Double Shot to the Heart (Brewed Moon Book 2)

by Critch, J. Margot

  “No,” she shook her head. “I should get up now or my sleep schedule will be completely messed up.

  “Alright, just let me know if you need anything.” He picked up his gun and holster from the bedside table, and walked into the closet and came out holding a stack of fresh clothes. “You can change in here; I’ll just go into my office.”

  “Do you mind if I use your shower?” she asked him.

  “Sure,” he pointed at the attached ensuite bathroom. “Go ahead. There are towels in the cabinet next to the tub. I need to check in with the team, anyway.”

  Juliana lifted the bag she’d dropped on the floor earlier that morning and went to the bathroom. She closed the door behind her, and looked around the ensuite. Her eyes widened when she took in a luxurious bathroom. A large glass shower stall, with two shower heads took up a lot of the room, and the tub that sat in one corner, was in fact, a large jetted Jacuzzi tub that she needed to try out some time soon. She turned on the shower, and let it run for a while, letting the water heat up, and steam filled the room.

  Juliana stood in front of the mirror above the sink and noticed that her eyes were bloodshot with dark circles underneath. The stress had dulled her skin and she looked like she needed another four full days of sleep. She studied her face a little, and noticed that the medicine cabinet was slightly ajar. Even though she knew she shouldn’t, she took a quick peek. It contained the regular items, ones she would expect from a man his age: razors, shaving gel, cologne, toothpaste, dental floss, multivitamins, condoms. All normal, she nodded in approval, no weird ointments or prescriptions. She closed it again and pulled a fluffy, white towel from the cabinet and undressed, before stepping under the hot spray.

  Once they’d heard from Mitch, Peter, Steve and Joe wasted no time getting over to his place. He was happy to see that they had brought large coffees for him and Juliana. He took one for himself, and left the other on the kitchen counter for her, as he led them back to his office.

  They walked inside the office, where Mitch kept all of his personal files related to gang and organized crime networks in the city. With only a wall between them, he could hear the spray as it hit the glass walls of his shower stall, and he tried not to react as the sound of the water changed, and he imagined her stepping underneath the spray. He found it impossible not to picture her toned and firm body, her smooth skin as the water trailed down her body in rivulets.

  Mitch focussed on getting himself under control, to concentrate on whatever it was that Peter was saying. “Sorry, what did you say?” he asked him, realizing that he hadn’t heard a word his brother had said, while trying not to picture Juliana in his shower.

  Peter scrutinized him. “Did you manage to get any sleep?” Peter asked Mitch. “Yesterday was pretty crazy for you guys. Maybe we should leave for you to get some rest.”

  “I’m fine,” he maintained. “We both managed to get a few hours. Just woke up, actually.” He left out that sleeping with his arms around Juliana had been the best rest he’d gotten in a long time. “What did you guys find out?”

  “As far as we could tell, it seems like Alexei was telling the truth about Petrova’s dealings and networks,” Joe offered, taking a seat on the upright futon next to Steve. “We’re working on picking him up, but you know as well as we do, the guy’s a ghost. There’s a warrant out for his arrest, but nobody will give up his location.”

  “What about the information that Ygenev gave us?” Mitch hated that he’d spent so much time away from the investigation, while he stayed with Juliana. But he wasn’t going to leave her on her own if he could help it. “Have you combed over it for any indication of where he is?”

  “It looks solid,” Joe told him. “But it’ll take a while to verify everything. We’ve already determined that Petrova isn’t at any of the place Ygenev said he might be hiding. If he was telling the truth about everything. Sorry, but I don’t exactly trust the guy who will roll on his boss so easily. Still, we should be able to make him testify if we ever bring Petrova to trial.”

  “We need to turn over every rock, and pick up any known associates of his. We’ll get him eventually. What about the shooting at the safe house?”

