“Dispatch, show us 10-24 on that 211 in progress.” Angel and her partner had gotten called to a home that was being burglarized. The owner came home from work early and walked in on his brother-in-law cleaning out the silver. He used his own gun to keep the brother-in-law from leaving before they got there. It was a pretty easy bust and since they were ready to go off shift they didn’t even end up having to transport the fool, and that made them both happy. “I’m starving,” Kelly said.

Angel looked at her watch. It was six-thirty a.m., half an hour after they should have gotten off-shift. Micah would probably be expecting her to be there when he woke up, and have breakfast with him before he went into the station. He’d also be expecting her to have sex with him and lately, for some reason, she just hadn’t been interested. That was new and strange to her for more reasons than one. Angel loved sex. She had never been one of those women that did it out of obligation. She genuinely loved it…but, not lately. “You want to go to Denny’s after we sign out?”

“Hell, yeah. I could use me a Grand Slam!”

She shook her head at him and smiled. Kelly had been on the force for almost twenty years. He was divorced and his kids were grown and the only thing it seemed he had to live for any longer was his job…and food. He loved to eat, and Angel didn’t want to be the one to tell him, but it was starting to show. The last time they’d had a foot chase, she had actually been afraid he was going to have a heart attack because he was huffing and puffing so hard. “Okay then…”

“62, this is dispatch. Captain Banks would like a 10-21 from Officer Brady…ASAP.”

Angel looked at Kelly with wide eyes as he confirmed back to dispatch. What the hell does the captain want with me? She took out her phone and as Kelly started the squad car and pointed it toward the station, she waited for the call to Captain Banks to go through. She spoke to his assistant first and told her who she was and then seconds later she heard the gravelly voice of her captain over the line: “Brady, what’s your 10-20?”

“We’re headed back into the station, ETA about five minutes. What’s up, Captain?”

“I need you to report to my office before you sign out.”

“Okay, sir…can I ask what this is about?”

“Nope. I’ll see you in four?”

“Yes, sir.” She ended the call and realized Kelly was staring at her as he turned the corner onto the street where the police station was. “Look where you’re going! You know most accidents happen within a mile of home.”

He laughed. “Shut up. What did he want?”

“Me, in his office in four.”

“Hmm…what did you do?”

“I have no idea.”

Kelly pulled into the parking lot and parked the squad car. “I guess this means no Denny’s.”

Shaking her head at him, she got out of the car and headed inside. She knew that she hadn’t done anything wrong, but getting called to see the captain was as nerve-wracking as facing her father when she was a kid and had done something wrong. She had butterflies in her belly as she passed through the outer office where his assistant usually sat. The woman was missing, so Angel just knocked on his inner door. He yelled at her to come in and her mouth fell open when she opened the door to find her father, her oldest brother Kyle, and Micah on one side of the small conference table and the captain and his assistant on the other. There was another man there as well that she didn’t recognize, but she knew that whatever this was, it was big.

Dad got up and kissed her on the cheek. “What’s going on?” she whispered.

“Have a seat, Brady,” Captain Banks said, before her father had a chance to answer. Angel looked at her dad and then her brother. Her dad’s face was neutral, but Kyle looked pissed. Beyond him she could see Micah. When she made eye contact with him he smiled, but his eyes looked as unhappy as Kyle’s did.

“I’m sorry, Captain Banks, but what is this all about?”

“I have a proposition for you.”

Angel raised an eyebrow. The captain gave orders, assignments, ultimatums…but a proposition? Not likely. “Okay…”

He glanced at her dad and then Micah and then he said, “You know of course that we have organized a task force to combat the trouble that’s been brewing in town thanks to the Southside Skulls?”

“Yes, sir.”

She knew. Everyone knew. The motorcycle club had been around as long as the rural town had, but in the past, they’d been pretty benign. The town, called Hanover, wasn’t large by any means, but it wasn’t tiny either. At last census they had about forty thousand citizens. But thanks to the rural setting right on the state line between Connecticut and Massachusetts, the county of Bartholomew was huge and spread out over nearly two thousand square miles. For the most part the MC did whatever they did way out on some farm in the middle of nowhere and the county sheriff dealt with the occasional fallout. But then a couple of years ago, another club originally from Massachusetts, the Sinners, began to move in on “their” territory and suddenly they had two outlaw MC clubs in the area and more crime than both the police department and the sheriff could deal with. Angel’s department made more arrests than the D.A. wanted to let on that they had, but thanks to the intimidation factor and threats of retaliation, most of their witnesses suddenly developed amnesia, and then they were hard-pressed to get anything to stick.

