Justice for Corrie (Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Book 3) (13 page)

“You have to take them all the way out?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Cool! Can I watch?”

Corrie drew back in confusion. “What?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it before. Does it hurt? How do you get them out? I didn’t know they
came
out. I mean, of course they come out, they’re prosthetics, but how do you clean them? Are they round?” He almost sounded like a little boy, excited for his first trip to see Santa or something.

Corrie reached up and blindly tried to find Quint’s mouth. She missed at first, covering his chin, but readjusted her hand until it covered his mouth. She smiled at him weakly.

“I’ll answer your questions if you really want to know, but I want you to understand, without my prosthetics in, I’m weird-looking. Emily told me.”

Quint moved her hand away from his mouth and leaned in until he could kiss both eyelids. “You’ll never be weird-looking, Corrie. You’re different. Yeah. So what? What we look like doesn’t make us who we are inside. And you, sweetheart, are beautiful. You could have two heads and I’d still think so. I’m in like with you, and I’m quickly falling in love with you. Not with your eyes, or with your body, but with
you
. And this is a part of who you are. I want to know everything about you, this included. Okay?”

“Okay.” It was the only thing she could think of to say. She wanted to screech like a little kid and bury her head into her pillow. He was falling in love with her? Holy crapola! She didn’t have time to process it though, because Quint was herding her out of bed.

“Cool, let’s go. I can’t wait to see this.”

Corrie just shook her head and followed Quint. He’d grabbed her hand and dragged her into his bathroom.

“Can I have a minute?” Corrie asked shyly.

“Shit, yeah, sorry. I’ll go down the hall to use the other bathroom. Don’t start without me.”

Corrie laughed as she heard Quint hurrying out of the room and jogging down the hallway. She went back out into the bedroom and found her T-shirt that Quint had taken off the night before. Before they’d fallen asleep, Quint had sleepily leaned over, found it on the floor and told her he put it on the end of the bed so she could find it when she needed it in the morning.

Corrie went back into the bathroom and quickly took care of her morning routine and waited for Quint to return.

Quint breezed back into the bathroom and came up behind her. “Okay, carry on. I’m ready. Just pretend I’m not here.”

Corrie shook her head and smiled nervously. As if. But she tried. She got out the supplies from her bathroom kit. She asked Quint for a clean towel and when he gave it to her, she covered up the sink in front of her. If she popped her eye out, she didn’t want it to land in the hard sink and get chipped. She’d learned that the hard way too.

She pulled out the extractor from her cleaning kit and pulled her lower lid down until she could get the small edge of the plastic piece under the edge of the prosthetic. She pried it up until it cleared her lid and caught it in her other hand as it popped free of her eye socket.

The prosthetic wasn’t round, as most people assumed. It was kinda oval shaped and hollow on the other side. It sat like a cup in her eye socket, rounding it out to make it look more like a normal eye.

Trying to ignore the fact Quint stood silently behind her, most likely watching everything she did with that observant way he had, Corrie continued with her cleaning ritual.

She used a wet cotton ball to clean away any dirt and discharge around her empty eye socket. Then she filled the eye bath with the special saline she made up at home and tipped her head back to wash out the socket of her eye.

Corrie then took the prosthetic and ran it under warm water in the sink, using the non-scented soap she carried with her to scrub it clean. She put it into a special container to let it soak in a bath of the saline solution. Some people didn’t bother with this step, but she always felt it cleaned the eye better than simply running water and soap over it.

She put that eye to the side and started all over again with her other prosthetic. When she finished and both eyes were in the cleansing solution, Quint spoke for the first time. “How long do you soak them?”

“It depends. I usually keep them in the solution overnight, but today, two hours should do it.”

Corrie felt Quint turning her in his arms. She resisted for a moment but gave in. This was a part of who she was. He was right. If she wanted this to work, he had to see her without her prosthetics. She hated it, but it was better to do it now than later, when she was even more connected to him.

She felt Quint put his finger under her chin. Corrie lifted her head and waited, trying not to hyperventilate. She felt Quint’s lips against her forehead, then her nose, then her lips, then she closed her eyes and felt him gently kiss both eyelids.

“You are beautiful, Corrie. Seriously. You are no less beautiful to me now, without your prosthetics, than you were lying naked on my bed waiting for me. And I have to say, and this is my inner geekiness coming out, that was the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

Corrie snorted.

“Seriously. And sweetheart, I honestly don’t see any difference in what you just did and what someone who wears contacts does every night. I don’t want you to feel weird about that with me. If you need to take them out and clean them before we go to bed, do it. If you think that’s gonna make me not want to bury myself deep inside your hot body, you’re way wrong.”

Corrie stumbled into him as Quint tugged her into his embrace. She could feel his cock, hard against her belly. “Having you here in my arms, in my bathroom, wearing nothing but that shirt, is almost as good as having you naked in my bed. Two hours, huh? Good. Plenty of time for me to make up for last night.”

