Payback

I returned fire, killing the man who’d taken the shot but I dove behind the desk for protection.

I could still hear the melee downstairs. I could only hope we were getting the upper hand.

I’d taken out three up here but a shooter was still loose in the large office.

“You’re fucked,” I called out. “Surrender and you won’t leave this place in a body bag.”

To my surprise, a strained chuckle followed.

“I can’t say the same for her.”

“Jameson…”

Ivy’s tremulous voice struck at my heart. I slowly peered around the scarred desk. Fuck. Terano was holding Ivy. And a gun was pressing into her back.

“If you want her to live…throw your gun over here.”

“Don’t do it,” Ivy told me. “He’s going to kill us both anyway.”

Pride surged through me for her bravery. My woman wasn’t a weak fragile thing. But I would tear Terano apart with my bare hands for hurting her.

“You’ve made a big mistake,” I told him, ignoring his offer. “She means nothing to me. You have no bargaining chip.”

“You’re lying,” Terano sneered.

“Look, your intel is wrong. She’s just a woman, no more, no less. Go ahead, add one more murder on your head. It’ll just be one more charge to add to the list that will send you to the chair.”

“My intel is not wrong. You’re trying to bluff me. But I love games. Let’s see who’s willing to up the ante. How about I shoot her in the gut? Won’t kill her right away but the agony will be fun to watch.”

Sweat beaded my brow but I kept my voice steady. “I always knew you were a sick fuck but I never knew just how sadistic you were.”

“One must keep sharp,” Terano said with a shrug as if I’d paid him a compliment. “I must say, I wasn’t expecting you to show up here. It does up the timeline a bit.”

“Up the timeline for what? Your arrest?”

“No.” His smile thinned. “Your death, Detective Reed.”

Ivy screamed just as something knocked the wind out of me. I went straight to the floor, gasping, my vision clouding. I knew I had seconds to pull a miracle out of my ass.

But the miracle didn’t come from me

Ivy seized a window of opportunity to attack while Terano was focused on me. Burying her elbow in his gut, she stomped on his instep and then broke his nose with the back of her fist when he instinctively fell forward.

Terano groaned as he went down but before he could recover, Ivy landed a vicious kick to his face, knocking him out cold.

I climbed to my feet just as Ivy ran into my arms, nearly knocking me over. She was trembling all over. I knew that feeling — that surge of adrenalin — but I also knew it could be overwhelming when you came down off that wild fight-or-flight high.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, frantically feeling my chest where the bullet had knocked me on my ass. Her fingers found the Kevlar vest and she sagged with relief. “Sometimes you’re smarter than you look,” she joked weakly and I chuckled.

“And you are more bad-ass than you look,” I countered, holding her tight. “Who taught you how to fight like that?”

“Frankie,” she answered against my chest. “He always wanted me to know how to protect myself if he wasn’t around.”

Point one in Frankie’s favor. I never thought I’d say this but, “Your brother did a good thing.”

“Does this mean you’ll stop riding his ass?”

“Not a chance.” But I smiled as I said it. I lifted her chin and gently kissed her bruised lips. A fresh surge of something that was so completely foreign but entirely intoxicating flooded through me and I knew even if I didn’t understand what was happening between us, I knew it was real as fuck.

Which meant…at some point…I’d probably have to deal with her brother.

Hank ran up the stairs to join us, took in the situation, and raised his gaze to mine.

Something prickled at the back of my neck.

“You all good here?” Hank asked but there was something in his eyes that I didn’t like.

“Yeah. We’re good. Call it in. We’re taking Terano into custody.”

But there was something about the way Hank’s lips seamed together that made that sick feeling in my stomach start to go into hyperdrive.

“There a problem?” I asked.

But in that moment I knew the thing that I dreaded most was staring at me in the face.

Betrayal.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” I asked flatly.

“I didn’t have a choice,” he answered.

“We all have choices.”

“The world ain’t black and white, brother,” Hank said, shaking his head, a world of shame and misery reflecting in my partner’s eyes.

How deep was he in? How long had he been in Terano’s pocket?

“Why?”