Bodies had recently started turning up in dry canal beds and orchards, and that was when the citizens and town council began to get really scared. So far the bodies had all been bad guys…but there was always the chance an innocent would get caught in the crossfire. A town hall meeting had been called and they used it as a forum to demand to know what the chief of police and district attorney planned on doing about it. There was blame on both sides as well as some sinister insinuations that some of the “higher-ups” might be on the club’s payroll. There was no evidence of that, but everyone was running scared.

When the blame game finally ended and the smoke cleared, a task force had been the temporary solution. The citizens and city council agreed to give them a chance—six months to be exact—before they took any further action such as calling in the State Police or the FBI. Micah, her father, and her oldest brother Kyle were all a part of that task force. Her youngest brother, David, the other cop, was also a computer whiz. He worked in the computer crimes division of the department. He had mentioned the last time she saw him that he was involved in doing backgrounds and in-depth research on each one of the members of the Southside Skulls MC.

“For the past two weeks the task force has been monitoring the Skulls’ movements, but as you might be able to guess, it’s hard to get close enough to really know what’s going on from a surveillance van.” Captain Banks said.

“Sure, yes.”

“What we need is something concrete that we can use to take these guys down once and for all. If we don’t get it soon, we’ll have FBI and ATF descending on us and taking over everything in this town.” Angel nodded. She knew from listening to Micah how badly detectives resented being taken off a case because the FBI had taken over. If they had to be brought in on this, it would cause not only the captain but the whole department to lose face in the community. “Our idea was to put someone on the inside. Officer Kyle Brady volunteered for that post since he already knows how to ride.” Her older brother had been riding motorcycles since he was five years old. He’d just bought his first Harley a year or so ago. “But, he’s been on the streets here too long. He’s too familiar to some of the younger members of the Skulls.”

“He’s arrested more than his fair share of them,” their dad clarified, and looked proud of it. Kyle was ten years older than Angel. He’d been a cop since he was twenty years old and he’d just turned thirty-six.

“It’s been suggested that rather than have someone go in as a club member, it might be more productive to have someone go in as a club girl.” She heard Micah sigh and her brother shifted in his chair. Are they suggesting what I think? She felt a little thrill of adrenaline surge through her while at the same time a tickle of fear snaked its way down her spine. “We are offering this post to you, Officer Brady. However, we’re offering it to you with the stipulation that if you don’t feel ready for something like this, or are uncomfortable with any aspect of it, you can turn it down without any fear of reprisal.”

“I’ll do it!”

“Angel!” Micah finally spoke up. “Listen to me for a second. They want you to do this because you’re young and pretty and you’ll fit in with what these guys are looking for. If you go in there as a club girl, they’re going to expect you to act like one. These guys use these girls for their own personal entertainment and so far, no one at this table has come up with an answer to the question of how you’ll get around that.”

“She’s smart,” her dad said. “She can figure it out.”

“She’s green, Dad. I can’t believe you’re behind this.” Angel’s brother, who sometimes got his brother and father roles mixed up, threw his opinion in the mix.

“I’m behind it because I trust your sister. She’s a good cop with five years on the streets. She’s not a rookie, she’s not naïve, and she’s as smart as a whip. If she wants to do this, I think she’s as capable, if not more so, than anyone else,” her dad said. Kyle put his face in his hands. The man that she didn’t know, and who so far hadn’t spoken said:

“My name is Lee Zandt, Officer Brady. I’m with the Sheriff’s Department and part of this task force. I have to be honest here and tell you that what Detective Ivanov and Officer Brady are suggesting is true. We’ve had these guys on our radar for years. We see girls in the ER constantly, club girls, with injuries consistent with assault. Unfortunately, none of them will talk or press charges, but this won’t be an easy or a safe assignment for you.”

She nodded as Micah said her name. “Angel…”

“Wait, Micah, please—let me talk. First off, if I were a man, none of you would bat an eyelash at their pulling me off the streets to do this. Five years in uniform is plenty long enough to do undercover work. As a matter of fact, I just took the test for my gold shield a few days ago. If I can pass the detective’s exam, I’m as capable of doing this as any of you.” She turned to look at her captain and said, “I want to do this, sir—when do I start?”