Undercover Holiday Fiancée

by Maggie K. Black

  It was the same man who’d broken into her house and attacked her. She’d barely seen his face over her shoulder as he’d leaped on her from behind and jammed a weapon into her neck. But everything she’d suspected in the glance had been confirmed with terrifying certainty when she’d smelled the rancid odor of his breath and heard the same rough voice threatening that if she didn’t hand over the Gulo’s cell phone immediately, he’d take her somewhere remote and hurt her until she told him everything he wanted to know.

  “Leave her alone!” Trent’s voice seemed to rise on the bitter wind.

  “Back off! Or I’ll slit her throat right in front of you!”

  “She’s my woman, Royd!” Trent shouted. What was Trent doing? How did he know her kidnapper? She didn’t know if he was blowing his cover just to save her life or because he knew he’d be recognized if he tried to help her. “Did Uncle really give you permission to off a Wolfspider’s lady?”

  “Trent?” Royd swore. His voice shook with disbelief and rage. “Nah, it can’t be. I gotta be seeing things.”

  Confusion bordering on panic threatened to steal her breath from her lungs. How did this criminal know Trent’s name? None of this made any sense. But she could also feel the knife had slipped an inch away from her skin. Barely more than a breath lay between her and the weapon. But it was all the space she needed.

  Chloe jammed her thumbs between her throat and the knife handle, prying the blade away from her body just long enough to pivot sideways and wrench the knife from his grasp. They struggled for the knife, even as she could hear Trent’s footsteps pelting across the ground toward them. She wrenched the blade from Royd’s grasp. His fist made contact with her jaw, filling her eyes with stars and knocking her body to the ground. She fell hard on the frozen cement. Royd loomed over her. She kicked up at him, forcing him back. Trent’s footsteps grew closer.

  Royd hesitated. Then he turned and ran.

  “Chloe!” Trent dropped to the pavement beside her. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, I’m okay. Thanks.” She gasped. “Trilly texted and said she needed to meet me right away. I ran outside and into a trap. Who is that man? Why does he know your name?”

  “He’s a Wolfspider I crossed paths with in the past.” Worry pooled in the depths of his eyes, making something ache inside her chest.

  Something was wrong. Very wrong. The man who’d broken into her home was somebody Trent knew. The informant she’d planned to meet had turned out to be a trap.

  Trent was still kneeling beside her in the snow. His fingers brushed her hair from her face and warmth filled her body. This whole mess had become intensely and dangerously personal. Trent had kissed her. He’d held her. She’d been emotionally compromised. She’d just been reminded yet again how little she knew Trent. And it had put her life in danger and blown his cover.

  She shoved his hand away. “What are you doing? Go! Go after him! Don’t let him get away!”

  Trent blinked and it was like a switch had flicked inside his mind. Then he leaped to his feet and sprinted after Royd. “Stay back unless I give the signal! Stay out of sight if you can. Don’t let him see you!”

  “Will do.” She stumbled to her feet and forced herself after him. Trent would need her for the arrest. He could hardly do so himself without blowing his cover.

  Her body ached. Her head swam. She watched as Royd yanked a van door open and leaped in. She heard the sound of the engine turn over. Trent yanked him from the front seat and tossed him to the ground. Royd swung back hard, and then it was a battle of blows and limbs. She slipped around to the other side of the van, staying low and out of sight, hiding from Royd’s gaze as Trent forced him to the icy ground.

  “What are you doing here?” Trent pinned him there with his forearm over his throat. “What do you know about payara?”

  Royd swore and barked out a laugh, like he was staring down something that was anything but funny. “I could ask you the same thing. Are you really involved with that cop?”

  As she watched, it was like Trent’s body transformed in front of her. His shoulders drew back wider. His jawline tightened and a colder, meaner look than she’d ever seen before filled his eyes. Did Trent know she was there, close and listening in? Surely he had to know she would be. “Don’t make me ask you again. If we didn’t have history together, I wouldn’t be asking so nicely.”

