“You sure?” I asked and raised my eyebrows at him and Falon nodded.
“Okay,” I said and picked up the pictures and put them back in my briefcase. “Now, I am going to Ink, so you rest and make sure you listen to the doctor. I will come back and see you tomorrow after work.”
“What is this I hear about you taking out your IV?” I heard Olivia say behind me. I turned and saw I had been right, where there was one, there was five. Damn they kept traveling in packs, it was creepy.
“Son, what are you doing giving the nurses such a hard time?” Olivia snapped and walked into the room farther. “Mel, how good to see you? Is he behaving?”
Mel shrugged and said, “Nope, not at all.”
“Traitor,” Falon muttered and I grinned and let the other ladies gather around the bed and stare at Falon. What is it with that anyway? Whatever, I don’t have time for this.
“Ma,” I said with a frown. “I thought Rucker was going to the gym?”
“He is,” my mother said with a smiled. “Your father and Reilly are having a guys’ night with him. After, they are going for wings at Hooters.”
“Are you joking?” I screeched and put my hands on my hips. “Dad is taking Rucker to Hooters?”
“Well yeah,” my mother shrugged and laughed. “You know how your father is, he goes there once a month and comes home frisky. Why would I argue?”
“Ewwwww,” I said and shook my head. “TMI! I will have nightmares because of this knowledge.”
“Please, stop being a prude, no wonder you are not getting Ranger in your bed,” my mother said and my eyes widened.
“What?” I whispered and knew I was one step away from strangling her.
“Your father and I are not stupid, we see that you and Ranger are attracted to each other, but for some reason you just don’t do anything about it. I know I raised you to go after what you want,” my mother announced and then smiled at Mace who looked like he wanted to be anywhere than right here, I felt the same way. “You should tell Tony to talk to Ranger about this, maybe a man to man will help out. I would ask your father, but he seems to think that I been doing too much meddling with everything going on. So, how about it? Will you get Tony to talk?”
Mace shook his head and said, “Nope, not my job.”
“Not your job?” my mother said and looked at me. “Looking after my daughter is your job, and this is part of it.”
“No, this is you and your friends playing Bachelorette, I do not play that game, they get together it is all good, if not, whatever,” Mace murmured and I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Look, he made a sentence,” I snapped.
Mace snorted and then said, “Come on, let’s get to the gym and talk to Petal, then I can switch with Jet for a few hours to catch some shuteye.”
“Well, it is all about your schedule,” I snapped and kissed my mom, Fallon, Sonia, Maddie, and Velma, and waved at Mel.
I wasn’t sure what I would find in the gym, with the dads taking Rucker, it wasn’t what I found when I arrived though. My father and Reilly O’Malley were actively working with the younger kids on their form. Rucker was smiling and soaking it up, there was no way I could burst his man’s night out bubble when I saw it. So I moved into Ink to make sure they didn’t see me. Mace nodded and told me Jet would follow me home and to find him when I was ready to leave, I rolled my eyes but agreed.
Tony and Fin were in the office and they waved at me. I walked to the office and stepped in. “What is the word?”
Tony sighed. “Shit, we are waiting for them to contact us again. Starting to get worried since all this shit went down in the borough they are gonna hold off the fights. Thought they would go forward with everyone distracted, but looks like no.”
“I need to see if Petal can ID the shooter. At least if we get one thing cleaned up, it may help the other apparently. Wait, you don’t think the gang had a hand in this?”
Fin shook his head. “Nah, no way, this is something else entirely.”
“What is this world coming to when so many people are doing so many bad things. You know I get that shit is harsh right now, bad shit going down in the department, bad shit going down in our neighborhoods,” Tony said and ran a hand down his face. “The public though, they don’t know half of the shit going on, and yet they are fucking yelling about shit. Fuck there are bad people everywhere, they need to realize that.”
I nodded my head, I had gotten my fair share of hate mail from the public, mostly the families of those I put away. There are two sides to every story, we all know that, but still, people don’t give a shit these days, it was who talked louder that people believed. Well, I was about ready to get a fucking blow horn because they were gonna listen to me. I don’t care who it was, could be the Pope himself and I would put his ass in jail because of what he was doing.
“Just make sure you keep me up to date, I don’t want to make an arrest and them get off because something happened to violate anything,” I warned and Tony smiled and nodded.
“Oh you mean kinda like you did with that dude at Rikers?”
“Didn’t do anything wrong there, just used all the bad guys against each other. Sick of the corruption going around everywhere. Drugs, sex, hell everything goes everywhere. It’s like people don’t get they need to follow laws.”
Petal walked into the main area and handed the woman she had apparently been working with a card, and the instructions for care. I waited patiently as she spoke to the woman. I nodded to Tony and Fin and stepped out of the office and closed the door. I didn’t think they needed to hear about the woman’s boob care. When she was done, the woman left and I smiled.
“Petal,” I said. “I need some help.”
The woman smiled and nodded. I loved her, and I loved that Bry and Reed were able to charm her. She made a great addition to the O’Malleys. “What’s up?”
