My Addiction: Second Chances Series (18 page)

Lock

Lock drove across town to the edge of Plano and Frisco to a townhome off Preston road. He pulled up and unlocked the door to find Derek sitting at the dining room table playing cards with Noelle.

They both looked up at him and Derek smiled. “He’s back!”

Lock grunted and closed the door. Noelle looked puzzled at Derek. “Who is that?”

Derek laughed and stood. “Did you find her?”

Lock nodded, ignoring Noelle and her puzzled stare. “Yeah, she was with Brad, as I thought she would be.”

“Lockhart?!” Noelle exclaimed eyes wide. She looked at him up and down, then blushed red. “Wow!”

“Yeah, yeah I know I clean up good.”

“I’ll say… Holy crap!”

“Noelle, will you excuse me?” Lock asked looking at Derek. “I want to talk to Derek alone on some other police business.”

She nodded and left the room. He heard her climb up the steps, then heard a door close faintly. He sat down at the table while Derek went into the kitchen to grab a water. He returned and gave it to his boss.

“Did you talk to the chief?”

Lock nodded. “Yeah, I called him. He wants me to come down to the station and give him a complete brief, but for the most part, he’s letting us see this through. Homicide is going to want some of this, but he said he’ll let major crimes continue working this case.” Lock paused and ordered, “I need to know everything you found out about Nora Reynolds, and how in the hell did you manage to get to the warehouse when I had you specifically watching Nora.”

Derek sat down and brought his boss up to speed. “Nora Reynolds is clean when it comes to finances, she doesn’t work, and is a member of the socialites of Houston. Mother and father are well off… father is a surgeon and mom is a stay-at-home wife. Nothing jumps out to me, except a call that came in a few weeks ago. It was a cell phone call from a division of the government based out of Washington, DC, but the call was made here in Dallas. I didn’t think anything of it until the techs noticed she kept calling the number well after that date. They spoke for a long time on many occasions. At first, I thought she might have been cheating, until I found out that the number belonged to a Ramone Allen of the Federal Bureau of Investigation organized crime unit. I got a picture of him from a buddy of mine from the Bureau and they told me agent Ramone Allen was working on a case dealing with a kid trafficking racket that involved a few organized crime families within the area of Dallas.”

“Did you call and talk to this David Martins guy that Ayana told us about?”

“I did this morning. He wasn’t forthcoming at first, until I told him Allen was still working this case with Ayana. That got him all forth right with me, saying how Ramone told him Ayana wasn’t working out. He said that he got the girl hidden in one of their safe houses while he worked another angle. Apparently, Allen told him he was in good with one of the guys in the circuit working with his crew and he was getting real close to making an arrest. Martins said he was even reporting regularly and sending his reports in on time. You know how the Feds are with their paperwork.”

“Goddamn Feds… don’t know their dick from their ass.” Lock sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

Derek grunted and nodded. “So after I told Martins that his guy is actually planning on selling Ayana to the Santos family, he told me he was on his way. And get this; he’s hoping for some inter-agency cooperation.” Derek leaned back in the small awkward dining table chair. “Fucking assholes. It takes us to tell him his guy is fucking off the reservation and he wants us to work with him.”

“You know what’s going to happen once they get here, don’t you? They’ll take the credit for everything.”

Lock nodded his head, knowing that was true. However, he couldn’t worry about that. He needed to keep everyone safe. That was his main goal until the Feds got there, then they could get their man and go fuck themselves out of his city. He hated the Feds.

Lock finally opened the water bottle and took a few gulps before asking, “So tell me how you got to the warehouse?”

“Oh, yeah, so I was keeping an eye on Ms. Reynolds like you asked. She’s staying at the Marriott behind that mall in Frisco. We have a room next door to her. We lucked up there.  We planted some listening devices. We’ve heard nothing really out of the ordinary. She’s really portraying your brother like an asshole to her parents by the way. ..”

