Lacey's Luhpynes [Beyond the Veil 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (32 page)

Artaxias’s laugh could be heard over the comms. “It’s all right, Lacey. I wear leather for a reason, it’s very easy to wipe off with a slightly dampened cloth. And if I get dirty enough that my clothing requires cleaning, I’ll just toss out these and buy new.” A moment of silence before he was back on the comms. “Jonas is here, I’m moving to the manhole cover and heading below. I’m going comms dark,” he said, then silence from his end.

She looked to Ansell and this time she turned off her comms. “Am I silly for thinking this way? Is this just the pregnancy nerves that have me jumping at every flash or shadow?” Was she still an effective and good cop? That was the question. She certainly had changed an assload with this pregnancy, but now she wasn’t so sure.

He reached up to turn his off. “You’re not silly to be thinking this way, Lacey. You are thinking outside the box and considering something none of us would have ever thought about. Who would ever think about using the old sewer system to get around? It’s so bloody obvious and yet none of us even gave it a passing thought.”

“It’s only because at one time I was hooked on those old movies on DVD or whatever they were called back in the late 1990s. I liked them, though. I know, I know, I’m an odd duck but you love me all the same.” She looked at him and smiled, her hand covering his. “I just really hope I’m wrong because if not, we have no idea where he will pop up.”

“We may not know but Ax is pretty damn talented at tracking anyone and anything. He seems to be able to pick up vibrations, no matter how faint, and track them. At least that’s how he describes it, but I know for a fact that’s not actually what it is, just the closest thing he can compare it to.”

“I’ve heard that before. That he’s got the best tracking skills of anyone on the force, ever.” Which was a wild thing. One would think that the Luhpynes would have a Vhampire beaten but from everything that she had learned, Ax had them all beaten which was totally weird, but good in her book. So long as the perp was found.

“He’s scary good. If I was a bad guy on the run, that Vhampire is the last being I’d want tracking me. Hell, if I was the bad guy and knew Ax was on my tail, I’d just give myself up to the nearest officer to avoid what he’d do to me when he caught me. Not if, when.”

“Damn, that’s wild,” Lacey muttered. “Oh lord, let’s hope that he’s never around when we have our child. Between baby poop and puke I think that his poor sensitive nose would whimper in pain.” She was teasing, mostly. “But babies can also smell so good. Especially just after a bath with powder on them.” She sighed.
Shit
. She was losing her edge now and thinking of all this mommy stuff. Not good. God blessed it all.

Ansell was grinning at her and shaking his head. “Right off the edge,” he teased. “You are so in mommy mode these days it’s actually a little freaky. The woman who was ready to hit me and Z at the drop of a hat is now thinking diapers and all sorts of baby stuff. My how things change when you actually grab hold of life, funny that, huh?” Clicking his comms back on, he listened and looked at her. “Everything will be fine,” he said softly.

“I hope that you are right,” Lacey whispered and turned her comms back on. She just hoped that she would get that edge back. If not, she would have to quit the force. “If I have to leave my job, you guys will be okay with it, right?” she spoke quietly into the comms, knowing that the rest of the team would allow her mates to answer that question alone.

“If that’s what you want, Lace, we’ll always support you,” Zhubin said, his voice gentle in her ear. “We love you, sweetheart, and you have to do what is best for you first and foremost.”

Ansell was nodding. “What he said,” he murmured with a smile. Taking her hand in his he gave it a squeeze as he lifted it to his lips to kiss her knuckles.

She nodded and tried to once more put her head in the game. It was rough though and she had no idea why she was having such a hell of a time focusing on what needed to be done, but she tried all the same. “Thanks, guys.” She spoke to the whole team, for letting them have that moment and for understanding her breakdown. “Ax, have you found anything?” she asked even though she knew that he was still in silence with the comms.

A single click of the comms came through and Ansell shook his head. “Negative,” he murmured. Leaning his head back, he rubbed the heels of his palms to his eyes. Checking the time, he frowned. “Uh, is anyone else seeing the time here? We’re plus five minutes on our deadline.”

“I’m telling you. Something happened.” She felt it. In her gut she felt that when that van stopped, something happened but she didn’t know what. She just knew that there was something that changed in the game in that moment, but had no fucking clue what it was.