“Make up for it?”

“Yeah, I was a minuteman. I need to prove my virility to you so you don’t think I’m always that quick.”

Corrie giggled. “Don’t we have stuff to do today?”

“Yeah, but it can wait. This is more important.”

“Okay, I’m in. Show me what you can do.” Corrie was more relieved than she’d ever be able to say. She’d been so afraid that he’d take one look at her empty eye sockets and be disgusted.

She laughed and grabbed hold of Quint’s neck as he hoisted her up into his arms and headed out of the bathroom to his bed. Oh yeah, she was in like with this man. Definitely.

T
he man used
his foot to crush out the cigarette he’d been smoking. So, the bitch had finally moved in with the pig cop. It made his plans harder, but not impossible. He’d finally learned the best way to get to her. It had taken two weeks, but he knew just how it’d go down now.

The boss was pissed the cops had already found Shaun’s body. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He’d been careful, but the fucking Texas heat had done him in. If there hadn’t been a drought, no one would’ve ever found that fucker.

The man gritted his teeth when thinking about his boss. He was the most successful loan shark in the city, but he got that way because he was a complete asshole. He didn’t trust anyone. He had no other staff…they’d all disappeared over the years.

The man wasn’t stupid; he knew if he pissed the boss off, he’d disappear too, but for now the money was good and he enjoyed the side benefits of getting to kill and torture people and getting to screw whatever pussy he could get.

That thought brought him back to the present. He just had to wait a bit longer. The boss was securing a new place to take the blind bitch once she was grabbed. They had to figure out what she’d told the police and use her to set an example for others around the city who might be thinking about squealing about their business. The boss wasn’t putting anything past her, though. They’d bring her somewhere she’d never be able to get away, and where her screams wouldn’t be heard by anyone…and he’d get to have some fun.

The man reached down and adjusted his cock. He loved when he got to play with women. They were so much more fun to torture than men. When he shoved his cock up their pussy right off the bat, they usually cooperated much better.

The bitch was blind, which was weird, but he could work with it. No problem. She’d better enjoy fucking that cop while she could. Soon she’d be his to do with as he pleased. He couldn’t wait.

C
orrie lay
in bed and listened to Quint get ready for work. He had an early shift and she was more than happy to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. They’d been up late the night before because they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. The last time they’d made love, Quint had kept his eyes closed the entire time at her request. He’d told her it was the most intense experience he’d ever had. Corrie smiled at the memory.

He’d started by caressing her from her head to her feet, and then after he’d teased her unmercifully until her toes curled, Corrie pushed him to his back and returned the favor. She’d enjoyed his moans and groans as she’d run her hands and lips all over his body. She’d taken him deep within her mouth and Quint had told her how incredible, how much…
more
…it had felt like when he could only imagine what she was doing and couldn’t watch.

He’d pulled her off his cock before he’d exploded and turned her over. He’d urged her to her hands and knees and had taken her from behind. After rolling on a condom, Quint had powered in and out of her with a slow and steady rhythm, keeping up a running conversation about how good she felt, how soft she was, how he loved feeling her skin ripple and shake under his hands. He’d even smacked her ass lightly and marveled at the feel of her ass heating up under his ministrations.

It finally took Corrie snaking a hand under them and caressing his balls as he slowly entered her to get him to lose his iron control. He’d taken hold of her hips in his hands and had slammed himself inside her. Corrie had lost her balance and fell to her forearms on the bed, but the change in angle simply seemed to make him lose even more of his control. They’d both moaned and groaned until first Corrie, then Quint, had exploded.

He had eased himself down to the bed and held Corrie to him and they’d lain there without words for what seemed like forever. Finally, Quint had eased out of her and headed to the bathroom to dispose of the condom. He’d returned with a warm washcloth, as he always did, and after cleaning them both up, he’d snuggled in behind her again and whispered all sorts of amazing things while kissing her neck and shoulder.

It had been incredible…but then again, each time Quint made love to her, it was mind-blowing.

It’d been seven days since Corrie had essentially moved in with Quint, and he’d kept his promise and done everything possible to make her comfortable in his home. She’d been extremely worried about it, but so far it was working out.

Corrie knew she was moving way quicker with Quint than she probably should, but she couldn’t help it. He worked hard, was attentive to her without being smothering, was loyal to his friends to a fault, was romantic, and the chemistry between them was off the charts.

As she’d noticed before, Quint wasn’t perfect. He had a habit of throwing f-bombs around a little too much and sometimes when he slept on his back he’d snore loud enough to wake the dead. She also had a feeling he still tended to think of her as fragile because of her blindness…but for now, their relationship was working well. She’d have plenty of time to work on that other stuff with him. She hoped.

