Blood and Thunder Page 5

  “I know, I know,” he said. “You’re a lifesaver, Skye. I owe you big time. In fact, I’ll work your Tuesday night shift so you can still have a two-day break.”

  “Damn right, you will.” I hung up, not waiting for a thank you or a goodbye. This was the third time Ricker had pulled this on me since I joined the K9 unit. I already knew that if I said no, he’d just call Langford and have him call me in anyway. As the low officer on the totem pole, it was expected of me. It didn’t mean I had to like it.

  The clock on my phone read 9:30 P.M. The night shift began in an hour. How convenient that Ricker had called when he did. He was probably still at the cantina he liked to frequent—probably still putting down margaritas and salsa like nobody’s business. I had half a mind to stop in and confront him, but that would just end with me being labeled a party-pooping snitch. Not the way I wanted to be remembered after I left the force.

  By the time I finished putting on my uniform and gear, Laura and Mandy had returned from having dinner. Mandy took one look at me and froze, her cheeks puffing up with outrage. “This is bullshit! You should’ve at least asked me first.”

  “Okay,” I said dryly, fixing the button at the base of my throat. “Hey, Star, are you up for covering Yogi’s shift?”

  “No,” she barked. “I am most definitely not. The season finale of Thrones is tonight.”

  “I’ll just call the captain and let him know my dog said tonight isn’t good for her. Her show’s on, and she doesn’t want to risk anyone dropping spoilers at work.”

  “Such bullshit.” Mandy growled and stomped off toward the room she shared with Laura.

  She’d be back and ready to go in a few minutes. Even though she was taking it out on me, Mandy knew I didn’t have any choice in the matter. Unless I wanted to quit. Which I’d have to do soon enough anyway. The thought of giving up my badge bummed me, but quitting on Langford’s team would make the chore more bearable.

  “So,” Laura said, giving me a knowing look as she leaned against the back of the sofa to remove her heels. “Am I giving Captain Mullet your notice in the morning?”

  I smirked at the nickname, thanking my lucky stars that my flirty sister disliked Langford as much as I did. I fetched my duffle bag from the coat closet. “I guess you probably should if you’re leaving in two weeks. I have some notes in here.” I unzipped the bag and dug around until I found a bundle of paper-clipped index cards. I handed them to her.

  Laura pouted out her bottom lip, and I noticed that she was wearing heavier makeup than usual. She was already prepping for her diva revival. I just hoped that she didn’t sabotage my reputation in the process.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to improvise something more…colorful?” she asked, thumbing through the cards.

  “I just want a quiet exit,” I said.

  Laura paused on a card and flipped it around for me to see. “Really? You want to use the starting-a-family bit on him?” She scoffed and held up the next card. “Failing health? You can’t be serious. None of this shit applies to you. I could tell him that he’s made your work life such a living hell that you’ve decided to give up law enforcement for good, and that would be more honest than any of this.”

  “Quiet exit,” I repeated.

  Laura huffed and folded her arms. “Fine.”

  “Plus, I might not be giving up law enforcement, after all.”

  Her manicured eyebrows lifted playfully. “I thought that was tall, blond, and broody we passed on the way in.”

  “Nothing’s set in stone,” I added under my breath as Mandy rounded the corner in wolf form.

  Her dark fur would have been more intimidating, more wolf-like, if not for the way it faded to brown along her muzzle and over one eye. The softer color covered her legs and the tip of her tail, too. It was less noticeable in the darkness we often worked in.

  Mandy’s ears lay flat against her head, but she didn’t growl at me as I knelt down to tighten the straps of her police vest. The material didn’t have as much give as the last one she’d worn, and after shifting, it hung around her ribcage unevenly. She turned her head away, pointing her muzzle up in the air as I made the adjustments.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, resisting the urge to pet her. I’d learned that lesson once already. “I didn’t want to go in tonight either. If it makes you feel any better, Laura is putting in our notice in the morning.”

  Mandy shot a sly glance up at Laura, who nodded in agreement. Then she yipped out a sound that I took as approval. I stood and grabbed the duffle bag.