The comms double-clicked, then and Ansell went perfectly still. “Ax, what’s going on?” he said. Then the comms started clicking all over the map. “Got it,” Ansell said and looked over at her. “He’s picked up a trail that’s fresh and he’s following it. Says that it’s a Luhpyne and a human. They appear to be walking together toward an unknown point.”

“Well that’s just not good,” Lacey muttered. “Should we get down there and help him flush the trash from the systems?” She didn’t necessarily want to, but she wouldn’t leave one of hers out to hang either. Period.

A single click that had Ansell grinning. “Negative.” He chuckled. “But he has a point, the less people down there the easier it is for him to track the ones he’s looking for. No muddying of scents and whatever it is he uses to follow them.” Some more clicks sounded and Ansell frowned as he listened, his head cocked to the side. “They are heading toward the warehouse we have staked out, he’s picking up voices but the words are too distorted from the echo down there for him to get anything. He’s moving in closer.”

“Well let’s hope that he is able to get something from this.” She sighed and shook her head. “I’m still thinking that something is just hinky. I really do.” She shrugged however, trusting them all to ensure that things went the way that they should and that no one would be hurt. “Just make sure that they don’t get hurt in the process, please.”

“We’re taking all precautions, Lace. You just make sure that, no matter what, you protect yourself,” Ansell said. Looking to her, he gave her a hard stare, “No matter what. We’ll worry about everyone else and our own asses, you just keep yourself and Junior safe.”

“Don’t you worry, I fully intend upon protecting myself and our child. I know that you boys will be able to protect yourselves so I just need to ensure that I’m keeping our baby safe.” That was what was the main goal for her. She would have to talk to them, the more that she sat there, the more she knew she wouldn’t be able to continue in this line of work, not with such precious cargo inside of her, someone, something depending on her as their child was.

Reaching over, he touched her hand, making her realize she’d pressed it over her belly. “No matter what you decide to do, Lace, Ax says that they are right under the warehouse now. The Luhpyne appears impatient but the human seems to be rigging something up. Not an explosive. Ax thinks it’s a listening and recording device of some sort.”

“Probably wiring the place for sound,” Jonas commented. “If they want to ensure it’s not a setup then that’s probably the easiest way to do it. And with them out of sight, who would be the wiser?”

“Exactly.” And they wouldn’t have known if not for that one small light that she caught on a chance. It was wild, honestly. “Well all that I do know is that we know that it’s wired. We will have to assume that there may be explosives as well so we will have to ensure that whatever we do, we are moving with utmost care and caution.”

“Our guy is coming in,” Zhubin said into the comms. “Blue car coming from the south. Repeat, our guy is moving into play.”

“I’ve got the other guy coming in from the north,” Jonas said. They had two agents playing the role of killer and helper for the purpose of their sting. They were armed, but they needed to be given they’d be going into the warehouse. They were playing the parts to draw out the real killer, hopefully.

“And we just sit here and wait? I mean come on, seriously?” she asked and rubbed her hands down her jeans. By this point she had turned off her comms unit again. She turned it off so that her words didn’t broadcast to everyone and their brother as she spoke, constantly.

“For now, we have to let them get in there and start their meeting. Then Z will give the signal and the team they know is here and waiting will start closing in for the apparent takedown. But we have to take care, we can’t get in a position where they end up coming up behind us.”

“Which is why we have to double up on men.” She just prayed that this was just what they needed, who they needed in order to get this final case sewn up so that she could sit behind a desk and not worry about some asshole trying to poison her or kill her men.

“Exactly.” He nodded. Lacing his fingers through hers he squeezed her fingers. “I have eyes on subject number one. He’s looking damn cocky,” he said with a chuckle. Norman was playing the bad guy in the scenario, and he was playing it well. He got out of the car when he’d parked and did a slow look-around, a hand under his jacket and likely on his weapon. When he was apparently satisfied he let his hand fall and then headed toward the door of the warehouse to wait in the shadows.

