Disorderly Conduct (The Anna Albertini Files Book 1)

by Rebecca Zanetti

  Georgiana launched into motion, diving over the front seat and scrambling, arms and legs flying, for the driver’s seat. She punched the gas, and the truck roared down the drive toward safety.

  Spider started to remove the gun from my side. No doubt about to shoot at the truck.

  Aiden tensed, and Spider stopped. Melvin hovered in place, rain soaking through his thin clothing.

  “What the hell are you doing, Devlin?” Spider bellowed.

  Aiden shook his head. “Not letting you kill a kid and two old ladies. Are you crazy?”

  “It’s too late. Grease killed a cop.” Spider had a strong hold on my arm, and I tried to control my mind enough to think of the right move. My body shook, from cold and fear, and my legs felt frozen. Pauley and the ladies were safe, and they’d call for help as soon as possible. So I had to think.

  Spider coughed. “You’re in this deep, Devlin.” He partially turned toward me, keeping Aiden in sight. “Aiden here is the one who stole Charles Monroe’s car the other day. After choking out your cop buddy.”

  I blinked in the rain. Aiden had choked out Bud? My legs wanted to give out.

  Aiden’s expression didn’t change. “I didn’t kill him, now did I? You moron.”

  Spider’s lips peeled back. “I knew you weren’t a true brother. Look at you. Choosing a woman over your brothers. What really happened with the Diablo Riders?”

  “Choosing my woman. I told you I would,” Aiden countered, his voice a low growl. “I told you to leave her alone and we’d be fine.”

  His woman. He couldn’t mean that. What was going on? None of this was making sense, unless it really was that simple. Aiden was a bad guy who just couldn’t let me get hurt. Had that moment in time, the one he’d talked about, shaped him as much as me? Maybe so. I cleared my throat. “Just let me go. Neither of you want a prosecutor’s death on your hands. That leads directly to the death penalty.”

  “Oh, we’re already there,” Spider snapped. “Or did you forget about Scot Peterson?”

  My stomach cramped. “You killed Scot?”

  “Yeah. The asshole was having second thoughts about the deal, even though his retirement fund sucked, and I think he was planning to talk. So I took care of him.” Spider glared at Aiden. “I also found and burned his trial notebook on you, dickhead, which slowed your case down considerably.”

  Aiden shook his head. “I didn’t ask for your help.”

  The center apartment door burst open, and a man rushed out, shooting an automatic weapon at us. Spider jumped and turned, lifting the gun from my ribs.

  I smashed his hand and punched his face, turning to run. The gun dropped to the ground.

  Aiden grabbed my arm and Melvin’s hair, running full bore for the far side of the garage. Spider ducked out of the way, reaching for his gun and running the opposite way.

  We reached the garage and Aiden threw Melvin against the metal siding. I slid down, my hands shaking. “Anybody hit?”

  “He wasn’t aiming to harm,” Aiden said grimly, crouching near the edge. “Hit the cement. Obviously not sure who to shoot.”

  Yelling voices echoed through the rain.

  “Now they know who to shoot.” I wiped rain off my head.

  “No shit.” Aiden angled around the corner, and bullets pinged up from the cement. “Keep low.” He knocked the back of his head against the siding. Then he took a deep breath, pivoted, and fired several times. A cry of pain rippled through the morning.

  “How many are there?” I asked, gulping as Melvin shivered next to me.

  “Too many.” Aiden looked down at me. “Your only chance is to run for the woods. I’ll keep them busy while you get free.”

  I tried to concentrate, but my mind was fuzzy with fear. Or adrenaline. If I left him, he’d die. I looked frantically around. “There has to be another gun around here.”

  Aiden reached in his boot and drew out a nine-millimeter. “Here. Take this and go.”

  A Lorde’s member slid around the back side of the garage, gun out. I reacted instantly, lifting the gun and squeezing the trigger. The bullets hit him in the shoulder and the leg, and he went down with a harsh cry.

  Melvin shook wildly next to me and buried his face in his hands. “I’m just a chemist. That’s all.”

  Aiden leaned his head back, his body one long line of tension. “You know how to shoot?”