She listened as the shower turned off and Quint wandered around the room getting dressed. There was something very intimate about listening to him put on his clothes. Corrie never would’ve guessed. She hadn’t felt this way about Ian, not even close.

Corrie heard the creaking of Quint’s equipment belt as he walked toward her, and felt the bed dip as he sat down next to her hip.

“You gonna sleep for a while?”

“Um-hum.”

“Okay. You have to be at the clinic at nine?”

“Yeah, my first appointment isn’t until nine-thirty so I get to go in a bit later today.”

“Emily is picking you up?”

They’d argued about this the night before as well. Quint had been taking her to work every day, but since he had to go in so early, she didn’t want to inconvenience him by having him come back to the house during his shift. She was also being selfish by wanting to sleep in, and not get to work as early as she would if he took her in when his shift started. Emily had never minded picking her up, and when she’d asked, her friend had agreed immediately. It’d been a while since she’d had her Emily fix and they were both looking forward to catching up.

Corrie knew she had to think about rescheduling the car service she’d been using before everything had happened. She’d temporarily canceled it after the shooting, but she hated always relying on Emily and Bethany, and now Quint, to take her everywhere she wanted to go.

Realizing Quint was waiting for her answer to his question, she quickly said, “Yes, she’ll be here around eight-thirty. We’ll talk a bit, catch up, then we’ll go. It’s fine.”

“Okay. Want to have lunch together?”

Corrie mock frowned up toward Quint. “You’ve taken off for lunch every day of the last week. Aren’t you going to get in trouble?”

She felt his hand smooth over her head and tuck her hair behind her ear. “No. We
are
allowed to eat while on shift you know.”

“Okay then, yes. I’d love to have lunch. I’d never turn down spending time with you.”

Quint leaned into her and brushed his lips over Corrie’s forehead. “As much as I’d rather crawl back into bed with you, I gotta get going.”

Corrie brought her hand up to the back of Quint’s neck and pulled him down to her mouth. She kissed him long and hard before pulling back. “Okay, go on then. I’ll see you later.”

“Jesus, sweetheart. Now I have to go to work with a hard-on.”

Corrie giggled. “You’ll live. Now go. I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Maybe if I play my cards right I can get a lunchtime quickie,” he teased playfully. He kissed her one more time quickly and backed away. “I’ll set the alarm and lock up as I leave. Stay in bed, enjoy your lazy morning.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“Bye, sweetheart. See you later.”

“Bye, Quint.”

Corrie smiled and snuggled deeper into bed as she listened to Quint walk through the house, fiddle around in the kitchen, and walk out the door. God, she loved him.

Wait. What?

Corrie thought about it. Yup. It hadn’t been that long, but she could admit it, to herself at least. She loved him.

He’d shown her in a million ways how much she meant to him…from putting all his clothes in the guest-room closet—and then arranging all her stuff in the master closet so it was exactly as it had been at her own house—to putting some of his furniture in storage so there would be more room to walk around and less chance of her hurting herself.

They’d also painstakingly rearranged the kitchen together, making sure she could reach all the plates and cups and cooking utensils. He’d added a shelf to one of the cabinets so all of her cooking spices could go there in the same order they’d been in at her own apartment.

And not once—not one single time—had she tripped over something he’d accidentally left out. He was super conscientious about putting his things away. Everything had its place, and so far he’d stuck to it. Corrie knew it couldn’t last forever; it was inevitable that he’d forget something, but with as much effort as he’d been putting into trying to make sure he didn’t leave anything out of place, Corrie knew it would devastate him when it did eventually happen.

Quint was attentive to all her needs in bed, he was sexy as all get out, and he was trying so hard to learn Braille, it almost made her heart hurt. Even her parents hadn’t tried this hard to be able to read and write the way she did. They’d made a halfhearted attempt when she was younger, but with the escalation of technology, and the ability for her to “read” the computer and emails, they’d given up.

Corrie thought back to the day before when Quint had shyly handed her a note he’d meticulously used her Braille label maker to write. It was awkward, and he’d mixed both Grade 1 and 2 Braille, but she was able to read it. It’d said:
You make me happy. The luckiest day of my life was when you ran into that busboy.

It was the first time she’d cried in front of him, and Corrie thought he was going to lose it. He’d been horrified that he’d made her cry, until she went down to her knees and had taken him in her mouth as a thank you.

She grinned at the memory. God, she loved how he smelled…and tasted. Corrie turned on her side and pushed a button on her specialty clock.

Alarm set for seven-thirty,
the monotone computerized voice said.

Corrie snuggled back down into the blankets, satisfied that she had another hour and a half to sleep. She fell asleep immediately, dreaming of Quint.

C
orrie woke up with a start
. Someone was ringing the doorbell to Quint’s house. The loud
ding-dong
echoed around the room, then faded. She reached over and pushed the button on the clock.

