Provocative passion, p.10
Provocative Passion, page 10
“How’s the case going?” Clarissa asked.
“Mr. Cole wants a deal.”
“Will he get it?” Elias asked.
Sophia smiled grimly. “I’m working to see that he doesn’t.”
Eli nodded. “Was Mr. Cleve any more help?”
“He gave us a lot more information on other cops involved,” Sophia shared. Cleveland Echols was a man both Elias and Tigo had known since they were children. “We think Mr. Cole wants to deal with someone higher up the ladder. Mr. Echols just didn’t have the information to shed light on that particular area. There were plans for his network of banks to headline things, but when he got cold feet it seems they started having second thoughts about sharing information that might clue him in on the real players in the mess.”
“That’s a lot on your plate, girl.” Clarissa rested her chin on her palm after she put an elbow on the table.
Sophia nodded. “But I’ve got help, two rookies looking back over my notes from the case. Maybe fresh eyes can find something my tired ones overlooked.” She sighed, leaning back in her chair. She intentionally avoided the probing stare Tigo sent her way.
“Have you seen your new office yet?” Clarissa asked. “I remember how small the one is that you’ve got now. It’ll be nice to have more room, huh?”
“Very.” Sophia folded her arms across the front of the powder-blue cashmere sweater she wore. “I’ve seen my office and my new car.”
Elias whistled.
“I could do without it all, though,” Sophia said in spite of her grin.
“Well, you’ve done a great job.” Clarissa squeezed her wrist. “There’s no shame in enjoying the benefits.”
Once more Sophia nodded. All the while she thought that she could live with the benefits. It was the threats she was having trouble with.
The waiter arrived for their dessert orders. Afterward, Eli whisked Clarissa away to dance. He told her they probably wouldn’t be able to move after the dessert course anyway. They left Tigo and Sophia at the table, where silence reigned for a while.
“What’s wrong?” Tigo asked finally.
Sophia knew it’d be unwise to put on a happy face, but she wasn’t about to divulge the full truth. She toyed with the thin gold chain above the scooping neck of her sweater. “It’s just been a long day, Tig. The new car was a lot to deal with.”
She cleared her throat and reached for her wineglass. Again, she avoided eye contact. She didn’t need to look his way to know he was giving her one of his all-knowing looks. The kind that told her he knew she was giving him a load of bull.
“So how was work today?”
“Why?” she blurted.
Tigo uttered a short sound that masqueraded as laughter. He brought an elbow to the table and studied his hand for a time. “I’m trying here, babe. You have to know that.”
Sophia studied the soulful obsidian of his gaze and nodded. “I know that, Tig. I, um...I think I was threatened today.”
The “What?” he whispered chilled her, but she knew he’d heard.
“I’m not sure—”
“Sure enough, though?”
She took a deep swallow of her white wine and waited for the inevitable explosion.
“What are you gonna do about it?”
Her head jerked up. She was clearly stunned by the question.
“I know I should tell someone.”
“And you’re considering not telling someone. Why?”
“I just...” She shook her head and turned suspicious eyes on him. “Why are you being so calm about this?”
He smiled and looked down as he tugged on the lapel of his chestnut-brown sport coat. “It’s the whole turning over a new leaf thing, yada, yada...” His expression had hardened by the time he looked at her again. “Don’t misunderstand me here, Soap. I’m pissed as hell over this and at you for thinkin’ about not telling me.”
“I just hate to make an issue of it,” she confessed, tapping her nails against the stem of the wineglass. “If it turns out to be nothing, everyone will think I’m paranoid and even less qualified to have the job. Also,” she added before he could break in. “Also keeping quiet might draw out whoever’s behind it.”
“Hell, Sophia.” Tigo caught his hand in a fist and closed his eyes as if to rein in his emotions. “Are you stupid enough to use yourself as bait?”
Sophia let her expression serve as an answer.
Tigo let a more flagrant curse fly as he dragged all ten fingers through his dark waves and tugged.
“I think whoever’s behind this threat is part of the crew Waymon Cole is trying to rest his deal on.”
“And you actually think this plan of yours is sound?” Tigo spread his hands out flat and studied her incredulously. “I get why you can’t make a deal with the snake, but putting your ass on the line is idiocy.”
“My ass was on the line when I broke the case, Tig. I may as well go all the way, right?”
“Jesus...” He massaged his forehead and then grabbed Sophia’s hand. “I just got you back,” he spoke into her palm. “I don’t plan on losin’ you, not ever. Do you understand what I mean?”
She scooted over into Clarissa’s chair and held his face in her hands. “I do.” She kissed his mouth. “I do.” She let her kiss linger.
Chapter 8
“So these guys are in jail for stealing a car that was already stolen?” D.A. Paula Starker asked Sophia after they’d met in a downtown park for coffee one chilly morning. “How do you know this?”
“My rookie cops scored.” Sophia warmed her hands around the paper mug. “Found it in some papers Laureen Bradford passed along.”
