by Roma James
Pretend to be sensitive.
I could be sensitive, dammit.
I was the most sensitive motherfucker out here.
“Why the sudden interest in my schedule?” she asked, barely glancing up at me from behind the stack of paperwork on her desk as I stood in the doorway of her office. “I’d have to double-check with Jenny, but there aren’t any house calls scheduled, as far as I know.”
“Okay, good,” I said. “Great. But… you’re sure? Should you go ahead and ask Jenny now?”
She looked up at that. “Why? Do you have something planned? I’ll be off in a couple of hours, Jaeger, so whatever it is might have to wait until then…”
Be sensitive.
Dammit.
“No, nothing planned,” I said, then realized that was technically not true. “Well, nothing that will involve you.” Also, technically not true. Fuck. “Nothing that you need to worry about, I mean.”
Okay. Fuck it.
Every time I opened my damn mouth, I only seemed to make things worse. And now she was looking at me like she not only knew something was up, but that I might be just on the verge of pissing her off.
Which was pretty typical for me, if I was being honest, but not ideal for today’s purposes.
“Jaeger, please tell me what’s going on,” she said, not a hint of emotion in her tone as she spoke each word evenly. “Whatever the problem is, I’m sure we can figure out what to do about it.”
“There’s no problem,” I said—not a lie this time. “Well, as long as your schedule is clear, I guess.”
She shot me an annoyed look and pressed the intercom button on her desk.
“Jenny, do I have any house calls scheduled for this afternoon?”
“Nope,” Jenny’s reply crackled over the speaker.
“Any last-minute appointments?”
“Nope,” Jenny repeated.
“Okay, thank you.” Grace looked up at me. “Happy now? Now can you please tell me what’s going on here?”
I grimaced. There was really no way to sugar coat this, sensitive or not. She was either going to be worried or pissed. Or maybe both, considering my track record.
“Ty, Cody, and I have to… observe… an operation today.”
She gave me a blank look. “An operation? Like… surgery? I don’t have anything scheduled for today, but…” Grace ran a finger along the calendar on her desk, scanning the dates.
I couldn’t help but grin. A surgery. Dammit, why did she have to be so effortlessly sexy?
“Not a surgery,” I said, interrupting before she paged Jenny again to ask her. “A sting operation. Out at Garrick’s place.”
Her eyes went wide, then narrowed again, a hard look coming over her face. “Take me with you.”
Of all the responses, of all the scenarios I had let play out in my head on the way over here, that one hadn’t even made the list.
I’d expected her to say she didn’t want us to go. Or that she would be busy later and one of us would have to stay anyway.
The last thing I’d imagined was that she would want to go with us.
“You can’t,” I said, forgetting all about being sensitive in my surprise. “I mean… no. You just can’t.”
“Why not? If you’re going to observe, then I want to observe, too. He’s made this personal with me, Jaeger. You can’t expect me to just sit back here and wait around while you guys go out and watch… whoever… take this monster down. I need to see it with my own eyes.”
I still didn’t know what to say. Especially since her argument actually made a lot of sense to me.
But even if Sam would have given the okay for another person—a civilian, no less—to join us, I knew damn good and well that Ty would never go along with it.
“It’s too dangerous,” I said, channeling my inner Ty. “And it’s too late to alter the plans now. We almost didn’t even get to go, so it’s not like we have a lot of pull in this operation, Grace. I’m sorry.”
That last bit was a mix of things I knew to be facts and things I assumed were. I didn’t know for sure that it was too late to change the plans, but I felt like I could reasonably predict just about anyone’s response if I asked permission for our girlfriend to come along on the operation.
A big, fat hell-to-the-no.
For a moment, she wouldn’t even look at me. Then she didn’t speak again until several long seconds of silence had stretched out between us.
“Okay,” she said, finally.
I waited for the rest.
“Okay?” I prompted, when the rest never came. “Okay, what?”
“Okay, fine,” she frowned. “I don’t like it, but I’m not going to argue. I can’t see Ty or Cody agreeing to let me go, either. Especially if you’re already against it. So… okay.”
“Okay,” I repeated, dumbstruck again for the second time in as many minutes. “Thank you for not arguing with me.”
“Please be careful, though,” she said, coming around the desk and closing the distance between us.
I took her into my arms and kissed her, softly at first, then deeper, more urgently, only breaking away to look into her eyes again.
“We will,” I said. “I promise you all three of us will be careful. Ty is like a drill sergeant with these kinds of things. He takes our safety very seriously. Just as seriously as we all take your safety.”
“Thank you,” she said, softly, finally giving me a hint of a smile. “I appreciate that. Truly.” She huffed out a short breath and took a step back, swallowing hard. “I guess you should probably get back, then.”
“Yeah,” I nodded, my feet still rooted to the floor for a moment. “I should.”
“Okay. Come back to me in one piece.”
“I will,” I said, finally moving back toward the door. “We all will. I promise.”
