High Stakes Gamble

by Mimi Barbour

  “Lawson was shot in the line of duty, took one in the arm and the chest. Don’t look so worried, he’s getting better every day, enough to drive the hospital staff crazy. In fact, I received notice a few hours ago that he’d signed himself out and has taken leave.”

  “Then he’ll be at his old place?”

  “If he’s keeping his ass outta trouble.”

  Chapter Six

  Weary and heartsick, Kai returned to his apartment to find a dusty, cold shell of a home. Captain Powers had made arrangements for one of the flunkies to periodically check the joint, pick up his mail, which was scattered over his table, and water his artificial plant if the Chinese pot now filled to the brim yielded a clue. Dumber than stumps, some of those guys. He shook his head, sighed and looked around.

  At one time, he’d been proud of his place. His man-cave, he had all the guy things that make a residence home for a regular sports-loving, game-playing, popular with a lot of friends kind of dude. A big-screen TV took the central position against the wall and the man-size comfy brown leather couches and chairs circled it.

  First thing he tackled—listening to his totally filled answering machine took more guts than standing in front of a maniac firing a weapon in his direction.

  The first call had recorded her soft voice pleading for him to come back so they could talk. Telling him she had a reason for the actions she’d taken by killing Rhondo. Begging for his support during her ordeal while under investigation.

  The inquest had happened quickly and he’d done everything he could from L.A. He’d written a statement to exonerate her, explaining that she’d returned fire and might have saved lives by her actions.

  A misrepresentation, but the investigators didn’t need to know that. Both he and Cory had shot to disarm the crazed man; Aurora had taken the final unnecessary shot, aiming for his heart. A traitorous move since just moments earlier she’d begged him not to kill Rhondo, to let justice run its course.

  He still had no idea how she justified her actions to the committee. The difference was that he now knew she could and her reasoning would be sound.

  Her tear-filled voice during the next few messages, telling him she loved him and needed him, tore away all the armor he’d built up over the last months he’d been forced to stay away. Aware of how tough it would have been for Aurora to lower herself to plead made his shame intensify to where it was hard to contain.

  The weepy invitation beseeching him to accept her love bit into his soul, leaving a scorching wound that weakened every bone in his body with regret and self-loathing. He pounded his knees with clenched fists.

  Then the final message played. Aurora’s angry sobbing tore into Kai’s wretched conscience and ripped his heart to shreds.

  “Kai, in case you give a shit, I’m going crazy trying to put our baby’s crib together. I have no doubt a lunatic—most likely a man—wrote these directions when he was either drunk or high. You are a piece of shit and if our baby falls when this son-a-bitchin thing breaks, it’ll be your fault. I hope you rot in hell for leaving me alone to deal with all this.”

  The slamming receiver made Kai wince. Ruefully, he felt a small sense of relief when the answering device announced it as being the final call saved.

  Her angry words left him shaken to the core. My God, I’m a daddy! Aurora had conceived his baby and had been forced to go through the experience without him. Oh God! Could it get any worse?

  He slumped down on the dusty sofa and lowered his head into his shaking hands. The vision her voice resurrected gnawed into his sorry soul.

  Deep undercover, he’d had no choice but to stick to the plan, give up all his contacts, all connections to his old life and live the lie he’d taken on since that never-to-be-forgotten night he’d stepped in to fight another man’s battle.

  But he’d won his freedom. The case had ended well for the LAPD. Even though in the final battle he’d taken a couple of bullets, which still hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, the mob now resided behind bars.

  The two Angeli men, Dominic and Sonny, were dead and the drug ring completely busted. The last weapon haul had revealed the Mexican connection and they were also squashed.

  Eleven months of undercover duty had sapped a lot out of Kai, he knew it. Not only because of the barely healed wound in his chest and the burning pain in his arm, but the aching in his heart made him feel pitiful and lower than a slug looking for a hole to crawl into.

