Chapter 35
Sylvia
“You’ve gotta hurry up, okay?” Sylvia wrenched herself away from another paramedic trying to tend to some scratch on her leg. “Tell your boyfriend to get his ass moving!”
Reception was spotty in that building. Sylvia was en route to the roof of the small brick office building, the stairwell now devoid of agents since they all ran to the neighboring mid-rise. I have no idea what’s going on. One moment everyone was looking for Sheen, and the next? Crackling static on the radios had men and women racing to another location. Sylvia had barely seen the commander’s dark brown bun moving through the huddle before she was alone with the paramedics.
Apparently there was plenty of carnage going on outside. Gunfire was exchanged on the sidewalk, and someone’s radio announced that one of the bodyguards was down. They found him. They found Sheen. That didn’t mean they found the truck. Based on their brief conversation about his business earlier? It was bound to leave Portland at any moment. Sylvia didn’t doubt that there were patrols on the freeways and highways, but would it be enough? Had Sheen learned his lesson from the crash and changed vehicles?
Sylvia popped out on the roof. Her cell phone reception instantly went up. Thank God I got my phone back when they handed me my purse. She had left her purse with Genevieve before coming to Sheen’s office. Now she was making one of the most urgent phone calls of her life.
“Anything yet?”
The feminine voice on the other end of the line was not helpful. “He’s searching as fast as he can, okay? A man can only hack so quickly! Do you know how long it took him to find that shit last time?”
“I don’t care! Do it faster!”
“You don’t know anything about computers, do you?”
“Neither do you!”
Sylvia sighed into her phone the moment she stepped out onto the roof. Immediately a uniformed police officer put his hand up to her. Another grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her down to the ground.
“Holy…!” Sylvia had no idea that a standoff was happening on the neighboring roof. She arrived in time to crane her head back and see Alexander Sheen holding a gun to Reina’s head. He was surrounded by agents and more uniformed police.
“Hey… Sylvia?” Nala suddenly sounded more concerned than before. “What’s going on there? Are you in trouble? Should I call the police?”
“Uh.” Genevieve’s voice boomed down in Sylvia’s direction, but she couldn’t make sense of anything the commander said. “No. I’m good. Plenty of police here already. Find out where the hell that truck is for me, okay?”
“If Vincent doesn’t get carpal tunnel first. He’s typing like a fucking maniac and it’s all Greek to me.”
Where is Joseph? Was he up there in that standoff with Sheen? Was he in immediate danger? Sylvia’s chest tightened with worry. She knew her boyfriend wasn’t stupid, but his sister was involved – and Sheen had gone after his girlfriend, too. An emotionally charged man like Joseph was not going to react well. No wonder Genevieve was shouting so much!
Everyone had slippery trigger fingers the moment a gun went off.
A police officer hauled Sylvia away from the scene so quickly that she almost dropped her phone. More officers broke position and re-aimed their handguns. Sylvia craned her head around in the hopes of seeing what had happened. Shouts erupted from the neighboring rooftop.
Once the dust settled, Sylvia caught a head of black, greasy hair running from the edge of the roof to Joseph’s arms.
“He’s down!” The radio attached to the police officer holding Sylvia went off like another gun. “Repeat, Sheen is down. We need paramedics. Suspect down, agent down, and one more suspect seems to be bleeding out.”
Sylvia broke free of the officer’s arms and ran back into the other building. “What’s going on over there?” Nala said into her ear. This was when Sylvia was not pumping her arms to carry her up the stairs faster. “Are those bullets I hear?”
“Just… hack faster!” Sylvia was almost completely out of breath by the time she reached the other rooftop. Officers spilled through the door and made way for the paramedics right behind Sylvia. She deferred only to them. As soon as the last paramedic zoomed by, Sylvia followed them, slipping in behind a tanned EMT with a mullet before any distracted agent could spot and stop her. Sometimes it really paid to be so petite – and not when she was breaking into her boyfriend’s apartment, either.
Speaking of her crazy boyfriend…
“Joseph!” She had promised herself she would remain calm when she met him again. Not only was she surrounded by agents and officers armed to the teeth, but Joseph had a tenuous relationship with everyone around him – including his mother. That woman was the one who looked at Sylvia first, both with a strange sense of acknowledgment and a glare that suggested Sylvia should be far away from this scene. “Are you okay?”
