by Sky Robinson
She put the softness of her ass onto him, right on his cock, and damn if he didn’t start to go hard instantly. But a knock at the door interrupted anything from happening. Crystal stiffened and then climbed off him and walked to the door.
Blake leaned back in the chair into a fake, relaxed position and took a sip of beer as she opened the door.
“Good afternoon. Officer, please come in.” Crystal welcomed the man, but there was definitely a tenseness in her voice. “I assume you’re here to pick up the package?”
“What the hell is he still doing here?” The man made his disapproval very obvious, sneering the words as he pointed in Blake’s direction.
Blake wobbled his upper body and turned to face the man in the doorway.
“He doesn’t look like an ocifer to me.” Blake slurred the words perfectly and wobbled his entire upper torso again for effect as he squinted one eye. He wasn’t dressed in a police uniform so she must have said it to tip him off. Smart girl, not that he was going to let his guard down with anyone. Most of the drug runners were more highly trained than the police and they had a much larger budget for weapons and technology.
“He’s drunk. What did you want me to do, make him drive himself home? I figure he’s going to pass out any minute anyway. Come back in a few and that’ll probably be the case.” Crystal didn’t falter at all with the lie.
“I’m not drunk, bitch.” Blake leaned back in the chair again. “Why does he care? You’re not doing him, are you?” Then he mumbled just loud enough for the man to hear. “You better not be doing him,” took another sip of beer.
There was a part of him that worried she was playing both sides. If she could tell a lie to the man at the door with ease, she could be doing the same thing with Blake. He wondered again if he was really thinking clearly or doing most of his thinking with the wrong head when it came to Crystal.
Blake had to keep his guard up, had to be ready for anything.
“No, I’m not doing him. He’s just here to pick up something.” She took a step away from the man and the little bit of distance gave Blake some comfort, some time to react if the officer tried anything.
“Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” Blake took another drink from his beer and then let his head tip forward as if he was staring at the floor but he didn’t take his focus off the man for a second.
“It’s just back in my bedroom. I’ll grab it and be right back,” Crystal said and then walked down the hall to her room.
The officer stood near the door with a tenseness that made Blake nervous. This wasn’t going to be a simple pickup. His gut told him that.
Blake adjusted himself in the chair, wobbling and looking as if he was about to fall out for a second to keep up with the charade. But the movement had a much more important job than putting on an act. He moved so one of his hands rested on the cold steel of his gun, ready for action, ready for anything this guy threw his way.
Crystal came back from her room with the backpack in one hand, dangling just above the floor. The man’s eyes were focused on it and then he drew his gun. It wasn’t standard issue but had a silencer attached. The man aimed it right at Crystal and Blake held his breath.
“Just set it on the floor in front of me.”
“What? Why?” Her voice cracked. Even Crystal could see that the man meant business with that gun.
“My bosses think you’ve become a risk. They’re not happy you brought your friend along with you and you didn’t follow their orders correctly.” He grinned as he said the words, as if he was looking forward to getting rid of her. A true psychopath. Blake’s gut clenched.
“So you’re going to…kill me?” Crystal’s words came out as more of a squeak and her eyes were huge as she stood there, probably too afraid to move.
“It was supposed to look like a home invasion gone wrong but now I’m thinking a murder-suicide would be a very likely situation with you and your drunk boyfriend here.” The man sneered, way too happy to be delivering the news, and Blake knew he couldn’t let it last a second longer.
“Over here, douchebag.” He yelled to get the guy’s focus off Crystal as he pulled his weapon and sent two rounds right into the center of the man’s forehead.
He crumpled to the ground and blood splattered across the wall behind him.
“Oh my God, oh my God.” Crystal whimpered as she stared at the man lying on the carpet, the pool of dark red blood beneath him growing.
Blake walked over and shot the man again. This time in the stomach and knee. It needed to be done and he wouldn’t feel a thing now. Sometimes being a good shot could work against a guy.
Crystal jumped at the sound of his gunfire. Probably didn’t expect it and the events of the last few minutes were bound to make a person jumpy.
“Why did you do that? He was already dead, wasn’t he?” She brought her shaking hand up to her face.
“I need to make it look sloppy, not like a professional hit, like it really was a pickup gone bad because of a drunk boyfriend.”
He might get a couple days before the forensic results told the police exactly what happened, the order of the shots, and that just might be long enough to flush out the rest of the officers involved. The less trained they thought he was, the bigger advantage Blake would have.
“Grab the backpack. We have to get out of here.” They needed to move before the police came, before anyone who could recognize him showed up.
The two of them being on the run with the drugs was a sure way to stir up lots of conversations between the guilty parties. Mason was tracking all four burner phones they now knew were being used and watching to see who was called from each of them. It was possible he could find enough proof on his own, that Crystal would no longer have to be involved. And damn did he want that to happen, wanted her to be done with this, safe.
