Page 18 of Trial By Fire
“Thanks for meeting me, Lola.” Jackson smiled as he greeted his girl’s best friend. “I know what she likes, but I just need your help in confirming it and helping me plan this.”
“I’ve got you! So, what are we doing?” Lola clapped her hand as she stepped up onto the curb.
“I’m going to ask her to marry me. I let her go once because I was a coward. I’m not losing her again. She’s it for me,” Jackson announced, taking a deep breath as he stepped up onto the sidewalk in front of the jewelry store he had chosen to start looking in first.
“About fucking time!” Lola cheered as she jumped up and down before giving him a hug. “Let’s go in and see what this one has to offer.”
Jackson and Lola spent most of the day searching for a ring that Jackson wanted to buy for Trish. Neither one could find it until the fourth store they had gone into. He’d finally found it.
It was a diamond with a sapphire on two sides of the larger diamond with three smaller diamonds that cascaded next to the sapphire. It was simple, elegant, vintage and something he knew Trish would love. The wedding band that went with it wasa white gold band that had a decent size width to it so that it wouldn’t interfere with her handling her weapon or injuring herself or someone she was tussling with. This was the one that he wanted for her.
Once he had found it, he showed it to Lola, whose eyes started watering. Yep, this was the one. After making his purchase of the set, including his ring that he would wear with pride either around his dog tags when he was deployed or on his finger when he was home, he decided to treat Lola to lunch for helping him.
“She’s going to love it. Do you have an idea on how you want to propose?”
“I know she’s been so busy with this task force she’s on, trying to deal with this gang. I wanted to reach out to Delbert and Rover and see what a good night would be. She’s not close to her family so I don’t want to ask them there to make things worse. I was thinking a nice dinner or a barbeque with everyone that she does consider family and ask her in front of them,” Jackson admitted his idea.
“That would be perfect. A nice romantic dinner just the two of you would have her suspish of anything you have up your sleeve,” Lola laughed as she sat back in her seat.
“Yeah. Tried that once before taking her to a nice romantic dinner and she kept fidgeting the whole time thinking I was about to break up with her or something,” Jackson laughed, the memory making him chuckle.
“She’s never been one for that kind of thing. One of the reasons I love her and bang my head against the wall at the same time some days.”
Jackson couldn’t help but chuckle at Lola’s statement. Yeah, his girl was not one for dressing up. She was good in her jeans or dress pants, her button-down shirts, or T-shirts when it came towork. When she was home from work, she was either in sweats or yoga pants and a baggy shirt or tank top.
He was used to high maintenance women before he met Trish. When he met her, she was like a fresh breath of air. She wasn’t nasty to people who were different than her. She was a homebody. She didn’t have very many friends, at least in her mind. In fact, she had a lot of people who looked out for her because of the type of person she was.
She was personable, witty, smart, sexy in a girl next door kind of way. She was everything he realized he wanted in life. He wasn’t letting her get away again. He would be with her until his dying breath.
“Wonder what your little girlfriend would say if she knew you were having lunch with her skank of a friend?”
“Jokes on you, ho. She knows we’re having lunch. I told her. Took you long enough to show you face since you’ve been following us from store to store. Let me guess, upset he’s not paying attention to you? Shouldn’t you be at work anyway?” Lola sneered as she continued to take a sip of her drink.
“What are you doing here? You’ve been told to stay away from me. Don’t make me call the police and tell them you’re harassing me,” Jackson warned, glaring at Valarie.
“What does that bitch have that I don’t have? What we had was magical!” Valarie whined, moving towards Jackson.
“She has brains, beauty, common sense, and she’s not a whore like you are. Lay a finger on Jackson and I’ll break your plastic face.”
“Ugh, you’re so vulgar. I’ll never understand what the one you’re fucking sees in you.” Valarie stomped her foot, glaring at Lola.
“My brains and my smart-ass mouth is actually a turn on for him. Gives him ideas for the bedroom. Oh, and I’m not a whore. Don’t think I didn’t know about you trying to get Bradley to fuckyou when you came to the apartment to find Jackson. You’re lucky I was in the shower when you showed up.”
“You will regret the embarrassment you’ve caused me. Mark my words,” Valarie declared as she stormed out, hatred in her eyes.
Jackson couldn’t help but watch the woman storm out of the restaurant they were in. Something she said really bothered him. What did she mean by her statement? He watched as she took her phone out of her purse and made a call. Something felt off for him. He was really worried now.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Trish and the rest of the team put on their vests and loaded up the vehicles with the gear they would need for the raid. They were meeting the rest of the task force in a parking lot close to the target locations. They were just waiting for others who were joining them to assist in other location to get into place so they could hit all target locations at one time.
This was going to be a huge undertaking for them since there were multiple locations at one time. She, Delbert, Rover, and his boys were all taking the main house where they knew at least four young girls were still in the home. It was the home of the little girl she’d been trying to help before she was murdered.
Once everyone was ready, they got into the armored truck they were going to ride into. Their warrants were no-knock warrants due to the type of situation they were going to find themselves in. After they’d secured a blueprint of the house and an idea of where everything was in the home, they were going to use the truck to ram the front door. The house was a newer model built with no steps and no porch.
Once they made entrance, Rover and his boys deployed from the truck first, followed by her and Delbert and the others ontheir team. They all yelled out, “police!” and for them to get on the ground. Shots rang out from all sides. When the smoke cleared, three gang members laid dead on the ground and several women huddled in the corner, with young girls in their arms, scared out of their mind.
