Page 2 of Deadly Revenge

Ross?She blinked and stared at the man in the hoodie. It couldn’t be.

“Not much, my man.” He turned, and his face came into full view as he scanned the empty James A. Henry parking lot.

Phillip?Jenna’s stomach plunged to her feet.No. She blinked, praying that she had seen wrong. But no amount of blinking would change the fact that the man was Phillip.

Maybe he was working undercover. No, Phillip headed up Chattanooga PD’s homicide division. He’d never worked undercover.

Like a bolt from the clouds lighting up the sky, clarity exploded in her brain and the puzzle pieces fell into place. Suddenly all the times that Phillip had cancelled their dates made sense. And all the times he’d pumped her for information about the gangs ... and Sebastian. The last time she’d asked him why he wanted to know. Now she understood—he’d been keeping tabs on how close she was to arresting his partner.

What a fool she’d been.

Jenna held her breath and pressed deeper into the shadows as Phillip’s gaze swept past her hiding place before he turned back to the teenager.

“Meeting a friend,” he said, dropping his voice.

Jenna caught that part, but once Phillip turned to face the teenager, she couldn’t hear their conversation. They talked for a few minutes before the teen gave Phillip another high five.

My man.That’s what he’d called the teenager. Her legs turned to rubber, and she braced against the wall. The boy was one of Phillip’s dealers.

How had love blinded her so? Jenna hated what the gangs and drug dealers were doing to this neighborhood—just last week, two teens died in this very apartment complex from overdoses.It was a never-ending problem that wouldn’t go away until thugs like Sebastian were put in jail for good.

And Phillip was part of it. How much of what she’d passed on to him had benefited Sebastian?

Nausea hit her stomach so hard, she almost doubled over. Jenna clapped her hand over her mouth, swallowing the bile back down her throat. She had to get a grip. Sebastian would be here any minute. Jenna checked the time on her phone. Creasy should have texted he was in place by now too. No message from him, either.

Phillip turned toward her, and Jenna quickly snapped his photo with the digital single-reflex lens Canon, zooming in on his face. She was far enough away that he couldn’t hear the sound the camera made. As a precaution, she used her phone to snap several and checked them. Grainy, but Phillip was identifiable.

Jenna emailed them to herself, wishing she had the same capability to send the photos on the camera. They would be clearer, which would be better for admission in court. She stayed in the shadows as the boy returned to the game and her ex remained on the sidelines.

Where was Sebastian? Minutes ago, she couldn’t wait to photograph him. Now all she could think about was the fact that Phillip was somehow involved.

No wonder he’d been upset when she talked about bringing Sebastian in for questioning about the murder of a rival gang member.

“You’ll never get evidence he was involved in the murder, and he’ll accuse you of harassing him.”

They’d argued, and he insisted it was because he was looking out for her career. She’d actually bought that when the DA agreed with him. But at least the arrest a couple of weeks ago for possession of two hundred grams of cocaine had stuck, even if he had made bail and was back on the streets within two hours. WhenSebastian was convicted—and he would be since there was no way he could wiggle out of those charges—he’d be looking at five years in a state penitentiary.

She wanted him gone for good, had been trying to nail him ever since transferring to Chattanooga’s gang unit two years ago. He was like Teflon. Nothing stuck because no one had been able to get the goods on him. The message from her CI made her think that might change tonight. Jenna had to focus on that and deal with arresting Phillip when this was over.

Her heart stilled when a fancy Range Rover wheeled onto the school property and parked out of her line of sight. Three doors slammed. Probably two people in the front and one in the rear.

Jenna held her breath as Phillip jogged past her hiding place. Out of habit, she almost called out to him, thinking he would surely back her up. Evidently her mind hadn’t processed the fact that her ex was a dirty cop. Once his footsteps faded, she slipped out of her hiding place and crept toward the corner of the building, then skirted what looked like a storage shed before she eased around it. Low murmuring reached her as she rounded another corner, and the Range Rover came into sight.

Instead of being near the back entrance, it was parked at the edge of the old school’s parking lot in the shadows of an apartment building. The last unit with every light blazing caught her attention.Lord, keep those people inside!

A garbage dumpster sat near the Range Rover, and she wrinkled her nose as she caught a whiff of the sour odor emanating from it. If she could ignore the odor and reach the dumpster, she would be close enough to overhear their conversation.

Jenna hesitated. If she tried to reach it, she might give her position away, and that would blow the whole operation. Her current location would have to do. She raised the camera and framed the three men standing beside the SUV with Phillip facing them, his back to her. She zoomed in with the Canon for a good look attheir faces. One was Sebastian, one she didn’t recognize, but the other was Viper, a known Scorpion member.

No one had ever been able to put Sebastian in the company of the gang. Jenna quickly snapped half a dozen shots as an ambulance wailed its way to one of the nearby hospitals, covering the sound of her camera. To be on the safe side, she took a couple of shots with her phone.

She needed a photo of Phillip and Sebastian together. She quietly shifted her position, and using her phone again, she zoomed in on Sebastian just as Phillip turned and looked over his shoulder. Bingo! Captured both of them. Jenna took a second to check the photos. Way too grainy, and Sebastian was in the shadows. Maybe a video editing program could pull out the details. Again she sent the photos to her computer before she switched back to the Canon. One man turned toward the Range Rover, opened the hatch, and took out a package.

Showtime.Suddenly a dark Grand Cherokee wheeled into the parking area on two wheels. She ducked back behind the shed as three men spilled out of the Jeep with guns blazing. The man she hadn’t recognized with Sebastian dropped to the ground.

Sebastian and Viper returned fire, quickly dispatching two of the men from the other SUV as Phillip took off running. The apartment door on the last unit opened, and a small boy darted out.

“Daddy!” he yelled, running to a fallen man who lay on the ground as bullets pinged the ground in front of the boy.

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