“I figured I’d just come to the house,” Kelly said, “Your girlfriend won’t be there, will she?” she asked her tone snide.
“Well, since someone just tried to kill us yesterday,” Jericho said, her eyes narrowed, “I’m really not letting her out of my sight, so yeah, she’ll be here.”
Kelly was silent on her end again. Jericho’s lips curled in annoyance.
Finally Kelly sighed at her end, “Fine.” She said.
“Text me the time,” Jericho said, “But make it in the evening, because I’m back at work tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Kelly said, sounding unhappy.
Tough shit, Jericho thought.
They hung up a moment later.
“Jericho, I don’t really need to be here…” Zoey said.
“Where do you think you’re going to be?” Jericho asked, her eyebrow raised.
“Well,” Zoey said, shrugging, “I could go back to my apartment.”
“No,” Jericho said, her tone unequivocal, “You’re not going to be anywhere where I’m not right now.”
Zoey looked hesitant, but then nodded, “Okay, but I can just be in the other room or something.”
“That’s up to you babe,” Jericho said.
“What do you think she wants to talk to you about?” Zoey asked then.
Jericho shrugged, “For all I know, she just wants to re-inventory the place to make sure she didn’t miss something on her list.” She said, her tone wry.
Zoey drew in a breath, looking over at Jericho, “What if she wants you back?” she asked.
Jericho looked back at her for a long moment, her look doubtful, then she shrugged, “That would be her problem then.”
“But,” Zoey began.
“But what, babe?” Jericho asked, her look puzzled.
Zoey shrugged, her eyes downcast, “You were with her for over ten years…”
“Yeah,” Jericho agreed, “And she left, her choice.”
“But if she’s figured out she was wrong…” Zoey said then.
“Then that’s also her problem,” Jericho said, moving closer to Zoey and reaching out to tip her chin up so Zoey’s eyes met hers, “I told you that I love you, Zoey. I don’t tell women that randomly, in fact I’ve told a total of two women that in the thirty-eight years I’ve been alive, and that’s not counting my mother.”
Zoey’s eyes widened.
Jericho smiled, nodding to her, “You’re the second, babe,” she told her, “And I don’t take that lightly.”
“But she was the first,” Zoey said.
“Yeah, and I want you to be the last, is that okay with you?” Jericho said.
Zoey’s eyes reflected the shock she was going through with this admission.
“Unless you don’t want to be,” Jericho said, her eyes still searching Zoey’s.
“You’re the most incredible thing that’s ever happened to me, Jericho.”
“Then I take it you’re in the for the long haul,” Jericho said, a slow smile starting on her lips.
“Yes,” Zoey said, nodding.
“Then stop trying to push me at my ex, okay?”
“Okay,” Zoey said, grinning.
CHAPTER 7
The following day, Cat was getting nowhere with Jericho’s diaries, so finally she abandoned then. BFS had come back with a couple of names of people’s who’s prints had been found in the house. They planned a raid on one of the people that had popped up with priors for guns and general mayhem.
Jovina watched at Catalina and her group got ready to leave for the raid. She could see determination on Cat’s face. Cat still wasn’t sleeping well, and she hadn’t eaten that morning. It terrified her no end to see Cat pushing herself so hard. Jericho being taken had stepped up the anxiety level of the group, it meant that whoever was pulling the strings was capable of pretty much anything.
Cat had arranged for Kashena to stay with both Jovina and Devin while they were on the raid, Sebastian Bach was covering Jericho’s house for the time being. Before they left, Cat walked over to Jovina.
“We’ll back in a bit, please stay here, don’t go outside, okay?” Cat said, tension evident in her face.
“I’ll stay right here,” Jovina assured her, “Please be careful.”
“I will be.” Cat said, leaning in to kiss her lightly on the lips.
Jovina nodded, smiling sadly.
At the house they were conducting the raid on, Cat and Christian were at the front door, while Dave and Kevin hit the back, Jeanie was with them, keeping an eye on the side door to make sure they didn’t lose this guy a second time.
