The Chase (10 page)

No one bothered to comment. It wasn’t the first time a dead body had slowed the city’s commuters.

The mayor swung to Jo. “How are
you
today?”

She wasn’t quite sure how to take that. The emphasis on “you” went beyond casual inquiry. She sat a little taller. “I’m fine, sir. Thank you.”

Gabe rolled his eyes. “You got a severed hand in the mail yesterday.
I
wouldn’t be fine after that.”

What the hell is he doing?
She eyeballed him. “I’m fine. And it didn’t come in the mail. It was sent by courier. Just to be clear, because as you know,
mailing
it would be a federal offense.”

He snorted and Jo drove her low-heeled pump into the ground. If only she had the spikes on, she’d blast him with them under the table.

“Okay,” Bev said holding her hands out. “Don’t start.”

The mayor laughed—actually laughed—and Jo wanted to crawl away. How humiliating.

“Sorry, sir,” she said. “Sergeant Townsend and I tend to bicker. In a friendly sort of way.”

Except for tonight when I stab him in his sleep.

“So I see. Let’s discuss the situation with the severed hand.”

Uh-oh
. “Of course, sir.”

“I’ve conferred with both Tom and Bev, and we feel for the time being you should not accompany the men when they execute the warrants.”

No. Nuh-uh. No way. She slid a sideways look at Gabe. This was his doing. Every instinct told her he’d gone to Tom and convinced him to shut her down. Inside, a piece of her heart ripped away. He’d sabotaged her.

She cleared her throat. “Sir, I don’t think that’s necessary. My identity is out there. What does it matter now? The vendors know who I am.”

“Exactly why you should stay away. The last thing we want is you getting hurt.” The mayor pointed at her cast. “Again.”

Horrid. That’s what this was. She’d go insane sitting in her office, missing all the action.

Bev turned to her. “I’m sorry, but I have to agree. The risk is too high.”

Jo looked at the still silent Tom. Somehow, she couldn’t look at Gabe right now. “Were you able to identify whose hand it was?”

Tom glanced at Gabe. That silent communication men did drove Jo nuts. “No,” Gabe said. “I called the lab on my way here. The prints aren’t in the system. They’re working on who sent the package. There were a ton of prints to check. Maybe something will pop. Got a lead on this Kiki, though. The address on his license is old. I talked to one of the undercover guys. They heard he’s squatting in Flatbush. We’re canvassing.”

In the meantime, Jo got benched. Silently she fumed, her insides literally frying.
One more shot at the mayor
. “Sir—”

Before she’d even launched into her argument, he shook his head. “No, Jo. I’m sorry.”

—:—

When the meeting adjourned, Gabe and Tom followed Jo to the elevator and they all waited together in an ugly, nerve-shattering silence. The power in the building could have run on the steam coming off Jo.

The elevator arrived and they all piled on. Tom hit the lobby button and leaned against the far side wall. Gabe stood behind a clearly pissed-off Jo. Well, life sucked. If her being furious with him kept her out of harm’s way, he’d welcome the tension.

The only noise was the Muzak version of “Copacabana.” He grunted. What a colossal goatfuck of a day.

Tom glanced at Jo, then to Gabe, who slowly moved his head back and forth.
Don’t go there
. If the guy had any survival instincts at all—and he didn’t get to his rank without them—he’d keep his mouth shut.

“Jo—” Tom said

Survival instincts must be on a union mandated lunch break.

“Forget it,” Jo shot. The elevator doors opened and she bolted into a small group of people waiting for their lift.

“Talk to her,” Tom said to Gabe. “We can’t have her this way. She’ll wind up slipping with the press and we’re all screwed.”

With that, Gabe watched his superior officer abandon him and head toward the lobby doors. Jo had stopped at the desk to drop off her visitor’s pass and Gabe hustled to catch her before she ran. She spotted him coming and turned tail. “Don’t talk to me,” she yelled over her shoulder.

