Colorado 03 Lady Luck (50 page)

Ty was listening, his gut tight and his
chest squeezing and when Peña didn’t continue, he prompted,
“Yeah?”

“
Yeah,” Peña replied. “So, Dolinski set the
ball rolling
prior
to your
release but shit like this goes slow and you were out before things
could get sorted.”

“What shit goes slow and what things are
gettin’ sorted?” Ty asked.

“Dolinski’s deep cover mission for an
internal investigation into pretty much the entirety of the Carnal
Police Department with specific interest in Police Chief Arnold
Fuller,” Peña answered.

Ty’s body went solid.

Holy fuck.

Peña continued. “This investigation
centers around a variety of things including Fuller’s mishandling
of a case when a serial killer was hunting his patch after which a
complaint was lodged by a Special Agent Tambo of the FBI not only
about Fuller’s department fumbling the case but also Fuller’s
manner and professional approach, questioning his suitability to be
in his job. Tambo’s complaint was added to complaints from Carnal’s
citizen that were piling up and IA started sniffing around but
could get nowhere seein’ as tracks were covered and nearly every
cop in the department was dirty so they needed an inside man and,
mud’s so deep at Carnal PD, they couldn’t see clear of it and find
one. Dolinski’s coming forward as a whistleblower and willing
undercover agent set the ball in motion for an intense
investigation into the entire Department but centering on the
aforementioned fuck up with the serial killer as well as the
possible corroboration of local law enforcement officers in the
cover up of the murder of a drug dealer in Los Angeles and the
extradition of a Carnal citizen to stand trial for that crime. IA
in
LA
, who are
working joint with your local IA on that particular concern,
apparently has some information that the dealer murdered was
allegedly dealing blow to one Detective Gene Fuller, who happens to
be Police Chief Arnie Fuller’s brother, and ole Gene reportedly
likes his blow, enough to get in deep with a dealer and, on a cop’s
salary, the only way to cover that debt was for the dealer to go
away.”

Holy
fuck.

Peña kept talking. “As you know, two
dealers dead in California by the same gun, a .38 but what
you
don’t
know is
that Detective Chet Palmer has a .38 registered for personal use.
But, when questions were asked, Detective Palmer was requested to
produce this gun and couldn’t do so saying, when he went to get it,
he noticed it was missing and, belatedly, reported it stolen
and
says that it’s been years since
he’s touched that gun so it could have been years ago it was
stolen. Two and two began to make four and the person making four
in Carnal for IA is Officer Frank Dolinski.”

Holy fuck.

Peña wasn’t done. “See, the problem
Dolinski has now is that there is a very clever Carnal ex-cop whose
friend went down for a crime he didn’t commit and, if you don’t
mind me sayin’, a very clever current cop in Dallas who’s got an
interest in that man’s wife who are both nosin’ around. Makin’
matters worse, for some reason I’m sure you know nothin’ about,
although some time has gone by, Special Agent Tambo
and
his superiors have suddenly
started asking questions about the complaint Tambo lodged and they
haven’t been real thrilled with the answers they’ve been receivin’
but instead of shruggin’ their shoulders and movin’ on, they’ve
decided to start leaning and they got a lot of weight. All this and
Dolinski’s already got his ass swinging
way the fuck
out there. It is not lost on all concerned
that two black men in two states framed for murders they didn’t
commit, one taking his life, one losing five years of his, if
uncovered, will make national news. Dolinski says because of this
things are
in
-tense at the
Carnal Police Station and he wants me to be aware that if these
outside factions keep up their activities, some twitchy people may
get seriously fuckin’ twitchy and Officer Dolinski says he’s
this close
to askin’ his girl to take his
hand in marriage and he’d actually like to get the chance to ask
her not to mention marry her and make a family with her and not get
his head blown off and some random black guy who’s unlucky enough
to look at one of these assholes funny servin’ time for that
crime.”

Ty was silent and he was silenced by
surprise.

Then he asked, “You backin’ off?”

