A couple of Eduardo’s guys walked out of the warehouse and toward his SUV, and we all waited on tenterhooks. My cell vibrated in my pocket, signaling they were close, and I inhaled a breath. All I needed was the money to be handed to Hut, and then I could send the signal.
Ten bags were brought into the warehouse and placed at Hut’s feet, one after another. I pulled my cell out, dialing Jord’s number and letting it ring once.
“Nice doing business with you, Hutton.” Eduardo held his hand out, and Hut grasped it. “Until the next—”
Sirens blasted through the air, and I witnessed as, one by one, they all realized they’d been caught with their fingers in the cookie jar. Eduardo and his men were the first to move, but I didn’t care about them. Not yet, anyway. My main focus was Hut.
Doors slammed, and tires squealed, but I didn’t turn to see if Eduardo had gotten away, I kept my focus on Hut as he ran toward me.
“Quick, get the trap door open!”
I lunged forward, gripped his arm, and halted his forward movement. “No.”
“Brody? What the fuck?” His eyes were wild. “We gotta get out of here.” The sirens were so loud now I could barely hear him, which meant they were right here.
“You’re not going anywhere but lockup.”
“What...” He pulled away, and I let him. I could hold his arm in my grip if I wanted to, but I was begging him to fight me. I’d wanted to slam my fist into his face since he first laid hands on Lola, and this would be my opportunity to do just that. “What the fuck is going on?”
Ford and Quinn had made for the trap door, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ryan and Kyle heading right for them.
Jord whistled. “Well, shit, B, that’s a lot of goddamn snow.”
“Think it’ll be enough to have him rotting away in a cell?” I tilted my head to the side, tracking each of Hut’s movements, and as soon as his arm twitched at his side, I pulled my gun out and aimed it right at him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Hut asked a second time. He really was dense, or maybe he knew exactly what was happening and was playing the fool.
“You’re being raided.” I shrugged. “What do you think is going on?”
“What—”
“Jesus, B, you didn’t tell me he was a dumb shit to boot,” Jord growled.
“Maybe I just wanted you to find out for yourself.” I grinned at Jord, finally starting to feel like myself again. I’d lost a piece of me to this operation, and I had to get it back again. “Emerson Hutton,” I growled, stepping forward. “You’re under arrest for—”
“No!”
He dived for me, but I was quicker than him. I lifted the butt of my gun and smashed it into the side of his face. He went down instantly, but I followed him, raining my fist into his face a couple of times for good measure.
“That was for Lola.”
“Lola.” Hut groaned, his gaze finding mine. “Does she know you were using her all along?” He laughed, blood flowing out of his mouth as he did. “She never can catch a break, huh?” He shook his head. “I told her I was the only one that cared, but she didn’t listen. Stupid fuckin' whore.”
I didn’t want to hear another word out of his mouth, and apparently neither did Jord because he smashed his fist down onto Hut’s temple, knocking him out for the count.
“Thank fuck for that,” I groaned out, stowing away my gun.
“His whining was annoying me,” Jord said, placing his hands on his hips as he glanced around the warehouse. “Damn. We actually did it.”
“We did.” I nodded, but the rush I was dying to feel didn’t happen. Hut may have been in custody, but what had I destroyed to get him there?
* * *
BRODY
I crossed my arms over my chest as I stood in the room, watching through the two-way glass. Hut was sitting at the table, cuffs on his wrists that were attached to a titanium pole on the floor. He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I’d expected him to lawyer up right away, but he hadn’t, so we’d let him stew for a few hours, and now it was time to talk to him.
“You ready for this?” Aaron asked as he sauntered into the room.
I didn’t look away from Hut or the dried blood on his face. “Yeah.”
“You did good, Brody.”
“I know,” I answered, finally turning to face my supervisor. “This case took a piece of me, though.”
