Justice Served

by Radclyffe

  “I got hit. I remember that now.” Rebecca brought a hand to her chest and pressed lightly, then winced. “Couple of places, it feels like.”

  “Yes.” Catherine closed her eyes against the images that came unbidden. Of Rebecca lying on the warehouse floor, a river of blood pouring from her chest. Rebecca lying pale and motionless in the intensive care unit. Closed her mind to the nightmare of losing her…the empty bed, the silent house, the barren life. She attempted a smile. “Ali says you’ll be out of here in a few days.”

  “Good.”

  Rebecca closed her eyes for so long that Catherine thought she was asleep. However, when she tried to withdraw her hand, Rebecca’s grip on her fingers tightened.

  With her eyes still closed, Rebecca said, “I’d quit if I could, so that you would never have to go through this again. But I can’t.”

  “I know.” Catherine leaned down, kissed Rebecca’s lips. “It’s enough that you would if you could.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Tuesday

  “I killed a man last night.”

  Sloan said the words so quietly that it took a few seconds for them to register. When Michael understood the significance of what her lover had just said, she tightened her hold on the woman in her arms. Sloan lay with her head on Michael’s shoulder, one arm loosely around her waist. Michael rested her cheek against the top of Sloan’s head and slowly caressed her back.

  “Is that what the detectives were talking to you about for so long at the hospital?”

  “Yeah, they were taking my statement.” Sloan spoke with her eyes closed, savoring the warmth and scent of Michael’s skin. “Took my weapon too. Until the investigation is completed.”

  “Are you in trouble?”

  “I don’t think so. I shot the guy that shot Rebecca. No one is going to look too hard at the circumstances.”

  Michael searched beneath the cool, even tone for what Sloan might not be saying. “This man…is he the one?”

  Sloan was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t know. He could be.” She shrugged. “I think there’s a fair chance we’ll never know.”

  “And if we don’t? Can you live with that? Can you let it go?”

  “Yes.” Sloan tilted her head back and opened her eyes. She smiled softly at Michael. “The only thing that matters to me is that you’re all right and that we’re together.”

  Michael smiled and kissed Sloan softly. When she drew away, her expression became serious. “Have you ever shot anyone before?”

  “No.”

  “Are you all right with it?”

  “He was going to kill Rebecca. Then he was going to come after the rest of us.” Sloan’s eyes never wavered; her voice remained steady and calm. “I didn’t enjoy it, but I’d do it again. If it was the guy that hurt you, I’m glad. Either way, I’m not sorry he’s dead.”

  Michael nodded. “I think I’d rather you do your investigating with the computer from now on.”

  Sloan grinned. “I think I agree with you.”

  *

  “Hey,” Watts said. “I thought you’d be long gone by now.”

  Carla Reiser smiled up from her desk. “Fat chance. I’ve got about seven hundred more forms to fill out.”

  “That all?” Watts ambled in and sagged into one corner of the sofa. “The feds gone?”

  “From your mouth to God’s ears,” Carla said fervently.

  Watts chuckled. “I guess you liked spending the night with Clark about as much as I would have.”

  “Officious, condescending men are not my favorite types.”

  “If I was half as slick as most of the women I work with, I’d say something smart to that.” Watts shrugged. “I can’t think of anything.”

  Carla smiled. “I don’t require that you be real smooth.”

  “Good thing.” Watts felt around in his jacket pockets for his cigarettes, then gave up. “How did it go?”

  “Like clockwork. One thing I’ll say for the federal boys, they’ve got plenty of manpower and neat toys. Once Sloan gave us the names, we had audio and video surveillance up and running on the suspects here and at their homes within hours.” Carla stood and walked to the counter where a full pot of coffee steamed. As she poured a cup, she said, “As soon as we got the green light from Lieutenant Frye, we took everyone at once. Only one of the suspects was on shift here last night, and we just walked him out to a car and put him in it. No muss, no fuss. Clark had secondary teams who picked up the other guys at home.”

  “Is Clark doing the interrogations?”

  “That’s my understanding.” Carla lifted the pot and an inquiring eyebrow in his direction. At his nod, she filled another cup and handed it to him as she sat beside him on the sofa. “Clark made it crystal clear that the smuggling operation was his jurisdiction and we weren’t getting any piece of the arrests.”

  “Any way you look at it, though,” Watts said as he sipped gratefully at the coffee, “the organized crime organization in this city just took a big hit. Personally, I don’t think Clark is going to get anyone to flip on Zamora, but the feds will bag a nice number of midlevel guys. Enough to make the papers.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Carla said. “As long as my docks are clean again, I don’t care who gets the glory.”

  Watts nodded appreciatively. “I’m with you.”

  “Yes, I noticed. It’s kind of nice.”

  Watts blushed and tried desperately to think of a comeback. He still couldn’t.

