Badge of Honor (The Town of Pearl 9)

“Where the fuck is she? How the hell could he let her spray him with pepper spray? What did he try to do to her?” Aces asked.

“I don’t think she was legit,” Rafael told him as he stood by the bar in the office with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“What the fuck do you mean?” Aces asked as Miklos appeared coming from the doorway and holding onto some brunette in a trashy metallic dress.

“Lana is a cop,” Miklos stated through clenched teeth.

Aces felt his gut tighten and then anger fill him. “A cop? Why the fuck would you think that?”

He shoved the brunette down onto the rug and she cried as she fell to the floor. Her face was battered and her lip bleeding.

“That bitch was one of Lana’s friends she was hanging out with. Turns out that Cesar, behind the bar, saw her talking into her wrist all night and watching the balcony.”

Aces would kill this woman and he would kill Lana or whatever her real name was. He’d been scammed.

“What was on her wrist?” Aces asked and Miklos pulled the bracelet that looked like a clock from his pocket.

He lipped to him. “It’s on.”

Aces smiled and then took the bracelet with the listening device probably still intact and he smiled at the woman. He bent down next to her and grabbed her hair and head. She cried out.

“Trespassing is a crime, pig.” He shoved her back down and she cried out again.

“Take out the trash.” He placed the bracelet onto the floor and then smashed it with his boot, crushing it entirely.

“Get rid of her, and don’t get caught.”

Chapter 2

“Frankie, calm down,” Lauren told Frankie as they stood outside the unmarked patrol car. They had been on their tenth wild goose chase and a sighting of Miklos, Aces, and his crew of shit. Eight weeks after the raid and undercover operation and the scumbags were still on the run and evading capture. They always seemed a few steps ahead of the cops, and she wondered how. It was frustrating.

As they stood outside the empty warehouse, Frankie was irate.

“Calm down? How the fuck can I calm down? That could have been you, eight weeks ago. They fucking beat and killed Monica, then dumped her on the streets. They’ll come after you next. They’ll find you.”

“They can’t. Aces men have been arrested and Miklos and Aces will be found.”

“But they should be dead. They should have been killed.”

“You need to calm yourself. It will happen. They’ll wind up behind bars soon enough. The agents and troopers are working on it. They’re close.”

“They’re not close enough, Lauren. After what you did, what you found out, those men, all of them, should be behind bars. It wasn’t supposed to end up like this. Now you’re in even more danger. It’s all fucked up,” he continued to complain.

Lauren had never seen her partner so upset and angry over a case. Yeah, things didn’t work out exactly as planned but Aces and his crew were going down. She had confidence in the agents and the detectives they knew.

“Listen, I know you’re upset because of Monica. I don’t know why she was still in there. Why she didn’t get out of Phaze when the commotion started. But something went wrong.”

Frankie looked at her and then his cell phone rang. He lifted it to his ear, mumbled a few things, and then his eyes widened and he looked both angry and excited.

“Come on. Let’s go.”

* * * *

Lauren’s heart was pounding inside of her chest. They were in a bad neighborhood, and it was late at night, and with everything that happened she didn’t like feeling vulnerable and out in the open like this. What the hell was the phone call about to Frankie and why were they here, of all places?

“Frankie, I don’t like this. What the fuck are we doing here?” Lauren asked her partner, who read the address and info again from their informant off his phone.

“Rico said our guy hangs here.”