Sheltering Dunes

Chapter Twenty-three

What do you think?” Reese asked.

Tory snuggled closer, her cheek pressed to Reese’s chest, one of her favorite positions. She loved listening to Reese’s heart. The steady, strong, unwavering beat, so much like Reese herself. She pressed a kiss to one of the many scars that were so much a part of Reese too. She might never be able to overlook them, but she understood them. She understood Reese’s need to put herself between those she loved and danger. Reese had been raised in a military family to be a soldier, and she lived the concepts that were to so many only theoretical. The words “honor” and “duty” shaped the horizons of Reese’s life and guided the actions of every day, in her family, in her job, in her dreams. Tory hadn’t expected to find a woman she could count on to be there, physically and emotionally, unendingly. The price she paid for that incredible gift was the ever-present fear that one day Reese wouldn’t come home. Joy almost always overshadowed her dread, relegating the agony to the distant recesses of her consciousness, but every morning when Reese left the house, some small part of her worried over what evil Reese would face that day and if she would put herself in the line of fire rather than let even the life of a stranger be at risk. “What do I think about what?”

“The little swimmers.” Reese stroked her hair. “Did we hit a home run?”

Tory laughed. “Well, we certainly gave them a good send-off.”

“Oh, I know I got my part right.” Reese chuckled, a comforting rumble that chased away the whisper of sadness. “A couple of times.”

“Your part. Oh really? All on your own?” Tory slapped Reese’s stomach, and muscles sang beneath her fingertips. She loved Reese’s body, the soft swell of her breasts, the taut stretch of her abdomen and thighs. She skimmed her fingertips in slow circles over the ridges and valleys and lines of past battles, other moments when she could have lost her. But she hadn’t lost her. Reese was hers. “In addition to your stellar performance and out-of-the-park winning hits, I have this feeling…”

Reese sucked in a breath. “A feeling? What kind of feeling?”

“There’s this thrumming deep inside. A kind of knowing. It feels a lot like coming home to you—comforting, peaceful, exciting.”

“That’s good, then.” Reese kissed her. “That’s great. I can’t wait until I can feel him.”

“Him?”

“Reggie asked for a brother.”

“Um, darling? She’s not two yet. Are you sure she said that?”

“Positive.”

Tory laughed. “You’ll need to tell her that’s not the kind of thing you can just order up. Even if you do think you can make the world spin just for her.”

“I don’t—spin, huh? I suppose if she asked me to—”

“You’d find a way.” Tory smiled. “I’m a little older this time around. It might be a little harder hitting that home run.”

Reese tightened her arms around Tory. “I haven’t noticed any difference. You’re still just as beautiful, just as hot, and just as sexy as ever. I’m not worried, but the nice thing about all of this is if we have to try again, it’ll be a hell of a lot of fun.”

Tory pushed up on her elbow and traced the outline of Reese’s mouth. Outside the window, the sun had climbed high in the sky. They weren’t going to sleep again. She had work waiting in the office. And ever since Reese took over as chief, she went in before the day shift started, no matter how late she’d worked the night before. The day was upon them, but right now, right this moment, she could pretend that time was all theirs. She kissed Reese. “You make me feel like the most cherished woman in the world. I don’t think I can tell you what that means to me.”

Reese framed Tory’s face and ran her thumbs along Tory’s jaw. The simple caress set Tory on fire.

“Before you,” Reese said, “a huge part of my life was just waiting to happen, and I didn’t even know it. I thought I was complete. I thought I was happy. I didn’t know there was a difference between satisfaction and happiness. I didn’t know what it meant to be fulfilled. You gave me happiness—you gave me a future that was filled with something other than war and death. You gave me Reggie, and soon, you’ll give me another gift that I’ll never have a way to thank you for.”

“You know there’s no thank you in love, right? You give, I give. That’s how it works.”

“I think that might be one of those lessons I’m not gonna be very good at learning.”

“We’ll work on it.” Tory slid on top of her and eased her thigh between Reese’s legs. She wanted her. Not to make a baby, but to celebrate who they were together. “I love you.”

Reese cupped her ass and pulled her tighter against her leg. The strength in Reese’s hands, the ease with which Reese took control, sent pleasure surging through her. Tory moaned, losing focus for a second. “I love—”

Reese’s phone rang and Tory closed her eyes, pressing her forehead against Reese’s shoulder. “Answer the damn thing.”

“Sorry.”

Tory chuckled. “Me too. Maybe we’ll still have time. If not, later.”

“Yeah. That’s a good thing about being married.” Reese slid her hand under Tory’s hair and clasped her neck as she reached for her phone with the other hand. “We’ll always have another time.”

Tory clung to that thought, needing to believe there would always be another moment when Reese was completely hers.

*

“Conlon.”

“Sorry to call so early, Chief. This is Detective Lieutenant Rebecca Frye—Philadelphia PD. I just spoke with Officer Tremont, and I believe you’ve got a person of interest up there in a case we’re working.”

“That would be the Butler girl.”