  I breathed out, trying to keep in the moment and not freak out. “I’ve been stalked by a psychopath most of my life. Yeah. I know how to shoot.”

  His grin was short and unexpected. “Should’ve guessed that.” Then he turned and fired rapidly.

  “We’re outnumbered,” I hissed. “Should we run for the woods?”

  “Yes.” Melvin levered up.

  In that moment, I decided to do my job. Kind of. Well, not really. I pointed the gun at Melvin’s forehead. “Where’s the lab, asshole?”

  Melvin blinked rapidly. “Kill me, and you’ll never find it. My people have orders to destroy the entire facility if I don’t show back up.” He tried to cringe away from the gun, but I kept it pressed against his skin. “Go ahead. Kill me and you’ll never find any of it.”

  I blinked at looked at Aiden. “Do you know where his lab is?”

  Aiden shook his head. “No clue.”

  Did I believe him?

  A body came around the back again, and Aiden pivoted, shooting quickly.

  More shots volleyed from the other side.

  “We have to run,” I said, grabbing his arm, keeping my weapon up and ready to shoot.

  Something crashed through the woods.

  “You’ll never make it,” Melvin said, blowing out a snot bubble. “You’ve turned against your club, Devlin. They’re going to kill you. Keep me alive, get us out of here together, and I’ll cut you in on the rest of the drugs. I’ll take you right to my hidden lab, now that the power is back on.”

  A helicopter suddenly careened into place above us, and the sound of sirens pummeled off the mountains. Hope filled me. “Thelma, Georgina, and Pauley got to help.”

  A motorcycle roared to life on the other side of the garage.

  Aiden stood, angling to the side. “There’s a back road. Spider is on the run.”

  Red and blue swirled through the misty rain.

  Melvin bunched his legs to run, and Aiden grabbed him by the neck and threw him face first into the metal wall. Blood spurted in a dark arc. Melvin slumped to the ground, not moving.

  “He’ll be okay,” Aiden said, looking around. “It’s fine. Point your gun down now.”

  “I have to know, Aiden,” I said, letting the rain pummel me at this point. “Why did you do this? Why save me?”

  He scouted the area, his gaze alert. “I promised you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Asked you to trust me. That matters, Angel.”

  His words warmed my chilled body, but what the hell? I mean, just what the hell? Why did he have to be a criminal? There was a good guy in there. “Come in with me. Let me find you a deal. You just saved me, and we can use that.” I was almost pleading, but who cared?

  He flicked his head, and rain sprayed off his thick hair. “It’s too late for that.”

  Guys with guns came out of the forest in several directions, all wearing combat gear and carrying heavy weapons. God. They wouldn’t shoot Aiden, would they? I tried to angle slightly in front of him, and he shoved me to the side, covering me with his body. My strength was no match with his. Not even close. His muscles vibrated down his back and side.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” I warned him. Seeing him get shot would destroy me.

  The oncoming force wore jackets ranging from DEA to ATF to FBI. The local cops came from the front, their sirens so loud I winced. There was a quick skirmish on the other side of the garage, but soon the gunfire abated.

  How had this force been amassed so quickly? Even if the ladies had found a phone right away, there was no way. “What is going on?” I asked.

  One
guy with a buzzcut and scarred jaw, wearing a DEA jacket, headed our way from behind a tree, and I set my gun down. My hand trembled so hard, I was afraid for a second that I’d accidentally squeeze the trigger. He led with his weapon, pointing it to each side as he scouted the area and kept advancing. The agent reached us, looking us over, face to face with Aiden at about the same tall height.

  I tensed. “Don’t hurt him. He saved me.”

  The DEA agent didn’t twitch. He glanced down at the unconscious Melvin on the ground and then focused back up at Aiden.

  Aiden dropped his gun and lifted his hands.

  Thank God. He was giving up peacefully. Just as my breath finally calmed, he pivoted and punched the DEA guy so hard it sounded like a boulder had been split in two.

  “Aiden!” I cried out.

  The agent went down, and Aiden leaped over him, running full bore for the trees. “No,” the agent grunted, rolling onto his stomach and firing toward the forest. His bullets pinged off trees and threw bark in the air. He kept shooting, but Aiden was long gone. I’d never seen anybody move as quickly as Aiden just had.

