Badge of Honor (The Town of Pearl 9)

“Blonde, brunette, redhead, what does he seem to prefer?” she asked.

“It’s more their body types that he prefers.”

“Easy? Bimbos? What type does he allow close enough to stick around for a whole night?” she asked.

“Not sure. We’ve never seen him with one that long,” one of the state police investigators told her.

“Then you don’t even know if this will work,” Frankie stated.

Agent Burk looked around the room and then at Lauren. “We don’t have any other options but to send in an undercover female officer to try and get close enough to hear the date, time, and location of this shipment. Otherwise we’ve lost another opportunity and the two undercover officers who died, died for nothing,” Agent Burk said.

“I’ll do it. But my way,” Lauren said and looked at her commander.

“Lauren, you don’t have to,” he said.

“Commander, someone has to,” she said and then looked at Agent Burk.

“Agent Burk, can you get me some inside footage of the club from other nights when he had women in the booth? Also the layout of the club will be helpful. I’m assuming you have funds for clothing and any necessary items I may need?” she asked.

“We have a crew set up to help you with wardrobe, makeup, or whatever you need.”

“I’ll take care of that. Just get me a safe location to leave from and to get to if I need out of there in a hurry. Also, get two or three other female undercover cops to come along.”

“What exactly are you thinking detective?” Agent Burk asked.

She looked around the room at the unhappy faces, realizing that the majority of these men she worked with on a regular basis were concerned for her.

“I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure I get out of there alive and the same way I went in. I don’t care if you and your team are offended by it. Two of our men were killed. Someone screwed up somewhere, and we may never know who, but justice will be served.” She turned around and headed out of the room with Frankie, and then Hercules, her commander, and the others following her in support.

As she came down the hallway, her heart racing, her mind ran in a thousand directions as she wondered why she said yes and how she was going to pull this off. Frankie grabbed her upper arm and turned her around. Hercules and the others were right behind him.

“What the fuck are you thinking? Those agents got our two men killed and now they’re looking to throw you in there to the wolves. They put those slides up on purpose,” Frankie said, his voice raised..

She looked at him and the others.

“We get that information about the delivery and we take down these scumbags. Vick and Roy don’t die for nothing and we put the bad guys behind bars. It’s not like I’ve never been asked to go undercover before.”

“Yeah, when you were a rookie and they needed a teenager to infiltrate the group of college guys with the drug dealer from Manhattan College. Shit, I read the file. You were badass, Lauren,” Hercules said as his eyes roamed over her body.

“We all read your file, honey, but these guys are sick fucks. They did a number on Vick and Roy,” Roach told her. She knew they were all friends with Vick and Roy. This was a family here.

“I know. I’ll be as careful as I can without tipping them off that I’m a cop. Now, since you know just as much about these guys as Agent Burk, why don’t you fill me in as I get things ready for tonight?”

“We’ll be close by just in case. We’ll get you everything we can. Everything,” Mangle told her as he squeezed her shoulder.

“Come on. Let’s head upstairs to our offices. We’ve got everything set up,” Turk told her and Frankie and the others headed toward the elevator. Her heart was heavy, yet there was this spark of excitement, determination she hadn’t had in years. It instantly turned that bland, tired emotion she had been having lately into a bit of enthusiasm and optimism. She would pull this off and show them all how capable she was. She had to do this. It was her job. The badge of honor had a way of overpowering any fear or evil. Her actions would help justice be served. They had to.

* * * *

Club Phaze

Aces looked in the mirror as he headed out of the backroom. He adjusted the collar on his burgundy dress shirt then fixed the belt on his pants. He looked good. The thick, gold chain around his neck stood out, along with the crucifix he wore. He ran the palm of his hand along the hair on the side of his head and moved his head side to side to make sure he looked good from every profile.

He licked his lower lip, wondering how tonight would go. The guys he wanted to secure some business with were coming into the club tonight. He wanted to keep them happy, and of course lucky. He hoped his brother Orlando had gotten some hot women to show up.

As he walked out of the room, he was pleasantly surprised to see how crowded the place was. Music was playing, the bass of the beat echoing around the room and making him feel like moving his hips to the Latin music.

“It’s crowded tonight. I hope Orlando isn’t giving the shit away for free,” Aces said to Miklos as they came out of the back room of the club. Aces was planning on grabbing a few drinks then heading upstairs to the private balcony.