  Royd’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not talking till you tell me why you’re with that cop.”

  “You mean instead of your sister?” Trent snapped. “Savannah and I are done!”

  Who was Savannah? She crouched lower, thankful Royd hadn’t noticed her.

  He spat out another swear word. His eyes rolled back in his head. “So, you moved on to a cop? Come on, Trent. I know you. You gotta do better than that.”

  Trent leaned forward. His voice grew deeper, more dangerous. “My relationship with her is my business, not yours!”

  Shouts filled the air behind them. She looked back. It looked like players and spectators were spilling from the building. How long until somebody walked through the parking lot enough to see Coach Henri pinning a man to the ground on the other side of the van? Royd laughed so hard he was spluttering. “O-oh, yeah, like I’m gonna believe you have a thing with Detective Brant. You think I didn’t do my homework before I paid her a visit? She’s fierce and she’s totally clean. You’re no way near at her level. You don’t have the smarts to either turn or play somebody like her.”

  Trent’s eyes grew dark. With one hand he shoved Royd back into the ground. The other swung back and his fist flew hard and fast at Royd so quickly the criminal’s face went white in fear. Chloe’s hand rose to her lips. But Trent pulled the punch, stopping mere inches from the criminal’s nose.

  “First you hurt her and then you insult me?” Trent snarled. “I’m gonna take pity on you because Savannah and I’ve got history. But you’re gonna forget seeing me here. The payara deal is my business. You think Uncle’s got you looped in on every deal he’s got going?”

  “You’re nothing to Uncle—”

  “Oh, yeah, then how come I’m still walking around alive with my heart still beating inside my body?”

  Shouts were coming behind her now. Then she saw the smart, blue, uniformed form of Nicole and the male officer she’d been sitting with running toward them, a plain-clothed Butler two steps behind.

  Looked like listening in was over and she was going to have to come out of her hiding place. Chloe ran around the van, holding out her badge. “We’ve got company!”

  Trent leaned in toward Royd. “This isn’t over. Keep your mouth shut.” Then he grabbed Royd by the collar and yanked him to his feet. He thrust him at Chloe. “Cuff him. If anyone asks, he attacked you and I came to your defense. That’s the truth. Now, I gotta go. Don’t follow me. Don’t call me. Don’t try to come find me.”

  Her eyes searched the man standing in front of her. But Trent was gone and the hard man who stood in his place was nothing more than a stranger.

  “But what about the hockey game?” Chloe said. Trent turned on his heels and strode off.

  What about his cover?

  “I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “But I don’t trust Royd to keep his mouth shut, and now that Royd knows I’m here, I can’t be here anymore.”

  NINE

  That was just Trent’s cover talking, Chloe told herself. It had to be. Trent had seen a criminal from an old case and so he reassumed an old identity. He had to have said he was disappearing just for Royd’s benefit. He didn’t actually mean he was abandoning his Coach Henri identity, the Trillium players and moving on without her, right?

  Yet, no matter how firmly she told herself that, something twisted in her chest as she watched Trent disappear around the side of the building, slinking like a wounded animal that didn’t want to be seen. Lor
d, what just happened? What do I do? I need a whole bunch of wisdom and clarity right now. It was like Trent had transformed into a stranger right before her eyes and then abandoned her to handle the mess he’d left behind.

  Butler had picked up his pace and overtaken the uniforms. She spun Royd around and pressed him against the van, feeling her brain go into autopilot as she recited the words she’d been saying to criminals for years. “I’m arresting you for assault with a weapon, assault of an officer and attempted kidnapping. It is my duty to inform you that you have the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay...”

  Usually, this was the point of an arrest that whoever she was arresting pointed out the Canadian version of reading them their rights didn’t match what they were used to hearing on American television. But Royd merely grunted. This almost certainly wasn’t his first arrest on Canadian soil. Not to mention something had seemingly sapped his will to fight. Just who did Royd think Trent was? What side of him had he seen? She didn’t know. She just had to trust that Trent had blown his cover to save her life and that he would fill her in as soon as he could. Chloe turned Royd around so that he faced her. “Do you understand?”