Crystal stood there in shock, staring at the body but Blake didn’t have time to console her right now. He grabbed a garbage bag and threw the empty beer bottles into it and wiped down anything else he could remember touching. They would eventually find his fingerprints on something but the longer it took, the better. He held the garbage bag as she grabbed the backpack full of cocaine and they walked out of the apartment together. He shut the door behind him but didn’t lock it. It would just get broken down real soon if he did.
Crystal climbed into the passenger seat without prompting and sat there silently as Blake whipped out of the driveway and down the road. A couple minutes later he could hear sirens in the direction of her house and one police car sped past them on the way to the scene, not even taking a second glance toward his car. Good.
When they got a couple miles from her apartment, to where Blake finally started to feel safe, he flipped open his phone to call Mason.
“What the hell happened?” Mason’s voice was tense.
“What, no ‘hello, happy to see you’re alive’?” Blake forced a lightness into his voice but it was fake. He was feeling some serious stress now. The shit had officially hit the fan.
“I knew you were alive. I watched you hightail your ass out of there. So what happened?”
“The guy pulled a gun on Crystal. She says he was a police officer. Stay there, check it out. Watch for anything suspicious but it can’t be official. We don’t want them to know we know anything.”
“Will do.” Mason agreed easily. “What are you going to do?”
“We’re going to lie low for a while. See what information you can get when they start to scramble.”
“Sounds good, man. Keep in touch,” Mason said.
“I will.” Blake closed his phone and focused on his driving.
He had to find a place to take Crystal. Someplace to hide for a while, somewhere to keep her safe.
And in that moment Blake realized she had become his top priority, not the drugs or taking down the corrupt cops or any of it. He always kept his people safe but this was different. He was falling in love with Crystal.
It was stupid as hell but he cou
ldn’t stop it even if he wanted to. And he wasn’t so sure he wanted to. It felt good, felt right. If only there weren’t so damn many reasons they shouldn’t be together. He’d be the laughingstock of the whole agency if people found out he was dating his informant, dating a drug mule. Even worse than that, he could lose his job over it. Mason could pretend like he didn’t know when it was just him but if the guys found out, Mason would be forced to do something about it.
Blake pulled into the parking lot of a run-down motel. A beat-up, black Chevy Caprice from the early eighties was parked in front of the office and a few other rough-looking cars dotted the lot. Nothing suspicious so Blake pulled in and parked.
“Let’s get a room here, hang out for a while.” He wanted to take her someplace nice, he didn’t even know why. It wasn’t as if she expected anything from him and it wasn’t as if she was used to a life of luxury but it didn’t stop him from feeling bad about bringing her to a scummy motel. But they needed a place that would take cash and not ask any questions.
“Okay.” She bit her lower lip and stared out the window. It was damn sexy. But that shouldn’t be his focus right now. They were in a dangerous situation and all he could think about was fucking Crystal again.
“Come inside with me.” He came around to her side of the car and opened the door as he looped the backpack around his shoulder.
Blake wasn’t letting either Crystal or the backpack out of his sight. Not now that the seriousness of the situation had come into full view. He couldn’t take the chance of her running now that things were getting scary. Not that it would make much of a difference in the investigation. Mason had tabs on four more phones and had to have the name of the officer who was shot trying to get the drugs from Crystal. They should be able to tape the conversations, track down the phones and arrest the men involved.
Crystal didn’t say anything but took his hand and climbed out of the car. He squeezed her hand tightly in his. Not because he thought she would run or that he needed to keep up the act of lovers for the front desk man. He would make that assumption anyway. Blake held her hand because he wanted to. He liked having her soft skin touching his. A little too much probably.
“We need a room for tonight.”
“All night?” The guy behind the desk wore dirty, blue sweatpants and smelled as if he was storing some leftover fried chicken in his beard.
“Yeah. All night.” This was a place you could rent a room for an hour and the fact the man asked the question wasn’t a surprise but Blake tensed up.
“It’ll be sixty-five dollars.”
Blake reached into his walled, counted out the exact amount and handed it to the guy.
“Here’s your key, room twenty-three, second floor, go to the right four doors down.”
“Thanks.” Blake grabbed the keys and walked out the door, pulling Crystal along with him.
* * * * *
When the cops had been in and out of Crystal’s apartment, had definitely found the body and knew something, Mason spotted a guy he knew and walked over.
“What’s going on here?” he asked the tall, dark-haired cop with just the right amount of innocence and curiosity.
Sam was someone he had worked with before on a joint case, someone he knew wouldn’t question his presence, someone he was pretty sure wasn’t involved with anything illegal.
“There’s been a shooting in a woman’s apartment.”
“Yeah?” Mason pretended to not have too much interest in the subject but he was dying to know what they were thinking, how they were processing this shooting.
“Neighbors say she’s been bringing some new guy around the past couple days and then one of the regular visitor guys came back. They didn’t see what happened but there were several shots fired and then the girl and her new guy ran out of the apartment. We’re thinking love triangle.”
“Has the man been identified?” Mason asked.
“Yeah. Funny thing is, he didn’t have any identification on him but one of the guys says he recognizes him from the South District.”