Paula sipped at her coffee in a studious manner and then pinched a corner from the cinnamon Danish wrapped in pastry tissue. She was about to pop the food into her mouth but hesitated. “Did the kids know who the car belonged to?”
“It was registered to Greenway Construction so...” She shrugged beneath her leather jacket.
“So these kids just happen upon a stolen truck? What do those odds look like to you?”
Sophia grimaced. “Extraordinary as hell.” She sent Paula a sideways glance. “You’re gonna have to let their public defender know. Think the guys’ll talk then? One of ’em works for Greenway. You think he’d be a little pissed that his boss hasn’t looked into having the charges dropped.”
Paula brought the cup to her mouth but didn’t sip. “You’d think...” She changed her mind about sipping from the cup. “Have your rookies turned up anything else?”
Sophia shook her head and leaned over to rest her elbows on jean-clad knees. “But they’re vested—determined to see this put to bed.”
“And how are you and Santigo?” Paula asked after a few conversationless moments. “Are you still buying his reformed act?”
“I don’t think it’s an act, Pauly.”
“Well, well.” Paula looked impressed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear the man’s willing to do anything to get you back.”
“No.” Sophia smiled thoughtfully. “Not anything. He won’t lie to me about being okay with it all.”
“How can you be sure of that?” Paula snuggled into her black cashmere sweater and warmed her hands on her cup.
Sophia appeared to be measuring her response. “I think I was threatened a few days ago. I told Tig and he wasn’t too happy about it or the fact that I’d thought of not telling him.”
“Threatened?” Paula was obviously stunned.
Sophia waved a hand. “It was nothing.”
“You’re insane.”
“I can handle it.”
Paula was already digging out her phone.
“What are you doing?” Sophia watched the woman activate the touch screen.
“What the hell do you think? I’m putting someone on your skinny tail.”
“Don’t.” Sophia snatched the phone. “I want to keep this quiet a little longer.”
“You are insane,” Paula whispered.
“They’ll expect me to put on a protection detail, Pauly. I’ll throw them off by not doing that. The more unpredictable I am, the more dangerous I am.”
“And the more urgent it’ll be to shut you up. Permanently.”
Sophia flopped back against the cool wooden bench. “You’re not a cop. You don’t get how important this is. One bad cop puts a stain on the whole force, and we had a helluva lot more than one.”
“It’s still not your job to try and clean up the mess on your own.” Paula faced her on the bench.
“I’m the one who discovered there was a mess to begin with, remember?”
“I give up.” Paula drank heavily from her coffee cup. “Do what you want. You will anyway.” She raised an index finger. “But don’t expect the people who care about you to just stand by and do nothing to keep you safe. Remember when one cop puts a stain on the force we need as many good cops as possible to clean up the mess.” She tipped her cup to Sophia in a mock salute.
* * *
“She’s still a good look for you,” Elias noted while signing papers left by his assistant Desmond Wallace to review upon his return from the trip with Clarissa.
“Thanks, but this is something I already know.” Tigo smirked.
“I see.” Elias’s focus was still on the paperwork. “And did you know this back when you let her walk away from you?”
Tigo laughed then. “Bravo, man, still got that talent for bringin’ a person straight down.”
Elias grinned.
“And I didn’t let Sophia walk away.” Tigo went to the bar in the corner of the office. “She did that all on her own.”
“But you didn’t do anything to stop her, did you?” Eli pulled his blue stare from the papers when Tigo set a bottle on the wood-grained bar top with more force than needed. “You sure about putting yourself through this again? She’s still a cop, just one with more rank now.”
“Only thing I’m sure of is I can’t do without her.”
“Come on.” Eli feigned disbelief. “You’re the most successful ladies’ man I know.”
“Hmph.” Tigo poured a drink. “Not hard to be successful when what you’re after is hollow.”
Eli maintained his disbelief. “Are you trying to tell me you’re after some kind of commitment from the girl?”
“You offend me, El. I’ve always wanted a commitment from her.”
“She know you still hate her job with a passion or is she still buying your reformed act?”
Tigo downed the shot of whiskey he’d poured and grimaced at the burn filtering through his throat. “She saw through it right away.” He joined in when Eli laughed.
“Case sounds like it’s far from over.” Elias returned to the papers he’d been signing. “She’s still dedicated to solving all of it. You ready for the situation that could put her in?”
“Hell no.” Tigo’s reply came without hesitation.
Eli watched his friend more closely. “Pour me one, too,” he said when Tigo helped himself to another shot.
Tigo obliged and handed Eli the drink while claiming his preferred seat along the edge of the desk.
“Her job still scares the hell out of me, but I get that to have her I have to accept it. Doesn’t mean I can’t do everything in my power to keep her safe.”
Eli was studying the light flooding the glass of amber-colored liquid. “What’s that mean?”
Tigo savored the whiskey burn with more relish that time. “I’ve got folks working to get answers about Carl and Lester’s boys.”