To that, Peña was also silent for long
moments before he said quietly, “Been chewin’ on that.” He paused
then continued, “And, see, I wanna help Officer Dolinski out. Only
got a very long phone call to get to know this guy but I got the
feelin’ he’s a good man. Know, doin’ what he’s doin’, he’s a moral
man and a brave one. Problem is, he shared with me that someone got
the idea that all this started with you gettin’ out, it was all
quiet before you came home so they felt the best course of action
was to make a statement and
get you back in.
And seein’ as you weren’t helpin’ with that, not
barrelin’ into Carnal, guns ablaze, metin’ out retribution, but
instead enjoying your newlywed status, they felt it was necessary
to draw you out. And they felt the best way to do that was to fuck
with your wife. So, Officer Dolinski told me they put that plan
into action and he promised me he’d do what he could for Lexie but
I’m not feelin’ good about that promise or how long it’ll take for
this shit to get done and if shit’s so buried that wrongs will
never be righted. I’m not big on wrongs not bein’ righted, wrongs
bein’ righted are kinda why I got in the cop business in the first
fuckin’ place, so I still feel I gotta do what I can do to make
that happen.”

Ty made no response.

So Peña asked, “You gonna talk to Mr.
Jackson?”

To that, Ty answered, “Yeah, but we’re not
backin’ down either. Frank’s a good man and I feel for him. He’s
already taken Lexie’s back. The thing is, I don’t wanna go back in
and Lexie and I wanna start a family and I want my kids to have a
father who doesn’t have that kinda shadow hangin’ over his head.
The mission is to stay free and clear my name and I trust Frank but
one man against many isn’t gonna do shit. I cannot say I’m not
smilin’ inside that these guys are feelin’ the heat enough to get
twitchy so not sure I wanna turn down that heat. We’ll do what we
can to have Frank’s back but it’s not only his future that’s ridin’
on this.”

Silence then Peña exposed he’d honed in on
one thing in all that Ty said, “You and Lexie tryin’?”

Fuck.

Ty didn’t want to answer but he did.
“Yeah.”

Then a surprised, “Already?”

“Angel, I lost five years. You think I’m big
on pissin’ away anymore?”

“Got a point,” Peña muttered.

“Anyway, Lex wants four kids. She’s
thirty-four, she wants that, we gotta get started.”

He listened to Peña roar of laughter
before, “
Madre de Dios,
esé
,
you just cured me.
Tu esposa es muy linda
but four kids? That’s about three headaches and definitely
three college tuitions I’m glad I’m gonna miss.”

Shit. That wasn’t something he’d thought
about.

He was rethinking his vow never to sit a
game of poker again, and definitely the coffee table shopping
expedition when Peña finished it.

“
All right, Ty, don’t expect an invitation
to the baby shower but you got my number now, you need me,
she
needs me, I’m a phone call
away. I’ll keep an eye on Martinez and give you a head’s up, I hear
anything.”

“Thanks, Angel and a little payback, not for
you but just in case Frank calls you, we haven’t been sittin’ on
our hands. He needs to lean on someone to flip, he leans on
Crabtree.”

“Crabtree?”

“As in Officer Rowdy Crabtree.”

“What you got for him to use on Officer
Crabtree?”

“What I got is that Officer Crabtree visits
Denver every other weekend and he does this because there’s a
certain service he can get in Denver he can’t get out here in the
mountains. And this service is provided by men who look like boys
and it’s provided for a fee.”

A low whistle then, “How solid is this?”

“
Very.
”

“Ole Frank gave me his number,” Peña told
him.

“’Spect you’ll find time to call.”

“He’s not on your speed dial?”

“
Frank’s givin’ me
and
Tate a wide berth these days.”

“Probably smart,” Peña muttered.

It probably was and now Ty knew why. Before,
he thought Frank had gone to the dark side which meant his stepping
in for Lexie didn’t make sense. Now, it made sense.

“One thing,” Ty added. “Frank’s gonna use
this, he needs to do it soon. If he doesn’t, Crabtree is gonna have
a talk with someone else. He sits a cruiser, he’s not gonna be
pullin’ my wife over for bullshit and he was involved in my shit so
I got a desire to watch him squirm. This info is new, we’ve not
been sittin’ on it long and we won’t sit on it much longer. He
flips for Frank or he flips for me but he’s gonna flip.”

