by Tina Reber
I didn’t understand his maliciousness. “Why would you say that?”
Adam grabbed my hand and shot Sidel a warning glare. “Come on, babe.”
“Have fun, Trent,” Sidel jeered.
As soon as we hit the parking lot, Adam walked so darn fast, it felt like we practically ran to his truck. He opened the door locks and held the passenger door for me, urging me to climb in. I waited for him to get us on the road and for him to calm down a little before even attempting to say anything. Luckily I didn’t have to.
Adam kept shaking his head. “I don’t believe it. I would have called somebody a liar if I didn’t just see that shit for myself.”
I rubbed my cold hands together and then slipped my sunglasses on. “So what did just happen back there?”
He glanced over at me quickly. “Fucked-up shit, that’s what just happened. Sidel? I just… Erin, I have no words. Yeah, he’s a dick most of the time, but a rat? Thought he was a cop to the core.”
“What do you mean, he’s a rat? He was pretty arrogant and I’m not sure because I don’t know him, but he seemed a bit jealous of you, too.”
Adam shrugged. “That’s his issue, not mine. We used to be good friends.” I could clearly see how much the divergence hurt him. “Ever since we started filming this show, things steadily got worse. All the other guys in my unit are rolling with it but Sidel seems hell bent on digging me every chance he gets. Still, I can’t believe it.”
His face was twisted with mix of anger and disbelief. “The guy that came in behind Sidel? I know who he is.”
“SO YOU THINK this Salvador Mancuso is the one running everything?” Erin asked, swirling the spoon in her coffee while she analyzed my dilemmas.
One cream, two sugars. I committed that to memory, trading my blinding rage and visions of dirtball criminals for sweeter things that didn’t make my blood pressure skyrocket. My woman liked her coffee on the sweet side. It totally fit.
Huh. My woman.
Somehow in the last few hours something inside me had claimed a stake on her and, strangely, I was totally at ease with that.
I glanced around the restaurant, assuring myself no one was listening, and gave her a single nod. I shouldn’t have been discussing this with her but when I’m around her I have no restraint. She was one hell of a great listener, helping me think this entire operation out rationally when all I wanted at the moment was vengeance. “Now you see my concern.”
She concentrated on her cup of coffee, her eyes narrowed and contemplating. “But what’s the motivating factor for Sidel to be seen in public with Mancuso’s brother? Sidel has to be getting something major out of it to be putting everything at risk like that.”
I shrugged. “People do all sorts of stupid shit for money.”
“Yeah, but he’d be in big trouble if he got caught. Would the money be worth it?”
“No amount of money is worth risking your career and going to jail, because that’s where he’ll be going if I find out he’s taking part in this operation. I’ll put him behind bars myself. Cops serving time don’t do well in gen pop and it would be my pleasure to see him suffer if he’s involved—”
Erin held up her hand, halting my tirade. “Why would a police officer meet up with his criminal friend in a public place where he might be seen by other cops? Would Sidel risk exposure like that? No, I’m not buying it. It’s too risky and frankly, enormously stupid.” I watched her finger slowly circle the rim of her mug, wishing that coffee cup were me. I could almost feel it echoing on my skin, lulling me into a trance.
“He may come off as a jerk,” she said, pulling back my attention, “but my gut tells me he’s a lot more calculating than that. Besides, if they needed to talk, there are a million other places to meet where no one would see them together.”
She had a point. A very good point. One that months of my growing animosity toward Sidel was refusing to let me see. “Yeah,” I scratched my brow, “but none of our team has seen Vincent Mancuso’s face. Well, not exactly all of them.” I started compiling a short mental list, which included my captain and my partner, Marcus.
“Well,” Erin continued, “until you have definitive proof, everything is just speculation. You’ll figure it all out.”
Her brush of confidence dropped my blood pressure a few notches. The waitress brought our salads and hot rolls, making my stomach growl in appreciation. I unrolled my napkin and snagged a fork. “You’d make a very good detective, Doc. You’re very levelheaded.”
