The Distance Between Us (Mac Security Series Book 3)

by Abigail Davies

  He leans over the seats, picking up the bag and looking inside, whistling. “A setup?”

  “Yep.”

  He shakes his head and puts his hand on the door, ready to push it open. “I thought you’d have something more planned,” he says, his voice full of disappointment.

  “Oh,” I chuckle. “Don’t you worry, he’s gonna get his.”

  He pushes out of the SUV and walks off. With one final look at Joel, I smirk and turn the key in the ignition, the engine roaring to life and driving out of there.

  Step one of my plan is in place, now I just need to gather my unit and take him down.

  We sit and wait for the confirmation to come through from Luke and as soon as I hear the ping of my cell and see his message, I give the signal for us to go.

  We all pile out of our cars, guns drawn and in our formation as we jog to Joel’s apartment. Within the hour, he’ll be off the streets and behind bars, for much longer than he would have if I’d have done this a week ago. I need to make sure that he won’t be coming back into our lives for a very, very long time and this is the only way that I can do that. I know it’s not ethical, but when someone messes with your family you don’t give a shit about that.

  I hold my hand up in the air, lifting three fingers and counting down until I have a closed fist and then I give Leroy the nod. He reels back, placing his boot on the door and kicking it open.

  “Police!” I shout, heading straight to the bedroom where I know Joel is.

  I grab for him as he tries to get out of the open window, lifting my arm and punching him in the jaw. He goes down onto the bed and I don’t waste any time cuffing him before lifting him up and walking him back into the living room where I tell all the guys to search the place from top to bottom.

  “You won’t find a fucking thing,” he growls but I merely smirk at him. He doesn’t know what’s about to hit him. He’s done.

  I widen my stance, crossing my arms over my chest while I wait for them to bring out the evidence that I know they will find.

  Leroy is first, bringing two bricks of cocaine out of the kitchen and placing them on the table in front of Joel. Then Derrick comes in with a bag of money that will have serial numbers on them from a recent robbery. He’s gonna go down for a long time, that’s for sure.

  “This is a fucking setup!” he screams, twisting his arms as if he could get out of the cuffs. His eyes meet mine and I shrug, letting him know with my eyes that I have him and there’s nothing he can do about it.

  “Sarge?” I look up at Sanchez, frowning at the look of horror on his face. “You need to see this.”

  I tilt my head at Leroy, silently telling him to watch Joel and then I follow Sanchez into the bathroom.

  My hand covers my mouth at the smell and my eyes burn. A woman who can’t be any older than twenty sits in the bath, a single gunshot wound to her forehead and surrounded by blood-stained water. Looks like I didn’t need to set him up after all.

  I tut at Joel as I walk back into the living room. “Looks like I have you on possession with the intent to supply, armed robbery and murder.”

  “Is this because of that stupid purple-haired slut?” he growls, diving forward before being pulled back by Leroy.

  I lunge at him, slamming my booted foot into his knee and watching him go down before I jump on top of him, raining my fists down on his face. “You sick son of a bitch! It’s your fault she’s where she is! I’ll make you fucking pay for what you did to her.” I lower my voice. “Watch your back in prison, I hear Jonny isn’t too happy with you either.”

  His face pales at the mention of his brother’s name and I lift up off him, chuckling at his reaction. “Yeah, Jonny’s lawyers won’t get you out of this one, who the hell do you think told me it was you supplying her?”

  “He wouldn’t,” he says, but both he and I can hear the doubt in his voice.

  I lift my cell from my pocket, making some calls for more investigators to get on the scene before hauling him up off the floor.

  He curses all the way to the car, only stumbling slightly when he sees Jonny standing against his car watching the scene. I look up at the same time, nodding at him when he tilts his head and smirks.

  “You were in on it!” Joel shouts, trying to pull out of the grasp that I have on his arm.

  Jonny walks toward us, a calm exuding from him as he pulls on the cuffs on his suit jacket.

