Nodding my head, I understood, he probably wouldn’t know when he was coming home until a day or two beforehand. It was an unpredictable life and I was glad that I got out when I did. If I hadn’t, I’d probably still be over there with him.
“I’m sure you’ll see him soon.”
“Yeah,” she whispered and looked up to me. Her beautiful eyes so open and sad, all I wanted was to change that look in her eyes.
“Come on,” I said, holding my hand out to her.
She placed her small, soft hand in mine and let me pull her up. Opening my legs for her body to fit in between, she moved closer, and I wrapped my arms around her, inhaling her sweet scent.
“He’s got good men behind him sweetheart,” I said to ease some of her upset.
It was true, he did have good men behind him, but I couldn’t tell her that he’d be safe, because no matter how much he trained, or how many men he had at his back, that could never be a certainty.
I felt her nodding against my chest as I rubbed my hands up and down her back in a soothing motion.
“Let’s go watch a movie,” I said pulling back. “Take your mind off things.”
“Okay,” she whispered, wiping her eyes.
I hated seeing her like that.
We’d all got into a good routine and for the last three weeks, we all did the same shifts and watched Daley. I always did the morning shift after I had taken Eli to preschool, then someone would take over when it was time for me to pick him up.
I learned a lot from following Daley around. He had many acquaintances but I never saw him with a genuine friend. I watched as he always had a car follow him, though it was done discreetly. Not discreetly enough for me not to notice, but still discreetly.
We hadn’t got any further with the investigation, the only plus was that there hadn’t been anymore kidnappings. That was a huge win but we didn’t know how long it would be until another girl was taken, we were on borrowed time. At least, that’s what it felt like.
I pulled up next to the warehouse and helped Eli out of his seat. Ty had taken over from me today, which meant I wouldn’t see him until later tonight. We had started to get a good system going, and by the time he would come home, I’d have all the housework done and his dinner ready for him. He kept telling me to stop doing it but I felt it was only right as I was living here now as well.
“Uncle Luke!” Eli shouted as soon as I opened the metal door to the warehouse, running straight at Luke who was on the treadmill.
Smiling, I looked around for Evan, knowing that Kitty was probably still sleeping after her early morning shift. I didn’t know how they did those sort of shifts, I’d freak out if I had to sit in the car for six hours at night.
“Hey, Evan.” I walked over to his corner, he pushed his chair back and stood up.
“Ready for some training?” He smirked.
“Me and you?” I pointed between us, my eyes going wide.
We hadn’t trained together since it had been a secret, I loved training with him and the possibility of getting to do it again, sent thrills through me.
Out of all the guys, he was definitely my favorite to train with. His size didn’t intimidate me like Luke and Ty, although Evan was just as tall as them but he had an athletic build rather than the humongous muscles that Luke and Ty had.
“Yep.” He walked past me, opening up the cupboard and pulling out his pads, and my gloves. “Can’t forget these baby’s.” He waggled his brows up and down, smiling manically.
I giggled and said. “Pass ‘em over.” Crooking my finger at him as I walked forward.
Pulling my vest and belt off, I lay them on top of the cupboard and pushed the gloves on. It felt good to have them back on, I’d missed them. Something I thought I’d never think, I hated exercise but this was different. This was for my safety.
Following Evan to the middle of the mats, I scanned the warehouse to see where Eli was. I smiled, but cringed at the same time, when I saw him sat with Luke next to the treadmill, both watching me with smiles on their faces.
I gulped at the audience. Although I didn’t want to expose Eli to violence, this was self-defense. I needed to know this, but I didn’t want him to think that it was okay either.
“Right, left, right. To start with,” Evan instructed me, holding up the pads.
I threw a right hook, then a left, and finished with a right.
“Good. Again,” he said in a gruff voice.
I did it again, and again, and again, until the sweat was dripping off of me, and I could barely breath. The burn in my arms felt good and I was starting to become slightly addicted to the way it made me feel.
Evan was always a happy go lucky guy but when it came to this, he was dead serious.
I sat out on the porch swing most nights, just basking in the view and partly waiting for Ty. That’s when I started to notice Evan would go out at the same time, on the same day, every week. After the third time, I asked Ty where he went, and that’s when I found out that Evan taught women’s self-defense and boxing at the local gym.
It all made sense then, why he had pulled me out of the office the first time we met, he must have seen something. He was trying to teach me how to defend myself and I didn’t even know it at the time.
Finding that out about Evan made me realize that there was still so much I had to learn about all of them. That then lead to me and Ty getting to know each other more. Just general things, like which side of the bed we preferred to sleep on, our favorite colors, that sort of stuff. I went to sleep that night feeling like we had taken a major step in our relationship. That’s if it was even a relationship. I really should clarify that.
With my chest heaving for breath, I held up a hand, signaling that I needed a minute.
“I need water,” I gasped. Walking into the kitchen, I pulled a cold bottle from the fridge and gulped the majority of it down. The sound of small footsteps following me in.
“Mama?” Turning around, I watched Eli lift up onto the chair.
“Yes, sweetie?” Sitting down next to him, I wiped the sweat off my face and tried to catch my breath.
