Lord knows he’d tried—but every rehab stint would bring about a relapse worse than the one before.
He loved her then and if he was to let himself think about it, he loved her still. Even with all the hell she put him through—the hurt, the hospital visits the constant worry, the gunshot—all of it didn’t rid him of how he felt for her. All that drama merely changed his feelings. But he couldn’t have stuck around and watch her kill herself and quite possibly take him with her. Pitbull hadn’t been ready to die.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Anke’s voice was soft behind him.
“Yeah.”
“That was taken a year ago,” Anke said from behind him after a few minutes. “We’d finally taken a vacation day after working together for three years. We didn’t go anywhere special even though we wanted to. We pooled our money and had lunch at some fancy place in Sankt Augustin then we bought junk food and sat around my apartment watching movies and talking.”
Pitbull said nothing. He turned to her. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
“Good – I need to stop somewhere first.”
5
Anke wasn’t sure where they were going. Though she wanted to ask, the thoughts swirling about in her head rendered her mute and contemplative. Questions of what Claudia had gotten involved in took up most of her head. Everything from drugs, to kidnapping to the fact she might have witnessed a crime and she could be already dead for intervening.
Claudia was never the one to remain silent if she witnessed an injustice. She spoke out for those who needed help. As she sat beside Pitbull, driving into the abyss, Anke realized she hadn’t really known Claudia at all. It seemed, their relationship was merely an illusion that hid darkness Claudia never once alluded to.
Did anyone really know her? Was Claudia her real name?
Anke scoffed.
“You okay?” Pitbull asked.
She glanced over at him and nodded even though he was watching the road. “I’m fine. Claudia is her real name, right?”
“Yes. She is, in fact my sister.”
“Okay. Just checking.”
“Ms. Fischer—whatever Claudia was to me in the end—well, was a long time ago. It is obvious she was someone different with you—someone better. I don’t believe any of the care she’s shown you was a lie.”
Anke turned her attention out the window. It hurt knowing someone she’d shared so much of her life with hadn’t been completely honest. But she’d try reserving her judgment until she’d had a chance to hear from Claudia.
If she’s still alive.
She was pulled from her head by the truck driving over the curve to sit on a large lawn. When she looked out, they were parked in front of a boarded up house. Anke tilted her head wondering if this was where Daniel intended on strangling her.
That made her frown.
“What’re we doing here?” She looked over at the cop to see he was pulling the badge over his head. He leaned across her to get it in the glove box then went on to check his gun. “Daniel?”
“What I’m about to do is highly suspect,” Pitbull explained instead of answering her question. “If you want to sit this one out, I wouldn’t blame you. I will lock the doors behind me and you should be safe in here until I return.”
Anke glanced around. “Right. Have you seen how sketchy this place is? I’m coming with you. Besides, someone needs to keep you out of trouble.”
Daniel’s lips quivered. It wasn’t quite a smile, but she would take it. Together they climbed from the truck and made their way to the front door. Daniel pushed his gun back into the holster, backed up and sent a foot into the door. The wood splintered inward and Daniel stepped in as if he owned the place.
The stench of the interior was unlike anything Anke had ever experienced. Though she tried covering her nose and breathe though her mouth, the taste of the air was even worse.
“Breathe through your mouth.” Daniel advised.
He didn’t seem bothered. He moved through the house, looking into rooms as he went. When he finally entered one, it was to find three men, sitting around and a woman lying on a tattered mattress on the floor.
“Hello again, Deniz.” Daniel’s voice was low, like the rumble of an incoming storm.
“Pitbull—look man, I haven’t done anything wrong!” The shaking man said, holding up both hands.
“Let’s make this easy.” Daniel continued as if the man had said nothing. “We’re going to cut past the part where I ask you a question and you lie to me until I break a few of your bones. I don’t need to do that in front of the lady. But I’m running extremely low on fucks today. So—Slim, where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’d I say about lying to me, Deniz? I thought we had an understanding.”
“No, really. I haven’t seen Slim since the last time you busted up my organization.” Deniz reported, his voice cracking. “Ask Mark! She stopped coming around which is good because I don’t need her kind of trouble. You’re her brother. You’re GSG 9—I don’t think I have to tell you, having you bust up my operation is bad for business.”
“How about you stop selling drugs?” Anke asked. “I mean, you’re obviously bad at this.”
“No, Deniz. I need you to focus on me. I’m the very short fuse right now.”
Deniz glared at her but Anke didn’t care.
That brought Deniz’s eyes back to him.
“Let’s say I believe you.” Daniel continued. “What’s the ground telling you?”
“There’s a price on her head.”
“What?” Anke asked. “What do you mean?”
Deniz looked over at Anke.
“Answer the lady.” Daniel barked.
“I don’t know why. But the word on the street is, someone very powerful wants her gone.”
“How much?” Pitbull asked.
“One million Euros.”
Anke and Pitbull exchanged glances. With Anke by the door, she watched as Daniel walked over to the woman and hunched down beside her. He tapped her cheek but instead of sitting, the woman moaned and shoved at Daniel’s chest weakly.
“Is she hurt?” Anke asked.