Aaron stared at me and pushed his hands into the pockets of his slacks. He’d been there nearly every step of my career. He was the one who had asked me to put together my own unit. “Each one does, Brody, there’s no way around that.” He let out an audible breath and stepped closer to me, flicking his gaze to Hut briefly. “But you have to find a way to work through it. This case was different—more intense.”
“I know.” My head rang with his words when he’d first brought us this case. It was personal to him too, but then, weren’t they all? You didn’t go into this job without having a history and something to prove. We all had our demons. It was just capturing them that was the problem. “I’ll be fine, I just need to get this piece of shit locked up and then we can all move on.” I wasn’t sure whether I was talking about us as a team or my family, but it worked the same for either one.
I stepped out of the room and tilted my head to Jord, who waited in the hallway for me, and together we strolled into the interview room. Hut’s gaze met mine, and he didn’t look away as I sat opposite him. His lips lifted into a smirk, probably because he thought he’d get away with it again. He was wrong, though. We’d taken our time to get him, so we knew he couldn’t squirm his way out of this one.
“Emerson.” I grinned, knowing he hated anyone calling him that. Jord handed me a file and moved to the corner of the room, keeping his attention on us. “I hope you’re comfortable,” I remarked as I opened the file on the table.
“Yeah, but I’ll be out of here soon so...” He shrugged. The metal from the cuffs and pole clanging against each other. “Just a matter of time.”
“I’m sure you think that.” I started to pull photographs from the file and placed them on the table. Each one was surveillance from the last six months: deals he’d been a part of, Ted’s dead body, and the raid from today. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that these don’t look too good for you.”
He leaned his arms on the table, scanning the pictures, and grinned. He fuckin' enjoyed seeing them. “Such a shame you don’t have one of Lola on here.” He raised a brow and flicked his gaze over to Jord. “Your friend know you were fuckin' my sister?”
I gritted my teeth together, trying to hold in all the words that wanted to escape. He had no idea what had happened between Lola and me. Hell, I couldn’t put into words what had happened between us, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to let him talk smack about her.
“This isn’t about Lola,” I ground out.
He tutted. The bastard tutted at me like I was a first-grader who’d touched something he shouldn’t have. “Now that’s where you’re wrong.” He leaned back in his seat, a smug look on his face like he’d just won a war. “I see you don’t have any evidence from the meeting I brought her to with Carson.”
“Hmm…” I shuffled some more images onto the table. “Looks like we don’t. What a shame. They must have gone missing.”
Jord chuckled from the corner, and Hut zoned in on the sound. He batted his gaze back and forth between the two of us. “You’re protecting her.” He stood and yanked on his cuffs, but I just leaned back and enjoyed the show. He’d never get out of them, and if he hurt himself, it would be his own damn fault.
“I didn’t say that.” I pointed at my chest and looked over at Jord. “Did you say that?”
“I don’t recall saying that,” Jord answered.
“You bastards!” Hut pulled at his chains some more, giving up after a minute or two with his chest heaving. “You won’t get anything to stick on me.” His nostri
ls flared as he leaned over the table. “And if you do, I’ll kill her.”
My back straightened, and as much as I was enjoying winding him up, he was pressing all the right buttons to have my flip switching.
“You think what I’ve done to her so far is bad? You have no fuckin' idea.” His threat was clear, but that threat was just another thing we could now hold against him.
“Too bad she has no idea you’re even here,” Jord said as he ambled closer to us. “She’s probably living it up somewhere far away from you. Although”—he gripped the back of the chair next to me—“I’m sure she’d add more value to our case. She is, after all, your sister. A jury would eat up everything she says. And I’m sure when they hear the horror story of you holding a knife to her throat, and one of your crew members installing a lock on her bedroom door, they’d realize that you’re not just a piece of drug-dealing scum, but a danger to women too.”
I blinked as Jord gave his spiel, and understood what he was trying to do. If he did somehow make it out of here, and he thought Lola was one of the reasons, he’d find her and hurt her. But Jord had him second-guessing himself. Sure, she’d known I was undercover for the last week or so, but she’d gotten out, so she didn’t care what I was doing to Hut. He wouldn’t see it that way though.