  “Still nothing. There was a white sedan parked down the street, that no one in the neighbourhood seems to own. But it’s unregistered, and clean of fingerprints. The techs are currently checking some hair fibers for DNA, but even if they find a match, it won’t mean a lot, given how easy it is to transfer hair,” Steve said, before he paused and looked at Peter and Joe before continuing “But here’s the thing. You aren’t going to like this. Both cases, the shootings at Brewed Moon and the safe house got reassigned. We’re not investigating them anymore.”

  Mitch did a double take. “What do you mean?”

  “Captain Lewis pulled us. He said that it’s clear we’re all too close to the situation, after you being part of the shooting, and Peter being engaged to our witness’s best friend. He doesn’t want us investigating an attack on our partner.”

  “Fuck,” Mitch muttered. “Who caught it, then?”

  Steve exhaled. “Mike Roberts and Don Smith.”

  Mitch rolled his eyes, knowing the reputations of the men. Both just work Monday to Friday, nine-to-five, biding their time to collect their pensions. If tradition upheld, Mitch knew that neither of the cases would be solved. “That doesn’t mean we can’t still solve it for them. Let’s keep working it. Under the table.”

  “I’m all for this,” Joe started. “But while we’re figuring out what’s going on here, what do we do with our actual jobs? What about Captain Lewis? He’s already given us new cases.”

  “We’re going to have to get creative,” Mitch responded simply. But he looked at his team. He didn’t want to risk their careers by ignoring their assigned cases. “Listen, if you guys don’t want to be involved in this, that’s fine. I can run this on my own.”

  “Don’t be an asshole, man,” Peter admonished him. “We’re in this together. We just need to work harder to keep our own solve rate up, while we’re figure out who’s behind the shootings, and bring in Petrova.”

  Mitch was grateful for his team. He’d assembled a fine group of men – smart, loyal, brave, tough, all of them. “Thanks guys, because I know that Petrova is tied to both of these things. This is our chance to get him. Okay then, back to the car. You said it was completely wiped down for fingerprints?” Mitch asked. “That’s kind of suspicious, isn’t it? To be that meticulous and careful.”

  “Yeah,” Steve told him. “Even the places people don’t often think about, where we normally catch people, like on the rear-view mirror. We thought it was suspicious, too.”

  “Where did you sleep?” Peter asked, out of nowhere, turning to Mitch.

  “What?”

  He pointed to the upright futon. “This is your second bed,” he commented. “And it doesn’t look like it was slept on.” He shrugged. “Where did you and Juliana sleep?”

  Joe and Steve’s raised eyebrows greeted him from their places sitting on the aforementioned futon.

  “What does it matter? Can we focus on work for a second here, guys?” Mitch asked. “I don’t know if you remember that me and Juliana could have been killed last night.”

  Peter smirked, and Mitch knew that his younger brother saw right through his non-answer.

  “Mitch,” he heard her voice from the hallway, and a quiet knock on the slightly ajar door. He opened the door, but used his body as best he could to shield her from the graphic images, mugshots, and crime scene photos that he’d tacked up over each of the walls. It seemed his intervention was too late. She looked around at the assembled evidence and frowned. “What is all this?”

  She was wearing a long sweater and a pair of leggings, and her dark, wet hair cascaded down her back. And it was confirmed that she was just as sexy in her casual clothes as she was at work, and when she dressed for their Leather & Lace dates. He hadn’t wanted her to see his office, she had already seen so muc
h violence, he wanted to protect her from any more. “Juliana,” he placed a hand on her arm and nudged her into the hallway, closing the door after him. “The guys brought some coffee. There’s a cup in the kitchen for you. I’ll be right out, okay?”

  She watched him curiously, but did as he asked. When he turned back to his office, his brother and teammates were watching him with similar smirks.

  “What?” he asked, frowning at his team.

  “Nothing,” Peter shrugged.

  “We need to get Petrova off the streets,” Mitch muttered, trying to move on from their silent accusations. He looked at the crime scene photos. “The violence is escalating. We’ve got ten dead Irish gangsters.”

  “I know,” Steve concurred. “The bodies are really piling up.”