Lock waved his hands dismissively and leaned back in his chair.

“I don’t care about that shit. What made you leave post?”

“Yeah, right, so later that night she actually got a visitor. She used his name, specifically asking him why it was taking so long for him to get rid of her.”

Lock sat up. “Her who? Did they specifically use Ayana’s name?”

Derek shook his head. “No, not specifically, but the man just said, ‘
Santos wants to buy her. All I have to do is get her to show up at this fight and she’s good as gone.’
”

Lock folded his arms. His gut was telling him there had to be more to this connection then just Ramone calling her out of the blue, some type of trigger.

Locked looked at Derek and said, “Did you see any type of history with these two? Meaning did they speak to each other prior to now? Do they know people in common?”

Derek shrugged his shoulders. “Not sure, but I can get the techs to look though. You’re thinking they’re connected in some way?”

Lock nodded. “Yeah, it seems too much of a comfortable setting if you ask me. Why would he just show up like that and tell her about Ayana?”

“Do you think she hired him to get rid of Ms. Peters?”

That was something Lock was thinking, but he doubted it. He shook his head. “No, I don’t think up until my brother left did she feel threatened by Ayana, but I don’t want to speculate. I want to weed through all this shit and get to the real story between those two. So after you’ve identified who Allen was, you followed him?”

Derek nodded. “Yeah. I left Suarez at the hotel to watch Ms. Reynolds while I followed this guy. I wanted to see if he led me to where he was staying or some place of importance. He first drove to Ms. Peter’s place and that had me on alert. I sent a text to Scott to let you know when he could. Then he went to this place out in Lewisville. It was an abandoned looking warehouse of some sort. He was there for a while, for about thirty minutes before he left with some heavy hitters. And that’s when I followed him to your locale. Shit happened so fast I didn’t have a clue that was the same warehouse you were at until I saw Scott.”

Lock nodded but didn’t say anything else. Ayana told him she was avoiding Allen’s call so he had to have been getting frustrated and decided to maybe use Noelle as leverage to get her to come out of hiding. They really had to make sure to keep Noelle out of sight.

He looked over at Derek. He had some good men surrounding him, except for Jonesy. That idiot was useless, which is why Ayana got away so easily. But his core group of guys were solid. He knew they wouldn’t fall for any shit, much less get distracted.

“Did you give Suarez the address to the place you followed Allen?” Lock asked.

Derek nodded. “Yeah, I did. He told me it belongs to a company by the name of Dominguez Holdings, which happened to be owned by the Santos family.”

“Alright, I need a body on that place like yesterday. See what kind of traffic goes in and out of that place. I also want someone sitting on the Aloft hotel, where my brother, is at all times. Have them speak with the manager and get them behind the counter, if need be. I want them to be visible, understand?”

“Yes, sir. I’m on it. Do you want Suarez on your brother?”

Lock nodded then stood. “Yeah, do that. Scott will be relieving Sol, and he’ll get some rest, then come and relieve you. I need you guys awake and watchful. They may come for either of the women and if they get them, we will
never
see them again. Stay frosty and alert, understand?”

“As always.”

******

Lock reported to his precinct and updated his first and second in command. Lieutenant Bruce Wayne, who was affectionately called Batman by people that knew him well, was tall and thin with skin as dark as night, nothing like the character’s namesake. He wore glasses and looked like he should be an accountant rather than a police officer, but he was extremely good at what he did and he didn’t take any shit from anyone. Wayne had been on the force for twenty years and counting. Captain Drew Carmine had been on the force for the same amount of time as Lieutenant Wayne, but he was on a faster track to lead. He was a good cop in his day and a great detective, but he’d proven to be a better Captain leader. His precinct is the best in the district with closing their cases and getting convictions.

