Sugar and Sin Bundle

by Stacey Joy Netzel

  He chuckled. “Hey, I’ve got four sisters. This isn’t my first tearfest.”

  “And did your sisters ever return the favor?”

  His smile flattened. “I got divorced last year. Real messy. She got the kids, I got the bills. My sisters heard more than their share of ranting and sobbing.”

  “I can’t believe you’re telling me this.”

  “You know something about me, I know something about you. We both keep our mouths shut. Quid pro quo.”

  “I like your style, Constable.”

  “I like yours too, and I’d say that even if you couldn’t kick my ass. My quads are still burning from that run yesterday.”

  Leroux drove her back to the motel. By the time she opened the door to her room, numbness had started to replace the despair. Until she saw the unmade bed where she and Rémi had made love before leaving for dinner. The numbness evaporated in a flash. Her stomach cramped as she fell onto the bed, gathering the rumpled sheets against her chest. She pressed her face into the pillow Rémi had lain on and inhaled the woodsy scent that was his alone. With a whimper, she squeezed her eyes shut as a fresh wave of tears overwhelmed her.

  She loved him so much. More than anything.

  Which was why she couldn’t let him give up everything for her. She’d done the right thing. Oh God. Had she done the right thing? He’d looked so lost. So let down. The shock and hurt on his face had almost made her take her words back. Almost made her ask Leroux to turn around so she could beg Rémi to forgive her. Leaving him was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life.

  But she’d done it because she loved him.

  Her career was already screwed. Although she was getting closer with today’s new information about Corey, she hadn’t solved the drug issue yet. Landry’s deadline was coming up and she was nowhere near getting agreement for the SQ native squad. Ellie was dead. Corey was starting to look like a lost cause. Someone in the department was after her, probably Landry. And someone in the Vipers’ ranks wanted her dead. It was just a matter of time before everything blew up in her face.

  So yeah, her dreams were one big clusterfuck, but Rémi’s still had a chance. Without her, he’d get his life back on track. If she could prove that Landry was in league with the Vipers, the SQ native squad would be off the table, and Rémi would get his tribal police force. Eventually, he’d forget about her. Some gorgeous native woman would capture his heart and they’d have a family together. Everything would be as it should be. Everything would be perfect. For him.

  Another wave of sobs wracked her body. At least she’d still have her memories: the lazy sound of his voice in the morning, the sexy glimmer in his eyes when he was aroused, the sweet taste of his mouth when he kissed her, the sinful glide of his smooth bronze skin as he moved against her, as he moved inside her. Without him, nothing made sense. Without him, her world was shattering into a million jagged pieces. Without him, she’d never be whole again.

  This is what she got for opening up to someone. Tears she couldn’t stop, emotions she couldn’t turn off. A total lack of control—the thing she’d always feared most. Turning, she muffled her cries in the sheets even as she pounded a fist into the mattress.

  Life was so fucking unfair.

  Through the sounds of her wailing, she heard her phone ring. Sitting up, she wiped her tears away and drew in a deep breath. She got her phone out of her purse and answered it. “Sergeant Morgan,” she croaked, her voice raw from her crying jag.

  “You wanted me to call you.”

  Her pulse shifted into overdrive. Corey. She swallowed to ease the soreness in her throat. “Can we meet somewhere? I want to help you.”

  He laughed. “That’s a good one.”

  This was her last chance to get to the kid. If she played this right, she could help him and find the source of the drugs that had killed Ellie. Angling the phone between her chin and shoulder, she rubbed her clammy palms against her thighs. “I think you’re caught up in something you can’t handle.”

  His voice cracked. “I didn’t kill Ellie.”

  “I know you didn’t. But those drugs you’ve been handing out at the skatepark, they did kill her. What happens if another kid dies? How will you feel then?”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “The truth.”

  “If I tell you anything, they’ll kill me.”

  “Who, Corey? Give me a name. I promise you’ll be protected.”

  He laughed, the sound bitter and disillusioned. “I told them the SQ would start paying attention as soon as white kids got involved.”