“Really?” Mason had his doubts about this mission, about the police involvement, but it was all turning out to be true.
“Yeah. You would think he would know better than to run around with a girl from this neighborhood.” Sam put his hands in his pockets and shook his head. “What are you doing here anyway? Are you here to work this case? I didn’t hear that there were any narcotics involved.”
“No, I was just doing some investigative work in the neighborhood. I came down when I heard all the sirens, thought I would see what all the noise was about.”
“Oh. I guess nothing for you to worry about.” Sam looked at the apartment again. “Well, I better get back to work.”
“Yeah. Me too,” Mason said and walked away. He got all the information he could without being too nosy and all the information he really needed right now. Cops were definitely involved and they didn’t suspect Blake yet.
This was going to be big.
Chapter Seven
Crystal followed Blake up the white metal motel steps. They creaked and pieces of paint chipped away aggressively to reveal the red paint from a few years back. She didn’t touch the railing but it looked as if it wouldn’t be much help if a person started to fall. This was not a nice hotel but a good place to stay if a person wanted to hide. She sure as hell needed a good place to hide right now. One near-death experience was more than enough for the day.
Blake opened the door and motioned for her to walk in first. The room was dark and smelled a little moldy. Brown, ugly, flowered curtains blocked out most of the light from outside and provided complete privacy.
She flipped on the first light switch she could find. The room was cleaner than expected. An ugly brown comforter that matched the curtains covered the bed, there was a wooden chair in the corner and a long dresser with a small TV sitting on it. It was a bare little room with décor straight from the eighties just like the manager’s car but she would be happy in a cave if that meant she was safe.
“We’ll hide out here for the night. It’s not much but we don’t have a lot of other choices.” Blake looked sorry for bringing her to this place but it wasn’t as if she was some spoiled princess. Far from it. She had a lot worse things to worry about than the condition of the hotel they were staying in.
“Do we need to worry about them finding us here?” The cop back at her house made it obvious they wanted her dead. The only problem was finding out who exactly they were and then trusting Blake to be able to catch them before they killed her. She blew out a long breath and forced herself to relax.
“No. We should be safe.” His honesty about the situation again made her feel a little more confident. He didn’t say they were definitely safe or try to blow smoke up her ass but gave her the situation straight.
“So what do we do now?” She felt like dumping the drugs into the nearest river or burying them in the nearest forest and making a run for it but her mother was still out there and if Crystal ran, she knew her mother would pay the consequences. Getting rid of the drugs and hiding out in Mexico for the rest of her life wasn’t an option. She had to stick with Blake, had to see this thing through.
Not that she really wanted to run. She wanted to stay here, do what was right, take the bad guys down and make this city safer for everyone. It was just damn scary doing the right thing. And dangerous.
“Mason is working now to find the men involved. We just need to sit tight and stay out of trouble.” Blake sat down at the end of the bed but he didn’t seem relaxed. He didn’t seem like the type of guy who liked to sit around and wait for anything. Funny, he was more relaxed in the really tense situations than now.
Crystal hated just sitting and waiting too, but in this situation it was better than the alternative, better than being threatened, better than being killed.
She sat down beside Blake on the bed, wanting his protection and craving his touch.
Crystal slid closer, feeling the hea
t of his thigh against hers, the strength of the muscle beneath his jeans. Blake wrapped an arm around her and pulled her against his chest, tight. She loved his strength, loved the smell of him, loved everything about this man. She didn’t believe in love at first sight but she sure as hell was falling hard and fast for Blake.
She was in a crappy hotel, more than likely going to have sex with a man she had no shot at a future with, repeating a scene straight out of her mother’s life. But right now she didn’t give a damn because when Blake touched her it was as if nothing else mattered.
Crystal leaned forward, needing his kiss, his touch, but Blake grabbed both of her wrists before she had a chance to close the distance.
She froze. “What?”
Blake stared at her for a second before saying anything. Did he realize that being with her was a mistake? Did he need to end things before they went any further?
“There are things about me that you don’t know.” His words were serious, made her a little nervous.
There were a lot of things she didn’t know about him, but what was serious enough for this? What was so important to tell her right now?
“Yeah…like?” Crystal prompted when he didn’t continue speaking, didn’t give her the details she wanted.
“I’m a Dom.”
“A Dom?” She wasn’t sure what he meant. “Like whips and chains and leather?”
“Yeah, like whips and chains and leather and wanting a woman who’ll submit to me.”
“Submit?” She sounded dumb, as if she didn’t understand what submit meant. She knew damn well what the word meant. It wasn’t as if it was a complete surprise either. He definitely liked to be in control when they fucked. Crystal just didn’t know how serious he was about it and what impact he expected it to have on her. She was her own woman, didn’t submit to anyone. Did he not want her anymore because she wasn’t naturally bending to his will enough?
“Yeah. Submit.” He kept eye contact with her but his emotions remained hidden.
When Blake said the word submit it didn’t sound demeaning at all. It just sounded sexy.