Tattoo (Take It Off #7)(20)
Author: Cambria Hebert

I didn’t say I didn’t like it. In my eyes, there was no such thing as bad sex. Sex felt good, it relieved stress, and yeah, the ladies were always willing.

And because they were always willing, I never had to put much effort into scoring. I never had to think about holding hands or making her smile. I never worried about if she was bored or worried about something.

But with Taylor, I did.

Having her in my lap, having her skin against my skin, feeling her steady, even breathing as she relaxed into my body… I wanted to hold her hand. I wanted to know what she was thinking, and I secretly hoped she enjoyed where she was sitting as much as I.

Is this what it was like to think about someone else ahead of yourself?

“Thank you,” she whispered, drawing me out of my internal musings.

“For what?”

She lifted her head and looked up at me. God, I loved the way she looked at me. Like I fucking hung the moon or something. “For being here,” she whispered. The side of her lip curved upward. “And for being so amazingly warm.”

I tucked a strand of scarlet hair behind her ear and kissed her temple. “Drink your girly ass drink,” I replied, gruff, handing her the bottle of purple Gatorade.

I leaned my head against the wall, thinking about how ape-shit crazy I was. This was a shitty, dangerous situation. I was supposed be on vacation right now, not patching up bullet wounds with stolen medical supplies.

Even so, there wasn’t anywhere else I would rather be.

I heard a noise out by the couch but couldn’t see around the corner. I heard a bit more scuffling and a couple low swears.

Every muscle in my body tensed.

Something was up.

And that something probably wasn’t good. I needed to be out there solidifying my “relationship” with them. Selling them on the fact I was loyal to their cause. Hopefully, Mac and the rest of the people on the raid would be here soon, but until then, I needed to make sure this shit went smoothly.

The last thing we needed was something to go wrong.

“Why don’t you lie down and rest,” I murmured, lifting her against me and sitting up. Then I laid her gently on the cot.

“I was resting,” she complained, that pouty lower lip poking out just a little bit more.

Shit, she was cute.

I used the flannel to cover her legs and then turned away to go see what the guys were up to. Snake was there, standing beside the hastily framed-out wall. The look on his face had everything inside me screaming red alert.

I stepped away from Taylor, keeping my body positioned between the cot and Snake. “What’s up, man?”

He held up the smart phone in his hand. “You a fucking cop?” he said, his voice low and even. Violence radiated off his every pore.

Across the room, his three boys stood up in silent threat.

So much for shit going smoothly.

10

Taylor

I kept my body still, despite the barely contained turmoil sweeping through the room. I wanted to jump up and deny, deny, deny.

Cop? What cop? I wanted to ask, but I knew speaking would only make it worse. Surely Brody knew how to handle this kind of situation. Surely he could explain away whatever made them suspicious.

“You think I’m a cop?” Brody scoffed, his voice sounding slightly bemused. “That’s actually pretty flattering. You think I could pull something like that off?”

My coiled insides relaxed slightly because he sounded so genuine there was no way they wouldn’t believe him.

Snake laughed. “It’s pretty out there.”

I didn’t like the way his laugh sounded. Slowly, I turned my head so I could look across the room. Brody’s back was to me, and it blocked almost the entire view of Snake.

“Explain this,” Snake snarled, and I saw his arm fling out as he thrust the phone at Brody.

Brody took the phone and held it in front of him. Several seconds later, I heard the audio begin to play. I recognized the music as the intro for a local news station here in Raleigh.

…The robbery of Shaw Trust earlier today has rocked the city of Raleigh. Despite the refusal of the local law enforcement to comment, Eye on Five managed to uncover some information on what turns out to be a very involved theft…

“What the hell is this?” Brody asked, cutting off the babbling of the news anchor.

“Watch it,” Snake threatened, a gun appearing in his hand, pointed directly at Brody.

My breath caught and renewed fear took over my body. Once again, I found myself looking around the room for something I could use as a weapon. The audio filled the room once more and I listened as horror dawned.

…The only daughter of the prestigious Shaw family of Raleigh is said to have been in the bank at the time of the robbery and is now missing. We have learned from an unnamed source that surveillance footage shows Taylor Shaw being carried out of the bank, presumably against her will. Her father, Edward Preston Shaw, has put up a two million-dollar award for the safe return of his daughter…

Oh, this was bad.

…We have also learned that the man carrying her out of the building is police officer Brody West. Eye on Five learned his identity when his truck was left abandoned outside the bank and was eventually impounded by the very department he is said to work for.

Is this a case of good cop gone bad, or is there more to this case than meets the eye? We will keep you updated on this breaking case as details come in…

“I told you my name was Slater Bass. I don’t know no Brody West,” Brody said, handing the phone casually back to Snake.

How the hell could be be so calm?

They found him out! They found us out! I was literally trying not to scream like a hyena being chased by a lion (Do lions and hyenas even live in the same place?).

“You’re telling me the news is wrong?” Snake asked.

“Well, they ain’t right.”

Snake looked down at the screen on his phone and, with a few swipes and taps of his fingers, brought up an image. He turned the screen around so it faced Brody. From my place on the cot, I could see it clearly.

It was a picture of Brody… in his police uniform.

My stomach heaved and the impulse to throw up all over everything was so strong I actually started to gag. Another tap on the screen brought up a picture of me from several years ago, with my father, standing in front of the bank.

I sat up, leaning against the wall. My arm protested when I moved, but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as before. The numbing injections were still dulling the pain and the pain medicine was doing its job throughout my bloodstream.