Brody (Hope City Book 3)

by Kris Michaels

  Brody

  A Hope City Novel

  Kris Michaels

  Copyright © 2020 by Kris Michaels

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  25. Sneak Peak of Kyle!

  By: Maryann Jordan

  Also by Kris Michaels

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Detective Sergeant Brody King stared down a Hope City back alley at the dented steel exterior door that wore the scars of collisions it had survived. He and two of his men were assigned to cover this entryway. He listened intently to police comms via an earwig. Thanks to an undercover agent wearing a wire, the conversation inside the building was being broadcast to his team. Twenty-two men and women, permanently assigned to the Hope City's Joint Drug Enforcement Team, or JDET, waited in position for the undercover DEA agent to give the signal. At the undercover agent's predetermined code words, they would storm the building and take down the participants, including the undercover officer. His arrest would keep the man's identity from the rest of the scum currently exchanging cash for a shipment of drugs. His team was highly trained, briefed with the latest available intel, and ready to take down a major conduit of cocaine into the city.

  "Standby, we may have new players inbound." Through the comms, DEA Agent Amber Swanson's voice slapped his ears in a hard, professional clip; gone was the soft, quiet voice he remembered.

  A lot of shit has changed in the last ten years. The ten years since she walked away... and left him down on one knee holding a diamond engagement ring in his hand. Brody's muscles tightened with anger, confusion, and embarrassment—emotions he’d thought he’d put behind him. He drew a steadying breath. His past had nothing to do with this moment, and his focus needed to be on his team, this raid, and the takedown of a major player in Hope City's drug scene.

  Brody held still while listening to the drug deal going down inside. Colt Rayburn nudged him and motioned down the alleyway. A blacked-out SUV drove into the tight alley. As one man, he, Colt, and Derek Watson, slid back behind a dumpster. The smell coming from the industrial sized garbage bin could choke a maggot, but it was the only place they could still see the doorway and be shielded from the SUV's direct line of vision.

  "Juliet Three. Black SUV. Unknown occupants pulling up to the back door." He whispered the license plate number and shut up when the doors opened. Wonderful. The bastards were carrying Uzis.

  He keyed his mic and barely breathed, "Four. Armed. Heavy."

  "Are you in position to take them?"

  He clicked the mic twice. It was their team's way to confirm without talking. Once for no, twice for yes. They'd be able to flank the bastards.

  "The deal is almost done. On my count, move in." His captain's voice cracked over the comms. He motioned to Derek to go to the front of the vehicle. Colt nodded to the rear. He agreed with a slight movement of his head.

  When they were ready, he keyed the mic three times, giving his captain the signal they were ready. It was a dance the team had done too many times to count.

  "On one." Captain Terrell counted down. "Three… two… one!"

  Colt and Derek sprinted at the same time he did, except he didn't round the vehicle. He sprinted to the hood, used the bumper as a step and launched onto it. The sound of his weight landing on the hood swung all four men to his position. Derek and Colt yelled, "Police!"

  "Drop your weapons!" His Desert Eagle Mark XIX leveled on the man closest to him. Looking down the barrel of the massive handgun would clench anyone's ass, and it worked almost every time. Their free hands went up, and all four leaned down and placed their weapons by their feet. Derek kicked the guns away as Colt spun the gunmen and zip tied their wrists.

  "Clear!"

  "Get down!"

  "Police!"

  "We got a runner!"

  A door slammed; in the distance, he heard Amber's voice yell, "Halt, DEA!"

  "You got this?" Brody jumped down from the newly dented hood of the SUV.

  "Go!" Derek dropped one of the restrained men to his knees.

  "Runner heading down Marlin Avenue!" Amber yelled into her open mic.

  Brody sprinted through the alley and across the street, running full tilt down an alley the next block over. Marlin Avenue curved, and if the runner didn't duck into a building, he'd be coming around right where Brody would exit the alley.

  Pounding against the asphalt, he saw the man flash by the alley entrance. He sped up and flew around the corner. He launched at the guy's knees and tackled the man as he ran full speed. The cement sidewalk stopped their fall.

  Brody scrambled on top of the bastard and had him cuffed before Amber made it to their location. She glanced at the man and panted into her radio, "We need an ambulance at Marlin and..." She glanced around.

  He keyed his mic. "Marlin and Pier Drive. Perp has abrasions, needs to be cleared by medical before we transport."

  She nodded and dropped her hands to her knees, her service weapon still grasped in one hand. "Damn, he's a fast son of a bitch."

  Brody stood and glanced at the perp. They both were going to be sore, but they'd both okay. He wished he was as resilient as the suspect appeared to be. Guess the cement wasn't very forgiving today. He pointed to the man and for the first time looked at Amber. "You got this?"

  "Yeah. Thanks." She stood up and holstered her weapon. "Look, Brody, we should probably talk."