“What you were doing out there?” He pointed back to the warehouse and continued. “Can I learn that?”
I stared at him with wide eyes, I didn’t know what to say or think. I didn’t want him thinking that it was okay to go around hurting people, but at the same time, I wanted him to know how to defend himself.
It was one of those moments where I genuinely didn’t know what to say, I sat there with my mouth opening and closing like a fish.
“You know mama only does that for her job, right?” I said, finally getting myself together and placing the bottle of water on the table.
“Yeah, but it looks fun.” He shrugged and looked away.
Gulping, I reached over, taking his hand in mine and drawing his attention back to me.
“Let me think about it, okay, sweetie?”
“Okay, mama.” He jumped down and ran back into the warehouse as if he hadn’t just asked me the hardest question that he had ever asked, while I sat staring at the empty doorway in shock.
The first thought in my mind was that I needed to talk to Ty. That made me both happy and sad. Happy that I could talk about it with someone, but also sad that it wasn’t Eli’s dad I could do that with.
Before I could think about it anymore, I finished the rest of my water off and got up, throwing it into the trash. Ready to go back and do some more training, I walked back out into the warehouse.
Driving off when Luke took over for his shift, I made my way to the precinct. Charlie had called earlier to tell me that he had some new information that he’d been given and to meet him there when I got the chance. I hadn’t managed to get back to him until I was about to finish my shift because Daley had been out and about all evening. I was getting really fed up of watching him eat in a restaurant while I was sat in my truck with nothing.
After shooting a text off to Charlie, telling him I
was on my way, I pressed the buttons on the steering wheel to dial Kay’s number, the sound coming through the speakers in the car.
“Hello?” Her soft voice sounding across the line made my lips lift into a smile.
“Hey, sweetheart.” Stopping at the lights, I checked my mirrors for any cars, always aware of what or who was around me, it was essential.
“Oh, hey.” I frowned at the tone of her voice, immediately on alert.
“What’s up?” I asked, turning right when the lights hit green.
“I…Well…Eli asked me something today and I wanted to see what you thought?”
“Hit me with it.” I smirked as I pulled up to the precinct, leaving the car running.
“I was doing some training with Evan,” she started. I knew that he had planned to do some training with her, Evan was one of the best people for her to do it with. I mean, sure, we all had combat and fighting skills but he specialized in women’s self-defense.
“Uh huh.”
“And when I took a break, Eli asked if he could learn how to do it.” I heard her big intake of breath over the line before she continued. “I mean, I know he’s not your responsibility, but I just thought-”
“Kay, its fine. I like that you want to discuss this with me. What is it that he wants to learn?”
“I don’t know,” she huffed. “I didn’t think to ask that. I’d just been doing glove work.”
“Ah, so he wants to learn how to box?” Noticing Charlie standing outside, I unfastened my seat belt and leaned forward. “How about this? I’ll pick us up something to eat on my way home and we can talk about it then?”
“Are you sure?” she whispered down the line.
“Of course I am, sweetheart. I’ll be home in about an hour.”
“Okay, see you in a while,” she mumbled, the line going dead before I had a chance to respond.
Turning my truck off, I pushed out of the door and made my way to Charlie.
“Hey.” I nodded.
“One of Daley’s guys have come forward.” He grunted as a greeting, and opened the door.
“Hello to you too.” I smirked.
“Yeah, hey.” He nodded, putting the pass code into the door that separated the front desk from the rest of the precinct.
“So, what’s this guy sayin’?”
“A shit load, we’re gonna get this motherfucker.”
Nodding, I tried not to let anything show on my face. It sounded too good to be true but if he was who he said he was, then we’d finally be able to take this guy down and find those girls. Following Charlie into his office, he pointed to his chair indicating for me to have a seat.
Furrowing my brow, I sat down looking at the computer screen. He never let anyone sit in his chair.
“Press Play,” he said.
For the next half an hour, I sat and watched a man, dressed in the same gear that Daley’s henchmen wore, telling them all about Daley’s secret sex slave business.
The more I watched, the more apparent it became that this wasn’t real. He was just saying what he thought we wanted to hear. Feeling my blood boil, I clenched my hands into fists and pushed up out of the chair.
“That’s not fuckin’ real,” I fumed, shaking my head.
“What? It’s one of his guys,” Charlie grunted back, his hands going to his hips.
“No, it’s not.” I said walking past him and to the door. That shit was a waste of my time.
“It is, look, he’s wearing the uniform.”
Turning back to him, I squinted my eyes. “Really Charlie? For a cop, you can be real dumb sometimes.”
“What the fuck?” he growled, stepping forward.
“He ain’t one of his men. We’ve been watching him for weeks now. There’s four different guys and they take shifts in twos.”
“Yeah, and?”
“I could pick each of their faces out of a thousand different people. He. Ain’t. One. Of. Them.”
Furrowing his brow, he flicked his eyes to the computer and then back to me. “So he ain’t one of them?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Someone is trying to stall the investigation. They’re playing us.”
Charlie stood there, his eyes blazing with anger. “Who would-”
“Fuck if I know, Charlie, but I’ve just pulled a shift watching Daley and all I want right now is food and my bed.”
