Reckoning Read online

  I wouldn’t be in there for long. There was no way in hell he was getting away with this. I didn’t care if I had to raze half the city; I was going to find him and get some payback. In one defiant statement, he admitted to killing Tori, and he was planning to kill everyone else who had a hand in putting Kacie away, which led to her unfortunate demise.

  There was something deeper going on, and I was determined to find out what the hell it was. He wasn’t about to have the last word, as long as I had breath in my body, that was not about to be the case.

  This wasn’t over by a long shot.

  TWENTY

  “Damn, bruh, if you look like this, I want to know what happened to the other guy.”

  Ramesses, Niki and Natasha were in my room at Northside Hospital, trying to get a gauge of my injuries. He called himself trying to make a joke in light of how bad I must have looked to the three of them. Niki looked like she was ready to hunt the man down and take matters into her own hands, and Natasha’s face betrayed her also, as they both tried to tell me that they weren’t worried about my injuries.

  Despite my need to try and dissuade their collective concerns, the truth was that I felt like I’d been hit by a semi. I was groggy from the morphine drip, but I wasn’t too far gone to find out the answer to one very important question. “Is Ty okay? Did he make it?”

  “Yes, my Sir, Ty is okay, thanks to You.” Natasha beamed as she recounted the story that Ty told her once he regained consciousness. “He said You took a beating, but You managed to cause enough bleeding for forensics to get a profile on Your attacker.”

  That was the first bit of good news I’d heard since I woke up. I sat up in the bed, putting my hand out in expectation of getting the file that would tell me everything I needed to know about this mystery man. She smiled as she placed the file in my hand, blushing as our eyes met briefly.

  As I perused the file, I rattled off the bullet points to share with the rest of the group. “Hmmm, dude’s name is Karrion, and he used to be in a D/s relationship with Edge before her death.”

  “Wait a minute, did you say death?” Ramesses stopped me before I could get started with the presentation. “When did Edge die?”

  “Apparently, that happened about a week before Jason was killed.” I didn’t like where this particular road was going to lead me, but I had no choice but to follow things to their conclusion. “I have a feeling that dude was planted into our circle with the express purpose of getting revenge on us for the death of his Mistress.”

  “Sir, it has to be something a little less simplistic than coming after us for Edge’s downfall.” Niki felt like this was a matter of being petty. She turned to Natasha, who nodded in her agreement of the initial assessment. “What happened to the instructions to keep her isolated once she was transferred? Did they ignore those orders or something?”

  They had a point, and there was no denying that somehow the protocol at the prison was circumvented, but the multitude of questions seemed to never end. Who breached protocol? How did it happen? The questions kept coming, and the more they flooded my mind, the more my head hurt.

  “Sarge was the point of contact for everything I wanted to do at Pulaski; I’ll have to start with him.” The issue I had with that suggestion was that I had to ask some hard questions for a trusted friend and former supervisor. Even more so, did I have it within me to ask those questions and demand honest answers?

  “Our old sergeant is running things at Pulaski?” Niki’s ears perked up over that revelation. “i might need to have a word with him, my Sir. i mean no offense, but Your relationship with him might cloud things a bit.”

  “Negative, Ms. Santiago.” I had to get into professional character quickly to match my submissive’s demeanor quickly. “Sergeant Lynch will hear your voice and know that something’s amiss. At least he knows Me and can trust Me long enough to get the answers I need from him. you’re going to have to trust Me.”

  Ramesses chimed in before Niki could offer a rebuttal. “He’s right, Madame ADA; you know how the corrections department is about anyone who might resemble anything closer to the Internal Affairs department. If anything, the familiarity has already bred trust. Allow your Sir to use this advantage to get what is needed to close this case out.”

  Niki considered her options, realizing that she was in a difficult position. On the other hand, she needed this case solved before anyone else within the circle was hurt or killed. “Okay, my Sir, You have the point on this one, but i need you to figure this out as discreetly as you can. This isn’t a sanctioned operation by the DA’s office, but i’m trusting You to do what You do, and do it quickly.”

  I picked up my cell phone, giving a nod to my partner, who made a call to Taliah, still in the office awaiting instructions. A few clicks later, and my phone was set up for recording from the system at the office, in case he tried to be quiet during the call. I didn’t take any chances, and I wasn’t about to start now.

  Niki and Natasha stayed in the background, listening in on my end of the conversation, silently feeding me follow-up questions when necessary.

  I was calm for a minute, until Sarge popped up on the call. All bets were off. “Dom, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”

  “Sarge, I have to ask some hard questions of you with regard to an inmate that was killed while in your custody.” I did my best to frame the interrogation in the manner that I wanted it, to keep him off balance as much as I could. I knew I was treading thin ice with the opening line, but I wasn’t exactly an experienced attorney, not like Niki was. “What protocol was followed with inmate #2731034?”

  “What is this about, Dom?” His paranoia sensors were already on high alert, and the pitch in his voice changed immediately. “You know protocol is paramount at the prison. What are you driving at?”