Erin smiled shyly and nodded at me, covering her mouth with her hand. God she was gorgeous when she was being humble—another trait that I admired tremendously—even when she was trying to downplay my compliment with a well-crafted distraction about being a medical detective.
That sense of peaceful contentment I hadn’t felt in such a long time washed over me, almost making me feel lightheaded in its wake. I wanted to concentrate on the rage skimming around the edge of my thoughts—form a plan to lock Sidel and his criminal cronies away for a very long time—but the blistering anger simply vanished every time I looked at her. One thing was for certain. She was the source of the light snuffing out the darkness within me.
MY SENSES WERE tingling even before my headlights hit her car and confirmed my suspicions. Part of me expected to see fans camped out in front of my house, but the harsh winter weather and mounds of snow were quite an effective deterrent. Pain lanced right into my gut when I saw Erin’s car sitting lopsided, and as I got closer, my temper skyrocketed.
I knew it. I fucking knew it. I should have locked her car in my garage before we left, but like a dumbass, I didn’t. Son of a…
“What?” Erin asked.
I pulled into the driveway and hit the button to open the garage door, hoping to park before she noticed the damage.
I shut off the ignition and held out my hand. “Let me have your keys.”
She dug in her purse. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Erin followed me out into the driveway. “Adam?”
The cold wind blew a gust of snow crystals over us but the frigid weather only seemed to ramp up my fury.
“Shit,” she whispered. I avoided looking at her pained face as the damage registered.
Shit was putting it mildly. Red was blistering my vision seeing that both tires on the driver side had been flattened. A quick check on the other side had me releasing the breath I was holding; the two on the passenger side were still inflated.
I halted Erin as she tried to follow me. “Stay back. This is a fucking crime scene.”
She stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. The wind rustled the bare branches in the large elm that bordered my driveway, stirring more of my senses. It was still light and sunny outside; the suspect could still be in the vicinity.
I took her by the waist and backed her into the safety of my garage, tucking her in front of my truck onto the padded stool at my workbench. “It’s cold and you’re shivering. Stay here.”
“I’m okay.”
I leveled my gaze on hers. “I’m not.” I sat her down and got the flashlight out of my truck.
Erin nodded woodenly; the shock was doing its number on her. “I have to work tonight.”
I shut my passenger door and eyed her over the hood. “I know.”
She started to stand, not fully understanding the severity of the situation.
“I’ll drive you myself if it comes down to it, but right now I need you to stay put.” She got my meaning, sliding her rump back onto the stool without argument.
Aggravation was burning deep in my gut as I did a careful walk-around, scanning the paint on her car, looking for damage or signs of forced entry. The drive was clear of visible footprints; only a bit of wet slush remained, leaving no clue as to who may have done this.
My neighborhood was quiet, insulated within layers and piles of powdery white snow. The street was typical for an after-storm dig out; small rivulets of water were interspersed within random ridges of ice and snow
created by dozens of tire tracks. As I looked around for any shred of evidence, I tried to calm myself enough to form a game plan without putting my fists through something. I crouched back down next to Erin’s car; each of her tires had one very distinct straight slice in the sidewall.
I couldn’t suppress my growl. A guy wouldn’t do this kind of damage unless he was tied to Erin somehow. Still, a jealous ex wouldn’t strand her under the care of another man if he were trying to make a point. The tires on her ride were expensive.
I glanced around the neighborhood again. Rick’s green pick-up was dirty, but sitting on four full tires in front of his house across the street. Jeanne’s dark blue Passat was untouched in their driveway. On the other side of the small bushes separating our yards, Vic’s brand new red Camaro, his gift to himself when he retired last September, had a stack of snow on its roof. There were no footprints in the snow in my yard, either. House, windows, everything appeared untouched.
My eyes scanned back to Erin’s car. No, this was personal.
