by Warren, Rie
I rose to my feet with a wince, holding my hand out to Walker. He grasped it and jumped up.
“So, Jessica, huh?”
“Shut the fuck up and hit the shower. You smell worse than that dumpster we hid inside of the last time you got a bright idea.”
He shoved me out the door in front of him.
Ten minutes later, I’d just exited the shower in a steamy mist when my walkie-talkie sounded off from the bedroom.
“Cooper Hall Elementary is on lockdown. Unknown threat. All units in the area please respond.”
Still damp from my shower, I battled into my clothes and was out the front door with my boots half hanging off, my shirt unbuttoned.
Walker rushed after me. “What the fuck?”
“Jack’s school. High alert.”
“Vicente isn’t that stupid, Hunter.”
I hightailed it to the Tahoe. “Doesn’t matter if he is or not. This is my fucking kid we’re talking about!”
And Jessica.
Cursing myself for living so far outside of town, I laid on the gas, the horn, and drove like a bat outta hell to the school. Walker kept a lid on it, calmly checking our weapons and keeping one ear on the walkie-talkie.
With a pavement-peeling squeal of tires, I pulled up amid the flashing red, white, and blue of squad cars outside Cooper Hall.
I almost ripped the door off my truck in my haste to make tracks.
I was stopped as soon as I set foot on the grounds by a flustered security guard. “Sir. Sir! Return to your car. The school is locked down.”
“I’m police. Let me through.” My teeth gnashed together, and I tried to barge past the guard but he called another rent-a-cop over.
Walker and I were being manhandled against my truck when Detective Ashe Kingston strode down the walkway.
She stalked to us, glaring at the Mickey Mouse patrol. “Let him in. He’s one of us.”
I gratefully followed her to the school entrance while Walker shouted, “What about me?”
“You’re an unknown. You stay put,” Ashe fired back.
Inside, I slid my ID under the plexi, aware of all the watchful eyes. The room was packed with office staff and uniforms.
“I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t get through.” The woman at the registration computer slipped my license back to me.
With a frustrated curse, I pushed my MPPD badge through. The Hunter Sexton, Lieutenant one.
“But we already have you on record as Hunter Angelo,” the frayed receptionist said, squinting at her computer.
“Angelo?” Ashe asked.
“Yeah, that’s right. And my kid is a student here.”
“You have children?” Ashe’s silver eyes widened.
“A boy. Jack. He’s in JB’s kindergarten class.”
“You’ve lived a lot of lives.”
“No shit. Can we just get me cleared here?”
“Where’s Tilden?” Ashe spoke into her walkie-talkie.
Chapter Ten
TWENTY SECONDS LATER THE man showed up. I sweated bullets while he said a few quiet words to the school principal. After a couple minutes, Tilden led Ashe and me through the alarm-tight doors into the free zone of the inner offices where yet more cops, security guards, and SWAT officers congested foot traffic.
“The first team is clearing pods one through four. A second team is sweeping the grounds. We’ve got another couple units checking the library, computer lab and ancillary rooms. I’ll let you two handle your son’s pod, Hunter. It’s five, right?”
“Affirmative. What’s the SITREP?”
“The school’s on lockdown because a suspicious young man was sighted inside. He’s been described about mid-twenties, five-eleven, average weight and wiry build. Green hoodie. Possibly Hispanic.”
Every word Tilden spoke put me into more and more of a panic. Walker didn’t think Vicente was dumb enough to pull a stunt like this. I wasn’t so sure. The description could’ve fit.
“You know protocol. I let you get away with disobeying orders once, Hunter. Don’t even fuck with me this time.” Tilden’s face hardened like slabs of cement as he stared me down.
He’d let me get away with jack shit. I was still on probation, and I wanted to carry my badge for real. I nodded in agreement and kept my mouth shut.
Ashe and I silently exited the office compound, both of us crouching slightly, sweeping left and right, Glocks ready.
The goddamn layout was a maze of corridors with rooms set in a honeycomb formation I hadn’t fully mapped the first time I’d been in here. Sweat prickled on my back, but total clarity pinpointed my vision.
