Center Mass (Code 11-KPD SWAT 1)

Luke caught me just as my hands were inches away from the stupid man’s face.

“Shhh,” Luke soothed. “That won’t help right now.”

“Maybe not,” I said, kicking out with my foot. “But it’d make me feel a fuck of a lot better.”

I connected with Weston’s hip, and he glared at me. “Crazy bitch.”

“I’ll show you fucking crazy, you goddamned piece of shit. I cannot fucking believe you’d put our baby in harm’s way,” I snarled, curling up on Luke’s forearm to kick at Weston again.

Weston, however, did the only smart thing he’d done all day, and that was to step back.

“She’s never even said a mean word to me until she found out about the affair. Don’t you think I’d know better than to put our daughter into that kind of situation?” He fumed.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“You’re stupid if you think Anita wasn’t a threat to Rowen. You’re wrong. Rowen told me she said your wife was threatening me. Why would she do that if she wasn’t a ‘threat?’ ” I asked testily. “And you just fucking said she was the one who shot Radar!”

He sighed. “The whole thing got to be a mess. We have what you would call an ‘open’ relationship. She did her own thing, and I did mine. We stayed together because of the kid, though. The operation was shelved six months ago, but then I found out she was pregnant, so I stayed with her.” His look at me told me somehow it was my fault that he’d decided to stay, but I couldn’t figure out why. “I used seeing you and Rowen as an excuse to leave and do other operations during that time. It was only about two weeks before you moved here that she got suspicious. I would’ve left her then, but we started to get more chatter through a couple of sources saying that the accountant was still on the job and using a go between to do it. The only person I ever saw was my daughter, so there was no option of leaving her at that point. We moved here, and I kept doing what I had been doing.”

I wanted to pull my hair out. That stupid, stupid man.

“I don’t see how we’re any part of that situation. Why did you pursue a relationship with your child if you didn’t have to?” Luke rumbled.

I nodded, wanting to know the answer to that one, too.

“She thought I had a really good relationship with Rowen. I had to keep up the act,” he explained.

“Why the whole ‘filing for custody’ hoopla, then?” Luke asked.

“Same. She wanted me to, and I was being accommodating because my bosses felt there was a need to,” he answered.

My hands clenched on Luke’s muscular forearm and Luke stepped back, knowing that my control was slipping again.

I wanted to kill him.

“So let me get this straight, you getting the goods on the mafia people you speak of is more important than our child’s safety?” I clarified.

He shook his head. “She was never in danger.”

“That’s not good enough. I want you to get her out of this. Now. Leave and don’t come back.”

“It’s not that simple. Anita saw us out to eat, and saw Lydia and Luke at the same time. We have to play the game a little bit longer,” Weston sighed.

“Why?” Luke barked.

“Because I asked them to,” a new voice sounded from behind us.Chapter 26Once upon a time, fuck you. The end.

-T-shirt

Luke

My gun was aimed at the newest arrival’s head.

The man was old. Like eighties old. Tall and lanky, barely filling out the suit that hung off the old man’s bones.

His eyes, though, were sharp. They took it all in in one glance, settling on me as the biggest threat.

What the fuck was he doing on my property?

“Who are you?” I snapped, my aim sighting in on his heart.

Perfect kill shot.

“Special Agent Nathan Lawrence,” he told me, never taking his eyes away from me and my gun.

“Why can’t any of you handle this like professionals? Why all the secrecy and lies? Somebody better start talking,” I growled.

The threat was there, and special agent Nathan Lawrence knew it.

He nodded, acknowledging it.

Weston started to move from the corner of my vision, but before I could move, Reese pulled up her purse and aimed it in Weston’s direction.

I’d felt her move her hand to her purse the moment I raised my gun.

I hadn’t told her not to, either.

I’d learned that Reese was full of surprises. One of those being the time I went looking in her purse for her keys and found a gun concealed in it.

I’d asked her about it, and she admitted that she’d been a concealed carrier for going on four years now, citing the need for protection since she lived alone with Rowen all these years.

So the minute I’d felt her slip her hand in her purse, I’d known where her mind was going.

She would have my back.

Weston froze, “You wouldn’t.”

“Just stay right there and we’ll never have to find out,” she snapped.

“All this isn’t necessary. If you’ll lower your weapons, I’ll be more than happy to explain.” Agent Lawrence said soothingly.

I glared at him. “How about you call someone to verify your identity, and we’ll go from there.”***Three hours later found us all down at the station with my team surrounding us.

I had Reese in my lap because she’d decided to go after Weston no less than three times already.

“One more time, from the top,” the chief demanded curtly.

Agent Lawrence sighed. “Eighteen months ago we got a tip that Alexei Artem was laundering money for the Russian mob. We hoped that when we pinned him down for some racketeering charges that he’d turn in exchange for a lighter sentence, but the man hasn’t said a word his entire time inside. In fact, he’s been the model prisoner. The only one that went to visit him was the daughter. And up until about three months ago, we never had cause to suspect the daughter as a mediator between the two factions.”