  “You went too far, too many times,” he tells Joel. “You needed to be stopped.”

  “What the—”

  “I know what you did,” Jonny growls, leaning into Joel’s face. “It was you who helped him get Gianna, you.”

  “I—”

  “Don’t think because we share the same blood that I won’t come for you, you’re done.”

  He pulls back, his eyes not moving from Joel’s for several seconds and when they do, he pierces me with his stare and tilts his head before murmuring, “Tomorrow.”

  I don’t acknowledge him, instead I yank Joel away and shove him into the waiting beat cop car.

  That’s one more person off the streets, now all I need to do is take down the cartel and then everything will be right in the world again.

  Harold hands me several plants, not saying a word before he walks off from where I’m knelt down in front of one of the flower beds.

  I’ve been helping him silently for a couple of weeks now. Being kept busy is helping and although I still have the cravings for the pills, cravings that I’ll probably always have, they’re not at the front of my mind anymore. They’ve been pushed back and I’m able to think clearly for the first time in what feels like forever.

  Yvonne told me that they’re going to give me gym privileges at the four-week point and that’s only a few days away now. I know that to be able to get back to training, I have to talk to her about how I’m feeling, to let her know what is going on inside my head. I refuse to do it in a group session though, not wanting everyone to know all about me, so she said she’s going to do a one-on-one session. I really don’t want to talk to her about what I’m going through, but I know it’s a necessary evil.

  “It’s time,” Harold tells me, smiling sadly.

  I nod in reply and look down at the couple of plants that I haven’t had time to put into the ground.

  “I’ll do it.”

  “Okay,” I whisper, pulling off my gardening gloves and placing them in the wheelbarrow.

  My footsteps are slow as I walk up to the main house, needing to take my time and gather my thoughts before I enter the session. I can already feel the weight of it all resting on my shoulders and I itch to take some pills to quiet the voices in my head.

  I pull open the glass doors and walk through the sunroom before heading down the sunny hallway as I’ve taken to calling it and down to Yvonne’s office.

  My hand lifts and I knock twice before pushing the door open.

  “Kitty.” She smiles, turning in her seat and extending her arm to the sofa opposite her. “Take a seat.”

  My eyes wander over her, dressed in a dark blue skirt and cream button-up shirt. Her glasses on top of her dark brown hair.

  “Thanks,” I say, sitting down and placing my hands in my lap.

  “How are you feeling today?”

  “A solid seven,” I tell her, looking up and offering her a small smile.

  “That’s great,” she says, clapping her hands. “We’ve talked about your addiction, about your childhood, now I think it’s time to start talking about what life will be like when you get out of here in four weeks.”

  “Yeah.” I grip my hands harder, making my knuckles turn white from the force.

  “It’s very important that you be prepared for when you go home, the cravings will become worse when you’re back home and you need a support network around you. Do you have that?”

  I worry my bottom lip with my teeth as I take a deep breath. “I think so.”

  “You have friends where you work, right?”


  “Yes, but…”

  She waits for me to continue but when I don’t she prompts me by saying, “Is there something you need to talk about, Kitty?”

  “No, yes.” I blow out a breath. “I don’t know.”

  She crosses her legs and sits back, moving some of her brown hair behind her ears. “How about you start from the beginning?”

  I nod silently, looking down at my hands. “His name is Charlie.” I clear my throat. “He and I met when I first moved to town, I didn’t know he was Ty’s older brother.” I look up. “Ty is my boss.”

  “Okay.”

  “We were… erm… together in the sexual capacity, but he wouldn’t commit. Recently he said he wanted to make us public but it was while I was on the pills and… I don’t know, that time feels fuzzy, almost like a dream.”

  “But he wanted it to become serious?”

  “Yeah, I think so.” I frown. “But there’s so much heartbreak in his past that I’m not sure whether he really wanted to be with me or not.”