  “Guess you’re not getting that three-day weekend, after all,” I said to Laura with an apologetic smile.

  She sighed and fanned herself with the notecards. “The things I do for love.”

  I still questioned whether her help was more an act of penance rather than love, but I didn’t say so out loud. I was grateful either way, and it was nice having my sister back in my life, being able to share things with her again. She was the only family I had—unless I counted Mandy, who I claimed as my foster daughter anytime someone was nosy enough to ask.

  My mother would have argued that it didn’t count—but not to be cruel. She had been a foster kid herself, though her last foster family had thrown her out on her ass when they discovered she was pregnant with Laura and me. That was all she ever had to say about them. They were not a part of our lives, and they’d hardly been a part of Mom’s life. Just the tail end of a string of families that was never really family. Not in the way that counted.

  I wanted to be there for Mandy in a way that counted. I wanted to provide her with the home she’d never had growing up, even though she was technically an adult now. I didn’t care. No one could stop me from offering, and no one could keep her from accepting. Our arrangement was unspoken, but she seemed to be on the same page.

  I glanced down and gave her a small smile as we headed out the front door. “We have enough time to run by that pizza joint you like,” I said. Her tail wagged, and she barked at me. In her wolfy state, her body responded instantly to the promise of food. Even though she’d just eaten with Laura, Mandy would be able to put down an entire pizza by herself. Shifting used up a lot of calories, which could be seen in her petite human form.

  My smile stretched wider. “I hope that means I’m forgiven.” When she grumbled, I added, “Besides, we’re just running basic patrol around the city tonight. It’s Sunday. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  * * * * *

  I enjoyed the slow nights when it was just the two of us on patrol. Since we had to be so cautious about what we did, solo work was our safest bet. I didn’t have to pretend to be human around Mandy, and she didn’t have to pretend to be a dog around me. And I also didn’t have to worry about a human partner seeing something they shouldn’t.

  If things got a little weird with a suspect, no one would believe them over an officer. Langford, no matter how much he enjoyed giving me hell, would call them crazy before I even had a chance to dream up an excuse for their bizarre claim. Not that he’d ever had to.

  Mandy and I had been very careful. Her certifications were fabricated under the guise that the hard copies had been lost in a fire. That’s how I explained my ability to “purchase” her for such a steep discount. That she was so excellently “trained” helped drive the lie home. Of course, we also had to be careful that she didn’t appear too well-trained. It would have been easy to blow all the K9 records out of the water. In fact, it was harder trying not to break records.

  Mandy had to be good enough to be accepted onto the unit without additional pre-training, but not so good that we found ourselves on House Lilith’s radar. It was an awkward challenge after spending so many years striving for perfection and promotion, training to be considered average rather than exceptional. But we pulled it off, and of that, I was proud.

  Mandy napped in the seat next to me, her muzzle propped on the lid of a pizza box. A smear of tomato sauce cut across her nose, and more clung to her
whiskers. I eased on the brake as I rounded a corner so I wouldn’t wake her. Our routine was a fairly lazy one, but no lazier than Ricker and Yogi’s.

  Letting Mandy ride up front was technically against the rules, but the caged-off area behind us was meant for police dogs that couldn’t understand things like someone trying to help their handler in the event of a crash. It was an accidental bite precaution. I only asked Mandy to ride back there for show when we I knew we were going to be seen by someone who would make a stink about it.

  The speaker on the dash crackled, and Collins’ voice summoned me. “K9-7, this is 215. I have one in custody and could use assistance at Page and Lakeland.”

  Mandy’s ears twitched. Her head popped up as I replied to the call.

  “K9-7, copy. En route.”

  I sighed, relieved that his suspect was already in custody. Sniffing a car for narcotics was easy for Mandy. Chasing someone down without chewing their limbs off was a bit more of a struggle. If her urge to kill prey was anything like my bloodlust, I pitied her.

  Mandy and I didn’t talk much about her biological condition. Everything she knew stemmed from a life she’d just barely survived, and I felt guilty any time I stirred those dark memories. That she was a sardonic teenager didn’t make the conversations any more fun either.