  “The way he’s going after the Irish, it’s like he’s trying to clean house so he can consolidate power.” Mitch pinched the bridge of his nose. “But before Peter killed Dylan O’Connell, he and Petrova were building a relationship to work together. Why is he taking them out now?”

  “Because he can?” Peter suggested. “He doesn’t have to work with, or cooperate with anyone if he’s got free reign over the city to do what he wants.”

  “Leaving all existing drug trafficking networks for himself and no one to split the take with,” Steve offered.

  “Petrova’s new in town. We don’t really know him that well yet. It was almost easier dealing with the O’Connells; at least then we knew who the enemy was.” Mitch felt Peter bristle beside him and he understood. The O’Connell brothers had kidnapped Erica, and threatened to sell her to human trafficking ring. Their police raid had resulted in the death of one brother, and the incarceration of the other. “Shit, I’m sorry, man.”

  “No, you aren’t wrong. The Irish dealt in drugs, but Petrova, with his human trafficking rings, not to mention the dangerous opiates he’s put on the street, he is an entirely different kind of monster.”

  The noise of each of their cell phones rang throughout the room. “What the fuck is this?” Mitch asked picking up his phone from his desktop. He looked at the screen and saw a message from a colleague inside the city’s prison, who had messaged each of them.

  Mitch read the messaged, finishing when his team did as well. They all looked at each other, the room now silent. “We’d better get out there, I guess,” Mitch said. “Joe, can you stay with Jules? I don’t think she should be left alone right now.”

  “Of course.”

  They filed out of the room, and Mitch saw Juliana in the living room. “I’ve got to go,” he told her, walking past her, picking up his jacket that he’d earlier slung over a chair. “Joe’s going to stay with you. You’ll be safe here.”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked him, following him through the apartment. “Is everything okay?”

  He stopped when he got to the door. “No,” he said. “Alexei Ygenev, the man we interrogated yesterday, was just found dead in his holding cell.”

  Chapter 13

  Mitch drove twice the speed limit through town, running red lights, in order to get to the prison as quickly as possible. He pulled into the parking lot of the prison, flashed his badge and ID to the guard and was granted access.

  When they arrived at his cell, they saw the Russian man splayed on the floor, lying in a puddle of blood, which had seeped from several cuts in his side. He’d been stabbed in a violent attack.

  “And his cell was locked all night?” Mitch asked the prison guard.

  “Yup. It was locked for lights out. I did a walk-through at around 3am and saw him sleeping. And when we did roll call this morning, we found him dead. His cell was still locked.”

  Meaning that whoever did it, had had a key to the cell. Mitch looked around. “That camera there,” he said, pointing to the unit mounted to the ceiling. “Is it working?”

  “Should be,” the guard replied unhelpfully.

  “We want the tape.”

  “Why are you guys working so hard on this?” the guard questioned, indifferent. “You know the things that he’s done. I say good riddance. This loss,” he sneered at the body, “isn’t a big one.”

  “Well, why don’t you let us worry about that?” Mitch looked at the bloody footprints that scattered around the body. The medical techs and guards had made a mess of the crime scene, which meant they probably weren’t going to find anything useful in there. He turned to Steve. “Get that tape, okay?”

  Steve nodded and went off with the guard. Mitch and Peter looked at the scene before them, eyes critical and minds sharp. “We still have his statement, but there goes our testimony against Petrova.”

  A few minutes later, Steve returned to the fray. “You’re not gonna believe this, Mitch.”

  “Do you have good news for me?”

  “I want to say that I do, but you know how that goes,” Steve responded. “There’s a very helpful glitch in the recording,” he added, rolling his eyes.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean there’s a good thirty minutes where there’s no video.”

  “And let me guess. It’s the thirty minutes surrounding the hit, right?”

  “You’re a smart guy,” Steve muttered.

  “Son of a bitch,” Peter muttered.

  Mitch looked around and made sure there was no one around but the three of them. “That’s awfully convenient,” he said, his voice lowered.

  “You’re telling me.”