  “Not true. I’ve been working to stop the biker gangs who distribute these drugs for the last decade.”

  “So that’s why the Vip—”

  Heavy silence filled the line.

  “‘Why the Vipers’ what?” she prompted.

  “Nothing. I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

  “Are the Vipers involved in this, Corey? Because if they are, you need to tell me. Those guys will think nothing of slitting your throat just for fun.”

  “Yeah, well. I gotta go.”

  “Corey! Don’t hang up. Meet me somewhere.”

  “And make it easy for you to arrest me? No way.”

  “No arrest. I only want to talk.”

  “Okay, meet me at the skatepark where El…” He choked and his voice trailed off.

  “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

  “Alone?”

  She’d find some way to distract Leroux. “Yes.”

  After hanging up the phone, she threw it on the bed. Before leaving the area, she’d find those responsible for the drugs and bring them to justice, even if that meant taking on Captain Landry, Jack “The Ripper” Lalonde, and the entire Viper organization.

  This would be her parting gift to Rémi: a fresh start for the reserve.

  CHAPTER 25

  She was a bitch for tricking Leroux like this, especially when he’d been so kind to her. But Corey had answers Alyssa needed to hear.

  After she changed into pajama shorts and a T-shirt, she opened her bedroom door. Leroux straightened and pushed away from the wall. “Sergeant?”

  Slipping into damsel-in-distress mode, she rubbed her stomach. “I didn’t get a chance to have dinner”—she paused and waved her hand, shielding her eyes with her lashes—“earlier. With everything that happened…”

  He shifted and cleared his throat. “Ah. Do you want me to get you something? The diner across the street’s still open. They’ve got great burgers.”

  “Would you? That sounds so good.”

  “Sure, I’ll be right back.”

  When Leroux headed down the stairs, she shut the door and threw on a pair of jeans and a dark T-shirt. After stepping into her running shoes, she grabbed her phone and pepper spray. Her hand on the knob, she hesitated and glanced toward the motel safe where she’d locked up her service weapon. It wasn’t legal for her to carry when not in uniform but… fuckit. Someone was trying to kill her. She sprinted to the safe, got her gun and hurried out of the room.

  In a crouch, she maneuvered down the steps and around to her rental car. She slipped in and started the engine. With the headlights turned off, she drove around the motel and exited into a narrow alley behind it that was out of view of the diner. She flipped the lights on and sped through nearly empty streets to the reserve.

  The green digits on the dashboard read eleven fifteen when she stopped the car near the skatepark behind the high school. A shudder rippled up her spine as a sense of déjà-vu washed over her. Had it really been only three nights since she and Rémi had found Ellie’s dead body here? It felt more like three years.

  She tucked her weapon in the back of her jeans and stuck the canister of pepper spray in her front pocket. Reaching into the glove compartment for the spare flashlight, she swore. This wasn’t her car. Crap. She didn’t even have a freaking lighter.

  Through the window, she peered up at the night sky and breathed out.
The filtered light from the stars provided enough illumination that she could make out the ramps and bowls. Including the clamshell where they’d found Ellie. Alyssa climbed out of the car and headed toward it. Her gut told her she’d find Corey there.

  As she rounded the clamshell, she heard muffled sobs. Bingo. “Corey? It's Alyssa.”

  She peered into the darkness. Corey knelt on the ground, his fingers trailing over the cold cement where Ellie’s body had lain. Something in her chest pinched, and she had to swallow against the tightening in her throat. Without a word, she wrapped her arms around him. He turned to her and rested his head on her shoulder. “I miss her so much.” His low-pitched voice shook with emotion.

  Alyssa hugged him tightly as a sob swelled in her chest. They were both so lost, so alone. Their dreams for the future destroyed. She’d never be with Rémi again, but if she kept her distance, she could see him again. Corey didn’t even have that option. She rubbed soothing circles on his back, then swallowed hard. “Tell me where you got the SexTacy, Corey. We’ll make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

  He lifted his head and wiped the tears off his face. Dull eyes stared back at her. After a moment, he stood and scanned the darkness surrounding them. “You can’t stop them.”