  All the time he’d urged the doctors to release him after they’d operated and removed the bullet; he’d planned his strategy in getting Aurora to allow him back into her life. He didn’t hold out much hope that she’d let him love her again, but man, he had to try. Either that or he’d never be able to face himself while shaving again without wanting to cut his own throat.

  That had been his plan up until hearing her words—words that delighted and terrified him all at the same time. Christ, he, Kai Lawson, womanizer and total prick, was now a father. A sob clawed at the back of his throat, fighting viciously to be released. Son of a bitch, he’d messed up big-time.

  More tired than he could ever remember, he put his head back against the sofa, wiped the rogue tears staining his cheeks and let his exhaustion win. An image of Aurora cuddling his baby made his hand swipe his cheek yet again before he succumbed to exhaustion.

  ***

  In Kai’s dream Sonny appeared shaken but victorious, blood stained his cheek and the gun clenched in his hand stunk from being recently fired.

  To make sure Kai didn’t interfere, one of the new men had coldcocked him with a slam to the back of his head. The same prick he’d seen laughing and drinking with Sonny the day before. Slowly, he lurched to his feet.

  “What the fuck are you thinking, Sonny?” Kai’s voice sounded hoarse and weak even to himself.

  Sonny turned to him, and for an instant, Kai read the fear in his eyes. Blinking nervously, Sonny scanned the room, moving from one uneasy man to the next. “I’m sick of taking the shit from old Dominic. I’m the man now and anyone who doesn’t like it can leave.”

  Earlier, they’d been called into the clubhouse and led to the back rooms where Dominic held council in a space he called his own. Kai sensed a lot of tension. He’d noticed the quivering excitement in his skinny boss who’d strutted and preened more than normal—as if he alone knew something was up and couldn’t wait for it to happen.

  Recently there had been a distinct unsettling among the men. Dominic had turned into a brutal dictator, pressured by the Mexicans to either deliver more markets or they’d find someone who could.

  And keeping Sonny under wraps over the last few weeks had been more difficult than usual He’d found himself a woman. Secretly, the cold-eyed blonde bitch had tried to put the move on Kai and failed.

  Sly, with one priority, Maylene worked Sonny like a lion tamer training a cat. With a lying, pandering tongue for her whip and a body men craved as her hypothetical chair, she had Sonny on his knees as her loyal, adoring worshipper.

  In Sonny’s eyes, she could do no wrong. Playing him, she’d filled his head with nonsense about how strong and brave a man she’d found herself and Sonny lapped it up. Kai had no doubt she was behind Sonny’s decision for this takeover.

  Obviously aware that Kai would try and stop him for his own good, Sonny had had Kai taken out of the scene while he’d killed Dominic.

  Shocked by the unexpected state of events, Dominic’s personal bodyguard stormed to the door. “I’m not working for anyone who kills their own family.”

  Before Kai could step in, the bullet from Sonny’s gun now in Maylene’s hand hit the retreating man square in the back. He dropped to his knees, and though he reached for his weapon, his face hit the floor first. That put paid to anyone else making the same choice. Sonny had become ‘the Man.’ With shinning eyes and a cruel smirk, Maylene handed back Sonny’s gun and stepped up to curl herself around him.

  Within days, Sonny, between dealing with his hysterical mother who believ
ed her husband had been shot by an opposing gang member, and the men who wanted strong direction for how things were to now work, started unravelling.

  He turned to Kai constantly, and in no time, Kai had all the information he required about the times, drop-off zones and the names he’d need to bring the whole operation down.

  Also, now that Sonny had Maylene to satisfy, he loosened the reins that had kept Kai tied to him like a pup on a leash. This had given Kai time to make other necessary arrangements which led to the final battle and his new set of nightmares….

  The ringing of a doorbell dragged him from his realistic dreams and brought him back to the land of the living. Discombobulated, he looked at his watch and realized he’d been passed out most of the day.

  Carefully standing up like a victim of old age, he moved toward the door to check the peep-hole. There were a very few people he’d open for, and after checking carefully, he realized one of them had given up the bell and was reaching with his big hand to fist-thump the door.