  “He’s your weakness,” Yvonne muses.

  My head shoots up and my brows draw down into a frown. “I don’t have a weakness.”

  She smiles softly and leans forward, clasping her hands together on her lap.

  “Family sessions will be coming up soon,” she says, ignoring my comment. “I think you should ask Charlie to come.”

  “No.” I shake my head emphatically. “I can’t see him, not yet.”

  She leans back in her seat, a smile on her face that tells a thousand words. “And that right there, that reaction, that’s the reason why you need to do this before you get back home. You need to tackle the problems you have so that when you leave here, you’re more than prepared.”

  I let my head fall back as I look up at the ceiling, the breath leaving my body at the thought of Charlie being here, with me.

  I adjust the bulletproof vest on my chest as I get out of the truck, another ten officers following me out. We’ve been taking down cartel members since 6 a.m. this morning, closing down several deals and arresting about forty men. This is our last one, the only one that Fernando will be at with Gianna.

  We’re ready for the takedown and now that Ty and his men are here too, we have even more backup. Backup that we need because this one won’t be easy. I have no doubt that he’s been warned about all the takedowns by now, but it’s our only chance, and this meeting is a major deal for him so he has to be here.

  Ty meets me in the middle of the lot with Luke and Kay beside him.

  “Hey,” I say, exhaustion evident in my voice.

  “Other takedowns go okay?” he asks, his face a mask of emptiness. He has the skill not to let people know how he’s feeling, at least almost all of the time, but that mask always drops when it comes to Kay.

  “Yeah, you ready for this?” I ask, moving my gaze to Kay and Luke briefly.

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  I lead the way with all the guys at my back, my officers scattering around the building and cutting off all the entry and exit points. No one will be getting in or out of here without one of us knowing.

  I count down from three into the mic attached to me through my earpiece and then we all go in at the same time. I hear numerous clears before I get to the main room where several men including Fernando sit, drinking shots of tequila.

  I hold my gun up, pointing it straight at Fernando as I shout, “Hands where I can see them!”

  They all hold their hands up in the air and several officers cuff them, all except Fernando.

  “I said... hands where I can see them,” I growl at him, hating the pleased look on his face.

  His eyes slide to mine as a smirk kicks up the side of his face. “You won’t find anything here,” he says, his voice deep and rough.

  “We’ll see about that,” I tell him, signaling Leroy to cuff him. He does and then my head turns to Sanchez and Derrick as they move toward me, both their hands empty. “Nothing,” they both say one after the other.

  “Fuck,” I spit.

  A small squeak draws my attention and I crouch down to see a woman holding herself tightly in a ball under the table.

  “Kay?” I call, not bothering to look away from the woman, her scared, dark brown eyes watching me.

  “Yes?” she breathes, coming to stand beside me.

  “Down here.” I tilt my head and Kay comes to crouch beside me, a small gasp escaping her before she moves forward, holding her hand in the air in a gesture of peace.

  The woman starts shaking her head the closer she gets and backing away, not hearing any of Kay’s softly spoken words. All she’s doing is causing her to become more and more upset so I lay my hand on Kay’s shoulder.

  “Leave her a minute.”

  She looks up at me, her eyes shining with sadness and understanding as she stands back up, finding Ty and walking straight to him.

  “Get them all down to the station!” I shout, watching as the officers file them out of the building, leaving just me, Ty, Kay, and Luke… and the woman.

  I run my hand over my face and hair, pulling my cell out of my pocket and pressing call on the number that I really didn’t want to have to call.

  “May.” His gruff voice comes across the line and I crouch down so that I can see the woman again.

  “It’s Mackenzie, the woman that you wanted back?”

  “Yeah?” I hear the pitch in his voice and rustling over the line before I continue.

  “She’s here, but she won’t come out, I think you failed to tell me what this woman has to do with Fernando.”

  A long breath comes over the line before he says, “He took her, he was holding her as ransom.”

