Cuffed and Briefed (KO Ink Book 4)

by Harley McRide

  Cuffed and Briefed

  KO Ink

  Book Four

  by Harley McRide & Carson Mackenzie

  Published by JK Publishing, Inc.

  © Copyright May 2016 JK Publishing

  Rights & Permissions © May 2016 JK Publishing, Inc.

  Cover, art, and logo © Copyright May 2016 by JK Publishing, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN #978-1-311-05282-7

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  Dedication

  To the men and women who wake up every day ‘To Protect and Serve’ and to the ones who have fallen — thank you for your service. You are forever in our thoughts and prayers.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  Books by Harley McRide

  Books by Carson Mackenzie

  About Harley

  About Carson

  Prologue

  Ranger

  With my eyes shut and my head leaned back against the wall, I listened to the whispers of everyone in the family waiting area. A couple hours had gone by as we waited on word about Falon. I was looking at it as no news was good news. I hated hospitals and it seemed that we had been spending more and more time in them. Every time I visited one, the memories of the night I lost Noel surfaced and it played through mind continuously, just as it had done a few minutes ago.

  I felt her before she even spoke. “Whatcha thinking about, Detective? You were frowning pretty deep there.” Maria sat beside me and placed her hand on my thigh and squeezed. I opened my eyes and turned my face toward her.

  “Just the case or cases if you count the bodies.” We kept getting deeper and deeper into the underground and with each inch of progress, we seemed to step two inches forward and three inches backwards. What I would give to catch one fucking break.

  “Ah, I thought being here might be bringing up some bad memories.” The lady was smart; she’d gotten it in one. And the strangest thing about it all, I felt almost a need to talk with her about it. Maria Roark was beautiful. Dark brown hair cut short that framed her face. Big brown eyes the color of whiskey and the longest eyelashes I had ever seen on a woman, at least natural eyelashes. She had the body of a real woman, curves that gave a man lots of things to think about.

  I looked across the room at Rucker with his head laid in Mrs. Honeychil’s lap and then back to Maria who sat quietly while I worked everything around in my mind. I hated to admit it, but my son was quite taken with Maria about as much as I was. The problem being, I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

  “How much do you know about the night Noel died?” I asked her softly.

  “Just that she died in a drive-by.” I looked into her eyes. Eyes I could get lost in. Dammit, I needed to stop. I cleared my voice and then said.

  “The office was quiet that night. Though quiet doesn’t mean it wasn’t busy. They call Las Vegas the city that doesn’t sleep, well, I beg to differ because New York City doesn’t either. You like me know that nights are when the criminals become more active. They use the darkness as a blanket to keep hidden.

  “There was only four of us on the nightshift. Being the main gang unit that the others fall under keeps us a little busy. It’s what I was working on that night, a case we had picked up two days before. I had been flipping the pages of the case file on Juan Lopez, a sixteen-year-old male, Hispanic, five ten, one hundred eighty-two pounds, black hair, brown eyes, bruising on his ribs, face, arms, fractured femur in his left leg, a few lacerations with bruising on his knuckles, and a bullet hole in the back of his head. The victim’s body had been dumped and then found by a homeless man in a dumpster in the Morrisanna Section of the Bronx. There had been no witnesses’ recount that hit on a damn thing. No one saw or heard one single thing to help identify who put the kid there or what the hell had happened to him. The coroner’s report verified all the marks and the femur were prior to his death and some of the bruises had been in the healing process while others had been within twenty-four hours of his death.

  “The vic’s mother, Ana Lopez, had been notified of her son’s death, but that was after two days of trying to locate her. An officer had been placed on the apartment she lived in with Juan, neighbors informed them when they’d first shown up there looking for her that Ana only showed up for a couple of days and then she wouldn’t be around for three or four days after that. When the officers asked if Juan stayed by himself during his mother’s absences, they said yes. I couldn’t ever imagine doing that to Rucker. But then again, I wouldn’t spend the majority of my time at a crack house either.

  “One page contained Juan’s record with DSS along with a paper stating he’d spent time at Southside Haven at least every day for a week. Not
much in the report on what he was going there for, but my best guess would be to get food. Southside has the pantry that stays stocked by donations from the community, then it’s given out to the families who need that little extra in between checks.

