Deadly Deception (SCVC Taskforce) (5 page)

As they loaded paper plates with slices of pizza, Cooper handed out drinks, and they sat in the couple’s stylish living room, looking out at the patio and pool. Down the hall, a door opened and a young boy and Chihuahua emerged, the boy following his nose to the pizza and the dog beelining it for a spot at Cooper’s feet.

Celina made introductions. “Ronni, this is Thunder.” She scratched behind the dog’s tall, upright ears. The boy wandered into the living room with a full plate, giving Thomas a high-five as he walked past. “And this is Cooper’s son, Owen.”

Cozy family, complete with a dog. Ronni’s heart pinched. “Nice to meet you,” she said to Owen around a mouthful of sausage and mushroom. He held out a small hand, and they shook.

She wiped her mouth with a napkin and tipped her head down at Thunder. The dog had trotted over to sit at Owen’s feet, his bug eyes wide in his tiny face as he watched the boy’s plate with singular focus. “And you, Thunder.”

Thunder turned his head, noticed Ronni had food as well, and gave up on Owen. His nails clicked on the hardwood floor as he trotted over, his pleading dark eyes and cute face hard to resist.

“Aw, you’re a cutie.” Ronni patted Thunder’s head. He licked her fingers, then put his paws on her leg and continued giving her puppy-dog eyes.

“Now you did it,” Thomas said, grinning.

He sat on the other end of the love seat, his body taking up too much space. His personality even more. Ronni ignored the way his T-shirt sleeves strained over his biceps. “Did what?”

“The dog’s a leach. You’ll never get him to leave you alone now.”

Owen plopped down on the floor by the coffee table. Thunder climbed in his lap, but when the kid told the dog to lie down, the Chihuahua obeyed.

“What was that you were saying?” Ronni teased. “Looks like a well-trained pet to me.”

Owen grinned, and Celina rolled her eyes. “How was your flight?”

For the next twenty minutes, the group talked and ate and laughed. Owen performed a couple of songs on his guitar. Thomas pulled a piece of sausage from an uneaten section of pizza and flipped it to the dog when he thought no one was looking. Thunder gobbled it down and went to sleep at Thomas’s feet. In the middle of a story Celina was telling about her latest crime scene investigation, music rang out, the opening notes to
Bad to the Bone
.

Thomas withdrew a cell phone from his shorts pocket. He shot a look at Cooper and Cooper silenced everyone with a finger to his lips.

“Yeah, man. What’s up?” Thomas paused, listening to the person on the other end. His brows drew together. “Tonight? What time?” Another pause. He did a thumbs-up gesture to Cooper. “I’ll be there.”

He disconnected, stood, and dropped the phone back into its pocket. “It’s going down at eleven at that abandoned warehouse on Bayside.”

Cooper rose, kissing Celina goodbye and texting someone at the same time. “Don’t wait up.”

“Be careful,” she called as both men headed for the back door.

The same words were on Ronni’s lips. “Need backup?”

Thomas turned, shot her a grin. “You offering?”

“Damn straight.”

Cooper hustled Thomas forward. “Not this round, Punto. Your assignment starts tomorrow. Tonight, you stay here and keep my girlfriend happy.”

Ronni locked eyes with Thomas, who was looking at her over Cooper’s shoulder. “Stay safe, Mann.”

“You know I will, little mama.”

Little mama?
“Mama, your ass,” she called to his back as the two disappeared. Celina chuckled.

Owen stood, snagged his guitar, and yawned. “Can I play Night of the Death Eaters?”

Celina checked the clock. “Half an hour. Then it’s a book and bedtime.”

The kid grumbled, but headed for his bedroom, Thunder following with one last look back at Ronni.

Once they were gone, Celina wandered into the kitchen. “Wine?”

“You know it,” Ronni answered.

Celina opened a bottle of red and poured two glasses. The patio doors were open and a nice breeze wafted in. She handed Ronni a glass and leaned against the kitchen counter. “So how are you, partner?”