Now I just had to hope it was a promise I could keep.
Riding in the back of the SWAT van brought back a lot of old memories. Memories of a time when we were the ones calling the shots in operations just like this one.
Memories of a time when we had been convinced that we were absolutely on the right side of the law and that justice always won out at the end of the day.
I grunted to myself. We had all been so naive back then.
Young and idealistic and so fucking dumb.
We weren’t any of those things anymore. Older, pragmatic, and skeptical of just about everyone, it was a wonder we were even allowed to be a part of this at all.
But Sam knew our worth. He knew this case never would have made it this far if we hadn’t done the heavy lifting.
This was our reward. A few hours of observation while his guys took over.
There were no windows for me to see where we were, but from the amount of time we’d already been in the van and the sudden change from paved to dirt roads under the tires, I knew we were getting close.
I looked over at Cody and could tell he knew it, too, from our trip out here a couple of days ago. He nodded, an unspoken confirmation of my thoughts.
Damn, I loved these guys. I might never, ever say it out loud, but there was nowhere else I’d rather be right now, and no other people I’d rather be with—except Grace, of course. It would have been pretty fucking great if we would have been able to bring her, but every one of us would have been a nervous wreck trying to make sure she stayed safe.
If anything did happen, well… that was just unthinkable.
“Go time in four minutes, at fourteen hundred,” the team leader announced, looking at the other guys who were back there with us. “Rangers, you guys understand your role today?”
“Strictly observational,” Ty answered, crisply.
It had been a long time since any of us had been addressed as Rangers, and it only served as another reminder of how different our lives were now.
“That’s right,” the team leader nodded. “If anything changes on the ground, we’ll get you out of there first. Whatever you do, you are not to leave th
is van under any circumstances. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” we said in unison, our old training kicking right in as if no time at all had passed.
So much for old dogs learning new tricks. Even Rambo would have been impressed at how quickly we’d fallen in line, if he’d been here.
At least he was with Grace, though.
Safe.
Secure.
The van came to a standstill and the doors swung open, the three of us shielding our eyes against the sun as the other four men riding with us poured out of the back. I craned my neck to see if I could tell where we were on the property in relation to Garrick’s house, but I couldn’t see much of anything before the doors shut again.
After a couple of minutes passed, the team leader’s body camera feed came up on a monitor and we all huddled around to see whatever we could.
For several minutes, nothing at all happened. We watched as the men took up positions outside the house. We waited, each of us straining to hear anything that might give us some indication of what was going on out there.
In the distance I could hear a helicopter. Then a siren.
The screen came alive as the team burst into action, the camera bouncing around so much it was difficult to make any details at all.
Across from me, Ty flinched as the faint but unmistakable pop pop pop of gunshots rang out.
And then, just as quickly as it began, it was over. On the monitor, we could see bodies on the floor as the team leader moved back through the house. Thank God none of them looked like any of our guys.
I only hoped Garrick was among them.
“Now we wait,” Ty said, his voice barely above a whisper as his eyes remained glued to the monitor.
We didn’t have to wait too long.
Maybe ten more minutes. Maybe fifteen.
The van doors swung open again, and Sam was there to greet us.
“How did it go?” Ty asked, jumping to his feet and nearly hitting his head in the cramped quarters. “We were able to see some of it as it happened. Are your men safe?”
“Our guys suffered one minor gunshot wound. Once the gunfire started, none of Garrick’s men survived the exchange. In separate locations, we were able to recover forty civilians. Some of them had been beaten. All were malnourished and scared. But they are all safe now.”
“That’s great news,” Cody said, cracking a smile for the first time all day.
It was great news. But there was one very important piece of information that was missing.
“And Garrick?” I asked, finally. “Was he among the casualties?”
Sam frowned and shook his head. “Garrick Windram is still on the loose. He managed to slip through the cracks sometime within the last couple of hours, and we haven’t found him yet. But we will. Until then, he’s considered armed and extremely dangerous.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
Of all the news we’d been waiting for, this was by far the worst. What good did it do to have a stack of evidence against the man if they’d fucking lost him?
Fuck.
“We have to go,” Ty said, looking from me to Cody. “We have to go now.”
Just from the look in his eyes, I knew what he was thinking. It was the same thing Cody was thinking.
The same thought that had just crossed my mind.
We were in here while Garrick was out there, and if he was going to make a surprise appearance anywhere, there was one place that was more likely than any other.
Ty was right. We had to go now.
Grace was alone at her house with Rambo and Amaya. We were at least thirty minutes away.
As long as Garrick was on the loose, all of their lives were in danger.
Chapter 16 - Grace
I heard Nana mumble something under her breath as she looked out the living room window. I waited for a moment, watching her stare off into the distance.
When it became clear that she wasn’t going to say anything, I finally asked. “What is it, Nana? What’s got you so upset?”