He did not push her away when she barreled into his arms. Her phone quaked in her hand, threatening to tumble to the concrete rooftop and lose her connection to one of the only people capable of hacking the location of a secret truck before it could take off again. Assuming the police hadn’t managed to get it from Alexander Sheen before he went down. Oh my god. That’s a lot of blood…
“I’m fine.” Joseph turned, Sylvia still in his arms, and shielded both his and his sister’s eyes from the blood oozing from a man currently being tended to a by a crew of EMTs. Sylvia had been so distracted that she almost forgot Reina was here too. Joseph’s sister cried a torrent of tears and babbled every terrible thing that had befallen her over the past two days. Another EMT was trying to get to her, but like Sylvia was not in the mood to leave him earlier, Reina was not about to leave her brother’s arms anytime soon. She needs an EMT more than I did! “It’s over. Both of you. It’s over.”
“Did you find out where the truck is?”
Joseph shook his head. “Sheen wouldn’t give it up. A sniper got him before he could hurt Reina any more than he had.”
The woman coming up to them was more maternal than Sylvia had ever seen her. Genevieve gently took Reina by the arm and coaxed her away from Joseph, promising her that she would be all right, that it was over, and that her parents would be waiting for her at the hospital. That’s gotta be a helluva conversation. Reina kept her head over her shoulder, blubbering in her brother’s direction while a woman she barely knew led her away to the paramedics on standby.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Sylvia wrapped both arms around her boyfriend. “I saw you up here, and then a gun went off…”
“Yes. I’m fine.” Joseph embraced her back with as much strength as he dared to crush her with. Go ahead and crush me. I don’t care. At least I’ll know you’re definitely alive and that this isn’t an illusion. “I’m more worried about you, Sylv. I’ve got a bump on my head. You’ve…”
Got someone on the line! “Hello?” Nala’s voice cracked over the phone. “You there, Sylvia? Answer me, yo! Vincent thinks he has something!”
Sylvia shoved her phone into Joseph’s hand. “Vincent’s looking for the truck as we speak. He might have something!”
Joseph held the phone up to his ear. “Hello? Who is this?”
In all of the chaos, with all of the fear choking Sylvia’s heart – for it still hadn’t sunk in that it was over – she still managed to plant a happy kiss on her boyfriend’s cheek. It would’ve been on his lips, too, except Joseph was a tad busy finding out some imperative information. Sylvia wasn’t selfish enough to get in the way of that.
***
Nobody said anything when Sylvia followed Joseph into a cruiser and rode with him to a warehouse in North Portland. Helicopters canvased the area from above. News teams were on the scene, although none of them had any idea what was going on. The police cars and unmarked agency vehicles blocked streets and brought the heavy artillery to the place expert hacker Vincent Lane proclaimed to be the location of Alexander Sheen’s final truck of “damaged goods.”
The situation was already unfolding by the time Joseph and Sylvia arrived. He leaped out of the car, gun out of its holster while Sylvia was held back by a uniformed officer assigned to her at the last minute. Bomb squads arrived, but they were unnecessary. SWAT was inside the warehouse, the last man disappearing at Genevieve’s orders when Sylvia got out of the car.
A small amount of rabble peppered the air until the garage door was forced open, revealing a large, white truck and a number of officers forcing men and women to the ground. They covered their heads with shaking hands. Sylvia got up on the hood of the cruiser to see what else was going on.
“Oh my God!” cried a feminine voice. “Is this for real?”
One by one young women were ushered out of the back of the truck and into the open air. Agents motioned for them to follow a set path leading to detectives and paramedics. A blond girl wearing a torn dress shouted that one of them was still passed out in the truck. She was reassured that the paramedics would get to her as soon as it was clear to do so.
The suspects were handcuffed and hauled to police cars. SWAT did a final sweep of the warehouse and any surrounding ones. Sylvia was able to wiggle away from her escort and found Joseph standing, weapon sheathed, next to his mother and a group of other agents as they watched on.