Hut’s lips pursed and he looked down at his clenched fists on the table. “I want my lawyer.”
I’d wondered how long it would take him to ask for one. I grinned at Jord and gathered up all the images. “You got it, Emerson.” His low growl batted off the walls, but it did nothing to frighten me. He was like a small puppy with a bone he didn’t want to share.
I sauntered out of the room, Jord on my tail, and moved down the hall for the next person I needed to talk to. I rapped my knuckles on the door and pushed it open.
Ryan sat on a chair in the corner, and Ford sat on the sofa. This room was a tool we used to lull suspects into thinking they were safe. The nice furniture and bright walls made them feel like they weren’t being interrogated. But that wasn’t what we were using it for today. Ford had been arrested just like Hut, but it was all for cover. We just needed to fill him in on a few things, and then he could be on his way.
“Ford,” I said as I closed the door behind me.
“Brody?” His brows furrowed, and he glanced from me to Ryan. “What’s going on?”
I sat in the chair next to Ryan, opposite Ford, and leaned my forearms on my thighs. “I’m Agent Brody Easton.”
Ford blinked several times, processing the four words I just spoke. “You fucker!” His chest lifted on a breath, but he didn’t make any move to get up. “It was you that told them about Jenna.”
“I did.”
“And then...shit. I had no idea.” He stared at a spot on the wall behind me. “What does all this mean?”
“As I said to you when we first spoke,” Ryan started, “you have immunity for the information you have provided. Should this case go to court—which we’re ninety-nine percent sure it will—you’ll need to testify, after which you’ll be reunited with Jenna.”
“And she’s safe?” Ford asked, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. “Jenna is safe?”
“She is,” I answered, causing Ford to look my way.
“You helped Lola get out too, didn’t you?”
I shook my head, and my teeth ground together. “I didn’t. She did that all on her own.”
“Oh.” Ford nodded. Today had been a lot to process.
“I just wanted to come in and tell you who I was.” I stood and widened my stance when he stood too.
“I always thought there was something off about you,” Ford said, a smile on his face. “I didn’t think it’d be this though.” He held his hand out to me, and I glanced down at it with raised brows. “Thank you.” He cleared his throat. “Thank you for helping with Jenna. If you wouldn’t have followed me that day, she’d still be trying to hide from Hut on her own.”
I placed my hand in his and squeezed once. “You’re welcome.”
“Will he go down?” Ford asked when I pulled away.
“If all goes to plan”—I stepped toward the door—“he won’t live another free day for a long time.”
Chapter Eight
BRODY
Thirty-six long hours, two hours’ sleep in that time, and I was finally heading home. I didn’t have a case I had to return to undercover, and I didn’t have anywhere I needed to be for the next day. Everything was coming to fruition. The end goal we’d been working toward was right in front of us.
We’d spent the majority of the last twenty-four hours interviewing Hut and getting more and more agitated with his “no comment” that his lawyer told him to use. He wasn’t giving us anything, not that we expected anything less, but I’d resolved that I wasn’t going to leave until he was charged. Finally, he’d had his rights read to him, and he was heading down the path he deserved.
The roar of my Mustang’s engine vibrated through the seats as I pulled into my neighborhood, and I was pretty sure everyone else could hear me coming. I hadn’t known when I’d get out of the office, so I hadn’t told Cade or Moira. I wanted it to be a surprise, especially as summer had just started. I’d be able to spend some much-needed time with them and rebuild what I’d lost over the last six months.
I pulled into my driveway and parked next to Moira’s SUV, half expecting Cade to come running out of the house. I shook my head. It was eight in the morning, and it was the first week of summer. Of course, he was still in bed.
Inhaling a deep breath, I pushed the car door open and stepped out. The sun was high in the sky, that fresh feeling of a new morning surrounding the neighborhood of large houses and pristine front yards. This was what I’d always worked toward, and I’d finally made it. So why did I feel like I didn’t belong here?