  Had that just happened?

  Chapter 40

  I paced the conference room at the police station as Nick watched impassively. “I just don’t understand. Any of it.” After spending most of the day being questioned by every federal agency in the world, and then the state agencies, my head hurt, and my bruises pounded. “Aiden saved me. Then he hit that DEA agent.” I stopped moving. “Did you make the phone call?

  Nick eyed the wall screen of areas that had experienced the power outage the other night. “Yep. Called my contacts at the DEA, and Aiden Devlin does not work for them in any capacity. He’s not an undercover agent, and he’s not an informant. Get that idea out of your head right now.”

  He'd moved like he’d been trained, and he’d saved me. Aiden had also been careful not to really hurt any of the agents or any of the Lordes, for that matter. “That’s disappointing, but something still doesn’t feel right about this.” I scrubbed both hands down my battered face, which had to look just fantastic after the day in the rain and then questioning. Maybe I should find some lip-gloss or something. “I heard the agent has a broken jaw?”

  “No. Just cracked.” Nick rolled his neck. “I checked on him when I called about Bud.”

  Bud had been wearing a vest, and all three bullets had impacted it. He had two broken ribs, and the doctors said he’d be okay, thank goodness.

  “The question is, where has Aiden gone now?” I murmured, staring at the board.

  “No. The question is, where is the hidden lab and the first shipment of these drugs?” Nick shook his head. “Forget Devlin for now. We have bigger problems.”

  Yeah, we surely did.

  “Now run me through the entire day again,” he ordered.

  I glanced at my phone. Pauley was safely at home up in Silverville, and the elderly ladies had taken off to spend time in Seattle with friends after being questioned by the cops. I liked that everyone was out of town for now.

  Detective Pierce crossed into the room and typed rapidly on the laptop, changing the screen to show an area out by the Timber City Airport, which was a small community strip for local planes. “I went off what you said about electrical outages, and only a small part of the county had that problem on the day Melvin complained about. I think we’ve found the lab.” He pointed to a large metal building two blocks away from the airport that looked like a standard metal shop. “I’m running the electrical and gas usages now.”

  I stood. “Let’s go check it out.”

  He looked over his shoulder, his eyes greener than normal. “We need a warrant. And then, I’m executing the warrant. You can check the place out after it’s been cleared.”

  Irritation tickled my throat, and I coughed. “We’re going.”

  “No. No lawyers when we take the lab. These guys are creating drugs and are probably well guarded and armed.” He looked at Nick. “I’ll call you in when it’s cleared, and you can study the scene all you want.”

  Nick stood. “Fair enough. I’ll get a warrant.”

  I hustled after him. “I’m assisting on the warrant.” I brushed past cops in the hallway to the still raining dusk outside. Water splashed into my eyes and cooled my burning cheekbone. “Nick?”

  “Haven’t you had enough pain?” He ducked his head against the rain and increased his steps, almost jogging until reaching our offices. “You’ve been attacked, shot at, and now kidnapped.” He unlocked the door and held it open for me.

  I walked into the quiet interior and turned to face him, having to look up. Way up. I shook the water from my hair, spraying us both. “I’m in this, and I’m not going away. It’s my decision.”

  His light brown gaze wandered over my battered face. Standing there in his dark T-shirt and even darker jeans, he looked solid. Kind of pissed. But definitely strong. “You’re right. It is your decision.”

  Triumph filled me. I liked that about him. A lot.

  We quickly drafted a search warrant with the accompanying affidavit from me about the kidnapping and discussion with Melvin about his lab losing electricity. I read it over again. “This is weak. Whitaker’s statement about lost power doesn’t tie to this one building out of the rest of the buildings.” We needed something more.

  Nick leaned over my shoulder to read the screen, his scent of smoky wood filtering around. It was comforting and something more. “I’d rather not make a deal with Melvin, if we can help it. Let’s get to this place without his cooperation.”

  I swallowed and printed it out. “Judge Hallenback,” I sighed. “We kind of suck.”

  Nick took the papers. “We surely do. I’ll drive.”