  Wisps of her long red-gold hair fell from the ponytail she'd cinched it into, and the strands perched against her high cheekbone. Her face was flushed and her eyes, damn those blue-green eyes of hers, threw him right back to the moment he'd last seen her. She was still as beautiful as he remembered, perhaps more so now. The confidence she was rocking looked damn good on her. He shook his head. "Little late for that.”

  She flipped her ponytail to her back and put her hands on her hips. "We're going to need to talk eventually. I'm permanently assigned to this team, and there are things I need to say, that I should've told you––"

  "Let's cut through the shit. You're a member of my team. We work together. Nothing more. I'm your sergeant and in your chain of command. If you can't deal with that because of our past, you can report directly to Lt. Anderson or Captain Terrell." He turned as the ambulance rounded the corner on Marlin with a black and white behind it. He looked back at her. "Your refusal ten years ago said more than enough. I wasn't what you wanted."

  "I was scared! I didn't want my life to pass me by!" she hissed as the ambulance stopped at their position.

  He pointed at the man. "Deal with him. Radio in when you're clear."

  He spun on his heel and headed back down the alley. The road rash and ache in his shoulder from tackling the suspect was nothing compared to the pain her words recal
led. She didn't want her life to pass her by. As if he was going to weigh her down and stop her from living. He'd loved her with every cell of his being. She was the one for him. She always would be.

  He'd almost died when she’d fled from him. Literally. No, he hadn’t been willing to let her go without a fight. When he'd recovered from the shock of her refusal, he’d driven to her sister's house. On the way there, he’d been t-boned by a delivery truck. The accident had put him in a coma for two weeks and then shit got tough. Surgeries and physical therapy distracted him from the rejection that caused more pain than any doctor could inflict. When he came out of the coma, he realized that while he’d gone after her initially, he wasn't going to beg her to love him. As he crossed the street, Colt shouted down the alley, "Brody, Captain wants to see you inside!"

  Colt was obviously in charge of processing the SUV. All the doors stood open, and the forensics team assigned to their department was digging into their kits.

  "Roger that. Derek and the perps?"

  "Perps are in the wagon. Derek's heading down to the precinct with them. He'll sit on them until we get there."

  Making sure their perps weren't “accidentally” released wasn't a joke. His father, the Hope City Police Commissioner, had made huge strides in rooting out the systemic corruption which had riddled the department as few as five years ago, but there were still those who “lost” paperwork for a few hundred dollars.

  He made for the first door and entered the skanky smelling bar. His eyes adjusted to the darkened interior, and he headed toward the sound of voices. He entered the main seating area of the bar in time to hear his captain.

  "What did you say?"

  Oh hell, that couldn't be good. When Captain Terrell's voice got low and growled like that, he was one step away from flaying someone alive.

  "What's up, Cap? You wanted to see me?"

  His boss turned. Oh, hell yeah, he was pissed. The man's face was lobster red, and his jaw was tightly clenched.

  "It seems the DEA is declining to share the bust even though my team effected the apprehension and saved their undercover agent's ass."

  He walked forward, planted his feet shoulder width apart, and crossed his arms, as he glanced at the smug DEA agent who was pointedly ignoring his captain. "That so? Well, hell, if they don't want to share the collar, let's call off our team. Let DEA process the scene."

  He turned his back on the agent and lowered his voice. "We've got the four perps from the alley. They were loaded with Uzis. This was a hit. They will have intel. If the DEA bastard wants to play it that way, let’s take the ancillary busts which have nothing to do with the drug deal. We can push this up the chain. The DEA will be persona non grata for years."

  His captain released a huff of air. "Still stuck with one of the sons of bitches on my team. She'll feed info to her agency."

  "Not if she doesn't have access to it. She can earn her wings and our trust like everyone else on the team."

  "You know her. Do you trust her? She seemed to have her shit together in the van. Tore out of it when the runner darted." The captain turned his head and stared at him.

  He sighed. "I don't know. Haven't seen her for ten years. I have no idea if I can trust her or not. The person I used to know? Yeah, I'd trust her, but..." He wasn't going to sell Amber down the river because of their personal relationship. He wasn't that type of person.

  "But, like you said, you don't know her now."

  He nodded.

  "Follow me." His captain glowered at the DEA Agent. “Degrassi, you've got the scene."

  The DEA agent whipped his head around to gape at them. "What?"

  "Your scene. We're taking the four men we arrested. They aren't a part of this bust."

  "No, they're mine." Degrassi put his hands on his hips.

  "What are you charging them with?" He angled his head back to his boss.

  "Whatever charges you've booked them on." Degrassi's forehead furrowed. The man resembled a Shar Pei dog with all the folds smooshed together.

  Captain looked at him. "Are we charging them?"

  "Nope." Brody rocked back on the heels of his well broken in combat boots. "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

  "Bullshit." Degrassi shook his head. "You're working an angle. I can feel it."

  Captain Terrell lifted his radio and said, "Juliet One to all Juliet teams. DEA has the primary scene. Let's go home."