She might have long legs, but his were longer. He easily caught up and grabbed her arm. “Counselor, let me drive you to your office.”

She jerked her arm free. “No. Thanks. A cab sounds delightful.”

A few of the visitors wandering in and out tossed curious glances their way. Time to get her out of here. He latched onto her arm again. “You want to yell at me, fine. I’ll drive you back to your office and you can scream the whole way. The thing we won’t do is make a scene in the lobby so you can lose your spot on your precious task force.”

Her flaming blue eyes clouded over.
Ah, yes, comprehension
. What a concept. Slowly, she eased her arm free.

“Where are you parked?”

“In the lot.” He held his arm toward the back door. “Right this way.”

Still bent on ignoring him, she strode to the door, nodded at the guard and pushed through. Once in the lot, Gabe directed Jo to the unmarked cruiser at the end of the row. She didn’t bother waiting for him to open the door and hopped in on her own. Yeah. This would be brutal. Fucking bad day all around.

He climbed into the car and no sooner did he have the door shut than she started in.

“You completely undermined me.”

Gabe closed his eyes. “I did not.”

“You went to your boss and told him to bench me. He listens to you. You could have talked to me first.”

Talked to her? Hadn’t he done that? Several times? She never goddamned listened. Never. And it was starting to royally irritate him. He breathed through his nose—
don’t yell
—and faced her.

“I did talk to you. How many times have I told you to wait, to not go inside until I say? I practically begged you to be smart. And you ignored me and did what you wanted.” He poked his finger at her. “Guess what, babe? Now you can’t ignore me.”

Her face stretched into that open-mouthed horrified look often found in bad B movies. “Babe?” she hollered. “Have you lost your mind? Listen,
babe
, I’ve worked too hard on this task force to let you decide you’re calling the shots.
Guess what, babe?
A few orgasms won’t give you the authority to decide what I will and will not do.”

Apparently she’d missed the fact the Mayor of New York had told her to cool her jets. He pursed his lips for a second and stared out the windshield. They should leave. The longer they sat there, the more notice they’d bring to themselves. He flipped the key and backed out of the spot, barely sparing Jo a glance.

“Be pissed at me if you want. Bring it on. I had a guy’s body parts fall on me today. As tough as you are, you got nothin’ on that. I’m done asking you to help me keep you safe.” He bullied himself into the afternoon traffic and was the recipient of a few horn blasts.
Screw them
. “If a severed hand won’t convince you, then nothing will. Yeah, I told my boss to bench you.” He stopped for the red light at the corner and finally looked at her. “And I’d do it again.”

Chapter Eight

“Great,” Jo said. “I can see ten months of working together—never mind the smoking hot sex—has truly solidified your faith in my professional abilities.”

The light turned green and Gabe shot in front of traffic and slid into the right lane to make the turn toward her office. The man’s driving could qualify for the Indy 500. She gripped the door handle.

“Cut the crap, Jo. That’s the biggest line of horseshit I’ve heard. You’re pissed that I won’t let you have your way.”

Searing blood shot to her cheeks. Let her have her way?
That’s
what he thought this was? “No. I’m mad because you undermined me. You could have called me and said, ‘Hey, either you bench yourself or I’m going to my boss.’ You didn’t do that. You gave me no respect. And frankly, I expected more from you, Sergeant. You owed me that.”

He came to another red light. This one only a block from her office. She tugged on the door handle, but it was locked. “I’m getting out.”

Before she could hit the unlock button, the light turned green. “Relax, Counselor, it’s only another block.”

“A very long block. And right now, I could bludgeon you.”

He slid his gaze to her, but immediately went back to the road.

“I could take a tire iron and just beat you senseless, Gabe Townsend. You totally manipulated this situation.”

“I tried everything else and you wouldn’t listen. My going to Tom was your own goddamned fault. Think about it. How many times did I tell you I was concerned?”