  “I’m going to put this out there for you to deal with one way or another, especially considering the way you had to retire from the force to begin with.” I saw Niki try to guide me to the proper line of questioning, but she wasn’t aware of the information I had in my back pocket, in case he tried to be evasive about what I was asking about. “I’m trying to not put you in a compromising position, but you’re going to leave me no choice in about five seconds.”

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “Three hundred thousand, in three separate installments, exactly three weeks apart from each other, with the last deposit made the week that the inmate in question was safely transferred to your facility.”

  “Come again?” Sarge’s tone came up differently this time; it was uncertainty over how I knew about the amounts that I’d come up with.

  “We can play dirty, Sarge, if that’s what you want. I had your financials pulled after I’d realized there was a pattern of prisoner abuse in your facility, sir.” I felt like I was going to lose it at any minute. “That inmate I referred to wasn’t the first one, and she won’t be the last one, either. Am I correct in that assumption, or should I make a call up the chain to someone else who picked up the rest of the six-figure payment for services rendered?”

  The phone went silent for a few moments, a dead giveaway that the hunch I had, as much as I wanted to not believe it, had paid off. I looked at my girls, and Niki’s face was priceless; she was curious to know how I had that information on hand like that.

  Sarge finally huffed over the phone, resigned to deal with the line of questioning I had for him. “I always hated that you were smarter than most, Dom. I took the payment from an interested party to have that inmate transferred to me. Once she was here, she was unfortunately caught up in an altercation with another inmate, which led to her death. So, now that you’ve got the information, are you gonna bury me with it?”

  “I didn’t when you got bounced from Fulton, and I’m not going to do it now.” I felt like I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands. Blood was on his hands and he didn’t know it yet. He was about to now. “Who paid you to bypass protocol an
d put that inmate in danger?”

  Sarge was incredulous. He struggled to understand what the significance was, and he articulated that confusion. “I don’t get it, Dom; what is the significance of this one inmate to you? Was she a former fuck buddy of yours or something?”

  I wasn’t completely happy with the snide joke he threw in there with regard to my relationship with Kacie, but I kept myself in check as best I could. “You might have accepted a payment that put certain things in motion that you might not be aware of, Sarge. You cooperate, I keep my mouth shut, are we clear?”

  “Fine. Yes, I took a payments to look the other way. The woman that we put her with was supposed to be a low-security risk; there was no way to know she would do what she did to her.”

  He was speaking in riddles and vague innuendo, and I didn’t like it. I was in too much pain to drag this out too far. “This isn’t about you anymore, Sarge; two people are dead, and I almost lost my own life because of whatever you allowed to happen up there. I’m stuck in a fucking hospital room because of you!”

  “All I cared about was the money, I didn’t give a fuck about the consequences, as long as they didn’t affect me personally. What the fuck did you want me to do, tell the bitch no? Fuck you, D!”

  Things were getting personal too fast. I had to find a way to regain some emotional control over him, but the meds in my system had other plans in mind. “Sarge, I need you to focus for me, understand? Who sent the money? Who was the inmate you housed her with?”

  “If you think for a minute that I’m going to answer that question, you have another goddamned thing coming.” Sarge dug in his heels, determined to make this a fight that I didn’t have the energy for. The meds were starting to work again, and I needed answers before I was too loopy to understand the words coming out of my mouth. “They’ll kill me and everyone who was in on the situation.”

  “Not if I don’t get to you first. You won’t live long enough to enjoy a penny of that money until you tell me what I want to know.”

  “You’re in the hospital; you can’t do a damn thing to me right now.” Sarge laughed in my face, nearly taunting me with the information he knew. “I could tell you who was in the cell, but I have a feeling if you sit down and think long enough, you’ll know who was behind her murder.”

  The alarm that went off in my head felt like I was in the bell tower of the Notre Dame Cathedral as the clock struck midnight. If I hadn’t been so damn stupid trying to outsmart myself, I would have figured this stupid shit out to begin with. Niki’s eyes widened, and I wondered if she’d reached the same conclusion that I had.

  “Why did you put her in the cell with that woman? What was the endgame for doing something so careless? What the hell is that about?”

  “Someone wanted your smug ass to pay for something you did, and quite frankly, I didn’t flinch when your name came up in the conversation.” Sarge’s sneer could be felt over the earpiece, and I swore I heard him try to stifle a laugh. “The minute you got that shield, you were no longer one of us, Law. You turned your back on me, on our old unit, and for what? To go play P.I.? What kind of fantasy shit is that?”

  I was getting really sick of that tired theme following me wherever I went. The fucked-up part was, if they were given the same opportunity, they would have jumped on it in a heartbeat. They all could spare me the moral indignation. “So, you felt the need to try to burn me, meanwhile innocent people had to get killed over some bullshit?”

  “You might want to check yourself, Dom. I still haven’t told you who your killer is.”

  “You don’t have to tell me who it is. She’s been helping me this entire time, and playing me the whole fucking time. I don’t need you anymore, Sarge. I’ll see you behind bars before you can blink twice.” I hung up the phone before he could say another word, turning to my girls for clarification. “Was that enough for a warrant?”

