Tipsy (Take It Off #5)(33)
Author: Cambria Hebert

I didn’t want this life anymore. I didn’t want to live for my job. I didn’t want to eat, sleep, and breathe this case. Living in a ghetto house with a frickin’ pink bathroom was not how I wanted to spend my days. Balancing myself as two separate people with two very different ideas of lifestyle was getting old.

I wanted this case over.

I wanted to be Blue again. I wanted to spend time with Julie. I wanted to drive my sweet-ass Challenger around town and sleep in a bed that didn’t have dust mites living in the mattress.

I knew what I was doing was important. I knew what I was doing was absolutely necessary. I couldn’t give up, but this case needed to be resolved. People’s lives were at risk and on hold.

Dom was pleased when I showed up with the tow truck. He seemed surprised that I thought of such a vehicle for delivery, but he agreed that it made a great cover for what we were really transporting.

In the end, I got the job. I was going to deliver the haul of drugs to Myrtle Beach. He put me on standby. I was to wait for the call, then come running. My job was now to be available. Whenever Dom said drive, I said how far.

I tried to get the address of where the supply was kept, but he clammed up. I didn’t want to press the issue because he already didn’t like me much. So it was back to waiting. Waiting for the call, for the delivery.

I wasn’t too worried about Slater’s warning until Dom announced that he would ride with me to Myrtle Beach. That threw a huge wrench in my plans. I was going to have to work something out with Watson in advance for the sting because I wouldn’t have as much freedom on the road.

But it wasn’t really arresting them that had me worried. We would get the crew. What worried me was the fact Dom wanted to come. My instincts were screaming that the only reason he wanted to ride along was because he had no intention of ever letting me come home.

He would use me for the job, then get rid of me when we were still alone. Then he’d tell the rest of the crew I decided to skip town and not come back. The only one who wouldn’t believe him would be Slater, but by then it would be too late.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought about Julie. Odds were I wasn’t going to die. My eyes were wide open. We’d take Dom in before he could act, and I would come home. But… But even the best laid plans sometimes got messed up. I didn’t want to go into this without seeing Julie at least one more time.

The problem was every time I saw her, things between us got better and better. It took everything I had to walk out her door tonight.

I sipped at the coffee, the rich sweetness settling some of my thoughts, and then I reached under the driver’s seat to grab the cell phone Watson gave me to keep in contact when I could. I only talked to them twice since going back undercover.

It rang several times before I heard the line pick up. I had a ping of regret that it was the middle of the night, but Watson knew I would only call when I could.

“Gray,” Watson said, his voice thick with sleep. “Is everything okay?”

“Sorry to call at such a late hour, sir.” I apologized.

I heard the ruffling of what I assumed were covers and then his voice came on the line, more alert than before.

“Nonsense. Anytime. You have information for me?”

“Not much. I’ve successfully infiltrated the crew here. I’ve been asked to deliver a load of drugs into South Carolina within the next few days. I’m hoping I’ll be able to see where the drugs are coming from when I make the pick-up.”

“That’s excellent. Keep me informed. We can set up a sting operation for you to be intercepted on your delivery. We can confiscate the drugs, arrest you, and then you can “roll over” on the others in the crew in exchange for a lighter sentence.”

I knew he was speaking hypothetically. I wouldn’t actually be charged with anything, but the department would make it look like I was so my secret identity stayed that way. They could make a big deal out of sending me to a facility not in this area so people wouldn’t wonder why I wasn’t behind bars with the others that I helped put there. Once the ring was busted and dismantled here in town, I could go back to my life, and hopefully no one would be the wiser.

It seemed like a pretty open-and-shut case. Clean. I could do this. I could end this any day now. All I had to do was wait for the call with my delivery schedule.

“There’s another reason I called,” I said before Watson could hang up the phone. I cleared my throat. “It’s—uh—personal.”

“Whatever you need,” he said. I hoped he would still feel that way after I told him what I needed.

“There’s this woman,” I began.

“Mother of God, Gray, don’t tell me you fell for someone on the crew.”

“No. No, nothing like that.”

“Thank God. Do you know what kind of compromise that would be to your cover?”

I didn’t say anything because even though Julie wasn’t on the crew, she was still technically a compromise to my cover.

Watson swore. “What is it, Gray?” he demanded.

“The night I went undercover, I stood up a woman for a date,” I began.

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, I dated her before, months before. Before I went undercover. She showed up at the club my first night under. She… uh… fell in with Dom. I intercepted as he was dragging her off the dance floor. I sent her home.”

“So she’s connected to your undercover alias. And she knows your real name.”

“Yes.” I paused. “I told her I was undercover.”

I yanked the phone away from my ear just in time to be spared the barrage of expletives that came through the line. When Watson was done cussing at me, I rested the cell back against my ear.

“I know it’s against protocol. It couldn’t be helped. She assured me she wouldn’t breathe a word. She promised if she ever saw me out in town, she would pretend she had no idea who I was.”

“You trust this woman?”

“I do, sir. Absolutely.”

“That’s good enough for me.”

“There’s something else.”

“Jesus, Gray. What!”

“The last guy to deliver for Dom never came back. Dom wants to ride with me. I don’t think it’s a good sign,” I said, letting that sink in. “I want your word, sir, that if something happens to me, she will be notified privately. I don’t want her hearing about me on the news. She’s important to me. She means something.”