The school was completely quiet except for the hushed echoes of cops calling out the all clear and a little static fuzz on our walkie-talkies. We checked the halls, strafing back and forth before finally reaching Jessica’s kindergarten classroom door.
“Doors are locked for the safety of students and teachers.” Ashe tucked her Glock into her holster.
“I don’t care if I have to put my boot through the door to get inside. Open it the fuck up!”
“Hunter”—Ashe placed a restraining hand on my arm—“we should—”
Highjack a car, B&E a classroom: same thing because who didn’t carry a set of comb picks as part of their daily accessories? I hunched down, pulling out my old school picking tools, priming the pins, and inserting the—
The door swung open, unlocked from the inside. “Hunter! What are you doing down there?”
I looked up at Jessica.
“Trying—and failing—to prove his alpha maleness it appears.” Ashe leaned her shoulder against the wall with a hitch of her eyebrow.
Damn. She got me there.
Jessica beckoned us inside, returning to sit on a rainbow floor mat, gathering her students around her. I groaned in relief, seeing Jack by her side and everyone safe and sound. I tucked away my gun, swiftly locked the door behind Ashe then rushed across the floor. I dropped to my knees in front of Jessica, taking her face in my hand and reaching around to hug Jack to me.
In that moment, I was anything but calm, cool, and detached.
“Hunter. It’s okay. We’re safe. Everyone’s fine.” Jessica pulled back. “We’re okay.” She looked deeply into my eyes.
I turned abruptly before she could read any emotion spilling out of me, and lifted Jack into my lap.
“Daddy? Did you get scared like we talked about the other night?”
I laughed hoarsely. “Nah. I’m a big strong cop, remember? And you’re my little monster.” I tickled him for a moment.
Jessica rolled to her feet in one of the sexy teacher outfits I didn’t have time to properly appreciate. “As you can see we’re in the very capable hands of the police who come to the rescue at a moment’s notice,” she said to her small students as she strode to her desk. “Now, who can guess how Stellaluna ends?” She held up a book with the baby bat on the cover.
Hands shot into the air followed by squeals all to the sound of me, me, ME, Miss BARNES!
My voice came out strained. “You seem to have everything in hand, Miss Barnes. Officer Kingston and I have to complete the rounds.” Find the perp, make sure the school was cleared top to bottom.
Ashe exited, waiting tensely in the hall.
Jessica approached me at the door. “Be careful,” she whispered.
Briefly tugging her to me amid the hoots-and-giggles from the kids, I murmured, “Lock the door behind me. Do not let anyone in until you get the all clear. I’ll be back when it’s over.”
Jack watched with curious intelligence. I’d probably just screwed the pooch on keeping this whole JB and me thing secret.
Ashe and I carried on throughout the school, clearing out the pods and calling in to the chief. A few minutes later, a scuffle sounded over the airwaves.
Suspect spotted outside! Twelve o’clock, scaling the fence at the back of the playground.
“How the hell did he get out?” Ashe’s feet hit the hallway.
&nbs
p; I fell into a run beside her, grim-faced. “Probably the same way he got in.”
Vicente was one shady fuck, and I didn’t think it would be a good idea for the MPPD crew to get involved with him, especially since I was the one he had the beef with.
The back entrance had been buzzed open for police pursuit, and I raced out the doors with Ashe sprinting right beside me. I told her to stay back, but she ignored me with a blank stare and fierce determination on her face.
She kept pace, and we saw the flash of a forest green hoodie drop down the opposite side of the fence at the far side of the playground.
“Kingston and Sexton, in pursuit of suspect!” Ashe called in.
We overtook the less than fit officer struggling to swing his stout frame over the top of the fence. The pair of us parkoured it easily, but the suspect blazed across the football fields at the neighboring rec department, headed toward the surrounding woods.
A flash of a long black braid stole across the field in the distance.
“Fucking Walker.” The sneaky fucker raced like the wind was at his back and his feet had wings.