Eli frowned a moment and then nodded as he recalled what Tigo had told him earlier that morning about the boy’s legal troubles.
“I’m sure I can tug somebody’s sleeve about keeping an eye on her, too.”
“Be careful, man.” Eli downed his shot. “Don’t step too far into that. Sophie doesn’t look like the type to take kindly to her man questioning her ability to do her job.”
Tigo watched his hand as he clenched it in and out of a fist. “It’s not her ability I question, but what others might do to keep her from doing her job at all.”
* * *
“Harold, I swear you can trust me. I haven’t put one dent on the car.” Sophia laughed when she walked into the spacious yet cluttered office of the P.D.’s chief mechanic.
“As much as I love you, you don’t need to waste your time calling me in for weekly checkups.”
Harold Mackey tried and failed to keep a forced smile in place.
“Everything okay?” Sophia caught his look.
“Shut the door, Sophia.”
Quickly, Sophia pushed closed the wooden door with its glass-top window. She perched on a table loaded with car parts closest to where Harold sat behind his desk.
“You’re scaring me, Harold.”
Harold focused on the path his index finger traced across the oil- and coffee-splattered desk calendar. “The boys that got pinched in that traffic stop. Why were you interested in that?”
Sophia recalled what she’d told Harold about the carjacking. She’d wanted to assure him that she had more going on than the Cole matter. “My parents are friends with the parents of one of the boys.”
Harold’s nod was solemn. “Last thing I wanna do is put you in harm’s way, girl.”
“It’s my job, Harold.”
“And one bull’s-eye on your back is enough, and this is definitely bull’s-eye material.”
Sophia inclined her head. “This is about the Cole case?”
“No, but this issue with those boys seems to have teeth of its own.”
Sophia narrowed her eyes in a half playful, half suspicious manner. “You ready to be a detective again?”
Harold glared at her. “When I left to work down here, I never looked back. But I’m still a cop, too, and this has a stink about it that’ll probably lead back to more of our brothers in blue.”
Sophia eased off the table and down into a folding metal chair. “Harold, what are you talking about?”
He looked past the windows framing the office, satisfied that the floor appeared empty.
“Did you know the truck they were charged with stealing was registered to Greenway Construction, who one of the boys works for?”
“Yeah, the rookies helping me investigate put it together.”
Harold’s nod was somber. “And you knew the truck had already been reported stolen before those kids were ever stopped in it?”
It was Sophia’s turn to nod somberly. “None of it makes sense.”
Harold swiveled his desk chair restlessly. “That truck got sent to the impound while the boys were booked. I got a call from a friend who works over there.” He reached for something on the table behind the desk.
“This is a picture of what they found during the inventory.”
Sophia gasped once she’d focused on the screen of the phone Harold held. “Where?”
“Panel beneath the truck’s flatbed. Ernest said he almost fell through it while he was moving around back there during inventory.”
“How much is it?” Sophia eyed the picture on the phone that showed neat blocks of bills stacked high beneath the truck’s flatbed.
“One hundred and eighty-five K.”
Sophia whistled. “Wonder if the guys knew?”
Harold set the phone to his desk. “Hard to say, but I hope they were smarter than to drive around in a work truck owned by the folks they stole from. Smart thing to do would’ve been to switch out the cash.”
“If they knew it was there...damn it. You know this could be nothing.” She cast a skeptical eye toward the phone. “Maybe Greenway just doesn’t trust banks.” She gave a doubtful smile.
“Well, there’s more you should know before you go with that train of thought. Two cops came askin’ about the truck the very night it got there.”
“Did your friend know them?”
“He didn’t but says his gut told him they were rookies.”
“Hell...” Sophia eased her hands beneath her hair and began to massage her neck.
“You trust these rookies on your team?”
Sophia thought for a moment and then gave a firm singular nod to solidify her assurance. “Did your friend get the cops’ names?”
“They hurried out once Ernie put ’em off about procedure and waiting on paperwork for the truck. He told ’em to come back in a few days and then he called me. We moved it here to the garage. We should be able to keep a lid on it for a few more days.”
“The owner might ask,” Sophia warned.
Harold stabbed a finger at the desk calendar. “Then he best be prepared to answer a few questions, as well.”
“Depending on who else is involved, our questions may be swept under a rug.”
“So what’re you gonna do, Detective?” Harold asked after they’d sat quietly for a few moments.
Sophia slouched in the chair. “My dad knows Sylvester Greenway. I’ve always known him to be an upstanding guy...but I really don’t want to go to my dad with this.”
“You say your parents are friends with the kids’ folks. Maybe your dad’s already tried to reach out. You could ask.”
The idea made Sophia shudder. Given what had happened at the Reed House dinner, she didn’t want to put her parents in the middle of another mess, especially if the claims were unfounded. “I’ll talk to the D.A. first,” Sophia decided. “Get an idea of how she wants to move forward from here.”
“You trust her?”
“Yeah, I do. She’s gonna be one of the good ones, Harold.”