That tripped her up. The man had practically begged her to consider staying in her office rather than going on the raids. “Not that many.”

“I call
bullshit
.”

He brought the car to a halt at the bus stop in front of her building and hit the unlock button. She gave the handle a yank and jumped out into the slew of pedestrians on the sidewalk. Before closing the door, she spun back. “You could have had a conversation with me. Considering the multiple orgasms and all.”

A young guy walking by stopped to check her out. “Whoa, lady. I’ll take a few orgasms from you.”

“Nice, Jo,” Gabe said. He poked his finger at the guy. “You. Keep moving.”

She slammed the car door, hurried into her building and waited for the elevator while her brain slowly disintegrated. She’d had enough of bullheaded alpha males for one day. Wasn’t this typical? She slept with him and all of a sudden he thought he could control her?

Why were men so stupid when it came to strong-willed women? They just didn’t get it. In their ten months of working together, he should have known having her benched would infuriate her. Not only did he have her benched, he did it in an unscrupulous way. He’d essentially flipped her the professional middle finger.

Well, Sergeant Townsend, screw you. Or, in this case,
un
screw you.

“Gah!” she said and the businessman on the elevator glanced at her. The bell rang for her floor and the doors opened. “Men.”

She marched through the open suite door and Maggie, the receptionist, said, “Wow. You look fierce.”

“I
am
fierce. Hold my calls.”

That sounded bad. Maggie didn’t deserve to be the brunt of Jo’s fight with Gabe. Slowly, she turned back. “Maggie, I’m sorry. That was completely awful of me and it will never happen again.”

Maggie’s eyebrows rose. Of all the lawyers in this office, Jo was probably the only one who’d ever apologized about anything. What that said about the lawyers in their office, she didn’t want to speculate on.

Too much darned thinking today. That was the problem. “Anyway, I’ll be in my office. Please hold my calls.”

“No problem. And thanks. You didn’t need to apologize, but I appreciate it.”

“The people in this world need to learn a little civility,” Jo called over her shoulder.

By five o’clock she had burned through every last ounce of mad fueling her. The fact that she’d realized she may have forced Gabe’s hand wasn’t making her too happy, but he still should have talked to her. They were both stubborn. Too much so. He’d asked her several times to be careful, to stay back, to let the P.D. handle the warrants. Each time, she’d resisted.

She simply wanted in on the action. Wanted to feel all those counterfeit products in her hands so she’d know, without a doubt, the effort had been worth it. Seeing a room full of counterfeit merchandise made the dream of a nationwide initiative seem within her reach.

She stared down at her bright red cast. He’d warned her she could get hurt. The day before that vendor had taken a pipe to her hand, he’d warned her. And then he’d warned her multiple times after that.

Liza poked her head in. “Hey, I’m heading out. You need anything?”

I need a week in Maui.

Jo shook her head. “No. Thanks.”

Not moving from the doorway, Liza narrowed her eyes. “You don’t look so good.”

“I need to do something I absolutely hate.”

A look of concern washed over Liza. “What is it?”

“I have to apologize to a bullheaded alpha male.”

—:—

Gabe sat in front of Tom’s desk in a too-small, crappy metal chair that had to be forty years old. The office itself was barely eight feet by eight feet and between the bulk of the big desk, the two chairs and the two of them, a sudden bout of claustrophobia had set in.

By the way he sat with his fingers steepled and his eyes focused, Gabe suspected his boss had something on his mind. It couldn’t be anything good either. Not with that intense stare.

Gabe had been under Tom’s command since his days at the 14
^th
and after he’d been transferred to the Special Operations Division, the parent command of ESU, he’d made sure Gabe came along.

For years, Tom had been his mentor, had helped him position himself on the fast track to lieutenant. Together, they were powerful allies.

Tom finally sat back and dropped his hands. “Jo was steamed today. That’s saying something, since she’s usually full of piss-and-vinegar anyway.”