“High,” Daniel said. “What’s she on?”
“E,” Deniz replied.
“What else?” Daniel asked.
“That’s all I got, man, I swear.” Deniz was once again shaking.
The anger on Daniel’s face spoke volumes as he pushed his arms underneath her and picked her up. Without a word, he rose to his full height and marched toward the door.
“You can’t just—” Deniz began but clammed up when Daniel turned a fiery glare toward him.
They continued out the door with the woman no wiser as to what was happening. She rested her head against Daniel’s chest. Without thinking, Anke pushed her hand into Daniel’s pocket and picked up the key to open the door for him. He set her on the back seat and Anke climbed in beside her.
“Where are we taking her?”
“I have a friend at a nearby hospital.”
Anke remained quiet as they drove toward the hospital. She turned her attention to the woman and knew in a previous life she had been beautiful. Her face was covered in scabs as she trembled against the seat. Her brows wrinkled, her lips chapped and her dark hair looked as though it hadn’t been washed in weeks. There was a smell as well but Anke merely opened the window to let fresh air in.
At the hospital, they climbed from the vehicle and Anke stopped to grab Daniel’s badge as they hurried inside. Someone rushed out with a wheelchair and a nurse quickly fell to their side.
“She’s high—they said she’s on E but we can both agree that’s not true,” Daniel explained. “Is Dr. Causda here?”
“She is. I’ll have her paged.”
“I’ll wait here.”
In no time at all a beautiful woman with long flower hair hurried over and tapped Daniel on the shoulder. Anke couldn’t help feeling like a mere mortal in her presence. Danie
l turned and hugged her tightly then kissed her forehead.
“Hey Mack,” Daniel said. “I brought you another one.”
“I know what to do.” Mack rubbed her palm up and down Daniel’s arm.
“Can I ask you something?” Daniel’s voice was soft. “Have you seen Slim?”
“Not for about—three years now? Not since I got back.” Mack replied. “Danny, what’s going on?”
“She’s missing,” Daniel said.
“And you’re looking for her? I didn’t think CIRO worked on missing persons.”
“They don’t. CIRO is on hiatus for a little bit. But…”
“She’s your sister…”
“We found her car over in Metro Valley.” Daniel shifted on his feet. “You don’t remember her mentioning having a friend over there, do you?”
Dr. Causda shook her head. “But then again, your sister was never very open with me. I stuck her with needles, so I wasn’t her biggest fan and I—” The doctor glanced at Anke. “Can I help you?”
Anke looked from the woman to Daniel. “Um…”
“I’m terribly sorry.” Daniel rubbed the back of his neck. “Mack Causda, Anke Fischer. Anke, Mack.”
The two shook hands.
“Pitbull has the manners of a grizzly.” Mack laughed. “He doesn’t mean to be rude. It’s just in his nature.”
“I’m starting to see that,” Anke said.
Daniel growled.
Dr. Causta air kissed at Daniel who grinned handsomely at her.
“I’ll go see what’s being done for her,” The doctor said. “Same thing as Slim?”
Daniel nodded. “If you can get her to talk to you let me know? She must have family out there looking for her.”
Mack nodded and with a smile at Anke, she kissed Daniel’s cheek. “You’re a good man, Daniel Hunt.”
“Don’t go spreading it around. I have a reputation as a bulldozer I want to keep.” Daniel touched Mack’s cheek gently before she hurried off.
Their interaction put a freeze on Anke’s raging libido. She’d been fancying the large cop with the steeled blue eyes. In the time she’d known him she’d already had a million wet dreams about him while still being awake. Meeting Mack Causda, the doctor, was precisely the kick in the pants she needed to refocus on the reason for coming to Sank Augustin in the first place. Anke quickly made a mental to-do list.
One—find Claudia.
Two—kick her ass.
Three—get back to life.
There was a strain between Pitbull and Anke when they were finally on the road again. Sure, they barely knew each other and their other rides hadn’t been overly talkative. But this was different. Pitbull allowed the demons of his past to hover, trying to draw meaning or answers from every little bit of them he could.
In the end, he was just as confused as before.
There wasn’t any place they used to go that Claudia would run to. They spent all their free time at home. Claudia baked a lot with their mother and Pitbull spent most of his time trying to learn how to bake. Usually, he’d burn sometime. One night as his mother tried teaching them how to bake a carrot cake, he managed to catch the oven on fire.
His parents and Claudia thought it was hilarious once they got the fire out. Pitbull was horrified.
With their father, it was piano and guitar—filling the house with music that was older than both children combined.
Their family life hadn’t been perfect, but it was damned close.
Then tragedy struck, and Pitbull and Claudia were left spinning their wheels, trying not to let the darkness win. Pitbull had been successful—Claudia—not so much.
“Are you and the good doctor an item?” Anke asked.
Pitbull turned to glance at her before looking back to the road. He did expect her to ask that. Anke hadn’t been the first to mistake what he was to Mack and vice-versa. They grew closer since Mack’s return from working overseas as a member of Hope’s Doctors.