I pulled the pictures out of my briefcase and said, “Come on, let’s go back to your room.”
Petal nodded and moved into the back part of the parlor, I had been back here recently when I got a piercing of my own. Petal turned and winked at me. “All healed up?”
I laughed and shook my head. “Not that I have looked in the mirror or anything, but yeah, it is all good.”
“Okay,” she said when she entered her room. “Lay it on me.”
I handed her the pictures and she looked through them slowly and when she reached the man who Falon ID’d, she stopped and handed me the pic. “The driver.”
I nodded and took the pic and she kept going, on the last picture she handed it to me and said, “The guy hanging out the back, I think he was the shooter, but everything happened so fast. But he was there, and he was at the gas station that night as well.”
I nodded, Miguel Martinez, score one for the good guys, now I needed the gun and I was golden, I thought then said, “Anyone else?”
“One of the guys is missing from the night at the gas station. I would know him if I saw him, but actually describing him? Shit, not so much.”
“Hopefully,” I said and smiled tightly at her. “When the time comes, you will see him in a lineup as well. Falon and you ID’d the one, you ID’d another, now we need the third and we have a perfect trifecta.”
Chapter Eleven
Ranger
I looked out of the window of my office and just stared. One of those assholes, one of them killed my wife, my son’s mother, and damned if sitting on my ass wasn’t pissing me off still. I needed to hear it, I needed to hear they did something, but I also knew that was not coming tonight. Nah, the captain wanted them held on suspicion of murder and put in Rikers, why, because they would turn on each other, one of them would flip, and I wanted to be there when they did. They had let me come to the raids, and they had also figured at this point I knew the facts, so the captain hadn’t argued when I told him I was just making sure they were all processed and put away for the night. I needed to see it.
One of the guys, he wasn’t the le
ader, but he was one with a fucking smart mouth, currently sat in the bullpen smirking at the young officer who was booking him. I really wanted to go and slap that look off his face, but I couldn’t; instead, I sat here and watched. “Almost there, sweetheart,” I said into out loud my office, knowing Noel would hear it. I knew she was here. “Almost there.”
I saw the captain come out of his office with the commissioner and I stiffened as they looked my way. He was supposed to be talking to him about me wanting to be in on the interrogation, I knew it was a longshot, but I had to try. Both men walked toward my office and I held my breath until they got inside and closed the door.
“Detective,” the commissioner said with a nod and I lifted my chin up and said.
“Commissioner.”
“Your captain has requested you be allowed in on the questioning?” I nodded and he continued, “You know we can’t let that happen, son, but I get why you need to hear it, so I have approved you watching it through the monitors, but one wrong move, we will have an issue. If they find out you are there, they will likely not tell us a damn thing.”
I gritted my teeth, I knew they would not let me in, but still I had to try. I nodded slowly, it was at least a compromise.
“The reason why I am letting you is because I don’t want you to hear this shit in court for the first time. Do not make me wrong in doing this. Make sure you handle your shit, and tap it down until you leave here, then go grab a beer, beat the shit out of a friend, whatever, but when you come back, this does not flow into your work,” the commissioner continued and I closed my eyes and nodded.
“Yes, sir,” I said and he nodded and then looked at my captain.
“Good job, now I need to go see how many of the captains are pissed because I pulled their men for a real investigation and not a training, which means they will need to give them up for longer than a day or two. These cops are gonna be making sure they are the only ones with the evidence, etc,” the commissioner said and shook both of our hands and then left. I let out a loud sigh and the captain looked at me and shook his head.
“Where is your head at?” he asked.
I frowned because I did not share that shit, this was not therapy gone wild so I wasn’t gonna share that shit. I was fine, I needed to see this through, to lay it to rest and move on like I needed to. However, I would do that shit on my own, not with the captain.
“My head?” I said slowly and then made sure I was very clear. “My head it fine, this will close the last chapter in the book of my wife’s murder. I just need to see this through and then everything will be laid to rest. Now, as with anything else personal, it is off limits.”
The captain looked at me closely and then pulled out a chair and sat down. “How long have you been one of my guys?”
“Three years,” I said instantly.
“You met my wife?”
I nodded.
“You met my kids?”
I nodded.
“I met your wife, and your kid. So this isn’t coming from a captain to a pain in the ass detective who has a chip on his shoulder that I give fuck all about. This is about me asking you where your head is at so I know if I need to call my wife, tell her one of my boys has an issue and needs a beer,” the captain said and I leaned back.
“I don’t share shit well.”
“You think I don’t know that? Fuck, you are like the Titanic when fucking talking to, supposedly unsinkable. But see, here is the problem, the Titanic, it sunk and took all of its knowledge with it. I don’t want you to sit with this shit until you go down.”