“Who’s he to you?” Ashe puffed through deep-chugging breaths as we hurried to cut them off at the pass.
“The only person who knows everything about me. And therefore, dangerous.”
We skidded to a halt, practically stumbling over the two men who grappled on the ground. Walker threw a hard-knuckled fist at the suspect’s face, and I couldn’t tell if it was Vicente or not.
“Police brutality!” The perp struggled to push him off, but Walker was stronger, faster, and really fucking mean when he wanted to be.
“I’m not a cop, fuckwad. Keep shouting and I’ll punch you until your eardrums burst.” Walker took another brain-matter-shattering swing at the man.
I pulled Walker away by his collar, ready to leap on the suspect if he turned out to be Vicente. Relief washed over me, followed by renewed worry when I saw a harmless Hispanic dude lying on the cold grass, blood dripping from his swelling nose.
That meant Vicente was still out there.
“Let’s make him sing before MPPD’s finest get here.” Walker drew his S&W Special, a sadistic grin flitting across his lips.
I looked behind me. The SWAT van and an ambulance cut across the field toward us, and six police officers hoofed it on foot.
“What do you know about Vicente Valderas?” I dragged the sniveling shit to his feet.
“Don’t know no Valderas.”
“Connected with Tampa Bay Outlaws? Miami Muerte?” I asked while Walker strolled around the delinquent, taking lazy aim at various kill-spots on the kid’s body.
He shook his head with a whimper.
Next to me, Ashe looked white around the lips. Probably introducing her to Walker’s and my less than savory interrogation tactics wasn’t a good idea on her third week back on the job. But this was mere child’s play compared to what we’d done in the past to gain information.
I shoved my face against the perp’s and grabbed a hank of his hair, whipping his head up to mine. “Why were you in the school, you fucking perv? Is that it? Getting dirty over little boys and girls?”
The rippling power of my addiction surged over me—holding another person’s life in my hands. I thought I’d detoxed from that shit. Clearly not.
With a pathetic whine, the kid tried to shrink away from me. “No, no, jefe.”
“He’s a dead end.” Walker swiveled around and pressed the barrel of his gun against the guy’s temple. “We should just snuff him now.”
Ashe’s eyes widened. “That’s not how we do it here.”
Walker’s lips thinned in a sardonic line, he tapped the Smith & Wesson against the perp’s head. “Maybe it’s time for a life lesson.”
With a gun pointed at his forehead, the dude looked up at me, quickly losing his weak and whiny veneer, replacing it with a sneaky smile. “Vicente just wanted to get your attencione, Cazador.”
Then the cops were upon us, covering the sly little asshole in a wall of dark blue.
“What? What did you just fucking say?” I tried to push through the barricade of officers. Cazador. That had been my alias when I was with the Outlaws.
“The other one, the Indian, he hit me.” I heard the high-pitched whine from Vicente’s weasel.
I wasn’t worried about Walker getting out of this one. He could disappear into thin air if he wanted to. But the message from Vicente . . . if he wanted to fuck with my head, it was working. My nerves unraveled at a steady pace.
I couldn’t get near the Hispanic fuck again. The police patted him down, reading him his Miranda Rights.
“Fuck!” I pounded my fist against my thigh, needing to hit something.
“Just what the hell is going on, Hunter?” Ashe laid a hand on my arm.
I jerked away from her. “None of your business and you’re better off not knowing.”
She turned to Walker with a menacing look.
He backed off. “Don’t look at me, lady. I’m just Ghost’s oldest friend, official-unofficial-like.”
With the suspect cuffed and escorted to the nearest police cruiser, I sprinted across the field.
Ashe yelled after me, “We’re not done with this, Hunter.”
I was done. Too bad Walker was my new shadow, and he remained plastered to my side as I reentered the school. The classrooms had been reopened and small streams of students walked along the corridors, talking animatedly.
I stopped outside Jessica’s room and stuck a hand up to halt Walker. “Walker.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to go inside and talk to my son and my girlfriend for a few minutes. Get the fuck out of my sight.”
