab?”
“Jellie lab. It’s a term for an illicit drug lab. They’re really big in Russia and the Ukraine.”
“Isn’t temazepam a drug to treat insomnia?” Lany asked. When I glanced at him, he shrugged. “I think my mother took it once.”
“It is,” Lyn said, “but it’s also one of the most common benzodiazepines used to facilitate date rape and assist in the trafficking of sex slaves.”
I hugged Lany when the man shuddered in horror. I didn’t blame him. Drug trafficking was bad enough, but people who trafficked in humans deserved their own special kind of hell.
“Temazepam accounts for one of the drugs most sought after by getting prescriptions from several different doctors, forging prescriptions, burglary, or buying them on the illicit market.”
“One of those jellie labs?” Lany asked.
“Exactly.”
“Okay, so why start a drug lab if you’re masquerading as a doctor?” Clarke asked. “Couldn’t you just write out prescriptions for the stuff?”
“You could,” Lyn said, “but drugs like that are monitored by the FDA and the DEA. If you’re prescribing too much, they want to know why. If he’s manufacturing them himself, he doesn’t need to prescribe them.”
“Is there really a market for this drug?” Lany asked. “Wouldn’t cocaine or heroin be easier?”
“Those types of drugs might be easier in the short term, but the manufacturing of them is more heavily watched. If you’re caught on the street with cocaine, you get arrested. If you’re caught in the street with temazepam, you can just say you had a prescription or you got them from a friend. It’s highly unlikely that you’d get arrested because it’s a prescription drug. It’s legal to have if you have a prescription.”
“So, what does all of this have to do with this guy masquerading as a doctor then?” Clarke asked the question, but we were all thinking it.
“He’s on the run from the authorities, both here and in Columbia,” Lyn explained. “What better way to hide himself and continue to traffic in prescription meds than to masquerade as a doctor? If he’s ever caught, he can just say he didn’t know someone was abusing them. He was just prescribing meds to sick people.”
“He can also use his position as a doctor to obtain the drug or the equipment to manufacture the drug,” Clarke said. “He has the medical training to pass as a doctor. Who would question him?”
“That’s got to be why those tapes are so important,” Lyn said. “They prove that Victor Cruz is really Eben Juarez. If the right authorities found out, it could collapse his entire drug empire.”
I really didn’t like how much that made sense.
Chapter Thirteen
Lany
Once again, I found myself sitting on the couch, watching the world whirl around me. I kind of felt like a bump on a log. Useless. Crime fighting wasn’t what I did. That job was handled by Sal, and just about everyone else. I basically had nothing to do but sit there and listen to my hair grow.
And it wasn’t like it took a rocket scientist to order from Mario’s.
I didn’t even have the girls to take care of. Until this whole situation was resolved, it had been decided that they would be safer with my parents. Sal seemed to think whoever was after us was only after us. Not the girls.
I didn’t like it, but I understood it.
But if I didn’t find something to occupy myself soon, I was going to throw a temper tantrum that would make my twin girls proud.
When the phone rang with the ringtone for the lobby, I jumped to my feet. “I’ll get it,” I said as I raced across the room. I was so glad to have something to do that got me off the couch. “Hello?” I asked when I picked up the line.
“Mr. Lany?”
“Yes, Jenson.”
“I wonder if you could come down to the lobby.”
I frowned. Jenson was being weird. “Is everything okay, Jenson?”
The man grunted and then coughed before speaking again, his tone just a little higher. “I’m fine, Mr. Lany. I just need you to come down to the lobby.”
“I can’t.” I wish I could. It would break up the monotony. “We’re on lockdown, remember?”
“Please, sir. He has a bomb.”
I swallowed hard before searching the room for Sal. “I’m sorry, did you say—”
“A bomb, sir,” Jenson replied. “He said if you don’t come down, he’ll set it o
ff and the entire building will come down.”
“Uh…”
“Just you, Mr. Lany. No one else.”
Crap.
“He says if he sees anyone else come down in the elevator, he’ll set off the bomb.”
“Okay, I’ll be right down.”
“Yes, sir.” It sounded like that was the last thing Jenson wanted, but I wasn’t the only one who lived in this building. The other floors were occupied as well.
I had no other choice.
I also knew I wouldn’t be able to set foot outside of the penthouse if Sal learned there was a bomb in the lobby. He’d batten down the hatches and call in everyone one he knew.
Someone could die, a lot of someones if that bomb went off.
I set the phone down before walking over to Sal. When the man glanced down at me, I scooted into his personal bubble space. I needed just a moment before I walked head first into whatever hell was waiting for me in the lobby.
“What did Jenson want, caro?”
“Uh…” My mind blanked for a moment. “Oh, he said someone dropped something off for us in the lobby. I told him to just hold on to and we’d come down and get it later.”
Sal nodded as if my lie made perfect sense.
I hated that what could quite possibly be my last words to the man were a lie, so I said, “I love you, you know?”
Sal smiled before brushing a kiss across my lips. “I love you, too, Lany.”
“You and the girls, you mean everything to me.” I swallowed tightly as my throat swelled with emotion. “I’d die for you.”
And I just might.
Man, I needed to go before I started crying. Sal would know for sure something was up if he saw tears in my eyes. The man would lose his shit when he found out why I was crying.
Sal frowned as he stared down at me. “You’re not going to die, Lany.”
God, I hoped not.
“I know,” I replied. “I just wanted you to know.”
Sal smiled again before leaning in and planting a kiss on my forehead. “I know, caro. Morirei anche per te.”
I hoped it didn’t come to that. I was so not ready for Sal to die.
I gave Sal a hug and then stepped back. “I’ll let you get back to work then.”