Hell & High Water (THIRDS 1)

“Then we go.” Sloane left the office, and after a worried glance exchanged between Cael and Rosa, they followed Sloane out. Dex trailed behind, using the opportunity to call Calvin.

“Hey, Dex. What’s up?”

“Do me a favor. Can you get Intel to cross-reference Gabe Pearce’s name with the victims. This is all too much of a coincidence for my liking. This is priority.”

“Sure thing. I’ll let you know if they get anything.”

“Great. Thanks.” Dex tapped his earpiece again. “Dispatch, can you connect me to the HPF’s Sixth precinct? Thanks.” He thanked the bar owner on the way out, promised he’d be back in an unofficial capacity soon and headed for the Suburban. He climbed into the passenger seat, Sloane looking at him questioningly. He held a finger up and pointed to his ear. “Hey, Anna Banana, Dex here. Just wanted to know if Detective Pearce is in.” The dispatcher’s cheerful voice came over the line.

“Hi, Detec—I mean Agent Daley. I’m afraid today’s his day off.”

“Thank you, Anna. Take care.”

“You too.”

Dex tapped his earpiece and turned to Sloane. “Pearce is off today.”

“Let’s try his workshop. There’s no phone there, and I’d rather not give his cell phone a ring.”

“Tunnel or bridge?” Dex asked, not that it would make a huge difference traffic wise. They were looking at half hour minimum even at this time of day to get from here to Brooklyn.

“Tunnel.” He tapped his earpiece. “Rosa, Cael, when we get there, I want Dex to go in and do the talking.”

Dex stared at him. “What?”

Sloane tapped his earpiece and addressed Dex. “It’ll soften the blow of seeing me there. He’s also not fond of the team, but he trusts you. He’ll talk to you. We’re not dealing with some street punk. We’re dealing with a cop who knows the law inside and out. He doesn’t like the sound of something, he’ll tell us to go fuck ourselves.”

“What happened between you two? It’s cool if you don’t want to talk about it, I—”

Sloane let out a heavy sigh, his frown deepening. “It’s fine. He never liked me. Not because I was his brother’s boyfriend. He never had a problem with Gabe being gay. He had a problem with me because I’m a Therian. You know, one of those, I don’t have a problem with Therians as long as they don’t date my brother, sort of deals.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Gabe and Isaac used to fight constantly over our relationship, and it hurt to see Gabe so unhappy. I tried to break things off once because I knew how much he loved his brother, and I didn’t want to come between them. Isaac was the only family he had. But Gabe was furious, said he wasn’t going to give up on us, on someone who made him happy because his brother was too stubborn to see how much I meant to him.”

They drove into the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, and Sloane took a deep breath before releasing it slowly. “Gabe laid it all out for Isaac. Said he wasn’t going to choose, that he loved us both, and he wasn’t going to leave me. The only reason Isaac didn’t out us was because it would have hurt his brother’s career. Being with Gabe…. For the first time in my life, I was happy. When he died, Isaac took everything. And I’m not talking about Gabe’s money. I didn’t give a rat’s ass about that. The guy showed up at my apartment with a van and some paperwork he got from God knows where. He took everything that belonged to Gabe. It was his way of punishing me. On top of that, he cleaned out Gabe’s place.”

“What the hell?” Dex couldn’t believe it. Isaac came off as such a sweet guy. A little twitchy at times, but he didn’t seem like the kind to pull such a dick move. It must have torn Sloane apart.

“Gabe was my boyfriend, not my husband. I had no say in the matter. It was… like Isaac was trying to wipe away any trace that we’d ever been together. Isaac told me the only reason he wasn’t outing me then was because he didn’t want his brother’s name tainted. If it wasn’t for Gabe being given a THIRDS funeral, I know Isaac would have made sure I stayed away.”

“Jesus. I had no idea. What’s going to happen when he sees you?” No wonder Isaac kept trying to warn him about Sloane. The guy was holding onto one hell of a grudge against his partner—one he couldn’t seem to let go.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but with you there, he’s going to hold back. He’s not stupid.”

As they exited the tunnel, Dex tried to convince himself everything would be okay. All he had to do was chat to Pearce, ask him a few questions and do what he’d done countless times while on homicide. To get the most information out of Pearce, Dex would have to make sure to stay on the guy’s good side. “This is fucked up.”

“I know.” Sloane reached over to pat his leg. He left his hand there longer than necessary, and it helped calm Dex. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’ll be there to back me up.”

Dex looked over at his partner, his heart swelling in his chest. “Likewise.”

Chapter 12

THEY STOOD outside the dirty, steel and glass double doors of a red and green four-story brick building situated across from a shipping warehouse. On one side of the building was the Cabinet Depot and on the other under the Metro line was a large self-storage lot with several aluminum units in various sizes, and next to that, a section selling wholesale kitchen countertops and garden supplies. Isaac’s building had four windows on the fourth floor only, no fire escape, and a couple of the storage units underneath. There was a hell of a lot of mess and construction going on around the enormous black steel girders, too many places for someone to make a quick getaway. After a quick risk assessment of the surroundings, Dex went in with Cael, Rosa, and Sloane on his heels.

Inside, the large interior double doors were open. There was a grimy foyer with another set of doors ahead of them and an open single door on the right-hand

side that appeared to lead out into a narrow hallway with nothing but a set of stairs. Sloane opened one of the doors, and Dex stepped into an expansive workshop, the shrill noise of machinery resonating throughout. It resembled something out of a horror movie with walls containing all types of metals hooks, clamps, chains, hammers in all sizes and shapes and several other blacksmithing tools.