He ambled away, complaining, “You know you should watch your language. You’re in a school and all that.”
Entering in less of a rush than before, I took in the sight of Jessica standing at the whiteboard, going through the days of the week with the kids.
A different kind of nervousness settled in the pit of my stomach, and I wiped my palms on my jeans.
“Mr. Angelo.” Jessica turned to me with a smile.
“Just wanted to make sure everything was fine, Miss Barnes.”
“Very fine,” she all but purred.
That she was. I dragged my eyes away, finding Jack. He wrinkled his nose at me and crooked his finger.
“Mind if I?” I looked at Jessica, sweeping a hand toward Jack.
“’Course not.”
I kneeled beside Jack’s desk, and he hugged me in a tight chokehold around the neck. “Daddy, do you like Miss Barnes?” he whispered excitedly.
Well, hell.
Drawing back, I tapped his nose. “I’ll tell you later.”
“Do you have to go, Daddy?”
“Perhaps Mr. Angelo would care to stay?” Jessica looked at me, her fine eyebrows arched.
“Like nothing more, but I gotta do my duty.” I chucked Jack on the chin when he huffed. “But I’ll let your mom know I’ll pick you up after school, okay?”
After kissing his forehead, I stood. “Outside for a moment, Miss Barnes?”
I had to bite back a moan as she walked toward me, the yes ma’am skirt sliding along her thighs. I bracketed her against the wall outside, straining in my flesh. I hungered for her mouth, the taste of her lips. Now was not the time or the place. Desperation clawed at me. After the events of the day I had to be close to her as soon as possible.
“I need you. Tonight.” My voice came out low and rough.
I wanted to devour her on the spot.
Her eyes flickered to mine. “My house?”
“Yes.”
****
Hours later, after getting the perp’s name from Chief Tilden and running it through every LE database, Interpol, and the channels Walker and I had access to, we figured Enrique Duarte was probably an alias. We were making no headway in locating Vicente.
I picked up Jack from school and made sure he and Mel were safe and
sound. When I finally made it to Jessica’s it was well after dark. I slipped inside after checking the perimeter.
Old habits died hard and had kept me alive on more than one occasion.
I’d texted her to say I was on the way. She’d replied she was already in bed, waiting for me. I knew the whereabouts of her spare key, and I’d use it tonight, but that under the plant pot on her front porch trick was never gonna happen again.
I walked softly up the stairs, pocketing the key.
Ghost.
Cazador.
Hunter.
Now the hunted . . .
In Jessica’s bedroom, only one lamp was on. She was curled on her side in the big bed beneath a mound of quilts. She watched me steadily, her eyes becoming deeper, blacker, pools of dark heat as I undressed.
I pulled the covers back to see her. The curves, her breasts, her neck that arched when I dragged my tongue down it and my teeth back up.
“God, I want you.”
“Hunter?”
Raw desire pounded through me. “Just take it. Take me.” I sucked a nipple into my mouth, biting it between the flash of my teeth. “I’m gonna be rough.”
“Yes. Oh, yes!” Fingernails dragged down my back, landing on my ass. She raised her hips off the bed, twisting impatiently while I sheathed myself with a condom.
I held her thighs wide and made entry with one long deep lunge. My fingers curled in her hair, tugging hard. Pumping my hips, I embedded my cock as deeply as I could. Hitting the mouth of her womb. Grabbing her nipples in my mouth. Grunting as thought fled and pure animal instinct took over.
Claim.
Own.
Fuck.
The pounding of flesh. The sting of teeth. The grip of her wet cunt squeezing me in a vise of heat. No sound except our skin slapping, our voices shouting, the raw blood roar in my ears.
Gripping her ass, I drove even deeper, and she screamed my name. A hot flood of liquid dripped onto my balls, down my thighs. I rubbed her tits raw with my stubble, my teeth, my chest hair and still it wasn’t enough.
Latching onto her mouth, I yelled silently inside. She stabbed her heels into my ass, rising off the bed to meet my every ramming thrust.
Fight.