I nodded and sighed then looked at him. “Listen, I get it, but I don’t have lingering thoughts I am holding onto about Noel. I loved her, she was my life, but she is gone. I went to counseling to figure out I was still alive. I have Rucker, and damned if lightening didn’t strike twice and now I have Maria Roark, or I will have her. But, Captain, none of that is gonna change the fact, that right now, I need to make sure the fucker who killed Noel is in jail. My head is right, I am not going to go off half-cocked or I would have already, and by that I mean, I would have killed all of these motherfuckers already without blinking. But that is not me, I still believe in the system, even with all of its flaws, even though I know one of those flaws contributed to killing my wife, with it all, I know that this will still be right. So, I appreciate what you are trying to do, and if I need a beer, I will let you know for sure. Right now, I am good, which means I am gonna get off my ass, go home and make sure my family is good. Then I am gonna take a few days, chill the fuck out, wait for someone to tell me we are going to make the play I have been waiting to make all night, which is turn these fuckers on each other. When that happens we move on, and by that I mean, we do some more clean up and move on.”
The captain stood and slapped his hands on his pants and said, “Well, you should have said so in the first place instead of looking like a scary motherfucker I was gonna need to put down.”
“I will work on that,” I said with a smirk and the captain shook his head.
“Yeah, you do that, and when you get the call, it will come from me and no one else.”
“Thanks,” I muttered and then stood as well and grabbed my keys and followed the captain out of the room. I looked to the bullpen for a second, and took in the men sitting there and then turned the other way and walked out of the door. I was going home, and I was moving on.
I made it home in enough time to see Jet nod and walk to Velma’s house and go inside. Rucker wasn’t home, he was at the Roark’s, I knew this because on the way home I listened to the message from Rucker saying Anthony and Reilly were taking my boy to Hooters, I had laughed, mostly because I knew the old men were nuts, and Rucker was gonna have a blast. I could not wait to hear about it.
Jet was going to Velma’s, which meant she was home and in bed, the lights were off and Jet was making a point to say he was going to be there. Which also meant, Maria was in the house on lockdown and we were going to be alone when I got there. I looked up at the sky and the stars for I don’t know how long until one twinkled and for a second got brighter than the rest, then just as quick shot across the sky until it disappeared. A gust of wind hit my back hard enough for me to have to take a step toward the house, then I felt the slightest touch on my cheek. Noel’s final goodbye to me. Though she would always be in my heart and watching over Rucker, she gave me the shove I needed to move on with my life. Thus, it seemed my plans for the night changed.
I grinned and then walked to the back door and inputted the code and waited for the light to turn green. When it did, I walked in, locked the door, and chuckled to myself that I should change the code, knowing these crazy ass families someone could show up when I didn’t want them to but, I figured I needed to take the chance. Because changing the code took time, and right now, I didn’t want to waste one more second of time like I had already wasted. So I locked the door, and prowled to the living room, lights were off. I moved to the stairs and took them two at a time, my patience of finding Maria was wearing thin.
“Maria?” I yelled and I stopped to listen to where she was. I finally heard her yell faintly from the direction of her room. Without stopping, I walked in and smelled the fresh smell of lilacs and I smiled, she was in the tub. This was the scent I always smelled on her and I liked.
I grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head, and then walked into the bathroom and turned to the tub. Maria was soaking up to her neck in bubbles. Her eyes closed. I took a minute to look at her and study the face I hoped to be waking up to for the rest of my life—and hers.
“Since you are in here, am I to assume you made a decision,” she said, never opening her eyes.
“You might say, I got a push.” Maria opened her eyes and looked at me, then ran her eyes over my bare chest and down. Her eyes moved back up until they reached mine.
“Hmm... You seem to be a little overdressed.”
“Is that an invitation?” I asked as I watched her.
<
br /> “Better yet,” she said and stood, water and suds sliding down her body, revealing parts to me as they went. I didn’t move. Hell, I don’t even know if I breathed. Her breasts were round and looked as if they would fit in my hands perfectly. The nipples were peaked from the air that I was sure brushed over them when they were revealed.
My eyes followed the downward slide of the bubbles, her slender waist, hips that curved, showing she was all woman. When the last part of her was revealed, I grabbed the towel off the counter and wrapped it around her, then bent and swooped her up in my arms and headed toward the bed.
“You are still overdressed, Detective.”
“Hold on a second,” I said and pulled the towel from her body, then laid her on the bed. “I’ll show you my briefs, Counselor.” Maria’s chuckle stopped just as my pants and boxers hit the floor.
“Well, damn, you put my B.O.B to shame. They should come in your size; women would be a whole lot happier.” She opened her arms to me and I joined her on the bed.
“You know we’ve been leading up to this for a while and I don’t know if I can go slow or even be gentle with you this first time.” I leaned down and met her lips with mine. I ran my tongue over the seam and when she opened I pushed my tongue in, the taste of her mixed with mine as I explored every crevice. I broke the kiss only to bury my face between her neck and shoulder while I gained my breath. Her breaths came just as hard. Her breasts raising with each breath brought her nipples close enough to graze my chest.
“Yes, I know, so don’t. I won’t break, Ranger.” Her words, her scent, her taste, overloaded my senses. The effect had me trailing kiss and nips down her neck, across her collarbone until I reached her breasts. I ran my tongue around her nipple and bit gently as I did the same to the other breast, pinching the nipple between two fingers. The nails digging in my back, the moan, and the arching of her back told me she liked what I was doing to her.
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