  I had no problem with that. We finished the paperwork and ran back outside. The clouds had turned even darker and the rain more insistent as dinnertime passed. I dodged into his car and sighed in relief, watching him start the engine and drive. Nick had pushed his shirt sleeves up. The rhythmic sound of the windshield wipers added an intimacy to the warm car.

  He followed Main Street toward the historic section. “Did Pierce ever ask you out?”

  I peered out at the empty sidewalks. “Sheriff Franco in Silverville had a barbecue that we were supposed to attend, but work got in the way.”

  “Cops and lawyers. Never a good combination,” Nick mused.

  I didn’t feel like reminding him that he’d kissed me. Obviously, he knew that. I sure as heck wasn’t going to tell him that I’d slept with Aiden. “Jealous?” I tried to lighten the mood.

  “A little.” He drove quickly, heading back toward the west end of the lake and the historic homes. We reached the gate on the private drive, and he pressed a button.

  “What do you want? It’s after dinnertime,” Judge Hallenback mumbled.

  “It’s Nick Basanelli. I need a warrant signed,” Nick said.

  I looked at the beach on the other side of the road. Whitecaps tossed waves toward the sand, which was being pelted by the rain as night strengthened and banished the day. Nobody was around for miles.

  The buzzer rang and the fence lifted.

  Nick drove past the other three silent mansions to the Judge’s. “I hate taking advantage of him like this, but…”

  I nodded. “I get it. I really do.” Then I jumped from the vehicle and jogged to the safety of the porch to ring the old-fashioned bell.

  The judge opened the door wearing a Hawaiian shirt, grass skirt, and combat boots. “Morning, Alberto.”

  I blinked. “Evening,” I murmured. “I mean, good evening.”

  He scrunched up his gray eyebrows. “What happened to your face? It looks even worse than the other day.”

  “Long story. Part of it is in the affidavit,” Nick said, handing over the papers and not looking at the judge’s hairy legs. “We need a search warrant for a building we think is being used as a drug lab, Judge.”

  “Hmm.” The judge gestured us inside, where it was about a thous
and degrees. He led the way to a darkened study with Cherrywood desk, walls, and ceiling. He skipped around the wide desk to an executive style leather chair, reading the papers. Finally, he looked up. “You don’t have enough here. An off the cuff statement about power, which could be anywhere, doesn’t lead to this one building. You need a better connection in order to search it. People have privacy rights, you know.”

  My hopes plummeted. Worse yet, I knew he was right. “Judge? We have to get out there before these drugs are put on the street.”

  The judge looked over my shoulder. “Tell me the police are watching this building and waiting for a warrant.”

  “Of course,” Nick said. “DEA, FBI, State, and even the ATF. We’ve got the place covered.”

  “Then get a proper warrant.” The judge shoved the papers across the desk. “You don’t want this whole thing thrown out of court or later overturned on appeal, do you?”

  I sighed. The guy had probably been a pretty good judge before his brain had started to slip. Maybe there were medications he could take to regain his faculties.

  Nick took his phone from his pocket. “Excuse me, Judge.” He wandered toward the door. “Hey, Pierce. No warrant for this particular building.” He explained the circumstances and then listened for a minute. “What do they have? You think? Okay. We’ll be right there.” He clicked off and turned toward me.

  I was already shaking my head. “No. We can’t give Melvin a deal.” The guy had created opioids that could make the meth epidemic look like a minor societal inconvenience.

  Nick’s eye gleamed. “A couple of the biker bunnies are talking. Want deals. One will have three strikes from burglary and prostitution charges. It appears she’s been to the hidden lab with Whitaker.”

  My breath caught. “She can lead us to the lab? She’s seen it?”

  “Looks like it. I just need to make her a deal,” Nick said. “She wants it in writing.”

  The judge reared up. “Then get it in writing and acquire her affidavit to support the search warrant. With the cops on the property, they aren’t going anywhere. Let’s do this right.” He rolled his hips, and his skirt danced. “Alberto? We need to flesh out your affidavit, as well. You need more evidence as to what Melvin Whitaker said, what you heard, and better details about the kidnapping.”