  She scrambled to her feet. “Stop who? Give me names.”

  Folding his arms, he shook his head. “It’s too late for that now.”

  “Don’t give up, Corey.” She tugged on his shoulder to make him face her. “It might be too late for Ellie, but it’s not too late to help other kids. It’s not too late to stop these scumbags.”

  He laughed and the despair in the harsh sound raised the fine hairs on her arms. “You think this is about the Vipers?”

  “Are you saying they’re not involved?”

  “Oh, they’re involved. But not the way you think.”

  “Why don’t you tell me what I’m thinking, Corey?”

  “You think the Vipers killed the pig in your motel room, shot at you in the woods, and blew up your car.”

  “And you think they didn’t.”

  “I know they didn’t. They outsourced the job, if you know what I mean.”

  She looked down at Corey’s feet. Skate shoes, the latest model. “Nice shoes. Are those Vans?”

  Even in the faint light from the stars and the moon, she saw his face darken. He bowed his head and kicked his toe against the cement. Spineless shit. When he didn’t answer, she punched him in the shoulder. He stumbled back. “Ow! Why’d you hit me?”

  Fire burning in her belly, she advanced on him. Her voice came out a fierce growl. “You little fucker. Why would you do that to me?”

  He held up his hands, as though that would make him look more innocent. “Do what?”

  “You massacred that pig.” His face paled. Pressing the back of his hand to his mouth, he inhaled sharply. She almost hoped he’d puke. “How could you do something so disgusting?”

  “I didn’t—”

  “Don’t even try to deny it.”

  “I had no choice, all right?”

  “No, it’s not fucking all right.” She paced a few feet back and forth, trying to work out the worst of her anger. Corey had more to tell. A lot more. She stopped pacing and got up in his face. “Spill. All of it.”

  “If you’d left town like you were supposed to, none of this would have happened.”

  “Did you shoot at me and Rémi in the woods? Bomb my car? You know, that was attempted murder.”

  He shook his head almost violently. “That wasn’t me.”

  “Then who?”

  “It was—”

  A rough voice chased along her nerve endings. “Me.” Adrenaline dumped into her system as Pete stepped out of the shadows, his wide grin distorted by a fat lip and the cuts and bruises on the side of his face.

  Pulse pounding, she pushed Corey behind her and pulled out her Glock, aiming it at Pete’s head. “Don’t come any closer.”

  “I’m getting real sick of having guns pointed at me.” He winked at Corey. “Good job, kid. Chaz didn’t think you could do it, but I had more faith in you.”

  She felt like she’d just been pushed off a ledge. Had the kid betrayed her? “Corey, what’s he talking about?”

  Pete narrowed his eyes. “Now!”

  Corey’s arm banded around her throat at the same time Pete lunged for her weapon. She twisted and kicked Pete in the balls with a swift side thrust. Instead of going down, he came at her like a raging bull. “I’m so going to enjoy killing you, you fucking bitch.”

  Grabbing her hand and raising it above her head, he tackled her to the ground. The air rushed out of her lungs and her head hit the cement with a sickening crack. His face shrouded in darkness, Pete rose over her and applied pressure on the inside of her wrist. The same move she’d used on him at the diner. Crap.

  She ground her teeth against the pain and tried to bend her fingers, to pull the trigger. The sound might attract attention even if she didn’t hit him. He pressed harder until her fingers opened and she dropped the gun.

  When both her wrists were manacled with one of his big hands, he lowered his face to hers, then struck like a cobra, snatching her lower lip between his teeth. His eyes locked on her face, he bit down. Her heart slammed against her ribcage as blood rushed in her ears. Desperate to pull away, she resisted the impulse to thrash her head. He released her lip and laughed. “This is going to be real fun.”

  In her career with the SQ, she’d encountered many dangerous men and lived through her share of perils. But never before had she sensed death so near. She heard it in his confident tone, smelled it on his rancid breath, felt it in the hard erection nailing her thigh. “What do you want?” she asked, relieved not to hear any hint of fear in her voice.