“Right,” Peña whispered.

“Right,” Ty confirmed.

“You got more?” Peña asked.

“We do but what we got is shit I’m gonna
keep. Crabtree isn’t the only one needs to squirm.”

Silence then, “Right. Okay then, Ty, again,
stay sharp.”

“Same to you.”

“Keep her happy.”

Jesus.

“That’s another mission, Angel.”

This got a chuckle then, “I’ll bet.
Later,
amigo.
”

“Later.”

He flipped his phone shut.

Then he flipped it open and called Tate.

Then he flipped it shut again and got back
to work.

* * * * *

At twelve thirty, Ty was standing with Wood
just outside a bay when the Viper turned into the garage and
growled down the forecourt.

Ty and Wood stopped talking in order to
watch and so did every single man on Wood’s payroll and Ty didn’t
even have to turn to confirm. Lexie had visited him in the
forecourt of the garage twice and once was incentive enough for any
man to stop what he was doing and pay attention.

But watching her park the Viper, throw out a
long, tanned leg and fold out of his car wearing a pair of black
short-shorts, the tight, berry-colored, halter-topped tee she was
wearing that day by the pool in Vegas, high-heeled, black sandals
on her feet, a pair of classy, black-framed shades covering her
eyes and her long, soft, shining hair falling over her shoulders
could cause even Rowdy Crabtree, with his closeted tendencies, to
have one motherfucker of a wet dream.

Ty grinned.

Wood muttered, “Shit.”

Ty’s grin got bigger.

Lexie shouted excitedly across the
forecourt, “You left me the Snake!” and then she did it.

Racing across the forecourt, he braced and
she launched herself in his arms. This time, she wrapped her long
legs around his hips and when he caught her, he did it with hands
to her ass.

She gave him a hard kiss then pulled away
and gave him a huge smile, her light beaming bright and
blinding.

Good.

She’d flipped on the switch.

And she liked the Viper. A lot.

“Babe, I’m at work,” he reminded her but
didn’t even twitch in an effort to put her on her feet.

To this, she turned her head to Wood and
greeted, “Hey, Wood.”

“Hey, Lexie. Welcome back.”

“Thanks,” she replied. “Happy to be
back.”

Wood’s eyes did a sweep of them while his
lips twitched and he noted, “That actually wasn’t lost on me.”

She shot him a smile then asked, “Do you
mind your mechanics engaging in public displays of affection?”

Ty shook his head, not in denial, because he
found it amusing his wife was a goof.

He’d missed that too, as in
missed
it.

Wood answered, “Just as long as you keep
your clothes on.”

“Can do,” she muttered then looked back at
Ty. “Soooo,” she drew this out then went on, “the bad news is,
Dominic hired someone.”

She didn’t look too broken up about it but,
still, he knew she liked that job so he murmured, “Sorry,
mama.”

Her smile flashed and she continued, “The
good news is, he caught her with her fingers in the cash register
only
two
days
after she started
and fired her ass so…” her arms that were curled around his
shoulders disappeared as she threw them in the air and Ty had to
lean back so his wife wouldn’t topple the other direction as she
shouted, “I’m back in!”

Ty turned his head to Wood and explained,
“My wife’s a goof.”

Wood chuckled.

“I’m not a goof,” Lexie protested, winding
her tanned arms around his shoulders again.

“Baby, you’re a goof. Total goof,” Wood
declared. “But you stick with that, you work it.”

Wood was not wrong about that.

“Okay,” she said quietly, turned to Ty,
lifted her shades to her forehead and gave him big eyes that told
him without words to stop telling people she was a goof.

That was when Ty chuckled.

Then he squeezed her ass, gave her a small
heft to communicate his intentions, her legs loosened from his hips
and he dropped her to her heels.

She moved her shades back to her eyes and
leaned her body into Ty as Ty said to Wood, “Lunch.”

“Right,” Wood jerked up his chin. “Take your
time. You been doin’ so much overtime, actually saves me money you
take a long lunch.”