  “Do you?” He scowled. “Word of advice, lady. Don’t trust Trent. He uses women like you. He’ll cut your heart out, chew it up and spit it in the gutter, just like he did to my sister, Savannah.”

  Another mention of Savannah and yet another reminder she didn’t really know Trent at all. He’d told her he didn’t have relationships.

  “Detective Brant!” Butler arrived at her side with Nicole and the second uniformed officer now one step behind. “What do you think you’re doing, arresting someone in my jurisdiction when you’re off duty?”

  “Sorry to interrupt your day off, Sir.” She straightened. “This man is a member of the Wolfspiders. Goes by the name of Royd. I stepped outside and he jumped me, held a knife to my throat and demanded I tell him about payara. Thankfully, Coach Henri, was there to assist. You’re right, I am off duty, so do go ahead and let Constable Docker take over the arrest. But when you question Royd, I want to sit in.”

  She stood back and let Nicole and the male officer who introduced himself as Constable Don Walleye, lead Royd toward a police cruiser.

  “Where’s Coach Henri now?” Butler frowned. “I told him we don’t want civilians trying to do citizen’s arrests on criminals.”

  “I honestly don’t know where he is.” Chloe crossed her arms and stared down her former training officer. The smell of alcohol surrounding him was even stronger now. “But don’t start with me about people stepping out of bounds. You were my training officer. I know you’re a sticker for the rules. But, like I told you, there’s been gossip circling for weeks about the baggie-full of thousands of dollars’ worth of payara pills found on these premises and the bungled investigation.

  “Your division apparently failed to find out who’s making the payara and now the Gulo Gulo Boys and the Wolfspiders have descended here, as well, trying to track that person down, too. You should be thankful it seems neither of them has succeeded. I’ll cooperate with your investigation. But with all due respect, Sir, from what I’m hearing, your badge and reputation are on the line. Some random hockey coach tackling a thug who attacked his fiancée is the least of your worries.”

  Butler had gone white. His hands were shaking and she suspected he’d had more than one drink during the game. He started spluttering something about protocols and investigations taking time.

  But she was done arguing. This whole situation was out of control. She’d come here hoping to help find the source of the drugs. Now the entire mess had spiraled so badly she didn’t even know what she was supposed to do anymore. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her job. She would do her job. She paused long enough to give her statement to Nicole’s partner and then she turned and strode back to the sports center.

  A small cluster of Trillium players, including Third Line, had gathered by the back doors. What were they thinking about all this? What could she possibly tell them? It was all fine and good of Trent to just snap from one cover identity to another on a dime, like the plastic doll with snap-on clothes she’d had as a child. What about the young people who’d spent three months building a relationship with Coach Henri only to have him disappear?

  “Who was arrested, miss?” Aidan called.

  “A Wolfspider gang member named Royd,” she said, going for blunt honesty and deciding to give the “miss” a pass. “He tried to attack me. He didn’t succeed. Now, who wants to tell me why you all stampeded out here when you’re supposed to be in the middle of a hockey game?”

  There was a long pause. Feet shuffled. Eyes darted right and left. Finally, Brandon blurted out, “Hodge charged out onto the ice during a face-off and sucker punched Johnny.”

  “Because somebody posted a picture of him kissing Poppy!” Hodge snapped.

  “You shouldn’t have been looking on social media during a game, anyway,” Aidan said.

  “I wasn’t! But everybody else in the arena was and the next thing I know, like, six people were leaning over the back of the box shouting it at me.”

  “And I told you, that picture is a faaaaaaaake!” Poppy shouted the word like it had six syllables.

  “Really?” Chloe looked around the crowd for Johnny. She didn’t see him or any of the other Haliburton players. She turned to Poppy. “Who’s behind it then?”