“They’re saying there’s a baker’s dozen in there,” Genevieve said, referencing the amount of young women pulled out of the truck. “No doubt we’ll get the suspects to talk and implicate Sheen, even if he kept clean enough to not be directly involved. It’s too bad we couldn’t get him on audio confessing to Ms. Rogers, though. He’ll have the best lawyer around to make sure he’s not convicted.”
Jim, sitting in a cruiser with his door open, laughed. “Don’t know about that, Commander. Your hacker may have been faster than me when it came to finding the truck, but can he decode the signal jam that occurred when Sheen was confessing? I didn’t think so.” He played back the files he had been tinkering with on his laptop. Although it was muted after layers of static were removed, Sylvia’s voice could still be prominently heard. On top of that? Alexander Sheen, who, last Sylvia heard, was in the emergency room having his gunshot wound tended to.
“So what do you say, Mr. Sheen?” Sylvia said on the recording. “Are you convinced that we could make a business like this work?”
“I daresay you know what you’re talking about Sylvia,” Alexander replied. “I’ll have my assistant contact you so we can go over an enterprise like this at a later date.”
While they continued to chat on the recording, Jim did a fist pump and launched into an awkward, incredibly arrhythmic dance that almost knocked this computer off his lap.
“And that’s how you put a jerk in jail.”
“Good work.” Genevieve first patted Jim on the shoulder and then her son. “I need to take care of this mess. Jim, email everyone pertinent a copy of that file. Joseph, head on to the hospital to help us take statements. You can start with your sister’s.”
He pulled out his cell phone, nodding. “I’ll call my father and let him know.”
Genevieve smiled. “I already did. He and your stepmother might beat you there.” She took note of Sylvia standing only a few feet away. “You can take her with you if she promises to stay out of the way. I doubt we’ll be able to shake her anyway.” Laughter, nervous yet still mirthful, burst from Genevieve’s chest. “Besides, you need to debrief her. God, what is even going on tonight?”
“I promise to stay out of the way!” Sylvia attached herself to Joseph’s hand. “When are we going?” There was no way she could go home and rest after a night like tonight. Besides, the commander was right! She needed to be debriefed!
Joseph waited until they were as alone as they were going to get before pulling Sylvia into his arms and kissing her. Sirens blared around them. Officers and agents alike shouted orders and clarifications. Young women cried as they were loaded into ambulances and taken to the hospital. Suspects demanded lawyers. Everything was coming to a close, and after months of research, planning, and action, a life-ruiner was finally being brought to justice.
Sylvia relaxed. Just a little bit.
“You did great tonight, Sylv.” Joseph pulled hair away from her face so he could kiss her as she was meant to be kissed. Oh, man, you’re so lucky I’m used to being an exhibitionist. Other agents chuckled to see the commander’s son being sly with an undercover witness. Never again, man. I never want to do this shit again. There were a lot of things she never wanted to do again. Hopefully, a life with Joseph meant saying goodbye to a lot of her past.
A life with Joseph. Way to get sentimental at the most chaotic moment!
But was it truly chaotic? Was the happy emotion swelling within her truly chaos? Yeah. It burned. It brought turmoil to her heart. It made her gut twist in ways no man had made it twist in joy before. Was it pure adrenaline powering their current frenzy? Definitely. Had Joseph only admitted to loving her because he worried it was his last chance? Possibly. Sylvia could dig into that later. When they were alone. In bed. Making love.
All that mattered was that she felt his desire, his passion, and his love for her in that one kiss they shared.
The hospital would be more chaos. Controlled chaos, but chaos nonetheless. Sylvia chose now to thread their fingers together as a reminder that they were conjoined, whether in the physical realm or purely emotional.
He clutched her hand as strongly in return. Sylvia grinned against his lips, the rush of the evening crashing into her. This is the realest thing I’ve ever felt. No worries. No fears. Just the two of them, surrounded by haggard agents and officers ready to fire their weapons at any moment.
Yup. Sounded like a perfectly normal life to Sylvia Rogers, former escort and soon-to-be professional Portlander. When a girl had a tough, handsome man who considered his biggest flaw to be caring about people? Maybe this city wasn’t so bad after all.