  As we turned west on Page Avenue, Mandy pressed her front paws into the floorboard and stretched. Then she slicked her long tongue over her muzzle a few times, washing away the evidence of her late-night snack.

  “Probably just a quick car search,” I said to her. I glanced at the clock on the dash and added, “Then we can take lunch.” Her tail wagged at that, and she bared her teeth at me in a startling smile.

  A few minutes later, we pulled off of Page and onto Lakeland. I spotted Collins’ patrol car in a hotel parking lot sandwiched between a gas station and a Hooters. Two more hotels and an electrical supply company were nearby. Hooters’ parking lot was empty. They closed at eleven on Sunday nights. The hotels weren’t especially busy either, their lots holding only a handful of cars, most all of them haloed by the protective glow of security lights.

  Collins’ sergeant pulled in just as I did. I sucked in a tense breath and glanced at Mandy, trying to decide the best way to go about parking so that I could let her out of the car without giving away the fact that she’d been in the front seat with an empty pizza box.

  With a little quick thinking, I pulled in on the opposite side of Collins’ car, using it for cover. I hopped out and ushered Mandy through my open door. Then I opened and closed the back passenger door, hoping the sound was ruse enough. Mandy snorted at me, and I could have sworn I saw her golden eyes roll.

  “Easy for you to scoff at the rules,” I whispered as I knelt down to clip a leash on her collar. “You’re not the one who’ll get ripped a new asshole if we’re busted.”

  When I walked Mandy around the cars, Collins and Sergeant Patz were waiting for us. Collins reclined against the side of his cruiser, arms casually folded across his chest. He was the epitome of comfortable confidence, and the sergeant’s presence only made it more obvious. The older officer looked like an ostrich stretching its neck to gain more height. He was only an inch shorter than me, but Collins towered over him by a good four or five inches. He squared his shoulders and put his hands on his hips as I joined them.

  Patz had been my commanding officer when I worked patrol, too. He was only in his fifties, but years of neglecting to wear sunblock had shriveled him up like a prune and filled his fair complexion with blotchy sunspots. It also led to a skin cancer scare that had cost him the top ridge of one ear. He spent more time on the late shifts now to reduce his sun exposure.

  Patz was not my favorite person, but I’d gotten by without too much trouble from him when I worked patrol. He had the mindset of a much older generation, one that believed police work was meant for men, and that all women should be obedient housewives. We’d never warmed up to each other, but he was at least respectful enough to keep his outdated opinions to himself. For the most part. The scolding look he gave me as I stopped before him and Collins made me wonder if that had changed since I left patrol.

  “Take a looksee,” Collins said, nodding at the cruiser. He opened the back door and revealed the young suspect inside. The kid didn’t look old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes. A cluster of zits dotted his forehead under the band of a backward Cardinals ball cap, and when he sneered at Collins, I could see the red, white, and blue rubber bands of his braces.

  “I’m a minor,” he shouted. “You can’t arrest me. I know my rights!”

  Patz snorted. “If you’re a minor, then we’ll turn you over to one of our juvenile corrections officers. Maybe you’ll give them your name, because you’re going to be in custody until we find out.” The kid’s eyes migrated away from the sergeant and landed on Mandy next.

  “I told you we’d find the drugs,” Collins said. “One way or another. Are you sure you don’t want to make this easier on yourself and tell us where you ditched them?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t do drugs.” His throat bobbed, and he leaned back in his seat as Mandy crept closer, sniffing the air to catch his scent. Collins watched her, and when she eased back and sat on her haunches, he lifted an eyebrow at me. I nodded, letting him know we were good to go. He closed the cruiser door before filling us in on the rest of the story.

  “The hotel just off Page called in suspicious activity, and I was closest to the scene,” he said. “I arrived in time to witness the suspect engaged in a deal with another party.”

  “Another party?” Patz asked, placing his hands on either side of his belt buckle. His neck strained as he rocked up off his heels, leveling with me for a brief moment.