Seven-thirteen a.m.,
the mechanized voice announced.

Corrie threw her legs over the side of the bed and reached for her T-shirt as the doorbell pealed again. She threw the shirt over her head and hurried to the closet. She went to the shelf and felt for her sweatpants. She didn’t bother looking for the Braille tag that would tell her what color they were, but simply pulled the first pair she touched up her legs. She kneeled down and felt for her shoes, and grabbed the pair of flip-flops that was on the end of the row.

“Coming!” Corrie called out as the doorbell rang again. Maybe Emily was early. It wasn’t like her to be early for anything though. Typically she was right on time. Corrie had made fun of her more times than she could remember for having an annoying habit of being right where she was supposed to be at the exact time she was supposed to be there.

Corrie stopped at the front door. “Who is it?” she remembered to ask before simply opening the door.

“It’s Bethany.”

Corrie frowned. What the hell was Bethany doing there?

Oh Lord—Emily or Ethan. Something had to be wrong!

Corrie turned to the alarm panel next to the front door and punched in the numbers to disarm it. She unlocked and opened the door. “Bethany? Where’s Emily? And Ethan? Are they okay?”

Corrie heard Bethany whisper, “I’m so sorry,” before the strike to her head rendered her unconscious.

Q
uint sat
across the desk from his friend Calder Stonewall, the medical examiner who’d been responsible for the autopsy on Shaun’s body. San Antonio wasn’t a huge city and they’d crossed paths so much in the past, they’d become close. They had a law enforcement clique of sorts, with five others in various law enforcement agencies.

“Talk to me, Calder. What sort of sick fuck are we dealing with?”

“You’re not going to like it, Quint.”

“I know I’m not. Sock it to me.”

“I don’t have the hands to be able to tell, but based on the fact that each of his toes were cut off, I’d bet they did the same to his fingers before cutting off his hands altogether.”

“Christ. Go on.”

“Lots of typical shit. Cigarette burns, broken ribs, bruises, and petechial hemorrhaging.”

“They strangled him?”

“Probably repeatedly. They most likely cut off his air until he passed out, then waited until he wasn’t unconscious anymore to do it again.”

“Fuck.”

“What did they want, Quint? This isn’t normal shit. This is highly sadistic behavior and not the sort of thing criminals around here are usually into. If the man didn’t have any money, what would torturing him do? It’s unlikely he was hiding money from them, he was legitimately broke. Whoever did this is unstable and
enjoys
what he’s doing, and does it extremely well. I’d expect to see this sort of thing with the mob or something, not here in San Antonio.”

“Detective Algood wasn’t able to find out a lot, but after we called in Cruz and the FBI, they were able to piece together some of what Shaun had gotten himself into.”

Calder nodded for Quint to continue.

“Since Shaun’s son had his accident, they were hemorrhaging money. It costs a fuck of a lot of money to keep that kid alive. First the hospital bills on the day of the accident, then the medical bills to keep him alive and functioning. Catheters, breathing machines, feeding tubes, mechanical beds, prescriptions, round-the-clock medical care…you name it, that kid needs it. There’s no way a normal family can afford all that shit.”

“He made a deal with the devil then?” Calder asked.

“Yup. Specifically, a Mr. Dimitri Prandini.”

“Holy shit, he had a death wish, didn’t he?”

“I’m assuming he had no idea what he was getting into.” Quint and Calder both knew Dimitri because he was a local loan shark…one who wasn’t known for his touchy-feely ways. “Apparently he borrowed more than a hundred thousand dollars and when Dimitri wanted to collect, with interest, Shaun couldn’t pay. He sent his henchman, Isaac Sampson, after him to collect.”

“How does a man with only one employee get to be such a success?”

Quint grimaced and nodded in agreement. “I know. By all accounts, the other sharks around here should’ve gobbled him up by now. But Dimitri is especially vicious. I heard from Cruz, the FBI has been keeping their eye on him, and would love to arrest him, but they don’t have enough hard evidence yet. When he first started in the business he had about a dozen ‘helpers.’ They’d troll the city looking for schmucks who were stupid enough to gamble away money they didn’t have. Dimitri also ordered hits on the other loan sharks for no fucking reason. His henchmen would just ambush them and kill them outright.”

“But, Quint, that doesn’t make any sense. Didn’t the other sharks band together against him or something?”

“Yeah,” Quint agreed grimly. “They did. And Dimitri changed tactics from ambushing the sharks, to ambushing their women.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah, Dimitri has no soul. None. He ordered his men to kidnap, rape and torture the wives and girlfriends of anyone who publically spoke out against him. There were still some rumblings of the sharks ganging up and putting an end to Dimitri’s reign once and for all, until he went after an entire family.”

Calder didn’t say anything, just growled.