Partner. Just like old times. But it wasn’t old times. Everything had changed.

The spot between Ronni’s shoulder blades itched. Nerves had been severed, but the doctors had repaired most of the damage. Every once in a while, it burned or itched. “Good. How about you? Looks like California living agrees with you.”

Celina eyed her over the rim of her glass, letting her know deflecting the conversation wasn’t going to work. “I love it here. I’m glad you finally paid us a visit. I just wish it wasn’t work-related.”

“This is good for me.” Ronni’s fingers shook ever so slightly as she ran them over the stem of her wine glass. The liquid inside quivered and she withdrew her hand, fisting it in her lap. “I was sick of being on light duty, pushing papers and making coffee. Time to get back in the field.”

“Cooper didn’t tell me anything about your case, but…” Celina hesitated, the unsaid words hovering like the false light coming from the pendant over the sink.
Undercover work is always dangerous
. “You nervous?”

The tight laugh left Ronni’s mouth before she could snuff it. “I haven’t been in the field since February. Yeah, you could say I’m nervous.”

Especially since I have to betray someone I once considered family.

“That’s why Dupé and Cooper wanted to pair you with Thomas. You couldn’t ask for better backup.”

“He’s on this other case right now.”

“Which appears to be wrapping up tonight.”

“And if it’s not, I can handle the assignment on my own.”

“I know you can, but I’d feel better if you had someone watching your back.” Celina held out her glass. “To partners, old and new.”

Her back. Oh, the irony. Reluctantly Ronni clinked glasses with her. They each sipped their wine, listening to the distant sounds of a computer game battle. “The kid is cool.”

Celina grinned. “I lucked out…got a ready-made family. Cooper and Owen had some issues in the beginning, but with my job change, I’m not working undercover and we can give him a more stable environment. He spends a couple weeks out of every month with us.”

A ready-made family. Ronni had had that once. It was one of the reasons cults appealed to the black sheep, the outcasts, the runaways.
You can’t pick your family
, the old adage went, but in some cases, you could. “Thanks for letting me stay here for a few nights. Do you have a computer I can use?”

“Bobby set up an office in the guest room for you.”

“Bobby?”

“Bobby Dyer, the taskforce’s computer guru. He was Cooper’s first partner before Valquis put him in a wheelchair.”

Now she remembered. Cooper hadn’t told Celina about Dyer’s unfortunate accident when he’d come to Des Moines back in the winter, and when Celina had found out, she’d gone ballistic. Celina and Dyer had been close once, probably were again.

“I need to do some research tonight.”

Celina pushed off the counter. “Let’s get you settled then.”

Ronni took her wine and followed her friend to the back of the house and a small bedroom, complete with a surfboard hanging on the wall. A single bed, a simple desk, and a laptop waited for her. Cooper or Thomas had already deposited Ronni’s suitcases inside the door.

“It’s not the Hilton,” Celina said, “but it’s comfortable and far enough away from Owen’s bedroom you won’t be bothered by noise.”

The single window above the desk was open, cool night air tickling the curtain. The tufted headboard and comfy pillows were inviting. Home. Family. Ronni suddenly wanted to crawl under the soft cotton comforter and sleep for days. A stack of paperback mysteries sat on the nightstand. Celina had remembered her favorite authors.

After a long day of travel and the god-awful revelation about her new assignment, the itch between her shoulders eased. The tightness in her chest lifted. For tonight, she was safe, protected. Part of a family.

“It’s perfect,” Ronni murmured, setting down her glass and running her fingers over the pillows. “Thank you.”

“Guest bath is across the hall. I laid out towels and bath salts for you. I thought a good, hot soak might help you relax.”

Ronni smiled. When was the last time someone had taken care of her? Not with physical therapy and endless psychological probing, but with simple kindness? A glass of wine, a paperback book, a comfortable bed?