  “Consider him and his supervisor handled within the hour, my Sir.” Niki shook her head at the sheer arrogance on display. “I knew he was grimy, but to cause someone’s death and cover it up? I hope they scorch their asses!”

  I was more upset at being played yet again by someone who thought I was too stupid to figure out that she had something to do with the situation that had befallen me.

  I began to get out of the bed, trying to take off the IV line and ignoring the pain I felt with each smaller movement.

  Ramesses looked like he was about to have me committed for losing my sanity. “I know You don’t think You’re going anywhere in Your condition.”

  “My condition is more soreness than any broken bones, Sir. I have a bitch to shake down, big time.” Yes, he was my mentor, business partner, and more importantly, my friend, but he was about to catch hellfire if he wasn’t careful. “She thinks she played Me from the word go, and I aim to make her pay in ways that she has no clue about.”

  Natasha looked at Niki, nodded like they had the same thought, and moved to press her hand against my chest. “You’re not going anywhere, my Sir, not until the doctor says You can leave, and no sooner. We can pick up from here for a day while You get some rest and heal.”

  “And before You protest, my Sir, You’re going to have to remember that You’re no good to us unless You’re at full strength.” Niki gave me that “look” that let me know she wasn’t only talking about work. “We have people on this, and we’ll be able to track this guy down, now that he’s out in the open with his identity. The other issue can wait until You get better.”

  There were times when having two submissive women at your beck and call could be considered a good thing for the average man. This was not one of those times. I tried not to seethe over the fact that they were keeping me from doing what needed to be done, and in my mind, there was no one else who could do the job right.

  The minute I tried to get up and Natasha was able to ease me back in place without breaking much of a sweat let me know that my mind was writing checks that my body couldn’t cash right now. I slammed my head against the pillows, cursing out no one in particular but wanting to find a target or two. “Fine, you have twenty-four hours. The moment the doctors release Me, I’m going to be in South Georgia to handle some shit and get the answers that I need. Are we clear?”

  “Crystal clear, my Sir.” Natasha tried not to grin, but I knew I’d triggered one of her fetishes. She loved it when I was aggressive with my words and actions. It didn’t work on Niki so much; she was more of an action junkie. She lifted my hand to kiss the back of my palm before kissing my cheek. “Now, if You’ll excuse me, i have a suspect to try and track down.”

  “Yes, and i have a bit of political maneuvering that i have to do to get through this debacle of a case with the Ashton kidnapping.” Niki followed her sister’s lead, kissing my palm before kissing my cheek and making her way out the door also. That left Ramesses and me in the room alone, with nothing more than a long-overdue chat about the cases to work through.

  I took my phone and texted Ty. I needed some dirt to bring with me when I confronted Sarge. I told him to come clean so I could protect him, but he decided it was best to act like I couldn’t touch him. The leverage he used to have over me didn’t even apply anymore; the minute I quit the department, the ability to have me prosecuted went out the window.

  I didn’t think he was aware of that, but I didn’t care anymore. Lives were at stake.

  Ramesses gave me a look, almost like he was disappointed that I’d found myself in such a predicament. He stroked his beard, trying to figure out how he wanted to approach the conversation between us. I returned his stare with a dismissive glance of my own, letting him know that I had already plotted some get back, whether he approved of it or not.

  “You know You should have gotten grimy and killed that dude, right?”

  “I thought I was getting grimy. Turned out, he was a little hungrier than I was.”

  “Sometimes You gotta lose a few to figure out how to get the W.”

  I wasn’t inte
rested in hearing the metaphorical psych job he was imparting on me, no matter how much I might have needed to hear it. The next time I saw him, I wouldn’t take him for granted; I knew who I was dealing with, and this next time, I would not make the same mistakes. “Yeah, yeah, spare me the speeches and rhetoric, Sir. The fact that he got the drop on Me has Me in payback mode. Being stuck in here isn’t helping matters, either; I need to be on the streets. I’m not about to sit here and do nothing.”

  “You don’t have a choice in the matter, Your body is telling You that right now. Be patient, get stronger, and execute the plan that’s in Your head.”

  “That plan got formed the minute I woke up in here. He has no idea what I’m about to do to him, and he won’t see it coming this time.”

  “So, what are You gonna do when You get out of here?”

  “I’m gonna find him, and I’m gonna send him back to his Mistress.”

  “Bold words, partner. You sure You can back them up in Your condition?”

  “Watch Me.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  “Hi, baby, have you missed me?”

  “Wait a minute…Sherrie? How are you here? How is this possible?”

  “You called for me in the darkness, baby, so, here I am.”

  “But you’re dead. This can’t be real; why are you here, baby?”

  “Because you’re having problems solving these cases, and you called out for me.”

  It had to be the sedative that the nurses gave me to help me sleep; there was no other way to explain what was happening to me. I was hallucinating, or something, but the way she looked, the way she felt—or at least in my mind it felt like she was right there—it almost seemed real.

  However it happened, it was a bittersweet mixture of happiness and anxiety. I took comfort that I could call out for her and my mind could trick me into thinking she was actually there with me, but I felt a bit selfish, thinking I could somehow find the peace that I couldn’t find before she died.