  Collins nodded. “The dealer took off, but I called in a BOLO. This one wasn’t fast enough. I imagine he’s got a car around here somewhere, but since I can’t even get a name out of him, I haven’t had much luck.”

  “Hmm.” Patz rubbed his chin. “I’ll make a note for someone on day shift to check in with the surrounding businesses in the morning. Maybe they can locate some surveillance footage or at least narrow down the search through process of elimination.” He turned to me next. “Are you waiting for a formal invitation to do your job, Skye?”

  I stiffened and turned my attention to Collins, ignoring the barb. “Is there anything else you’d like to share before we begin?”

  Collins gave me an apologetic smile before answering. “There’ve been a few hard drug busts around here recently, so you might want to keep close to Star so she doesn’t accidentally ingest anything. The suspect cut through the hotels between here and Page.” He pointed the way, and Mandy and I set off without sparing another look in Patz’s direction.

  The chip on the sergeant’s shoulder had clearly grown since our last encounter. It was as if he’d taken my promotion to detective as a personal insult to his leadership. I wouldn’t lie, I’d enjoyed working under Mathis more, however short-lived the job had been. But I didn’t make the move out of spite for Patz. It was one I’d made with my mother in mind.

  By the same token, I hadn’t applied to the K9 unit wholly for Mandy’s sake. It wasn’t even just to protect my new secret or because I wasn’t ready for another human partner so soon after losing Will. Mandy’s life was every bit as valuable as a human’s. I was doing this because my mother had. Because I wanted to wrap myself in her world as if that might somehow keep the reality that she was gone from suffocating me. That, more than anything, stabbed at my heart when I thought about my pending resignation.

  Mandy’s nose dipped to the ground a time or two as we hurried across the parking lot and around the backside of the hotel. My shoulders sagged once we were out of Patz’s line of sight. His stiff posture was contagious, and I certainly didn’t miss that constant feeling of being scrutinized and silently snubbed.

  Mandy tugged me toward a thin line of trees that separated the hotel’s parking lot from
a secluded truck bay. White cinderblock walls peeked through the branches and tall grass. I ducked under the prickly arm of a pine tree and slid down an embankment, catching myself before I wiped out on the pavement below.

  Security lights revealed a few dumpsters in between metal stairwells leading to the buildings’ back exits. As Mandy led me forward, I tried to guess where the kid had stashed the drugs. Maybe behind one of the stairwells or dumpsters? Under the nest of brush in the far corner?

  Mandy urged me farther along, into the truck bay behind the next building over. In her wolfy form, she couldn’t explain to me what she was processing with her nose, but our path painted a fairly clear picture. The kid had circled the group of buildings, likely hoping to make his way back to a vehicle. My money was on the blue minivan I’d spied in the hotel parking lot closest to Hooters. It was probably registered to his mother.

  We’d almost cleared the second truck bay when Mandy paused and glanced over her shoulder. A soft whimper wheezed through her flared nostrils as she eyed a knot of trees that bordered the drive leading out of the truck bay. A faded sign was erected in front of them, listing the buildings grouped together there, their otherwise unmarked lots all blending together.

  Mandy took off again, stopping in front of the sign and poking her nose in a bush beside it. She pawed the cedar mulch, turning up the earth until the corner of a plastic baggy surfaced.

  “That’s good,” I said, giving her leash a gentle tug. “Let the old curmudgeon do his part from here.” I reached for the radio clipped to my uniform, but Mandy jerked the leash, almost pulling me off my feet. “Hey!”

  She answered with a perturbed growl and dragged me around the other side of the thicket. Her dark fur and black police vest disappeared in the shadows of the trees, but she kept pulling me forward. I lifted my free arm up to shield my face from the low-hanging branches. The sticky pine needles grated against my skin and snagged my ponytail.

  “What the hell, Mandy?” I hissed, and then the toe of my boot connected with something solid on the ground. A musty, metallic odor drifted up from the darkness pooling around my legs. It was both familiar and foreign, like a favorite perfume when it starts to go bad.