The knock and notice was given and they hit the door. Rushing they saw no movement, the house was still. It was eerie. Systematically they checked each room and in the far back bedroom they located not only their original suspect but his accomplice in the garage. They were both dead, shot through the head.
“This looks execution style,” Dave said, checking for pulses, although wounds looked fatal.
“Rigor hasn’t set in, yet,” Cat said, picking up one hand of a suspect and dropping it, “This is recent.”
“Okay, carefully everyone let’s check the rest of the house.” Dave said.
In the hallway they found a door that lead to a basement. Cat and Kevin cleared the area and Cat stayed down there to start going through the room to see if there was anything useful to them. Kevin went back upstairs to check to make sure that the coroner had been called for the bodies.
Cat was intent on a set of plans that she’d found on a shelf. They looked like floor plans to something, she was trying to decipher them when she felt someone standing behind her. She assumed it was one of the guys until she was grabbed up by a handful of hair and she felt the cold of a blade against her throat. Closing her eyes she took in a slow deep breath, the man muttered something then she felt the searing pain of the blade begin to cut into her neck, she shifted slightly backwards, as the blade continued. The something hard hit her in the head and everything went black.
Dave was finished with his examination of the kitchen area, and decided to go check on Cat to see if she’d gotten anywhere in the basement.
“Hey, there’s not a lot–” he started as he walked down the stairs, that’s when he saw Cat laying on the floor, and there was a small pool of blood near her head. “Fuck! Blue, get an ambulance now! Eleven ninety-nine Officer down!”
Moving to Cat’s side, he picked her up, turning her over and saw the gash on her neck. It looked like the blood was coagulating, that was a good sign, that meant her jugular wasn’t cut. Even so, grabbed a towel that was nearby and pressed it to the cut. Carrying her up the stairs.
“Son of a bitch,” Christian said, seeing the blood, “Ambulance is on its way.”
“Good. Take Mace and check that basement again, I don’t know who did this, but we missed him somehow.” Dave said, his tone sharp.
One of his people was hurt, and he was getting damned tired of this guy being not only one step ahead of him, but having the ability to apparently backtrack and hurt one of them. It was pissing him off.
The ambulance arrived, and Cat was taken to the hospital. Dave took on the responsibility of going back to the office to tell Jovina and take her to the hospital. Fortunately, the EMTs said that Cat’s pulse was strong, as was her blood pressure, so she hadn’t lost a severe amount of blood. She still hadn’t awaken however, and she had a pretty good gash on her head as well from where she’d been knocked out.
When Dave walked into the office, Devin and Jovina were going over some reports that the computer had generated. Jovina looked up, seeing Dave, and then her eyes going to the blood on his shirt, then to his face.
She stood up, shaking her head, already denying what he hadn’t even told her yet. As he stepped toward her, her hands came up to ward him off.
“Jovina, we need to go to the hospital,” he told her, “Cat’s been hurt, and she’s going to want you there when she wakes up.” He told her, trying to t
ell her that Cat wasn’t dead, and also give her the hope that she’d be fine.
Devin stood up, taking Jovina by the shoulders and gently walking her toward Dave, her green eyes looking at him.
“Thanks,” Dave said to Devin.
“Let me know how she is,” Devin said.
Twenty minutes later they were walking into Cedars Sinai. Dave guided Jovina up to the nurses desk.
“We’re here for Catalina Roche’,” Dave told the nurse, holding up his Lieutenant’s badge, “She’s an agent that was brought in to the ER.”
The nurse checked her computer and told them where to go. Dave walked Jovina back to the emergency area. He could feel the girl trembling he just prayed that nothing had gone wrong since he’d let Cat go in the ambulance. Jeanie had gone with her, he figured Jeanie would have called him if something had happened.
Dave spotted Jeanie in the hallway outside of a room. Striding over to her, with Jovina in tow, Dave looked at Jeanie.
“What are they saying?” he asked her.