Spinning around, I walked out the door, through the precinct and straight to my car.
Tomorrow, I’d think of what this meant. But for tonight, I was going home, eating some food with my woman and then going to bed.
Driving home from the preschool, I was too occupied with my thoughts from last night. Ty had come home late with food and we sat and ate while discussing the pros and cons to Eli learning how to box. Discussing it with Ty made it so much easier, and in the end, we came to the conclusion that it would be good for him but we were going to ask Evan to teach him. That way we had control over what he did and didn’t learn.
“What’s that mama?” Eli shouted as we were turning into the road that led to the compound.
“What’s, what, sweetie?”
“That, there!” Looking in the rear view mirror, I tried to see where he was pointing. Turning my head in that direction, I noticed what looked like a big ball of fur. So big, that at first I thought it was a bear, then it lifted its head and I realized that it was a dog.
Pulling over to the side of the road, I sat and watched him as he watched our car.
“Is it a dog, mama?”
“I think so.” I pulled my phone out and found Ty’s name, my eyes not moving from the dog.
“Hey,” he answered.
“Hey, erm…I think we’ve found a stray dog?” I squeaked down the line as the dog moved closer.
“A what?”
“A dog? But it’s like…really big.” I watched as it came even closer, pawing at the door. Unbuckling my belt, I leaned over the seat and met his eyes. They were so sad, and as soon as I saw them, I knew I couldn’t leave him there. Not like this.
He was holding his paw in the air so it was obvious that he was injured.
“Kay? Kay!” Ty shouted down the line, whatever he had said, I hadn’t heard a word of it.
“I’m gonna let him in,” I said to Ty.
“No, Kay don’t-” Pressing the end call button, I turned to Eli and took in his excited face.
“Don’t make any sudden movements or noises,” I said, turning the engine off and pushing my door open, the dog moved back cautiously.
I stepped out and walked slowly to the dog. “Hey, there,” I cooed. He wined and hobbled closer to me, sensing I wasn’t a danger to him. “What’s wrong?”
He whined louder as I moved closer, lowering his head, but still watching me with his eyes. Holding my hand out, I let him sniff me, letting him know that he was safe now.
I moved my hand closer, stroking his head. “That’s it, I won’t hurt you.”
Tilting my head, I tried to get a better look at his paw. All I could see was what looked like dried blood, matted into his fur and he looked way too skinny. Made even more obvious by the fact that he was such a big dog.
Still stroking him, I looked up to the passenger window and saw Eli’s face pressed against it, his nose squished to the side of his face. I chuckled, the noise startling the dog, I looked back down to him so that I could settle him and found him staring at Eli, his head tilted to the side.
It may not have been the best idea but my gut told me that he wasn’t going to hurt us so I made a snap decision.
“Get back in your seat, Eli.” I watched as he scrambled back over the seats and sat in his booster seat.
Walking around the back of the truck, I pulled the tailgate down and waved at the dog.
“Come on,” I urged him. He limped around, looked at me and then at the truck. “Up you go.” I waved.
Whining again, I went closer to him and tried to help lift him. Even though you could see that he w
as underweight, he still weighed a ton. I didn’t know what made me think I’d be able to lift the giant thing, but I put all my strength into it and didn’t even manage to lift him an inch off the ground.
“Kay!” I startled at Ty’s voice, the dog turned around and growled, bearing his teeth. “Whoa!” Holding his hands up in the air, Ty stopped where he was with Evan behind him.
“He’s fine,” I said to them and turned back to the dog. “It’s okay.” Holding my hand out to him again, he let me stroke him.
Trying to keep the dog calm, I kept my hand on his back and turned to Ty. “He’s hurt,” I said. “I need to get him to a vet.”
“And you were just gonna lift that giant dog all on your own?” Evan laughed.
“I was trying,” I huffed and stood up straight. “I didn’t think he’d be so heavy?”
“Here.” Ty moved forward, holding his hand out to the dog in the same way that I did. “Come here, boy.”
“How do you know it’s a boy?” Evan asked, his eyes wide. He hadn’t moved from his spot from over twenty feet away.
“Can you not see that?” Ty shook his head and moved closer, his hand stroking the dogs head. “Help me lift him up and we’ll go and get him checked out.”
“You want me?” Evan pointed to his chest, his eyes wide. “To help lift that mammoth?”
“Just get over here,” Ty grunted.
“Nope.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked away.
“Come on, Uncle Evan!” Eli shouted from the truck.
“Fine!” He threw his hands up in the air, shuffling forward. “But if he eats me, I’m gonna sue your ass.” He pointed at Ty.
“If he eats you, you won’t be here to sue me.” Ty smirked.
“So, you want him to eat me?”
“Jesus, Evan, just help me lift him.” Rolling his eyes, he waited until Evan was closer and together they lifted him into the back of the truck.
Once I knew he was safely in the back, I walked around to Eli’s door and strapped him in. “Is he hurt, mama?”
“I think his paw is, sweetie. We’ll go and get him checked out. Okay?”
“Okay.” He turned in his seat, looking into the back of the truck.
Exposed: Book 2 MAC Security Series Page 7