Badge of Honor (The Town of Pearl 9)

“I could go with you and show you around, Lauren,” Mary suggested.

Lauren looked away from her and started toward the door. “No, that’s okay. I can’t be socializing with anyone and letting on that I’m here. Please understand, I can never let my guard down.”

“So you’re going to be paranoid forever? It doesn’t seem fair,” Mary said.

“You saw firsthand their capabilities when they broke into the hospital and tried to kill me. I escaped death twice by these men. A third time? I’m not betting on it.”

She walked out the door and felt as if her blood were boiling. It made her angry every time she thought about how these thugs got away with killing Frankie, and how they attempted to kill her in the hospital as she recovered from being shot twice. The police and the Feds weren’t doing shit. As she headed toward the back of the house and the thick, plush woods, she thought about her aunt and her sisters. She wanted them to remain safe, but eventually Miklos and Rafael, Aces’s brothers and the other gang of shit, would track them down. Mary said that her friends had them somewhere safe and protected. Lauren didn’t know who these men were and how they had such capabilities, but eventually they would have to stop watching over them. What Lauren needed to do now was to train, to be ready for a fight and prepared for the unexpected.

She had loved her job and it had consumed her life. She wanted to go back to the time before the incident and what had turned into an ambush. She wanted to do her job investigating murders and locking up crooks. She wanted normalcy, and to rid her body of this constant anxious feeling. She also wanted revenge. Killing those nine men just didn’t seem to justify Frankie’s death or the continued drug dealing that was still going on. It was a never ending battle. Take out a few dealers, even a larger cartel of shit, and right behind them were another group of invaders. Everywhere she turned there seemed to be killers, manipulating criminals ready to make money. Where there were drugs there were addicts, and where there were addicts there was always money to be made. Maybe Hercules, Felix, Roach, Mangle, and Turk were still working the case against the Tenth Street gang?

She couldn’t help feeling the urge to contact them but she knew she wasn’t able to do that. This was the tough part. Trying to sit tight and remain hidden when all she wanted to do was to jump right back into the investigation and destroy the rest of the Tenth Street gang. She wondered what they were up to and if they were weakened at all by the incident. Her hope that they suffered enough to think about closing up shop entirely seemed more like a fantasy than reality.

As she pulled up her hoodie then turned on her iPod, she began to trek through the woods and the semirough terrain. She located a spot where she could set up some mock targets to keep her shot sharp and accurate. With men like Rafael, she needed to be prepared like never before. Otherwise, she was as good as dead, and so were Mary and Beth.

The music couldn’t seem to take her mind off of everything that happened and as she went to pull out the earbuds, she caught sight of the movement to her right and then the man jogging.

On instincts she turned, knelt, pulled the Glock from under her hoodie, and aimed.

His arms went up immediately. “Whoa. What the hell?” he stated angrily, and Lauren held the gun and stared at him. Her heart was racing. Her hands were sort of shaking and she knew she was out of practice. Who was this guy and where the hell did he come from?

“Who the hell are you?” she demanded to know.

“I could ask the same about you. I’ve never seen you on the trail before or in town. Who the fuck are you and why are you pointing a gun at me?” he asked in such a stern commanding tone she almost lowered the gun. Slightly.

He lowered his hands then crossed his arms in front of his massive chest as if he were used to having guns pointed at him. That observation made her grip the gun a little tighter. The guy was big, filled with muscles, and had a look of confidence and arrogance. The fact he wore a military green T-shirt and sweats made her think he was a soldier. He was very attractive, too. It made her lose her focus a moment.

“You came up out of nowhere. I’ve been jogging through these woods for weeks. I’ve never seen you.”

“Well I could say the same for you,” she replied and looked him over. She felt an odd sensation. Maybe because the man was smoking hot, she wasn’t sure. But she wasn’t going to fall for his dark eyes or muscles.

“Put the gun down, sweetheart. I’m not going to hurt you.”

She snorted. “As if,” she replied and he raised one of his eyebrows at her, looking shocked by her attitude.

She followed her gut and lowered her weapon.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on women or anyone for that matter. I could have

shot you,” she told him as she placed her weapon back into the special holder on her back under her hoodie. He watched and seemed to be analyzing her.

“I didn’t sneak up on you. This is my normal route.”

“Whatever,” she replied and then prepared to continue running.

“Do you have a license for that?” he asked, referring to her weapon.

“You a cop?” she challenged.

He shook his head slowly. “Some people around here don’t take a liking to having a gun drawn on them. Could lead to an unfortunate situation,” he warned her.

She looked him over. Under normal circumstances she might have entertained the idea of getting to know this guy and maybe flirt a little. But these weren’t normal circumstances. She wasn’t in her element or in her city. She was in the middle of the woods in Texas, and redneck cowboys had their own share of badass reputations. She straightened her shoulders and replied to his comment.

“Well that’s good to know. As long as no one sneaks up on me, then they won’t wind up in the middle of an unfortunate situation.” She turned and started walking away.

* * * *

Harper stared at the young woman who’d just drawn a gun on him. It took a lot of self-control to not disarm her and then not hurt her. He was furious. First of all, how the hell did she pull so quickly and without him even reading her body language? Was he that spent after his last job? Or was it because he was shocked to see anyone this far in the woods jogging, and a female who looked to have a pretty damn good body on her. Who the hell was she?