“Her throat was cut, but not so deep that she lost a major amount of blood. Right now they’re doing a CT scan to see if there was any major damaged done by whatever he hit her with to knock her out.”
Jovina shuddered at what Jeanie was saying. Someone had cut Catalina’s throat? And on top of that, struck her in the head? What kind of world was this? This was insane!
Jericho was in her office when her phone rang. She was told about Cat being hurt, she paled when she was told how she’d been hurt.
“Jericho?” Zoey queried, seeing the way the director had gone pale.
Getting up from the table she was working at, she walked over as Jericho nodded to the person on the phone.
“We’ll be there,” she said then.
“What happened?” Zoey asked, as she watched Jericho stand up and reach into her desk for her holstered gun and clipping on her badge.
“Cat just got hurt,” Jericho said, her tone frustrated, “Someone snuck up on her and cut her throat.”
“Oh my God!” Zoey exclaimed, understanding why Jericho had paled.
“Dave said she’s okay, that whoever did it missed her jugular, but that they also hit her on the head to knock her out, and that’s what they’re looking at right now.”
“Okay,” Zoey said, nodding as she picked up her bag.
Jericho and Zoey walked into the hospital going directly to the area Dave had told her Cat was in, Jericho showed her badge to the security officer who immediately let her and Zoey pass.
“How is she?” Jericho asked, walking up to Dave, Jeanie and Jovina.
“They say she’s going to be fine, the CT scan was clear, so we’re just waiting for her to come back down so we can see her.”
Jericho nodded, “How did this guy get the drop on her?”
“Well, she and Mace had cleared the area, but apparently an area under the stairs had a secret door. Mace found it when he was looking for it. The son of a bitch got away again.”
“Damnit,” Jericho said, gritting her teeth.
The situation was becoming too dangerous, they never knew when this guy was going to hit next. It seemed like they were constantly running to catch up.
When Cat came down an hour later they were able to see her.
“What happened?” Jericho asked her.
Cat shook her head, “One minute I was alone, the next I wasn’t. I thought it was one of the guys,” she said, glancing at Dave, “But then he grabbed my hair and I felt the knife. He said something, I can’t remember what though… Then he cut me. Next thing I know I feel the hit to my head and that was it. Did we figure out where he came from?” Cat asked Dave.
“Hidden room under the stairs,” Dave said with a grimace.
“Well there’s something you don’t see every day,” Cat said with a grin, trying to alleviate the guilt she could see in Dave’s expression.
“So you can’t remember what he said?” Jericho asked, coming back to that part of Cat’s description.
Cat thought about it, trying to focus her memory on that moment.
“He had an accent…” she said.
“What kind of accent?” Jericho asked.
Cat shook her head, “It wasn’t a usual accent, like Mexican or black…” her voice trailed off as she tried to concentrate. “Damnit, I can’t remember…” Cat said, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jericho said, “You concentrate on getting your strength back.” She said, her look concerned.
“I’ll do my best.” Cat said, grinning.
Everyone else left then, leaving Jovina with Cat.
Cat’s eyes met Jovina’s, “I’m okay, honey.”
Jovina didn’t look convinced in the slightest. Sitting down in the chair next to the hospital bed Cat lay in, Jovina simply took her hand and held it to her lips.
Cat closed her eyes, feeling tired again. They’d told her that the blood loss was going to cause her to be lethargic until she had a chance to regenerate a bit.
Later that evening, Jericho and Zoey were in the back yard of Jericho’s house. Jericho was working on putting in a retaining wall, while Zoey watered the plants they’d already planted days before. They heard the back slider open.
“Director?” queried Sebastian Bach, the ex-Army Ranger who was acting as Jericho’s bodyguard at that point.
Kelly stood looking at Jericho, her look intimidated. As well it should be, Sebastian was no one to mess with, and he’d been very serious about finding out who she was before even allowing her into the house.