“That’s right. We believe her to be Mia Gonzales, the girlfriend of Hector Guzman, the present leader of MS-13 in our region. That would make her the highest-ranking female in the organization.”

“That might explain why she doesn’t want anyone to know who she is. You have warrants on her?”

“Not presently,” Frye said. “The Gang Control Unit doesn’t want to move on any of the higher-ups until they’ve got something solid, and getting something solid isn’t easy. This isn’t a ragtag street gang that leaves a trail a mile wide every time they pull a job. They’re smart, they’re organized, and their ranks are leak-proof.”

“I’ve heard that about them. Tough to break into. Tough to turn.”

“Pretty much impossible.”

“What’s your angle in all this? I take it you’re not GCU?”

“I head the High Profile Crimes Unit,” the lieutenant said. “We interface with most other divisions—a lot of overlap.”

“Uh-huh.” Reese waited for an answer that actually was one. She had nothing against interdepartmental cooperation, but her first priority, her critical responsibility, was to her community. She needed to have all the information available to her.

“For the past few months,” Frye said, “we’ve suspected La Mara is setting up a cooperative operation with other organized crime families.”

“So La Mara’s leaders can give you evidence on the players in this other organization,” Reese said. “You want them all.”

“We want them.”

Frye’s voice was ice. History there.

“You want to get inside, then.”

“Us and just about every other division.” Frye paused. “I’d like to send someone who knows the situation up there to get close to Butler, find out what’s going on. Hopefully persuade her to help us.”

“If she’s the leader’s girlfriend,” Reese said, “she’s got to know enough to put him away.”

“Probably him and all of his lieutenants. If we can get something on him and squeeze him, we can get to the other players.”

“Let me see if I’m reading you,” Reese said. “You want to leave her up here as bait and wait to see who comes for her?”

“If she won’t cooperate, that’s an option,” Frye said, “but I’m hoping now that she has some distance we can get her to talk to us. I’m not interested in getting the girl killed.”

“Good, because neither am I. She’s also a member of our community. I don’t want our citizens or my officers getting caught in the middle of a gang war if this all goes south.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more. Look, it’s your turf, and I’m asking to come up and play on your field. I’ll send up one of my detectives and you can name one of yours to head the team.”

Reese thought about it. Right now, Mica Butler was still in danger from whoever had assaulted her the night before. The attack had to have been a retrieval, because if they’d wanted her dead, there’d been plenty of opportunity and easier ways to do it than a face-to-face physical confrontation. Another attempt was likely, and if that failed, probably another after that. Eventually they’d choose the simpler option and eliminate her. Mica must know they were closing in, and she had only two choices—run again, or stay and hope whoever was after her gave up. If she ran, she’d never be free. If she stayed, she’d have a huge target on her back. She just might opt for a frontal assault of her own. Taking on La Mara alone sounded a lot like suicide. “Are you going to tell her what’s going on?”

“How cooperative do you think she would be if we leveled with her?”

“I haven’t had a lot of personal interaction with her, but my sense is that she’s smart and she probably ran because she wanted a different kind of life.” Reese thought about Mica and Flynn. Allie thought they were together. Making ties with people who mattered changed a person. Altered priorities. Falling in love made the future look different. “If you can offer her immunity in return for cooperation, I think she might consider it.”

“I’ll follow your lead on this, Chief. No one’s had any luck turning anyone in La Mara—at least no one who’s lived very long. That’s why no one leaves. This girl’s not only smart, she’s brave.”

“Send your detective. Then we’ll talk to Mica Butler.”

“Thanks, I appreciate the cooperation. Detective Mitchell will be on the next plane up there. Ought to get there in a couple of hours.”

“We’ll be waiting. I’ll keep you in the loop.”

“Appreciate it, Chief.”

“Good talking to you, Lieutenant.” Reese disconnected and wrapped her arm around Tory’s shoulder. “I have to go in.”

“I heard. It sounded pretty serious.”

“It could be. Mica Butler is in a lot of trouble.”

Tory trailed her fingers back and forth over Reese’s chest. “The assault last night, that was no random event, was it?”

“No, and I doubt very much it will be the last.”

“What can you do?”

“Wait for the detective from Philadelphia, and then bring Mica in and talk to her.”

“Talk to her.” Tory shook her head. “Sounded like a lot more was planned. Using her as bait seems dangerous.”

“I don’t like it much myself.”

“Mica could get hurt.”

Reese sighed. “Unfortunately, Mica isn’t completely innocent in all of this. She’s a gang member, and not just a peripheral one at that. She’s a high-ranking member of a vicious gang. I don’t know what she’s done, I don’t know what she might be guilty of. I suspect they’re going to squeeze her with whatever they have on her to get her to talk.”

“She’s just a girl, Reese.”

“Children are not incapable of violence or criminal behavior. I’ve seen eleven-year-olds cut down soldiers with IEDs.”

“I know. And I know that the streets of some of our inner cities are as violent as the places you fought in over there and just as cruel. But we should be better than those places. You’ll look out for her, won’t you?”

“I will. Now she’s one of ours.”