“All it takes is one fuck up. One slip. I owe people. Bad people. Those people knew Terano. At first, it was small shit. A favor here, a favor there. Look the other way for this case, cover up evidence on that case…”

My heart lurched. I knew this story. So many good cops had gone this way. But the fact that Hank was able to hide his involvement from me all this time…God, it fucking killed me.

“So is this how it ends?” I asked, slowly pushing Ivy behind me. “You kill me for Terano?”

“I didn’t want it this way. I tried to keep you safe, man. But you kept digging, kept scratching at it. I thought after our deep-cover assignment failed, you’d get kicked off the Rodrigo case but you wouldn’t let it happen. Why didn’t you just leave it the fuck alone?”

I heard the desperation in his voice. This was the same guy I’d shared beers with, commiserated with, put my life in his hands and vice-versa.

“Fuck man,” I swore. That was all I could say. Hank was up to his eyeballs in shit and choking on it. “How’s this going to work?”

Terano’s voice cut into the tense silence between us.

“You die, she dies. Simple math,” Terano answered, climbing to his feet on wobbly legs, staring me down with hatred in his eyes. To Hank, he barked, “Kill him, you fucking idiot. That is, if you can find the fucking trigger.”

I knew Hank was wrestling with his choice. I knew it was killing him inside, which meant whatever Terano had over him, must’ve felt like the end of the world for him to fall in line with Terano.

Terano wiped at his mouth, wincing as he brushed his broken nose. “Fucking bitch,” he muttered. “On second thought, kill the cop, keep the girl. I got plans for her.”

Ivy began to shake behind me. Her fear made me desperate.

“Let her go and you can have me,” I bartered, hoping to get Ivy out of there before I met my maker. “She’s innocent in all this. It’s my fault she’s involved.”

“Like I give a shit,” Terano sneered. “The bitch broke my motherfucking nose and she’s going to pay for that insult.”

I looked at Hank. “You were a good cop once. You know she’s innocent. Let her go, man.”

“She’ll talk,” Hank answered but there was something there, something that he was struggling with.

“You would kill an innocent woman to protect your secret?”

Terano snapped his fingers impatiently. “Listen up, jackass, it’s not up to him. He’s my bitch. He’ll do what I tell him to do. And right now, I want him to blow your motherfucking head off!” He glared at Hank with cranky disgust. “Or is that too fucking difficult for your little brain to figure out? Jesus! Give me the fucking gun and I’ll do it if you’re too much of a pussy.”

Hank’s gaze darted to Terano and a flare of rage sparked in his eyes.

Yeah, buddy, cultivate that rage because you’re looking at your fucking future with this guy’s dick up your ass. Make the right choice!

It didn’t escape my notice that our lives depended on a crooked cop resuscitating his broken conscience but that’s all we had.

It wa

s going to be Hank’s call whether we lived or died.

My partner.

The guy I trusted with my life…now held two lives in his hands.

“I’m sorry,” Hank finally said and I prepared for the impact of the bullet.

With lightening fast movement, Hank switched his aim and fired without hesitation at Terano, a clean shot right between the eyebrows, dropping the fucker like a stone.

But before I could exhale with relief, Hank put the gun under his chin and fired.

Ivy screamed.

I turned away, sheltering Ivy from the carnage, relieved at being alive but pissed as hell that Hank had taken the easy way out.

Ivy shuddered in my arms. “Why did he do that?” she cried. “I don’t understand. Why?”

“Because he knew crooked cops don’t last long behind bars,” I answered grimly. “He took the only choice he thought he could handle.”

Ivy gripped my shirt and cried into it, overwhelmed by the horror of everything. “Get me out of here,” she begged. “Please Jameson. I can’t stay a moment longer.”

I took her out of the room, away from the bloody mess that’d become Terano and my partner and called in the scene.

But before we could leave, she told me about the girls in the basement and I sent SWAT downstairs to get them.

Moments later, two young women and a mean-as-a-junkyard-dog Chinese woman were brought up.

“Terano was not only into drugs but he was trafficking people as well,” Ivy explained, swallowing. “We were going to be sold like human cattle.”

I pressed a kiss to her crown, shaken by the realization that I could’ve lost it all in a heartbeat.

I could’ve lost what I didn’t even realize had been precious to me.

I held Ivy more tightly and said, “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

And then I let SWAT take over the scene.

I needed time and space to process everything that’d just happened.