  “So, are you thinking it’s an inside job?” Steve asked

  Mitch looked around, and saw several guards standing further up the hallway, watching them. “It sounds like it. Normally, I find it hard to feel bad for a piece of shit like Alexei Ygenev,” he shook his head. “But there is definitely something weird going on here.”

  Chapter 14

  Juliana flipped through the channels on the television one more time. She found nothing but mindless daytime talk shows. When she realized that her only options were a cheesy talk show or a cheesy judge, she turned on a news program. It only took her a second to realize that, on the screen, she was looking at the Brewed Moon storefront. “…Where the body was found,” the reporter said over the images. Juliana saw herself on the television, Mitch escorting her to his truck.

  Joe snapped into action. “You probably don’t need to see this,” he said, jumping in front of the television, turning it off.

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “You’re probably right.”

  Once again, the room was silent. She looked around Mitch’s living room. When they’d arrived early that morning, she hadn’t had a chance to really look around. His space was dark woods, sleek, clean lines, masculine, and comfortable. But what she noticed was the lack of any photos, knick-knacks or clutter. Mr. Serious, Mitch Swanson, was not a fan of mess, apparently

  She drummed her fingers on her thigh, as Joe flipped through a men’s fitness magazine, that he’d found on top of the neat stack. She’d known Joe for a few months, but she virtually knew nothing about the man, except that he was obviously more comfortable in the silence than she was. The growl of her stomach tore through the room. She’d only had coffee since waking up a couple of hours ago, and hadn’t even realized that she was hungry. But she was suddenly ravenous, and she headed for the kitchen, hoping to find something in his fridge. Pulling open the door and she wasn’t exactly surprised to find an array of fresh fruits and vegetables, and not one morsel of junk to be found. It seemed that Mitch’s fine body was not an accident. Obviously, he was a man who took care of himself.

  She craved comfort food, but guessed she wouldn’t find cookies in the pantry, or brownie batter ice cream in the freezer, so she prepared a grapefruit and plucked some strawberries from the fridge and closed the door. Walking back to the living room she extended the selection to Joe. “Want some?”

  “No thanks.”

  “Joe,” she said, flopping down on the couch across from him. “I don’t know you that well.”

  He said nothing.

 
“Tell me about yourself.”

  He ran a large hand over his shaved head. “I’m a cop,” he shrugged. “I used to be a marine.”

  “You’re American?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I’m from Atlanta.”

  “I had no idea. How long were you in the military?”

  “That’s classified,” he told her.

  “Okay then, how long have a you been in Newfoundland?”

  He hesitated, and looked at her.

  “Classified?”

  “Yes,” he said with a bright, white smile

  “You’re an enigma, Joe,” she said.

  He shrugged again, and went back to his reading.

  She wanted to keep asking him questions, even though she knew she wouldn’t get any answers, but Mitch walked in through the door, carrying a pizza box from her favourite place. Laying her eyes on the box was enough to make her mouth water. The fruit hadn’t filled her up.

  “Hey,” he said to her, and she felt his eyes linger on her for a beat, as if he hadn’t even realized that Joe was there. He turned to his teammate. “Joe, you’re relieved. Thanks for staying.”

  “No problem, boss.” Joe stood and they spoke quietly at the door. Mitch was probably filling the bigger man in on what he’d missed because he was babysitting her, no doubt. But before Joe ducked outside, he smiled and waved a goodbye at Juliana.

  Juliana looked up at Mitch as he walked into the living room. “So, what’s this, the changing of the guard?”

  He laughed and walked into the kitchen, and despite herself, Juliana followed him. She wouldn’t have admitted it, but she’d missed him while he was gone. At the very least he was someone who would actually talk to.

  He looked at the mostly-full coffee pot, and put the pizza on the counter. “You made coffee.”

  “Yeah, I hope you don’t mind. The cup that the guys brought earlier didn’t quite cut it. So, I searched through your cupboards until I found some. If you want to call it coffee, that is,” she rolled her eyes, playfully.