Rambo had been sleeping at the foot of the couch—the guys had at least left him to keep me company while they were off doing their thing—but now he was fully alert, his ears perked up as he stared at the window as well.
Between the two of them, they were starting to freak me out.
Rambo whined, but I couldn’t tell whether he sensed something besides my own anxiety. Maybe he was missing Ty, Jaeger, and Cody, too.
“Something isn’t right, Gracie,” she said, turning away from the window to face me. “I thought I saw something down by the clinic, but these old eyes aren’t what they used to be.”
Okay. Now I really was getting freaked out.
I had to do my best not to let it show, though. All three of us being scared and worried wasn’t going to do anyone any good.
“What do you sense, Nana?” I asked, sitting up as I tried and failed to calm myself. “What do you feel?”
“Trouble, child.” Her voice was soft but powerful as she looked at me with full, sad eyes. “I feel trouble coming.”
I was up and moving before I fully realized what I was doing. Rambo did his best to follow me as I hurried into the kitchen to grab my keys.
If trouble was coming, I was going to meet it head-on.
“Where are you going?” she asked. Her expression hadn’t changed. She already knew the answer.
“I need to check on the clinic. I’ve got animals down there.” I walked over to her and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. “Stay here and lock the door behind me. If trouble comes knocking, don’t answer.”
“Take the dog,” she said, nodding at Rambo. “He’ll let you know if anything is wrong.”
I hesitated. He wasn’t fully healed yet, and the last thing I wanted was for him to injure himself even more. I couldn’t even imagine trying to explain to Ty if anything happened to Rambo.
But he would be an extra set of eyes and ears, and even if he just sat in the truck while I checked things out, it would give me a little measure of security.
“Okay,” I nodded once, calling Rambo over. “Come on, boy. We’ve gotta go check on the clinic.” He followed close at my heels as I walked out the door and I helped him up into the cab of the truck before sliding in and starting the engine.
I wasn’t sure if I was being extremely brave or extremely stupid, but I couldn’t just stay in the house and hope for the best while there might be something wrong at the clinic. It wasn’t just my livelihood, although yeah, that was a pretty big factor, too. It was my life.
If someone wanted to hurt me, they were going to have a fight on their hands.
It only took a minute to make it from the house to the parking lot of the clinic. I pulled up to the front door and got out, leaving Rambo in the truck. “Be good,” I said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Walking up to the locked door, I peered inside the darkened waiting room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me.
Still, I didn’t dare discount what Nana had felt. She might not get around as easily as she once did, but her mind was still razor sharp. If she said there was trouble, well… there was trouble.
It was really that simple.
I just had to hope that maybe trouble had decided to pass us by today.
Taking the keys in my hand, I unlocked the front door and stepped inside, flipping on the lights even though I knew my way around this clinic like it was the back of my hand.
A little extra light never hurt, though, right?
Especially when I was doing my best to convince myself that I wasn’t actually scared.
I moved through the reception area and down the corridor, past the break room and my office, past the exam rooms and the recovery room, flipping on lights as I went.
Each step I took made me feel a little better. So far, everything was perfectly normal, everything was in its place. The animals that I had under overnight care were all doing just fine.
There was only one place left to
check.
Before I even made it to the back door, a noise from outside made me freeze in my tracks, my breath catching in my throat as I flattened myself against the wall.
I waited. I counted to ten.
Okay. It was probably nothing. The wind, maybe. Or your own overactive imagination.
Still, I held my breath as I cracked open the back door and peered outside. The guys had just put the finishing touches on the kennel a couple of days before, and my first thought was that maybe something had come loose. Maybe the wind had knocked a board against… something.
As I opened the door wider, the smell of gasoline burned my nostrils. I stepped outside and looked around. To the left was the kennel, looking like a million dollars after all the hard work the guys had put into it. To the right was—
“Oh, shit,” I said, under my breath as I laid eyes on the all-too-familiar bright red truck for the first time. It was parked on the side of the building that was hidden from the front parking lot as well as from the windows in my house—a fact that Garrick Windram would be well aware of.
I turned back in time to see him coming around the side of the kennel, a fuel can in hand, dousing every visible surface in gasoline.
“Stop that,” I called, startling him. He jumped back and looked up at me with fear and surprise in his eyes. It only took a split-second for that look to darken, though, replaced by something much more frightening. “The police will be here any minute,” I lied. “Get the hell off my property, Garrick.”
He laughed. A cold, harsh sound that made me take a step back toward the door. He was moving toward me now, slowly but steadily, like a wolf stalking its prey.
“They won’t be here in time to save your clinic, though,” he said, sneering at me as I reached behind me for the door handle without taking my eyes off him. “And your biker pimps won’t be able to save their little whore, either.”
His words turned my stomach, but they also made my blood boil. “Go to hell,” I said, the words tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop myself.
I knew I needed to run, needed to actually call the police, needed to at least get back to Rambo and my truck.