  All movement around them ceased. "Your police commissioner guaranteed your assistance."

  His captain shrugged, "You guaranteed him we'd be credited with a portion of the bust."

  "That's fiction." Degrassi sneered.

  "Really? That's not what the Commissioner told me when I saw him," Brody sneered right back.

  "Right, the Police Commissioner happened to have the time to talk to a piece of shit sergeant."

  Brody shoved his hands in his pockets so he wouldn't be inclined to deck the son of a bitch and let loose with a fake laugh. "That is so funny! Damn, I'll make sure to tell my dad you think I'm a piece of shit sergeant, and he can't trust the DEA."

  The man looked from the captain to him, confused.

  "Oh, sorry, I was late to the briefing, and we weren't introduced. King. Brody King." He saw the moment the DEA agent put two and two together.

  Amber strolled into the bar, brushing off her black jeans. She stopped short and glanced between the three of them. "Degrassi, what's going on?"

  The man didn't acknowledge her. The DEA agent's stare still focused on him.

  "Degrassi here is saying the DEA will take full credit for the bust," Captain Terrell said, but didn't move.

  "For this collar? Nope. It's fifty-fifty. That's what we were briefed at DEA headquarters, and that's what was relayed to your Police Commissioner." Amber glanced from Terrell to him to Degrassi.

  "Oh, for fuck's sake, were you making a grab here, Degrassi?" Amber raised her phone and waved it at the man. "One call and you're doing support work on the coast of the Bering Sea. You've been warned about this shit before."

  "There's no problem here. We're sharing credit." The man spun on his heel and stalked to the back of the room where three members of the JDET team and two of the DEA's people were certifying a count of money.

  "He'll be arresting polar bears for smoking pot if he keeps this shit up. I'm sorry about him. I'll include his actions in my report to my superiors. It will be the last report from me they'll get until I'm released from this task force, by the way. If I work for you, my loyalty is to you and only you." She slid her phone back into her pocket. "I'd like to debrief our undercover agent with Degrassi, in case he has anything we can work from a Hope City level. Has the cocaine been tested?"

  Captain Terrell held up a small ampule. The light blue color of the tube testified to the content of the packaged white powder. "It's legit according to the street kits. We'll have it tested in the lab." He crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels before he spoke. "We have Jorgenson and Estrada for conspiracy to distribute. First count on the cash was fifty thousand. They are doing a second and third count to validate the first pass. Weapons charges are in line for the muscle inside with Jorgenson and Estrada. We'll be able to roll some of them."

  She nodded and turned to Brody. "Do you have any intel on the four you arrested outside?"

  Brody kept his gaze focused on the count going on at the back of the room. "Not yet."

  "King, you and Swanson head to the precinct. I need you to make sure the team gets their shit done. Go through the reports, and then we'll start with the suspects. Having them sit and wait until our interview specialists go after them won't harm anything. I'm not leaving until that asshole is gone." Terrell nodded toward Degrassi.

  He nodded his understanding while he watched the people counting the money. "Derek is sitting on the four from outside. How many do we have from this mess?"

  "The two primaries, Jorgenson and Estrada. There were four meatheads with iron who were cuffed too."
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  He finally flicked his eyes toward Amber. "Which one is your guy?"

  "One of the meatheads. Estrada's right-hand man. He's been working in the family for almost three years now."

  Brody wanted to question her about the amount of time the guy'd been undercover, but he wasn't about to initiate a conversation. The less he talked with her, the better. He nodded to the side door and headed out. She'd either follow or she wouldn't. Actually, he'd prefer it if she didn't.

  "All in all, the op went well." Amber commented as they drove north heading away from the harbor area.

  He grunted in agreement and was met with an exaggerated sigh from her side of the vehicle.

  "How are your parents?"

  "No." He refused to open that door. His family was everything to him, and when she'd dumped him, she'd dumped them too. His mother was heartbroken, not because Amber had left him, but because of what had happened to him afterward.

  He watched her with his peripheral vision. She turned her head toward him and gawked. "No? Just no?"

  "That's right. Just no." He glanced at the clock. Five more minutes in this truck and he'd be clawing at the windshield to get away from her.

  "What the hell happened to you to make you such an ass, Brody? You were never like this before."

  He pulled over suddenly, and she grasped onto the 'oh-shit handle' on the side of the truck. The gear shifter slammed into Park, and he spun toward her. "You happened. You are the reason I'm like this. My family, my life, my friends, everything I care about is off limits to you. I have to work with you. I don't have to like it." He threw the truck back into gear and forced his way back into the flow of traffic.

  She had the decency to keep her thoughts to herself until they reached the small outbuilding located on the grounds of the Central Precinct. The squat cement block building had a badge-controlled entry and exit. JDET had their own armory holding their tactical equipment and radios, five small holding cells, a bullpen, two conference rooms, and offices for him, the lieutenant, and the captain.