Someone trying to send me a message would have been more creative. Even roaming punks would have jacked her car up and stole them before wasting the effort of stabbing them for the fun of it. Most of the kids in the neighborhood knew I was a cop, which seemed to deter them from getting into trouble around here.
Slashes were vertical and close to the top. This had anger and female scorn written all over it.
“I have to call this in.”
Erin nodded. “Will I be able to get them fixed?”
I wanted to squeeze the fuck out of my cell as I dialed dispatch. “No. We have to buy new ones.”
“It’s Sunday,” her voice broke. “I can’t let my father know about this. If I have it towed back to his dealership he’ll never let me hear the end of it. He needs to stay focused on getting my mom through the funerals. Maybe I can call Rudy to come with the flatbed.”
My molars were starting to hurt. I didn’t know who the fuck Rudy was, but Hell would have to completely freeze over before I let some other guy take care of this. “Yeah, this is Detective Adam Trent, I need a unit dispatched to my residence.”
I could see the stress taking its toll on Erin as I moved my motorcycle into the corner. “Once we file a report, I’m going to pull your car in here and then I’ll take the tires off. I want it garaged while we’re gone.”
Nikki had definitely crossed the fucking line with this one.
Erin watched me work, and I was thankful she wasn’t asking questions or bitching out loud like most women would do, even though she had every right to pitch a fit. I risked a glance at her. “Why don’t you go inside? Go get warm.”
With a simple shake of her head, she declined and instead, wrapped her arms around herself, braving the cold.
I set my tools down and stepped between her knees, needing her to know I was here, sharing the burden. Knowing she was upset was driving me crazy. Knowing someone did this damage because of me was pushing me toward a blinding rage. “You’re shivering.”
“I’m okay. I just… I don’t understand. I work so hard.”
I knew she was close to crying. “Look at me. I’m going to fix this.” The pain I saw in her eyes slayed me.
“Who would do something like that? Why?”
My list of possible suspects was short. “Because some people just have too much ugly in them, Erin.” The burn of guilt rolled up into my throat. My inattention to detail had put her in harm’s way. It was a mistake I’d never let happen again.
Red and blue lights bounced off the back window of my garage. I tucked her cold hand in mine as I walked her out into the driveway to meet the arriving squad car.
SHE RESTED HER forehead against the window as I backed my truck out of the garage. Her car looked just as wounded as she did, though only one of them was propped up on jacks and missing two wheels.
“Do you think your ex did this?” she finally asked, rolling her fingertip through the mist clouding the edge of her window.
Good question. I pressed the Bluetooth button on my steering wheel. “Call Nikki cell.”
Erin’s attention whipped my way but I ignored her concern and her disapproving glare.
“Adam?” Nikki’s surprised greeting threw me for a second, making me question my level of hostility. My jaw clenched. No, this was just another one of her tricks, manipulating the situation to her advantage.
Just hearing her phony bullshit made me borderline homicidal. “You crossed the fucking line today, Nikki.”
“Are you serious?” Nikki’s disembodied sigh was annoying. “You never answer your phone. How else am I supposed to talk to you?”
My hands tightened around the steering wheel. “You wanted my attention; you got my fucking attention now. Your childish stunt was totally uncalled for. I just filed a police report on the damage.”
“Oh my God, what damage? I rang your doorbell. You knocked the picture off the wall when you pushed me out the door, remember? Can you be any more melodramatic?”
“Melodramatic? After what you did?”
“Jesus. I didn’t do anything. You broke that ugly-ass picture, not me.”
“Do not fucking lie to me, Nik. Not now. I’m in no mood.”
“Why are you so pissed? It wasn’t even worth ten bucks. Jees, Adam. Arrest me.”
“You know exactly why I’m calling.”
“You may think so. What’s got your panties in a twist? Did your new piece of ass find your bag of ropes and shit and leave you or something?”