  “I pulled the check off sheet from the back of the file to make sure that every report was included and that way as I flipped a page over, I checked it off. How fucked up is it that I remember everything about that night. Even the conversation when the captain showed up.”

  “Ranger, it was an event that impacted your life, of course you are going to remember everything about it.” Maria squeezed my thigh again after she finished speaking and I took one of my hands and laid it over hers. The warmth radiating off her skin helped as I recalled the entire night, and the more I told to Maria, the more it felt as if a weight was lifted off my chest.

  “Hey, Ranger.” I didn’t look up from my work, I knew the voice.

  “What has you out and in the office at this time at night, Cap’n?” When I didn’t get an answer, I raised my head and looked at Captain Mouler who stood just in the room, his hair and clothes in disarray. I pushed back my chair and stood. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Son, I don’t know how to say this but I’m here to take you to the hospital, it’s your wife.”

  “Noel? She’s at home with our boy. Did she cut herself or something? And why didn’t she call, or the hospital call? How come they bothered you? The desk should have called me; I’ve been right here.” I furrowed my brow and wondered why my stomach started to get queasy.

  “She was shot in her car right after she crossed the bridge into the city. She’s in bad shape, Ranger, I think we should hurry and I will tell you the rest on the way.”

  “What the fuck? Are you sure? She would have told me if she was going somewhere, she would have! Where is my son? Where is Rucker?”

  “Rucker wasn’t in the car.” Shit, I needed to get to the hospital, but I needed to find my son. He had to be at the neighbors. Mrs. Honeychil would have him.

  “Let’s go, I will call the neighbor. Noel would have taken him there. I’ll call Mrs. Honeychil.”

  “Ranger, I don’t think that would be a goo—”

  “Cap’n, I know. Please let me work this out in my head. Absorb it.”

  “I grabbed my jacket off the back of my chair and we headed to the hospital. Captain Mouler filled me in with everything he knew. I called Mrs. Honeychil and she had Rucker, they would be there as soon as she woke him up. We parked in front of the ER and I jumped out of the car and ran through the doors. I reached the desk and asked for Noel Marshall and told them I was her husband. A nurse who stood behind the lady at the desk walked immediately around to stand beside me.

  “She said they’d been waiting for me. That the officers who came in behind the ambulance had informed them that Mrs. Marshall’s was the wife of a cop. Then she told me to follow her.

  “I paid no attention to what was going on as I followed her through the doors to where the patients were treated. She pushed through a set of doors with me on her heels and that’s where Noel laid on the table, a sheet covering her, and machines all around her. The nurse whispered to the one who was in the room with Noel, but I didn’t hear what they were saying, my focus was on my wife. Time seemed to stop as I walked up beside the table and stood there and watched her chest rise and fall. I didn’t have to be told that the machines she was hooked to was helping to keep her alive. That is when the doctor came in.”

  “Mr. Marshall? I’m Doctor Jacobson. I worked on your wife.” I picked up Noel’s hand and placed it in mine. Her skin was chilled and I turned to the doctor.

  “She going to be okay?” I asked but deep down, I knew the answer. I also knew he had to do his job so I looked back down at my wife, “Just tell me, doc.”

  “We tried, Mr. Marshall, but the damage to her was too much. She coded in the ambulance three times before she got here. She took four bullets to various parts of her torso, those we were able to patch. The bullet that grazed the back of her head, well, Mr. Marshall, part of her skull was cracked and the trauma to her brain was more than can be repaired, even with surgery. Mr. Marshall, the—”

  “Detective Marshall. The machine is the only thing keeping her alive, right? That was what you were going to say?” I never looked at the doctor.

  “Yes.” I laid Noel’s hand beside her and turned to face the doctor. Noel wouldn’t want to just exist with no hope of ever living life on her terms again.

  “I asked if they’d give me a couple minutes with my wife. And to bring me any paperwork they needed me to sign to shut down the machines when they came back. The only thing the doctor did was nod and he and the nurses left, leaving me alone with Noel.

