Page 67 of Make You Mine

Then, there’s also my desire to get back to her. It’s an almost uncontrollable need. A compulsion that’s driving me insane as we wait. As I follow orders.

My job requests that I stay, but my loyalty has shifted and is with Ava.

Moreover, until Rose speaks up, Perez has me here. Waiting. Helping to put together a map to pinpoint Lyle’s exact location. He’s been warned, too. I’ll give him another twenty minutes, and then I’m out. Fuck them all.

“Just that we’re pricks and murderers.”

I shake my head, picking up my bottle of water to take a sip. “What about Meyers?”

“MIA for two days now.” At least we have a connection. Know where to start. “We have a squad car on the way to his home. They’re picking up the wife and kids. That’ll draw him out.”

I’m not so sure, but don’t voice it. Instead, I look back down at my notes and the latest information uncovered. The connection between Meyers and Salcedo.

Childhood friends who were on the force a few years back in Dallas, and partners at that. How Salcedo took the fall for Meyers during a sting operation focused on crooked officers taking bribes from a Mexican Cartel near the border trafficking through their city. One was terminated and served some time, while the other asked for a transfer here.

The trio kept in contact over the years.

Meyers flew under the radar and kept to himself. Blending in. Not calling attention to himself while being a good cop—and Salcedo waited. Planned. He bought properties in Mexico and Guatemala, with the final destination being Nicaragua.

He cashed in his favor to be a step ahead of every department. They had a network of officers accepting money and drugs taken from the department’s evidence room after being logged in. That’s how Lyle escaped and evaded recapture. Meyers was his eyes and ears.

Moreover, we had no reason to suspect Meyers until he called my home, and Salcedo wasn’t in Los Angeles. And yet, I still feel as though I’m missing something...

“Have Stein and McGrady been made aware of the situation?”

Baez nods. “Yes.”

“Has Karla woken up in the hospital?” Perez asks from behind me, placing his cup on the desk I’ve been using. “Did she hear anything that might be useful?”

“Unfortunately, no. She’s still out and pretty banged up. Rose did a number on her, sir.”

“Christ,” I say, my disgust evident. “What’s the prognosis?”

“Karla will recover. None of her injuries are life-threatening.”

“And Rose?” I rub a tired hand down my face.

“She admitted to her part in all of this.” Baez pulls out his recorder and hits play, letting us hear her for ourselves: how she used a baseball bat on her, how she found her cries of painamusing. How she pushed the end of her lit joint into Karla’s skin, laughing as the flesh sizzled and scarred. “Her lawyer is with her now, and we think they’ll try to plead insanity. That she, too, is a victim.”

I’ll be fucked if that happens.

Karma is a bitch, and she’ll get hers by the judge’s hand or those on the inside.

As that thought crosses my mind, another one hits. Louder. Blaring across all processors, and I could just fucking shoot myself for not picking up on it earlier.

Anthony told me. All but laughed about it in my face.

Home is where the heart is.

“Motherfuck,” I hiss out, rushing past everyone and toward the parking lot. Perez and Baez are behind me, yelling my name, but I can’t stop. Not when I’ve been so fucking stupid. When I put her life in danger.

“What the fuck, Ford? Where are you going?” Perez yells from behind me as I click the fob in my hand and the lights of my Camaro turn on near the station’s entrance. “Stop.”

I’m inside my car before they reach me, the engine running before lowering my window. “He’s here in Los Angeles. We need to go!”

“We don’t know for sure. Don’t know where he could be?—”

My phone rings, interrupting him. At once, dread fills me, and my chest becomes tight as I pull out my cell and hit accept. “Baby?” I breathe out, not giving a fuck who hears. Nothing but Ava matters. What sounds like a shot being fired confirms my worst nightmare even before she speaks. “Ava, what’s happening? I’m on my way back...it was all a?—”

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