  He unlocked it and stepped aside, waiting for the shit to fly. His suspicion that his old friend Cory had it in for him couldn’t be wrong. Beside the fact that Ashton’s anger was totally justified, Kai knew there was no way he could or would fight back.

  Chapter Seven

  On the way to the call, Hampton filled in Aurora with the information he’d gotten. “Highway patrol happened to be at the scales just outside of town when a semi pulled in. Seems the driver panicked for some reason when he was asked to open the back for a search. He shot and killed the cop. Then he drove off in a big hurry.”

  “They have a description of the truck and driver?”

  “The scale operator dove for cover. He’s pretty shook up and isn’t much help. Truck was white. Driver was a male.”

  “Shit! How many thousands of trucks going through town every day fit that description? Any security cameras in place that work?”

  “Let’s hope we’ll be so lucky.”

  Twenty minutes later, Aurora faced the fact that they had nothing to go on. The coroner arrived and confirmed that the officer been shot with a handgun, most likely a .45.

  The security tape only revealed the shooting. Not the face of the shooter nor any markings or the license of the truck. And there were no witnesses except for the gibbering idiot whose eyes were glazed with shock and who hadn’t said anything helpful since they’d first arrived and started questioning him.

  Aurora stood outside and tried to cool her temper. Stupid fool was less than useless. The ringing in her head began gently, and as she moved to the grass on the side of the road, it increased enough to gain her attention. She scanned the area and saw tracks that had rutted the grass further up the turnoff. They looked exactly like what one would expect from a vehicle that had driven off in a great hurry.

  “Hampton!” Gaining his attention, she waved him over. “Whadaya think? Could these be tracks from our perp?”

  “God love ya, Aurora. I think you’re onto something.” First he called the yellow-shirted officers to tape off the area and then he headed to his car to call in a team to take imprints of the tires. In the meantime, Aurora had her camera and took pictures from every angle. If by some miracle the tires had any distinguishing marks, and they found the truck to match, they’d have evidence to put it at the scene.

  Aurora returned to the building and asked them to replay the video once again. This time, on a hunch, she turned up the volume as high as it would go. A very slight head action by the patrolman just before he approached the front of the truck made her aware that he might have heard something. Something that had forced him to demand that the truck driver open the back. Maybe it was that order that had precipitated his death.

  “What’s up, Aurora?” Ham stopped beside her while she waited for the tape to restart once again to where the truck had pulled up.

  “What kind of a truck is it?”

  “Peterbilt, maybe twenty years old,” he answered. They both watched as it came to a stop on the scales. The patrolman stood reviewing a pile of papers in his hands when something made his head jerk upwards. He turned to look at the load, hesitated for a few seconds and put the forms down.

  Slowly, unclipping his gun but leaving it his holster, he walked to the passenger window. His lips moved as he issued an order and then his body jerked twice and dropped seconds before the truck sped off with a torrent of black smoke pouring out of the exhaust.

  “Turn the volume up as far as possible,” Aurora demanded. Didn’t help. They couldn’t hear anything, but Aurora knew in her gut that the officer on the scene did hear something. And it was enough for his suspicion to be ignited and for him to follow it up with demands.

  Ham coughed but heavy emotion still rang in his voice. “Damn I hate watching a good man fall. This scum cop-killer is number one on my catch list from now on. You have any ideas, Aurora?”

  “I think he heard something coming from the trailer. Maybe a scream or someone pounding. And he must have judged it to be human for him to take the action he did.”

  “Humm. I see where you’re coming from. And you’re probably right. I’ll run through the files we have on illegals or human trafficking and see if we can pick up any leads. In the meantime…?”

  “Get the guys here to check the earlier logs. See when a truck with the same description might have passed through within the last six months. Then get those license numbers that would have been recorded and run them through the files.”

  Ham took out his notebook and made a note and waited, knowing she was on a roll. “And?”