  “I want you dead.”

  “Hooray, Captain Obvious.”

  He lifted his free hand and backhanded her across the face. Pain shot through her cheek, radiating from the point of impact, and blood filled her mouth from where she’d bitten her tongue. Letting anger consume her, give her strength, she snarled and spit the blood in his face. “Fuck you, cocksucker.”

  “Corey, take the gun before I shoot her,” he growled.

  Corey approached her, grabbed her weapon, and jumped back. “Fuck you, too!” she yelled, twisting in Pete’s iron grip. If she got a hold of him, the kid was in for one hell of an ass kicking.

  Pete unbuckled his belt with one hand, then pulled it out of the loops. He held the strip of leather out to Corey. “Tie her hands.”

  “Why bother? Just kill me now.” Without the rape appetizer.

  Pete waited for Corey to finish strapping her hands together. He got up and pulled her to her feet. “Because I’m taking you on a little field trip.” He looked at Corey, who held her weapon between his thumb and forefinger. “Give me that before you shoot yourself in the foot, numb nuts.”

  She glared at Corey as he handed Pete her weapon. “Why are you helping him?”

  He crossed his arms, shoving his hands deep into the pockets under his pits. Glancing at Pete, he shrugged, but the movement came across stiff and jerky. Maybe she still had a chance. “What’s he got on you, Corey? Whatever it is, this is only making things worse.”

  Pete pushed her forward with a shove between her shoulder blades. “Walk, bitch. Here kid, start the car.” He threw a set of keys at Corey. He fumbled them and they fell to the cement with a crash that seemed to echo in the night. “Fucking shit. Man up, would you? How’re you going to face the army if you can’t handle one skinny whore?”

  The army? “What the hell are you guys up to?” Her stomach knotted as she recalled what Tommy had said about the Oka Crisis. It had been decades ago, but… were the Guardians intent on revenge? “Does Chaz know you’re doing this?”

  “Why? Think he’ll come to your rescue?”

  “Maybe.” Chaz hated her, but he wasn’t as bat-shit crazy as Pete. Was he? Christ, she hoped not.

  A broad gri
n spread across Pete’s face, crinkling his eyes. “The only Whitedeer with a hero-complex is the one you just dumped, Sergeant. But I doubt he’ll be coming for you. Fucking pussy actually cried, right there on Skye’s front lawn. He’s probably drowning his broken heart in a barrel of that blond beer he likes so much.”

  The backs of her eyes stung with tears she refused to shed. Pete was right. Rémi—her warrior, her hero, the love of her life—wasn’t coming for her. She’d driven him away. Leroux would realize she was gone, but since she’d left in her car, he’d have no reason to suspect foul play.

  If she was going to get out of this alive, she’d have to do it all on her own—alone. Again.

  Rémi stared out across the moonlit fields of Nic’s ranch, listening to the horses whinny in the nearby paddock. He’d tried to go home, but when he’d reached his driveway, the Fusion had kept going until he’d ended up at the gate to his best friend’s ranch.

  The screen door opened and banged against the wall. Nic stepped onto the porch carrying two bottles of beer and handed one to Rémi. “You looked like you could use a little liquid therapy.”

  Rémi took the bottle and clinked it against Nic’s. He took a long gulp, then hesitated and read the label. “La Fin Du Monde.” The end of the world. “Asshole,” he said, then tipped the bottle back.

  Nic grinned. “I learned from the best.”

  A few months ago, when Nic’s world had been falling apart, Rémi had given his friend a bottle of the same beer. It had seemed funny at the time. Didn’t seem so fucking funny now. “I thought about apologizing for that. But now I won’t, you bastard.”

  Nic nodded, his expression serious. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Chaz told Alyssa I’d be kicked out of the band if we lived together.”

  “Because she’s white?”

  He shook his head. “Because she’s SQ.”

  “Yeah, I can see that being an issue. No one around here has forgotten the Oka Crisis.”

  “It got worse when he told her any kids I had with her would not be Indian enough to pass our band membership criteria, even if by some miracle they qualified for status under the Indian Act.”