“Brody?” Moira’s soft voice called. “Is that you?”
I whipped my head around and grinned over at her. “It’s me,” I told her, taking three giant steps and wrapping my arms around her waist.
She clung to my shoulders, her tinkle of laughter flowing around us. “Careful! You’ll flash all the neighbors my underwear.”
I chuckled and let her go, framing her face with my hands, and placing a gentle kiss on her lips. “I’m home.”
“I can see that.” Her fingers gripped my arms, and she blinked up at me. Her face was bare of any makeup, her hair a mess from having slept all night, and it was the most beautiful I had seen her. This was the Moira I remembered, not the one she tried to be when everyone else was around.
“How long are you home for this time?”
“I…” I let out a breath and pulled my hands from her face. “I’m not sure. The case is finished, and I have a day before I need to get back into the office to brief everyone.”
She twirled around and walked inside the house. “I have plans today, but I'll call and cancel them.”
“Oh.” I closed the door behind me and shivered at how cold the house was. I’d never been one to like the cold, much preferring the heat, but Moira hated to sweat. “You don’t have to cancel them—”
“It’s fine.” She waved her hand in the air as she walked through the living room and into the kitchen. “It was just for my hair and nails. I can reschedule them for tomorrow.”
“Right.” I sat down at one of the bar stools, staring at her as she walked around the kitchen and pulled cups out of a cupboard I was sure held something else only a couple of weeks ago. Was it bad that I didn’t even know where things were in my own home?
“Dad? You home?”
I perked up as Moira started the coffee machine and then heavy footsteps were blasting down the stairs, and a grinning Cade was running toward me. Most teenage kids didn’t want to hug their dads, but they didn’t go months without seeing them. The main thing on my list was to rebuild my relationship with him. He didn’t deserve to have an absent father, and even though Moira had done all she could, he needed me more now than ever.
I squeezed the life out of him and ruffled his hair. “I’m home, kid.”
My stomach dipped as the word echoed around me. The last time I’d said that it was to Lola. Lola. I couldn’t allow myself to think about her, because if I went down that rabbit hole right now, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to burrow my way back.
I was aware I was compartmentalizing, but what else was I meant to do? Run to her, tell her everything would be okay and we could be together? I wasn’t a fool. I knew where I stood. Right here, with my wife and son. So why did it feel like I was cheating on Lola? It shouldn’t have made my chest hurt, it shouldn’t have had my palms sweating, but it did.
“Will you come and see my lacrosse practice?” Cade asked as he pulled back.
“You have practice? It’s summer, right?”
Cade rolled his eyes and sat next to me at the same time Moira passed me a cup of coffee. She leaned against the counter, her eyes on her cell as she typed away furiously. Was this what every morning in the house was like when I wasn’t here?
“Yeah, it’s summer. But they have lacrosse camp this year.”
“Ahhh.” I took a sip of the coffee and cringed. What the hell had she put in this? It was like drinking a cup of sugared milk. “Then, yeah, I’ll come. What time do you have to leave?”
Cade flicked his gaze at the giant clock sitting on the wall. “In an hour. Is that okay?”
My lips kicked up into a grin, and I stood. “Hell yeah, it is.” I walked around the counter, my attention moving to Moira, who was smiling down at her cell. “I’m gonna take a shower, and then we can grab some breakfast burritos on the way.” I dumped the “coffee” down the sink and ruffled Cade’s hair on the way past.
Today would be the start of a new life for the three of us. I’d put the case behind me, and reevaluate everything. It was time I was home more, and hopefully, after being gone so long for this op, we’d have some real time off and be in the offices more.
I took the stairs two at a time and headed into our bedroom, a bedroom I’d spent more time away from than in. It wasn’t home to me, not yet at least. But I told myself I’d try. I’d try my hardest to put everything behind me and continue on the path that I’d created for myself fifteen years ago. Now all I had to do was put Lola behind me, and not think about her.
Down Fall: Fallen Duet: Book Two Page 7