  “Get some of our guys to notify the other weigh scales in the state to check their files and to keep a look out for any twenty-year-old, unmarked white Peterbilts. Tell them not to waylay the driver, just record the license number and call it in.”

  “Good!”

  “Then set up an APB for highway patrol to pull over all suspects and to use caution. This killer is armed, dangerous. He put down one good man today. If cornered, he won’t hesitate to do so again.”

  “Got it.” He flipped the book flap and grinned as he shook his head.

  “What?”

  “I’ve surely missed yer quick mind and yer pretty face.”

  Pleasure crept into her reddening cheeks. She knew it and be dammed if she’d let him see.

  Hesitating too long, that soft feeling the big Irishman stoked inside her took over. Aw hell! Deciding quickly, she turned, patted his face and winked. “And I’ve missed yer ugly mug!” His roar of laughter followed her to the vehicle.

  Chapter Eight

  “If you want to hit me, go ahead. I won’t blame you—or stop you.” Kai wavered slightly while trying to stand tall.

  “Came close to hospitalizing you until I stopped to see Bob Powers and found out you were just released. Even though he filled me in, we still need to have a talk.” Cory put his hand out signalling Kai toward the sofa.

  Stubborn, Kai stood his ground and hoped Cory would get it over with. It still hurt to stand for any length of time. “I imagine your fists will reveal most of what you want to express.”

  “Quit acting like a jerk; sit down before you fall down.”

  Cory’s easy mood finally caught Kai’s attention and he gave in and looked Cory in the eye. What he saw made him catch his breath. Anger he could handle. Pity wasn’t planned for.

  Stumbling, he jerked backward and couldn’t stop the hiss he made from the jolt of pain that burned in his chest. Where the hell did he put those pills? He moved to the table where he’d thrown his black bag and rummaged inside for the bottle.

  Before he could stop him, Cory took over and found them, then headed into the kitchen area for a glass of water. “Kai, sit your butt down or you’ll end up hurting yourself.”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Sure you are. Just so you know, you give me a hard time and I’ll deliver your sorry ass back to the hospital and be happy to leave you there.”

  Kai, who knew truth when
he heard it, slid his body back on the sofa, then meekly accepted the pill and the water.

  Cory sat near him. “Why? Why’d you leave? And don’t play stupid games or I’ll walk out and you’ll never see me again.”

  Kai swallowed. Tired to the depths of his very soul, he answered without hesitation. “I had to leave when Aurora killed Rhondo. Hell, I knew I couldn’t have looked at her and hidden the anger.” He groaned in disgust. “I know now how asinine I acted but I couldn’t shake the bullshit feeling that she’d played me for a fool. I’d chosen her and a bright new future, and she’d taken my shot, Goddammit! Sometimes a man doesn’t realize he hasn’t grown up until he’s tested.” Kai let his head fall back against the leather.

  Cory nodded in agreement. “You got that right!” He relaxed his shoulders and rubbed his knees. “In case you didn’t know, you have a daughter called Lily Tamryn Morelli.” Cory voice betrayed his love for the child.

  “Aurora had a girl?”

  “Yep.”

  An incredible feeling of joy burst over Kai once again. He was a father. A little girl called Lily lived in this world because of him. She had his blood running through her veins, maybe some of his features. And she carried his sister’s name. God Aurora, you were always too good for me anyway.

  Wait till his mother finds out she’s a grandmother. Jesus H Christ he wished he could celebrate.

  “I’m a father,” was what he said instead, awe ringing in his shaken voice.

  “Not yet. A father loves his kids by kissing them at night and hugging them whenever he can. He watches their teeth rip through the gums and worries himself sick when they cry from the pain. He—”

  “Stop it! God have mercy. I can’t handle this right now. I’d rather you just punch my lights out than torture me this way.” Kai raised his arm to cover his eyes. No way could he stop the emotion from gathering and no fucking way he wanted to share. Not even with a man he respected as much as he did Cory Ashton.