  *

  Sandy curled on one side beneath the covers and watched Mitchell pace, a cell phone to her ear.

  “Look, all I want to know is what’s going to happen to them.” Mitchell blew out a frustrated breath. “Okay, fine. Your best guess, then.” She paced a few more steps. “Thanks. Yeah. I’ll check again later.” She flipped the phone closed, tossed it on a chair, and stripped. Naked, she slid into bed beside Sandy.

  “Roll over on your stomach,” Sandy said.

  “Huh?”

  “You’re totally wired, Dell. Roll over.”

  Mitchell flipped onto her stomach and cradled her head in her folded arms. A second later, Sandy settled astride her butt. Her heart and a few other places lurched at the sensation of heat and wet against her skin. She groaned softly.

  Sandy pressed the heels of both hands into the center of Mitchell’s back and kneaded the tight muscles. “So what did they say?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Mitchell mumbled, her eyes closed.

  “Don’t be a jerk. What’s going to happen to them?” Sandy shifted lower on Mitchell’s rear to get her thumbs into the small dip at the base of Mitchell’s spine. She dug them in, circled and stroked, and Mitchell moaned again.

  “INS has them…Immigration and Naturalization Services.” Mitchell lifted her hips and felt Sandy push back, the start of a slow, steady thrust-and-press that was going to make her awfully hot, awfully fast.

  “So they’ll do what? Send them back to wherever they came from?” Sandy turned her hand around and slid her fingers lightly down the cleft between Mitchell’s legs, barely touching her. A feather-light caress.

  “Jesus.” Mitchell caught her breath, struggled to focus. “I don’t know. They’re here illegally, but they’re victims too.”

  “Even Irina?” Sandy asked, her tone casual. She stilled her movements but kept her fingers resting against Mitchell’s sex.

  “Yeah, I think so. I can’t see her having set up any part of that operation.” Mitchell rolled her hips and turned onto her back, unseating Sandy in the same motion. She caught Sandy as she started to topple onto the mattress and pulled her down on top of her body.

  “What’d you do that for?”

  “I gotta see your face if we’re gonna talk about this stuff.” Mitchell opened her thighs and settled Sandy’s hips between them. She kept an arm curved around Sandy’s small waist. “And you know what you were doing was gonna make me crazy.”

  “Maybe,” Sandy said with a small smile
. “But it relaxes you too. And then you don’t notice when you’re talking about stuff you don’t want to talk about.”

  Mitchell raised her head and caught Sandy’s mouth in a hungry kiss that definitely made her forget what she’d been talking about. When she dropped her head back to the pillow, her body was buzzing. “Pretty smart.”

  “Is she under your skin?” Sandy asked quietly.

  “Not the way you think.” Mitchell looked directly into Sandy’s eyes. “I don’t want her. I don’t love her. But I feel…sorta responsible for what’s happening to her.”

  Sandy rolled her eyes. “Jeez, rookie. You didn’t put her on that ship or force her to shoot those videos or make her train those girls, or whatever she did with them.”

  “I know. But…I connected with her. And I used her.”

  “Most cops wouldn’t care about that.”

  “Rebecca would.”

  “Yeah yeah.” Sandy stretched out full-length on Mitchell’s body and nuzzled her neck. “And so do you.” She caressed Mitchell’s chest, her abdomen, the tops of her thighs with slow, soothing strokes. “So you’re going to keep asking around, and I suppose you’re probably gonna go see her.”

  “I don’t know. I’m sure the feds will keep them here until they find out everything they can about the smuggling operation. The girls probably know something about the local organized crime operation too.” Mitchell caught Sandy’s hand and pressed it between her thighs, keeping her fingers over Sandy’s. “There’s probably nothing I can do to help them.”

  Sandy eased a finger on either side of Mitchell’s firm clitoris. “But you’re going to try.”

  “Yeah,” Mitchell said, a hitch in her voice. She squeezed Sandy’s fingers hard around her. “Probably.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?” Mitchell’s belly was on fire.

  “I know you gotta.” Sandy slicked her tongue over Mitchell’s lips, darted inside her mouth, and teased at her with quick flicks. She matched the movements with her fingertips between Mitchell’s legs. She watched Mitchell’s eyes glaze over and her eyelids flutter nearly closed. “And I know you’re mine.”

  Then she proved it.

  *

  Rebecca turned her head toward the door as a shaft of bright light cut across the room. “I thought you were going to go home and get some sleep.”

  “I was. I did.” Catherine crossed to the bed, leaned down, and kissed Rebecca. “I couldn’t sleep.” She stroked Rebecca’s cheek with the back of her fingers. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better.” Carefully, Rebecca inched toward the opposite side of the bed and patted the space beside her with the hand that did not have the intravenous line attached. “Want to stretch out?”