It was more than that, of course. Her life in the past few months had been filled with doctor’s appointments, therapy, and tests, but it had lacked real human connection. While seeing Celina, Cooper, and Thomas again rubbed against her emotions like sandpaper, it also soothed something inside her. Something she couldn’t name, but felt all the same.

For the first time in a long time, she actually felt like her old self. Confident, take-no-prisoners, Special Agent Ronni Punto. “I could get used to this,” she said, giving her friend a well-deserved hug. “Keep this up, and you may never get rid of me.”

Celina gave her an extra squeeze. “That’s exactly what I’m hoping for.”

“Throw in your shoe collection and it’s a deal.”

“You can wear any of them except my Steve Madden Devil booties.”

Ronni eyed her suspiciously. “What’s so special about those?”

“Whenever I need Cooper’s cooperation, I wear them and nothing else. It’s like a lucky charm.”

“Four-inch heels?”

She nodded. “Does the trick every time.”

“I doubt it’s the shoes, but who am I to deny you your lucky charm?”

They laughed and Celina cleared out, leaving Ronni to unpack. Instead, she grabbed her wine glass and sat at the desk, staring out at the night sky. While she felt content for the first time in ages, the thought of Thomas miles away, trying to shut down the Sandoval Cartel, worried her. It was natural, she told herself, to be worried about her new partner, if indeed they ever ended up working together.

But no matter how smart, how clever, how tough an agent was, eventually they met their match in the field.
That’s
what bothered her. Thomas knew he was good, and that cockiness might be the thing that got him killed.

She changed into sweats and picked a mystery to look at. The words didn’t hold her attention, though, so she left the paperback open on the bed, booted up the laptop and went to work. She’d already dug up as much as she could on her brother over the years, but there was no such thing in her book as too much research.

Chapter Five

Ronni woke with a start, heart pounding in her ears, and a sharp pain between her shoulder blades.

Pulse skipping, she sat up. Strange bed, strange room, a laptop open next to her with a familiar face on the screen. She blanched at the eyes staring back at her. Adam.

Her skin was covered with a cool sweat and she shivered. Surfboard on the wall, empty wine glass next to the bed, open window making the room chilly…

Oh, right. Celina’s place. California.

Safe.

But not for long. The bedside clock read four-oh-eight. A few more hours and it would be time to go to work.

She dropped back into the pillows, closing her eyes, and rubbing her forehead. She’d fallen asleep reading information about Adam and his iChurch. Their website and Facebook page seemed rather…tame…and the irony struck her all over again. The idea of a cult was to encapsulate the members from the evil outside world. Yet Adam was a prodigy of the modern age as much as he was his father’s son. He understood the power of social media and was using it.

A noise came from the front of the house. She held still and listened. A rustling and then voices speaking just above a whisper.

Shutting the laptop, Ronni sat up and eased out of the bed. Her Glock was on the nightstand along with her cell phone. She snagged both and crept to the door, opening it an inch and listening. The spot between her shoulder blades tingled.

A man spoke, his voice low and grumbly. Cooper.

The other, female, soothed and cajoled. Celina.

Ronni let out the breath she was holding.

The sting must have gone down and Cooper was home. From the sounds of his quiet cursing, things hadn’t gone smoothly.

Thomas.

Grabbing a sweatshirt, she pulled it on as she headed down the hallway. Cooper and Celina were in the kitchen, the coffee pot gurgling and the heavenly smell of fresh coffee filling the air. Cooper sat at the breakfast bar, making notes in a file. Celina leaned on her favorite spot on the counter, arms folded across her chest and yawning.

Both looked up when Ronni entered. “What happened?”

“The usual shit,” Cooper said. His face was shadowed and tired. “We reclaimed the cop killers and nailed Sandoval, but there was a shootout.” He slammed the pen he’d been using down on the counter. “Two men injured.”

The sting between her shoulders flared. “Who?”

Celina pulled out mugs. “SWAT team guys. They went in before Cooper gave the signal, almost blew the operation.”