Jericho nodded to Sebastian, he nodded affirmation then turned to walk back into the house and closed the slider behind him. Jericho turned back to the stone she was setting into place, then glanced back at Kelly. She saw that Kelly was looking at Zoey who’d given no indication of noticing Kelly at all. Jericho grinned, thinking oh this was going to be fun.
“So what’s up Kel?” Jericho queried when Kelly didn’t speak.
“Well, I,” Kelly began, but then her eyes looked around, “The yard looks really nice,” she said.
Jericho nodded, “I know,” she said, with a grin.
Kelly gave her a ‘really?’ look, to which Jericho only grinned wider.
“So,” Jericho said, again, turning back to pick up another stone and place it, glancing over her shoulder, “What’s up?”
When Kelly didn’t speak again, Jericho turned to look at her, hands on her hips.
“I’m gonna go inside,” Zoey said, turning off the hose, her eyes sliding to Kelly then back at Jericho.
“Okay,” Jericho said, stepping over to kiss Zoey on the lips softly, pulling back she looked down at the girl, “You feeling okay?” she asked, Zoey’s lips had felt overly warm.
“Yeah,” Zoey said, shrugging, “Just a little headache.”
“Okay, I’ll be in soon.” Jericho said, smiling.
Zoey moved past Kelly, her look far from intimidated, even making direct eye-contact for a long moment when Kelly didn’t move out of her path.
Jericho grinned, thinking that the girl was definitely no scared little rabbit. When Kelly looked back over at Jericho, she saw the proud grin on her face. It irritated Kelly no end.
“She’s awfully young,” Kelly said, her tone spiteful.
Jericho raised an eyebrow, then nodded, “She’s legal, that’s all that counts.” With that she turned back to what she was doing, then glanced back at Kelly. “So what did you want to talk about?”
“How long have you been dating her?” Kelly asked.
“Kel,” Jericho said sighing, “We’re not going to talk about Zoey, so just drop it.”
“Oh my, so protective…” Kelly said her voice trailing off, her look sour.
“Kelly,” Jericho said, her tone sharp this time, “Say whatever it is you wanted to say and get it over with, Jesus!”
“Wow,” Kelly said, her tone hurt now, “I thought we were going to talk.”
“We can talk, Ke
l, but you don’t get to question me about my relationship. You opted out of our relationship, that gives you no rights where my love life is concerned. Got it?”
“Fine,” Kelly said, look direct, “I guess you don’t miss me, then, if you have someone like that around.”
Jericho grinned, “No, I don’t miss you.” She said simply.
“You know, sex isn’t really a substitute for a relationship, Jericho.”
“Neither is lack of sex, Kelly, what’s your point?” Jericho countered.
“We had a relationship, built on hard work and love,” Kelly said.
Jericho snorted, and then gave Kelly a censorious look. “Oh, wait, did you actually mean that?” she asked.
“Why are you being so mean?” Kelly asked.
“Wait, let me get this straight,” Jericho said, holding her hand out in a halting gesture, “You think you get to walk out, no discussion, no trying to fix things before you do, and now you think you get to come back and complain that I’m being mean to you?” Her look seemed to question Kelly’s sanity, “Yeah, I’m sorry, babe, that’s not how this works. So why don’t you just get to what you wanted to say, okay?”
“What I wanted to say was that I wanted to give our relationship another try.” Kelly said, her tone sharp.
Jericho looked back at her open-mouthed for a long minute, then leaned down and picked up the beer she had sitting on the ground. Taking a long drink, she looked like she was considering the idea. Then she looked back at Kelly and simply said.
“No.”
It was Kelly’s turn to stare at Jericho in shock, blinking a few times, as if she couldn’t quite comprehend that answer. In truth, she couldn’t. She’d been sure that if she went to Jericho and told her she wanted her back, Jericho would certainly be willing to try, if nothing else.
“You’re saying that because you’re still mad at me.” Kelly said finally.
“No,” Jericho said, her tone careful, like she was talking to a child, “I said that because I have no interest in being in a relationship with you anymore.”
Turning Tables (WeHo Book 3) Page 18