I bit back my reaction to tear her apart, but the loud rumble that erupted from my throat was something I had no control over. It’d been coming out of me the entire last year of our relationship. Still, my need to wound her surfaced. “She’s not as shallow as you, Nik.”
“Shallow? Nice, Adam. Thanks for that. Well, maybe you can tell me why you’re so pissed and being such an asshole to me again, because despite what you think I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play dumb with me. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I thought slashing tires was something you and your bitch posse did in high school. You’re lucky I don’t press criminal charges.”
“For what? I didn’t do anything. Are you accusing me of something? Because if you expect me to apologize for coming over to my old house to see you, you’re crazy,” she snapped. “Being on TV has gone to your head. You think everyone is out get you, like it’s all about what Adam is doing. That’s your problem. You only care about yourself. Our friends are going to be laughing at me at Ellie’s wedding and you don’t even care.”
Nikki’s ploy was making me lose my temper in front of Erin, and although I knew there might be a possibility that one day Erin might see me lose my shit, today was definitely not going to be that day.
Nikki may have made it a personal goal to bring out my mean side but Erin most certainly did not. And through months of counseling with my fucking therapist I’d come to realize that my uncontrollable anger was a form of poison that had no business in my life.
I had a choice: let the shit fester and eat at me or figure out a better way of handling the never-ending mountain of bullshit. The festering had caused the binge drinking, my way of seeking some semblance of peace in the constant turmoil. But times like these, it would be just so easy to explode. I took a leveling breath.
“If you feel people are going to laugh at you, then don’t come to their wedding. I don’t give a shit. Is that why you sliced two very expensive tires on the car in my driveway?”
“Wait. What? Somebody slashed your new whore’s tires? And you think I did it? Hah. Wow. Um… Ellie told me things were getting bad with the fans harassing the unit but I didn’t believe her. Oh well… Maybe your new pussy should be careful or she may get hurt.”
It took everything in me not to point my truck toward Nikki’s apartment and call in an extra unit for backup. “Careful, Nik. You know I don’t deal with threats. And we both know who’s to blame here. I know y
ou did it and I’m telling you right now, this shit repeats and I will not be gentle.”
“I didn’t do it, all right? I’ve been at my sister’s shop all day, right after you tossed me out, so quit accusing me. You’re the one with the psycho fans, not me. Probably one of them did it. I told you doing that show was a stupid fucking idea but you never listened to me. You think some new girl is going to put up with that kind of bullshit? I mean, I know how to handle it but it’s not for everyone, especially when they see how dangerous your life is. How many nights I worried that you might get shot on the job. That’s hard for a woman to deal with. I still worry about you, baby.”
“I’m a doctor. I’ll fix him if he gets hurt,” Erin snapped. “And he’s not your baby anymore.”
I almost slammed on the brakes, hearing Erin speak her mind. I knew she had teeth but unlike Nikki, Erin was reserved.
“Oh, you think so, bitch? Let me tell you—”
“Enough!” I cut Nikki off. “Stay off my property. Do not come to my house anymore. I catch you sniffing around and I’ll have you arrested for trespassing. We clear?”
“Whatever, Adam,” Nikki snipped back. “It’s just a matter of time ’til you get tired of this one and come running back to me. You always do. You’ll never love—”
I killed the phone connection. Fucking delusional bitch.
Erin crossed her arms as though she was just getting started to let Nikki have it. I rested my hand on Erin’s thigh; the spark from feeling her budding possessiveness swelled in my chest and snuffed out all of Nikki’s bullshit. I could also clearly see that Nikki’s words were marinating around in Erin’s brain.
“What she said, it’s not going to happen.” I knew enough about how women think, and the crinkles around Erin’s eyes meant she needed reassurance. I glanced over at her, making sure she saw the truth in my words.
Erin’s little nod of assent wasn’t very convincing, well, to me at least it wasn’t. I took her hand in mine, giving it a squeeze, trying to keep her walls from slamming me out. I relaxed a bit more when her fingers tightened around mine.