Betrayal of the Dove

Chapter Ten



Alyssa had spent yesterday at work and everything was business as usual, with Shane inside his security area while she managed the store—a very busy store. She had crowds coming in which was good for business, but bad for her nerves. First of all, with that many people in the store at the same time she didn’t have a way to really watch what was going on. Most of her pieces were behind glass inside a locked case, but a few of the broaches were out on display by the cash register. It was her idea to have the last minute purchase sale because while she was getting ready to ring up their item they would be forced to see a beautiful, delicate and oh so fabulously wonderful broach that would be the perfect addition to their purchase. She had learned the trick when she worked for a jewelry store part-time while she was in high school. It worked about sixty percent of the time. Usually, she could keep watch on things and monitor what was going on in her store, but that day she just didn’t have time. She found herself running from one corner to the next trying to honor the, “show me this, show me that,” requests that kept coming at her. A lot of people bought items, and some, as she would call them, were wish book shoppers—the kind of people who looked through the catalog but knew they weren’t going to purchase anything. She had some of the wish book mentality shoppers come into her store usually a few times a week where they had no intention to buy anything, but they wanted to hold the pieces in their hand to see how they would look if they had actually bought them. Sometimes it was more about a pass time activity than an actual desire to shop.

Sometimes she hated dealing with the people who bugged her just so they could have something to do with their day, and other times it didn’t bother her as much. There was one guy, Lars is what he said his name was; he came into her store at least twice a month looking without the intent to buy. He was young, maybe in his twenties, and he always expected her to show him what was new. It’s like he came out on the days when he knew there would be new products, which was usually a twice a month thing for her. “If I were going to buy something for my girlfriend,” he would say; “which piece would you choose?” She resisted the urge to laugh because she didn’t know why she should be the one choosing since it was his girlfriend, but after about the fourth time of him coming into her store and doing the same routine she figured there wasn’t a girlfriend and he wasn’t planning to buy. He made her laugh most times, but yesterday was not one of those days where she wanted to have to deal with his, “show me everything,” persona. He could, and would, literally spend a good forty minutes just walking around her store. She was too busy yesterday to give him the attention he wanted. Fortunately he hadn’t pitched a fit like some people had.

Lars had been on time with his bi-weekly visit, but she hadn’t been on time with stocking the store. She had been busy with other things the previous night and so her usual get up early and take the new pieces down routine wasn’t in the cards. Instead, she had to do it this morning. It was also garbage day so she had to take care of that too. If the morning was starting off this hectic she wondered what it would be like once she actually opened. Shane was going to come in a little early with his friend so she could meet him. She wasn’t sure what Leo was going to do after that because Shane had assured her he was staying at work the entire day even though she had given him the time off should he want to use it. After yesterday maybe he thought twice about taking the time she was offering him free and clear.

Thanks to Shane she didn’t lose a sixty dollar piece of jewelry. It was only sixty dollars, but in her book, sixty dollars was sixty dollars and she didn’t want to lose any of her pieces. He, Mr. Shane Maxwell security extraordinaire, had come out of the security room; something he didn’t do often during the day, and he said, “you’re going to pay for that right;” in such a loud voice that all activity in the store came to immediate cessation. If he hadn’t caught it, a rather not-so-honest leggy blond would have walked off with the sterling silver broach encrusted with several small gems.

She locked the back door as she briskly walked to the dumpster. It wasn’t exactly close by, but it was a shared dumpster for the three shops to the right of her, plus her shop. The bistro had their own dumpster—thank goodness that wasn’t near her shop because the pungent smell of the food rotting would take over her store and her home until the trash collector came. Even though she had to walk to get to the dumpster the planning committee had assigned her to use she didn’t mind the walk because that meant when the truck came to collect the trash she didn’t have to hear much of the clanking that went along with collection.

On her way back inside, just as she had unlocked the back door, she felt a firm hand close over her mouth, and a strong arm wrap around her neck and shoulder area. She sent her elbow back and jabbed her attacker in the ribcage before swiftly turning and going for a palm up jab to the nose. She knew not to go for the groin because that’s where men always expected a woman to strike first, so she went for the move that would break the guys nose and give her time to get away; except he had anticipated that as well, either that or he was just expertly skilled at evading. She got a couple hits in before he punched her in the face, grabbed her by her hair before swiftly turning her and slamming her head into the door. After that it was lights out Alyssa until she came to and found herself bound to the chair she used at her work table. Only instead of being at her work table, it was in the center of the room, and it had a not so nice looking rattle snake curled up not too far in front of it.

