“Sean!” I implore, resting my hands on his chest. “I have to call this in. It’s my duty. They’ve threatened us, and your brother is at risk. One call and I could have a team raiding the place in an hour.”
His eyes bore into me. “No, Sammy. No cops, no calling it in. You are NOT getting involved in this. I can’t allow that.”
I step back, banging my hip into the bathroom vanity. “You can’t allow that? Like I’m some errant teenager who needs to be put back in her place? Fuck you, Sean. You cannot control my job. Control me in the bedroom, yes, but NOT my FUCKING JOB!” I yell at him. My job has always been a no go zone for anybody involved in my life. Not even my mother has been allowed to meddle in my professional life. Hell, I haven’t let my mother meddle in my life full stop since I realized she had cost me Sean.
He puts his hands on my shoulders and steps in close to me again, crowding me. “I’m not ordering you. I’m telling you that you can’t get involved. I don’t want to put your job at risk, and this situation, this backroom poker table that Ryan is sitting at, is not the place for an off duty police officer.”
He steps away and turns back toward the bedroom, dressing quickly before grabbing his wallet, keys and phone from beside the bed. “You’re taking your car?”
“Don’t have a choice. It’s the middle of the night and I’m not going to use a town car to pick up my brother from god knows where in the car service. I’m just going to grab him and get him out of there, then send him to f**king Timbuktu or Siberia until it blows over.”
I storm back into the bedroom, stopping on the opposite side of the bed. “Sean, it doesn’t work like that. I’ve dealt with shit like this before. They won’t stop coming after Ryan until the debt is paid, usually with interest. And when they can’t find him, they’ll target the club, they’ll come after you at the firm, and then they’ll come after me. It’s not a case of getting him out of there and this blowing over.” I wave my arms around dramatically, trying to explain the ignorance of Sean’s plan. He walks around the bed and puts his hands on my hips, pulling me in tight against him.
“I’m not going to argue with you about this. You’re staying here, I’m going to get Ryan and drop him off at a hotel for the night. You’ll wait for me here, naked in my bed …” He kisses my jaw, then my nose, then stops at my lips, slowly teasing me with his tongue until I relent and give up my resistance, moaning as he languidly explores my mouth.
“You don’t play fair,” I grumble when he pulls away. Another quick brush of his lips against mine and he is all business.
“Get back into bed. I won’t be long.”
“Where are you going? Someone should at least know where you’re going in case it goes to shit.”
“It’s a rundown bar off West North Ave in Austin. He said they’re in a room at the back. Sounds classy right?” He laughs sarcastically. “Sam, go back to bed. I’ll be back before you know it.”
Having already decided what I’m going to do, I nod my head at him. His eyes go soft as he looks at me one last time. “Good night, sweetheart.”
And with that, he turns and walks out of the bedroom. I listen as his footsteps get further and further away as he goes down the stairs to the second floor, then down the two flights of stairs to the basement parking garage.
Sitting down on the bed, I rest my head in my hands as I struggle to compose myself enough to do what I have to do. What I must do.
I grab my cell off the bedside cabinet and stare at it, cradling it in my hands as I contemplate the consequences of what I’m about to do. But I didn’t lie to Sean when I said my job was non-negotiable. If a crime is being committed it is my duty to call it in and protect people. Or in this case, the man I love and his brother who, despite being an idiot who doesn’t learn from his past mistakes, I also care about.
I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to either of them and I could have stopped it.
Scrolling through my contacts, I pull up my friend Jeremy’s number. He’s a detective at my precinct who has been investigating illegal gambling and was also involved in investigating the robbery at Throb until I told him discretely what really went down, then the case was wound up quickly. There was no need to keep it open when there was no robbery and no way of identifying the assailant. But I’ve since found out that Jeremy had been heading an investigation into a string of illegal gambling events reportedly being organized and held in the Chicago city area, so I know that he is the person to talk to about whatever Sean is heading into.
“Richards, what the hell? It’s 2 a.m. and you should be sleeping or f**king. Or a bit of both. What gives?”
“Jeremy, Sean just got a call from his brother. He’s in trouble at a backroom poker table in an Austin bar. Sean told me not to call it in, but I had to call you. If it’s that same bookie that roughed him up a few months ago, then who knows what might happen. What should I do?”
“Shit, Sam. I’m at my desk, but I can grab some officers and try and get there, but there are no promises that I can protect Sean in this. It’ll be a blanket arrest, then weed out the bad from the good after that. You okay with that?
“Anything, please Jeremy. I can’t sleep knowing him or Ryan could get hurt.”
“Okay. I’ll call you back in a while once we get the lay of the land. What bar?”
“I don’t know. He just said it was off West North.”
“Ah yes, I know exactly where. We’d been staking it out up until last week. Gotta go. Keep your phone on. You’ll hear from either me or your man.”
The call ends and I feel my stomach tighten. I feel sick. If I’ve overreacted … Why the f**k is it the middle of the night and why the hell isn’t Helen working a night shift.
I go downstairs and turn on Sean’s very expensive coffee machine, pacing the kitchen as I wait for the liquid gold to brew. With my now full cup in my hands, I walk over to the couch, bending my legs up close to my body as I stare out the window waiting for word from Sean or Jeremy.
The problem is that, as a seasoned cop, I know the city never sleeps. There is always a criminal element that comes out at night, making itself known … or not if they’re smart. Men and women are robbed or attacked, cars are stolen, houses are broken into, illegal poker games with high bets and even higher stakes are played. Kingpins preying on the addicted few, desperate to win their money back, adamant that their next hand will be the one that takes them back into black again. But it never happens. Lines of credit are offered and accepted, and soon enough, like Ryan is right now, they’re staring down the barrel of an even larger debt.