Lacey frowned and cocked her head to the side. “You have better eyesight than I do,” she whispered. “But isn’t Norman a blond, not a strawberry blond?” Her stomach twitched and she felt like she was going to puke. That wasn’t Norman. She was sure of it. She was practically positive that was not Norman but someone who looked just like him.

That had his attention and he jerked his head around to stare out the window. “Son of a bitch,” he breathed out. “Z, we’ve got a problem. Our actual target is posing as Norman, our fake target. I repeat, Lacey’s stalker is playing the part of Norman.”

The silence over the comms was intense, and then all hell broke loose. She could hear the various voices coming through Ansell’s earpiece as he pulled it from his ear with a wince.

Lacey pulled her weapon and looked to Ansell. “Do we go in and help out?” She couldn’t see them letting anyone on their team get hurt, but shit, what to do? They were one of the cars furthest from the meet point, they were basically just there for shits and giggles, and because Lacey had refused to stay home.

Shaking his head he leaned forward, bracing his arms on the steering wheel. “No, not unless we have to,” he said. Someone called out that a car was coming in, the other part of their supposed sting now going horribly wrong. “Shit, this is going to go bad. Mark, can you signal him and let him know that shit’s going down?”

“Trying, I’m getting nothing back though. He’s proceeding straight in as if all is well, not even slowing a little,” another of the snipers said in reply.

“Z, we have to do something,” Ansell said.

“Already on it,” Zhubin’s voice came through strong. “Stay in reserve unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Shooting her a look, Ansell nodded. “Copy that.”

“He’s going to do something really, really stupid isn’t he? He’s going to do something that is going to make me want to beat him, huh?” she muttered. “Because I’m sure that is true.” Gosh blessed it all. She was positive that Zhubin was going to do something that was going to cause her to beat him later.

“Oh, he’s doing something stupid enough I may just beat him,” Ansell said. She couldn’t exactly tell where his attention was but, whatever held it wasn’t going to go well, she knew. The second car had just stopped and parked, their other agent getting out of the vehicle. Norman, who actually wasn’t Norman, lifted a hand and then slid into the warehouse with their guy following on his heels.

“I swear to the Gods I’m going to kill that freaking man,” Lacey muttered as she watched the happenings carefully. She didn’t dare pull up her binoculars for fear of reflection but her eyesight wasn’t nearly good enough to see everything that was happening, so she was a mite pissed off.

Ansell was staring intently out the window, his finger pressing his earbud in deeper as he frowned. “Z, you fucking lunatic,” he muttered. When she shot him a look he pointed to their right slightly, his finger tracking slowly, and then she could see him. Zhubin raced in and out of the shadows toward the warehouse.

“Oh, I am bloody damn well going to kill him,” Lacey muttered darkly and sighed. “So what’s the game plan here? How do we help?” She didn’t know what would be the best way for them to help, the best way to ensure that they were all safe. But she was still damn well going to beat Zhubin for this stunt.

“We stay right the fuck where we are and, if help is required, I go in. You stay put. Only under the absolute worst of possible probabilities do you leave this vehicle now,” he said. He was still watching the warehouse, his concentration intense. He had to be getting a crap-load of information from everyone if the slight buzzing from his ear was anything to go by. “No, go through the side door, you moron. Yes, that side door. Uh, yeah, who’s the bonehead diving in nuts first and, for the record, Lacey plans on braining you for this move.”

“Oh son of a bitch, I’m killing him,” Lacey grumbled as she sat forward, her hand holding the dashboard so tightly she was sure that it would crack. “Oh god, to the left. Ansell warn him. Warn them all that there is something fucking huge coming from the left.” She had no clue what the
it
was, but it was massive.

“He sees it and so do the snipers,” Ansell said, his eyes twitching back and forth now. “Move Z, that thing, whatever the fuck it is, is almost on you. We can’t shoot it until we know we have our target, damn it! Fuck.” He looked to her and pointed a finger her way. “Do. Not. Move.” Then he was out of the truck and racing to intercept whatever the fuck was thundering in.

“I am damn well going to kill them both,” she muttered as she watched the two men she loved the most in the world jump headfirst into trouble and she couldn’t do a damn thing about it because they were right. Right now she was a hindrance. She would only divert their attention from the objective and that pissed her off like crazy.