Lock gave him everything he had on the case and everything he learned from Ayana about the underground fighting operation going on in the city. He then went to his desk, not before getting ribbed for the clean-up, and worked on a few cases sitting on his desk. He was trying to buy some time while he waited for the Feds. He didn’t have to wait very long. When Special Agent Martins arrived, he had an entourage following him. Lock leaned back and picked out Martins just by the way he walked.
Stick so far up his ass,
he thought to himself.

Lock watched him ask a fellow detective a question, probably asking for him, and just as the detective pointed in his direction, he sat and waited until Martins approached.

“Detective Mills?” Martins said, as he approached.

“Sergeant Mills, and you are Special Agent Martins?”

Martins nodded and reached out his hand. Lock stood to his full 6’3” height and looked down at Martins. It was an intimidation tactic that he used all the time, just letting the person he meets know he’s nothing to be trifled with.

Martins, to his credit, wasn’t intimidated at all. He found it quite amusing actually, but there was one thing about him; he wasn’t stupid. He didn’t have the same mindset as his counterparts in the Bureau about local cops. There were some very smart and very capable cops that he’s had the pleasure of knowing and working with, and from the looks of this one in front of him, he would be another.

“Yes, I am. Sergeant, I’m hoping we can get started. I know this situation is out of control, but I know Ramone, so I have a feeling it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Lock calm down a little. Martins wasn’t like some of the other Feds he’d worked with. He doesn’t seem to have a chip on his shoulders. That couldn’t be said for the team he had behind him though. The five men and women stood there as if they would lose brain cells just being around cops.

Lock shook his head at Martins’ team and replied to Martins, “My Captain and Lieutenant wanted to be in on the brief, so let me show you to our meeting room, get you settled, then I’ll go and get them. There’s coffee in the room, so help yourself.”

Lock moved quickly with Martins and after they were settled, he went to grab his Captain and Lieu. The meeting started with Martins briefing everyone on how they were contacted by an Ayana Peters on a crime family involving child trafficking.

Lieutenant Wayne asked, “Did anyone ask why she went to the Feds instead of the local police?” He looked at Lock and Lock almost told them the answer: that he was so far up in his grief to give her any credence.

But he never got a chance to speak because Martins added, “Ms. Peters has a brother that has helped us on a few federal cases in the past pertaining to drugs, guns, things like that, and not to accuse anyone here, but the Santos family has a lot people in their pockets. I think they were trying to stay under radar and go to people that are outside of their area.” Lock’s eyebrows rose in surprise to that news. Terrence Peters was actually helping the Feds?

Captain Carmine frowned, bringing Lock back into the room.

“I’m not going to comment on what you implied about my officers, but I hear you on her wanting to get help outside the area.” He looked to Lock. “When Ms. Peters and Ms. Foster came to you, they told you what was going on?”

Lock nodded. “Yes, sir. Apparently, what Special Agent Martins has said ties to her accounts as well. The fights that took place were all so they could get the heavy hitters actually doing the trafficking, Luis Santos being one of the players.”

“When did she discover Ramone was playing for the other team?” Martins asked.

Lock’s eyes narrowed as he retorted, “After her last fight, she saw the man that was responsible for the murder she witnessed and the attempted murder on Ms. Foster. She said she brought it to Allen’s attention and that’s when she saw the change in him. She said he choked her when she mentioned he should check in with you. Allen assured her you were in the loop and everything will be over soon.”

Martins nodded soberly. “I wish she would have been confident enough to reach out to me herself.”

Lock leaned into the table. “Why did you use her to begin with? I’m sure you could have gotten a trained agent to go undercover for you.”

Martins shrugged. “We were going to but she insisted. She said she wanted to do it and gave a hell of an argument on why she should. We were only going to use her for a few fights and if we didn’t get any bites we were going to replace her. According to Allen’s reports, she didn’t fight but in three events because he figured out another way in. We had no knowledge of her still fighting. That’s not how we go about things, Sergeant. But we did make sure she trained with the best. And she gave it her all during the four weeks she trained. She was relentless almost as if she had something to prove.”