  Catherine kicked off her shoes, then unbuttoned her suit jacket and draped it over a nearby chair. She’d showered and changed when she’d gotten home. At the moment, a few wrinkles were the least of her worries. Taking care not to jostle the bed, knowing that Rebecca’s headache must still be brutal, she eased down beside her lover. She grasped Rebecca’s hand, entwined their fingers, and leaned her cheek lightly against Rebecca’s shoulder. “I always have a hard time falling asleep when you’re not beside me.”

  Rebecca brushed her lips over Catherine’s hair. “I know. I’ll try to get home earlier from now on.”

  “Now there’s something to look forward to.” Catherine closed her eyes and sighed. “Is this investigation over?”

  “Our part of it. For now,” Rebecca answered quietly. “We’ve exposed the human smuggling operation, crippled the Internet pornography ring, and freed some of the victims. We’ve taken a respectable chunk out of organized crime, but it takes more than this to break its back. We’ll gain ourselves a few well-positioned informants within Zamora’s organization, and that will help us in the future.”

  “Just one chapter in the book,” Catherine murmured.

  “Yeah,” Rebecca agreed. “That’s what police work is all about. The story never really ends.”

  Rebecca closed her eyes, and together, they slept.

  About the Author

  Radclyffe is a retired surgeon and full-time award-winning author-publisher with over thirty lesbian and anthologies in print. Seven of her works have been Lambda Literary finalists, including the Lambda Literary winners Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments edited with Stacia Seaman; In Deep Waters 2; Distant Shores, Silent Thunder. She is the editor of Best Lesbian Romance 2009 and 2010 (Cleis Press), Erotic Interludes 2 through 5 and Romantic Interludes 1 and 2 with Stacia Seaman (BSB), and has selections in multiple anthologies including Best Lesbian Erotica 2006-2010; After Midnight; Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists; First-Timers; Ultimate Undies: Erotic Stories About Lingerie and Underwear; Hide and Seek; A is for Amour; H is for Hardcore; L is for Leather; Rubber Sex, Tasting Him, and Cowboy Erotica. She is the recipient of the 2003 and 2004 Alice B. Readers’ awards for her body of work and is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ publishing companies.

  Her latest release is an all-Radclyffe erotica anthology, Radical Encounters (Feb 2009) and the romantic intrigue novel Justice for All (April 2009), and the romance Secrets in the Stone (July 2009). Her forthcoming works include The Midnight Hunt (writing as L.L. Raand, March 2010) and the first in the First Responder Series, Trauma Alert (July 2010).

  Books Available From Bold Strokes Books

  Power Play by Julie Cannon. Businesswomen Tate Monroe and Victoria Sosa are at odds in the boardroom, but not in the bedroom. (978-1-60282-125-5)

  The Remarkable Journey of Miss Tranby Quirke by Elizabeth Ridley. When love enters Tranby’s life in the form of a beautiful nineteen-year-old student, Lysette McDonald, she embarks on the most remarkable journey of all. (978-1-60282-126-2)

  Returning Tides by Radclyffe. Insurance investigator Ashley Walker faces more than a dangerous opponent when she returns to the town, and the woman, she left behind. (978-1-60282-123-1)

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  Romantic Interludes 2: Secrets edited by Radclyffe and Stacia Seaman. An anthology of sensual lesbian love stories: passion, surprises, and secret desires. (978-1-60282-116-3)

  Femme Noir by Clara Nipper. Nora Delaney meets her match in Max Abbott, a sex-crazed dame who may or may not have the information Nora needs to solve a murder—but can she contain her lust for Max long enough to find out? (978-1-60282-117-0)

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  Looking Glass Lives by Felice Picano. Cousins Roger and Alistair become lifelong friends and discover their sexuality amidst the backdrop of twentieth-century gay culture. (978-1-60282-089-0)

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  It Should Be a Crime by Carsen Taite. Two women fulfill their mutual desire with a night of passion, neither expecting more until law professor Morgan Bradley and student Parker Casey meet again…in the classroom. (978-1-60282-086-9)

  Rough Trade edited by Todd Gregory. Top male erotica writers pen their own hot, sexy versions of the term “rough trade,” producing some of the hottest, nastiest, and most dangerous fiction ever published. (978-1-60282-092-0)

  The High Priest and the Idol by Jane Fletcher. Jemeryl and Tevi’s relationship is put to the test when the Guardian sends Jemeryl on a mission that puts her not only in harm’s way, but back into the sights of a previous lover. (978-1-60282-085-2)

  Point of Ignition by Erin Dutton. Amid a blaze that threatens to consume them both, firefighter Kate Chambers and property owner Alexi Clark redefine love and trust. (978-1-60282-084-5)

  Secrets in the Stone by Radclyffe. Reclusive sculptor Rooke Tyler suddenly finds herself the object of two very different women’s affections, and choosing between them will change her life forever. (978-1-60282-083-8)