  “That is when I vowed to her that I would find her shooter. I said goodbye, kissed her forehead, then I walked out of that room and faced our son to tell him his mother wouldn’t be coming home. I never want to have to tell him again that someone he loves is dead.” When I finished, Maria had tears brimming over. I took the hand that wasn’t laid over hers and wiped them away.

  “You’ll find them, Ranger,” she said that with so much conviction in her voice and with trust shining in her eyes for me, that it hit me deep. I wanted the woman before me with everything in me. Damn, I couldn’t run from this, hell, I didn’t want to. It had been a long time, but I had not felt like this with anyone else but Noel. Only her, that was why I knew, somehow, someway, she was here, she was watching over both Rucker and me. And she liked Maria.

  “I have to close the piece of my life with Noel, and after I do, you and I are going to see where this pull to one another leads. Fair warning, Counselor.” If I thought the woman would be shocked at my words, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

  “I’ll be waiting, Detective. And let me add, I’m not that patient of a woman.” Before I could reply the doctor walked in the room.

  “Mr. O’Malley’s family I presume?” When everyone in the room answered yes, the doctor smiled. “Sorry, I should have said the young Mr. O’Malley,” he said to Reilly, “pulled through with flying colors. He is in ICU, where he will remain for at least twenty-four hours. He was lucky. The bullets didn’t hit anything major but even at that, he has suffered a great trauma to his body. We want to watch him closely. A nurse will come in once he is settled and then he can have visitors.” The doctor raised his hand to stop the celebration. When everyone quieted he added, “Two visitors, for five minutes every hour. Immediate family only. And please, don’t make me ban you from the hospital for breaking the rules. Everyone will be able to see him once he is moved to a regular room tomorrow.”

  Reilly O’Malley shook the doctor’s hand and then the doctor left. Everyone was hugging and the women had tears in their eyes. Mel sat down with her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands. For the first time today I smiled. Falon had better get as much rest as he could, I had a feeling he was going to need every ounce of it real soon.

  Rucker woke from the commotion and Maria squeezed my thigh again, pulled her hand out from under mine, stood, and walked over to where Rucker was. My son immediately went into her arms and she wrapped them around him, hugging him to her.

  Yeah, it was time to start turning the tables.

  Chapter One

  Ranger

  I walked into my precinct and looked around, the man I wanted to talk to wasn’t there, and shit, he should have been. The shooting of Falon O’Malley had rocked the community, partly because it was a drive-by, but mostly because of his last name. Everyone in the borough knew the O’Malleys, they knew and loved them.

  I stalked to my office and shut the door, then I walked to my desk, sat down, leaned back, and closed my eyes. Last night had sucked, this morning had sucked, it had brought back a lot of memories that I was just not ready to deal with at all. However, regardless of the situation, I had a job to do, one that I needed to be involved in. Now, convincing my captain, that was another story. I should hav
e gone home to get some shuteye, but I needed to do this first. If I could convince my captain to assign me to the case, then I wouldn’t feel so useless.

  I refused to think of the reason I wanted the case, sure the O’Malleys were a good reason, but it was a raven haired woman who had filled my thoughts for months, that was really the reason. Shit, I couldn’t think of that right now, too much stuff swirling around. My phone rang and I sighed and opened my eyes, and so the day began.

  “Marshall,” I said brusquely into the phone.

  “In my office,” my captain said with a strange tone. I sat up straight and frowned, not the usual bark he used. “Now.”

  I looked at the phone in my hand then stood and walked quickly to the door. Something was off there, and I wasn’t going to waste a damn bit of time speculating. The phones were ringing in the squad room and I ignored them. My office was on the other side of the room from the captain’s, well mine, and the other detectives. The middle was the newbies and the officers who worked shift duty, I had graduated from that not so long ago, so I got the office. Being a detective on the Bronx Task Force was an accomplishment I was proud of. It was a prime position inside the ranks of the police department. It meant I could be assigned to any case inside the borough to investigate.

  As I neared the captain’s office I saw it wasn’t empty. My eyebrows raised as I knocked on the door. “Get your ass in here, Ranger,” I heard the cap’n and I opened the door.