Still, Pitbull couldn’t help the heat that swirled inside him because of her misunderstanding. There was something almost possessive in the way Anke asked the question. Unable to stop himself, he stole another look at her. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh—um—no reason. Just curious, really.”
“I see.” Pitbull smirked darkly. “Are you jealous, Ms. Fischer?”
“Why would your mind automatically go there?” Anke sounded irritated. “You’re not God’s gift to women, you know?”
“I didn’t say I was and I don’t hear you denying it.”
“Well, I am—denying it, I mean. I asked because you two seemed super friendly.”
“We are.”
Pitbull didn’t say anything else. He looked over at her once they were at a red light but Anke merely folded her arms across her chest and turned her eyes outside. He smiled then and refocused on the road. It’d been a while since he was alone with a woman like this. Unusually, they were suspects or Miracle and Barbie. It dawned on him then, his life was a pathetic, lonely mess and he needed to go out more.
This whole adulting thing blows—hard.
“Do you think she’s going to be okay?”
“Claudia will be fine.”
“Not her—the girl you brought in to the hospital. And how many of them have you brought in?”
“Too many.” Pitbull’s voice cracked. “They are someone’s mother, daughter—someone’s Claudia. But most often than not, it’s a job in futility because they just wind up on the street again. They’re adults, so you can’t force them to go to rehab, jail doesn’t work—most times the only thing to stop them from destroying themselves, is death.”
“That’s horrible.”
“It’s reality.”
Pitbull suddenly felt as if the world was on his shoulder. He thought back to the picture of Claudia at Anke’s place and wondered if Claudia had indeed been clean. He prayed that had been true, but what other reason could there be to have a bounty on her head? If she had been clean it would rule out owing a drug dealer money or in debt to a pimp.
What did it all mean? Was Deniz telling the truth? A man could say anything when he knew the other had a gun.
Pitbull grunted. His head was beginning to hurt like the devil.
Arriving at his house, he gave Anke the tour then showed her to the room she’d be using until he either found Claudia or figured something out. He sat in the office chair and closed his eyes while his brain tried escaping his skull.
“You okay?”
“I get these tension headaches…” Pitbull moaned and massaged his temple. “This whole thing is driving me insane.”
“Here.” Anke’s soft footsteps carried her closer until her soft fingers took over against the sides of his head. “It’s better when someone else do it.”
Pitbull sighed and relaxed under her gentle ministrations. He couldn’t believe how good it felt having her soft fingertips rolling the hurt to the very back of his mind. For the first time in a long while, he allowed himself to be lulled by a woman’s touch. Sure, she was only doing it to help him, alleviate the ache, but he’d accept it and carry it with him.
Anke dragged her hands down the sides of his head to his neck. She didn’t stop kneading, even as she reached his shoulders. Pitbull tilted his head to one side.
“When was the last time you had a massage?”
“Would you believe, never?”
“You need to relax more.” Anke advised. “The muscles in your neck are all knots. I’m no professional. I can’t do anything about them.”
When she released him, Pitbull caught her arm. “Please—don’t stop.”
She smiled, her cheeks heated. “Are you sure?”
“Very.”
“Okay.”
To his pleasure, she caught his shoulders in her skillful fingers once more. She sunk them into the flesh and rubbed causing him to sigh then growled. He couldn’t have stopped the sound from leaving his soul if he tried. It was as if she was the puppet mas
ter, pulling on his strings, making him dance.
In the moment, when the pleasure became too much, he caught her arm and turned to face her. The urge to kiss her rage inside him and he knew she could tell. There was a certain way she gasped and bit against her bottom lip that confirmed to him, Anke knew precisely what he wanted. Though if she knew how badly he yearned for it, she would turn and run and never look back. She stared into his eyes and Pitbull allowed her. He wanted her to find whatever it was she had been looking for in him.
His body heated where he held her arm. The soft flesh beneath his gun roughened hands soothed him. It was almost as if he didn’t remember what a woman was supposed to feel like—it had been so long.
Though Anke didn’t pull away, Pitbull knew the reason she was with him wasn’t for love or lust. No matter what he thought of her he couldn’t give in the fancies of his body. As a professional, he had to keep whatever was pulsing inside him at bay. The most important thing was to find Claudia before it was too late so the two of them could be on their way. Until then, Pitbull had to stay out of trouble.
“I know.” Anke’s voice cracked. “I know what’s happening right now and we can’t.”
“Why? Just so I know.”
“You have your doctor, Daniel.”
“Call me Pitbull.”
She pulled her arm away. “I should go take a shower.”
Pitbull nodded. “Yeah. Maybe that’s for the best.”
He watched the way her hips moved as she left him. A shard of electricity tore through his veins bringing all the hairs on his body to stand on end. It burned sweetly at ever big of him making him bite back a moan then squeeze his eyes closed.
Whatever the moment between the two of them—could not happen again. He was stronger than this—better than letting a soft touch affect him so deeply. Pitbull wondered if this was how hard Beast found being with Miracle. If it was a struggle, Pitbull knew he was in serious—serious—trouble. Beast had lost the fight and now Miracle stood strong by his side and in his bed. But love wasn’t always black or white.
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