  “I don’t know!” Her voice rose to a wail but Chloe wasn’t sure if she believed her.

  “Hodge took payara before the game,” Aidan added.

  “No, I didn’t!” Hodge spun on him.

  Aidan didn’t even blink. “I didn’t say you did it on purpose!”

  “Coach said somebody might’ve drugged him,” Brandon explained. He held up a water bottle. “Coach said I should give you this and that Hodge should get a drug test.”

  Voices rose in a babble as multiple students started talking at once. Chloe raised a hand. “I got it. So a fight broke out and then you all collectively decided to run outside here at once because...?”

  Her words trailed off. Voices fell just as quickly as they’d risen. Her question hung in the frozen air.

  “I dunno,” Milo said eventually. “People started yelling there was a fight outside and running for the exits. So I followed.”

  Crowd mentality. Super.

  “Let me guess. None of you know who started the stampede for the exits, either?” she asked. No answer. Right, so this was how it was going to be. Chloe pulled her badge out again and held it up, making sure everyone saw it. “As you guys all should know by now, I’m a detective with the Ontario Provincial Police. Most of my work is with the Special Victims Unit, which means it’s not just my job to stop criminals. It’s also my job to take care of people and protect them.” She dropped her badge and crossed her arms. “So, I’m going to be straight with you. And I expect you to be straight with me.

  “I know that a baggie of a new designer upper drug named payara was found in the locker room a few months ago. I know several of you were questioned about it. I also know the police didn’t come up with enough evidence to arrest anyone, probably because you’re all busy protecting each other. But that doesn’t change the fact that someone in your community is cooking the stuff and somebody else is selling it. I wouldn’t even be surprised if some of you have theories about who that could be.” Her eyes fixed on Third Line. “I also wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out more than one of you has tried it.”

  Nobody’s eyes were meeting either hers now or even meeting each other’s. Some scanned the snow falling from the dark sky above. Others scanned the edges of the parking lot. Hodge’s face reddened as he stared directly at the ground.

  “Now, maybe you think this isn’t your problem and that it has nothing to do with you,” she went on. “Maybe you only k
now rumors or don’t want to get anybody else in trouble. Or you’re worried about getting in trouble yourself. But yesterday three gang members took baseball bats to your sports center and threatened your lives. Today, somebody from a different gang tried to kill me. That same big, creepy jerk broke into my house early this morning and attacked me.”

  Eyes grew wider. About half of them were meeting hers now. Poppy made a sound like a whimper. Lucy hugged herself. Aidan looked ready to punch someone.

  “Frankly, I don’t care what story you’ve been telling yourself about why this isn’t your problem. Your community is in danger and it probably isn’t going to stop without your cooperation. So, here’s what’s going to happen. Right now, each and every one of you is going to take out your cell phone and add my phone number into your contacts. Text it to all your friends. Post it on the school message board. Give it to everyone you know.

  “Then, go away and think long and hard about whether you really want criminals tearing up your community. When you decide the answer is no, text me everything you know. I’ll find you a lawyer if you want one. I’ll put you in touch with Victim Services or a social worker. You can block your number and text me anonymously, I don’t care. Just give me what I need to protect you. Phones out. Now.”

  She waited as one by one the clump of students pulled out their phones. Then she recited her number slowly, watching them like a hawk. “Thank you. Now, unless any of you feel like confessing right now, I’m going to get out of this cold and get someone to process this water bottle and a drug test for Hodge. Any questions?”

  Brandon raised his hand. “Where’s Coach?”

  “Honestly? I don’t know.” She waited while the youth dispersed slowly back into the building like shadows disappearing into the sun. Then she ushered Hodge over to Nicole’s partner, Constable Walleye, handed him the water bottle and explained about the drug test. Thankfully, Hodge cooperated, although part of her suspected it was to get away from Poppy’s attempts to pull him aside to talk.