  “Kidnap?” I smirk.

  “Fuck! Yes, he kidnapped her right from under our noses, we haven’t seen or heard from her for five years.”

  My brows shoot high on my head and I start to think there’s a lot more to this story. I need to know more, there’s nothing here that can be used against Fernando, he planned it this way, he knew we were coming.

  But he failed to plan for the girl that he took.

  “You want her back?” I ask, standing back up and turning around to face Ty.

  “Yeah, is she there? Where are you?”

  I reel off the address, making a plan in my mind as I end the call and sit and wait in a chair opposite the table she’s sitting under.

  I can get him behind bars for a few years for kidnapping and by the time he’s back out on the streets, I’d have cleaned up his whole business and put away all of his contacts.

  Ten minutes tick by, the only sound in the room are the woman’s whimpers. The more I hear them the angrier I get. If she’s this scared around us then what the hell did they do to her?

  A car pulls up outside and Jonny jumps out, leaving the door open and running into the building.

  “Where is she?” He’s frantic and for a second I wonder why he’s like this and then I realize there’s only one reason you get like this over a woman. Now it all makes sense, someone like him doesn’t set this up just for anyone.

  I point under the table and he crouches down, cursing when he sees her.

  “Gianna?” His voice softens as he nears her, almost like he’s talking to a scared animal. “It’s me, Jonny.”

  I look around as we all watch him with bated breath.

  “Jonny?” she whispers.

  “Yeah, baby, it’s me.” His voice sounds choked and as soon as she’s close enough for him to grab her, he hauls her against him, holding her tight to his body. “I’m so so sorry,” he murmurs in her ear.

  Her sobs become louder and I look away, knowing that this is a private moment. I tilt my head to Ty and then the door, silently telling him to wait outside for me before I clear my throat.

  Jonny’s eyes meet mine and I tell him, “We need to talk.”

  “Yeah.” He nods, pulling back from Gianna. She whimpers when he tries to move so he wraps his arms back around her, standing up before sit
ting in a booth.

  I follow him, sitting opposite them and running my hands over my face.

  “We got nothing on him here,” I tell him, clenching my jaw. “Apart from her.”

  His eyes harden and his jaw ticks as he realizes what I’m saying without having to spell it out.

  “She needs to make a statement, she’s the only thing that will put them away.”

  He looks down at her, their eyes locked as they have some kind of silent conversation.

  He nods at her and cups the side of her face as she starts talking, not able to meet my eyes.

  “It was my thirteenth birthday when he took me,” she whispers, lifting her hand to her face and wiping away the tears that stream from her eyes.

  “You’re eighteen?” I ask, my brows shooting up on my head.

  “In two months.”

  Shit, she’s a minor. “I’ll need you to come down to the station.”

  “I’ll bring her straight there,” Jonny answers.

  I nod silently as I get up out of the booth and walk away, knowing that I just got an extra few years onto Fernando’s sentence.

  I pace the small room, waiting for Charlie to turn up. I’ve been on edge for the last week, knowing that Yvonne would be calling him and asking him to come all the way here for a session. I doubted whether he would come, thinking that it’d be too far just to come for a couple of hours, but when she came to tell me yesterday that he’ll be here today, my nerves spiked and the need for pills got worse.

  I barely got any sleep last night, the urge to run taking over me and making me want to jump out of the window and escape the invisible walls that surround the center.

  Maybe Yvonne is right and he is my weakness because my reaction to seeing him again isn’t normal, I shouldn’t be this on edge.

  “Sit down,” Yvonne says softly, smiling at me as I take a seat and stand up again, not being able to keep still.

  He’ll be here any minute now and I’m both nervous and excited to see him again. What will his reaction to me be? Will he still look at me the same?

  A knock on the door has me squealing and bringing my hands to my mouth, biting the nails that have managed to grow in the six weeks I’ve been here.