KING
I'd made a deal with the Devil and now it was time to pay up. But that part didn't matter. It was a minor inconvenience. Abbie was safe, the Incas were being wiped out – that was all that mattered to me.
I looked around at my men and felt a spear of pride lance my heart. They'd trusted me. Believed in me. And though I was asking them to go against their very natures, they'd done it. They'd battled through their desire for vengeance and had trusted me. For that I was thankful.
“You guys did good today,” I called to them. “I'm proud of you.”
The men all nodded and though I know some of them would have preferred that we give the Incas a good old fashioned beatdown, I thought the sound of the hardware they'd broken out against the cops had given them all something to think about.
The gun battle had been hellacious and sounded like something straight out of Iraq. It had become sporadic now, and seemed like the cops were simply doing mop up duty at the moment. I had no idea how many of the Incas had been killed or taken into custody. My hope was that they all died – and that El Segador would somehow die en route to the hospital, as well.
But I knew I was never going to be that lucky.
“I have to say,” Mahoney said as he stepped through the crowd and approached me, “I was skeptical about your intel when you called me.”
Abbie looked at me, her eyes wide. “You called him?”
I gave her a half grin and nodded before turning back to him. “I told you it was good,” I said. “I told you I was going to make your career.”
He nodded. “You may have done that,” he said. “Illegal firearms, more than ten kilos of heroin, from what I saw – and, oh yeah, two abductions. Yeah, I think this is going to look real good on my record. But you know what the best part of this all is?”
I already knew what he was going to say, but figured I'd give him his moment to revel anyway. “Golly no, Detective Mahoney. What is the best part of all this?”
“That I finally get to haul your ass in.” There was a note of triumph in his voice.
“You're fucking kidding me,” Abbie exploded. “If it weren't for King, Michelle and I would probably be dead!”
Mahoney looked over at her as if noticing her for the first time and nodded. “Another way to look at it is if it hadn't been for King, you and Michelle never would have been abducted to begin with.”
“That's bullshit and you know it!” she roared, sounding like a mama bear on the warpath. “And if not for King, you wouldn't get this big bust to put on your record either, you son of a bitch!”
Mahoney shrugged. “No, probably not,” he said. “Truth be told, the Incas had never really been all that high on my hit list. On anybody's hit list, really. So this is going to be a major coup for me. I'm going to come out of this looking really, really good.”
“Thanks to King,” Abbie snapped.
“Abbie,” I said, “It's okay.”
She shook her head. “No, it's not okay. It's bullshit. Plain and simple,” she was almost screaming. “you hand these assholes over on a silver platter and he turns around and busts you? Seriously?”
“A deal is a deal,” Mahoney said. “And King made his deal.”
She looked at me, eyes wide. “You what?”
I looked at her for a moment and then nodded. “It's true,” I said. “I made a deal and now it's time to pay the check.”
“But – ” she started.
I shook my head. “Don't worry about a thing, sweetheart,” I said. “I'm not going to spend a day in jail. Wait and see.”
“Yeah, we'll see about that,” Mahoney said.
I laughed. “Just because I let you put these cuffs on me doesn't mean I'm guilty of anything,” I said. “You've got nothing on me. So yeah, let's see about that.”
I turned and gave Abbie a wink as Mahoney put his hand on my back and shoved me forward. He pushed me along, forcing me to walk at his pace. I turned and blew a quick kiss to Abbie.
“See you soon, Abbie,” I shouted.
***
I sat at the same scarred, battered table in the interview room I'd been at a million times before. And just like all those other times, I knew I was going to be able to walk out of that a room a free man at some point.
Mahoney sat on the other side of the table – and as he had a million times before – he glowered at me. Stared daggers at me. Tried to intimidate me. But I wasn't going to give in to it. I had nothing to say, so I leaned back in my seat, folded my arms over my chest, and contented myself with waiting him out.
“You said you were going to confess to a crime,” Mahoney said, his voice low and full of irritation.
I shook my head. “No, actually I didn't,” I replied. “I told you I would let you take me into custody.”
“That's bullshit, King,” he snapped.
“Is it?” I said. “We can get the recordings I made and see exactly what it was I said if you need to have your memory refreshed.”
“Fuck you,” Mahoney snapped. “Why in the hell would you let me take you into custody if you had no intention of confessing to a crime?”
“To expedite our arrangement,” I said. “An arrangement, by the way, that benefits you enormously.”
“You owe me a confession.”
I shrugged. “I owe you nothing. I just gave your career a big, fat boost, in fact,” I said. “But if you'd like, I can talk to your commander. Maybe he can make an impartial determination about what it was that I said.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
A rueful grin touched my face. “I don't see what the big problem here is, Mahoney,” I said. “You got a hell of a lot of heroin off the street – not to mention a shitload of illegal weapons. And you also get to lock up a lot of really, really bad people. From where I sit, that sounds like a win to me.”
“Yeah, except for the fact that you're going back on your word now,” he said. “And not giving me a confession.”
“I never promised you one.”
“You son of a bitch.”
I shrugged. “Besides, I've got nothing to confess to.”
Mahoney sighed. “Get up,” he said. “I'm taking you back to a cell. I can hold you for 72 hours before I have to charge you, so that's what I'm going to do.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Nothing better to do,” he said as he stood up. “Besides, I'm sure that between now and then, I can dig up something on you. Now, get the hell up.”
I shrugged. It was an inconvenience, but was nothing more than that. I was sure they were going to kick me loose in the morning anyway. And ensuring that Abbie was safe was more than worth spending one night in a cell. I stood up and then cocked my head and looked at him.
“You know, I never did get my phone call,” I said. “I think I'd like to make that call before I go back to a cell.”
Mahoney looked at me, his expression of disdain and annoyance plain as day. Without a word, he led me out of the interview room and into another small room where a phone was station. He stood at the doorway looking all kinds of pissed and exuding an entirely hateful energy. Not that I cared.
I picked up the phone, dialed the number, and held it to my ear.
“Hello?” she said.
“Hey, it's me,” I said, unable to stop the smile from spreading across my face.
“What are you doing? Are you out?” there was a note of hope in her voice.
“Nope, still here,” I said. “Detective Mahoney is going to extend the hospitality of the department for a little bit. But no worries, Ill be coming home soon.”
“Good,” she said, sounding relieved. “Why are you calling me? Shouldn't you be calling a lawyer?”
I laughed softly. “Don't need one because I didn't do anything,” I said. “I actually called to ask you a very important question.”
“What kind of a question?”
“An important one,” I said. “Are you ready?”
There was a slight pause and when she spoke, it was with a slight uncertainty in her voice. “I think so?”
“Abbie, will you marry me?”