She couldn’t move. Her ankles were bound with rope, but her wrists were bound with flex cuffs, those very sturdy, very secure plastic things cops seemed to carry around. There was no way Craig would have done this to her. He was being a jerk, but he wasn’t crazy—at least she didn’t think he was. The reality was it didn’t matter who had done it, it had been done and she was stuck. She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there because she wasn’t facing any of her clocks, but it was light out now, not that barely-light setting that had been there when she took the garbage out. She always took it out early and she never once thought anything of it, but maybe she should have. “Oh good Lord,” she whispered breathlessly as the snake coiled in front of her decided to start waking up. “I hope you’re not as mean as you look,” she said low. “I am so soon to be dead,” her eyes widened as the snake started to uncoil. The only thought in her head now was that she hoped her brothers found the bastard who did this and ripped him apart piece by piece. Gavin would do it too; she knew that because while Eve had Thomas, she had Gavin. They didn’t have the same relationship, but she knew he had taken it upon himself the day she was born to be her protector. He wouldn’t let her death go unpunished. Unfortunately, not even that thought was bringing her comfort because she so didn’t want to die.

Shane pulled into his park and got out of the truck. He was deep in conversation with Leo when he noticed the back door slightly ajar. “I told her she shouldn’t leave it open when she takes the trash out,” he shook his head.

“Does she usually do that?”

“No. She did it once and that’s because she had to run back upstairs for the last bit of trash.” When he reached the door and saw her keys on the ground he felt an acute awareness that something was wrong. He didn’t wait; he rushed inside, noticing that the upstairs door was wide open too. “Alyssa!” He ran up the stairs like a man on a mission and he didn’t stop until he saw her sitting there, bound to the chair with a rattler shaking its tail. Leo was right behind him.

“A little help; please?” She said softly.

“Who did this to you?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long have you been like this?”

“Shane, that is so not important right now. As I recall, those things rattle before they attack.” In other words, she was telling him to stop talking and start acting now because that thing was definitely shaking its tail.

He could check the video footage later and see if he could make anything out of the images. Even if the guy had been wearing a mask he could at least pin down height, weight and build to narrow down his search. “I can’t shoot it; I’ll hit you.”

“If you don’t shoot it, it will bite me.” She said in a tone that told him she thought being shot accidently was the lesser of two evils here.

“Damn,” he cursed low and furious. “I can’t shoot you, baby. I might kill you.” She was small and while she had muscle mass he doubted it would stop a bullet from ricocheting its way through her body.

“So will it,” she said in a harsh whisper. “I’ll take my chance with a bullet.”

“I can’t,” he felt his heart racing. He didn’t want to risk it, but he knew he had to do something.

“I’ve got this,” Leo bent down, pulled his pants leg up just enough to expose the steel blade strapped to his lower leg. He removed it slowly, cautiously, as if trying not to jar the snake into a faster attack. “Valencia insisted I bring this,” he mumbled before taking aim.

“Don’t hit Alyssa,” Shane felt compelled to say.

“I’ve got this, Shane. Settle down.” He aimed and threw the blade just as the snake’s head was poised and ready to take the strike. It dropped, so easily as if it had just decided to back down when in reality it was dead—or dying, either way it wasn’t going to get his woman.

Shane rushed over to her. “Careful,” she had said as he got closer to the area where the snake was. “I’ve got you,” he whispered before coming behind her chair and lifting it, so effortlessly, and moving her away from the snake.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” she gasped.

“You’re light weight,” he assured her.

“Can you get these things off of me, please?”

Leo went to her kitchen and grabbed two knives before coming over to them and handing Shane one of them. Together, they managed to get her out of her bindings. She was shaking, trembling with fear, and unshed tears were making the blue of her eyes shimmer like a crystal clear lake. She was stubborn. She refused to show her emotions right now, even when Shane pulled her up into his arms, felt her trembling body resting against his own, she didn’t cry. His heart was pounding against his chest hard, furious, angrily drumming a beat that drowned out the sounds in the apartment until all he heard was the deafening rage growing in his heart. “When I find the bastard who did this,” he growled low. “He’s going to die.”

“He had to have some military training, Shane. One of the moves he tried on me was one Gavin taught me years ago. He learned it doing his training. I never really got how to get out of it without opening myself up to another attack, though,” she sighed as she pulled back from him. He could have killed me outside; why didn’t he? Why do it like this?”

“It’s him,” Shane growled. “It has to be him.”

“Now don’t jump to conclusions, Shane. It could be any whacko with some military experience. Or anybody who picked it up from somebody. What do I know? That move could be everywhere by now.”

“No; it’s him. I know he’s here.”

“Why would he come after me? I wasn’t a member of your team.”

“Does this have anything to do with your friend who just got killed?” Leo broke their moment for two, and Shane could tell the man was already getting into hunter mode. This wasn’t his fight. He was on vacation and he deserved to enjoy it. After the year his squad had just had the man deserved some time off.

“This doesn’t concern you, Leo. Stick to your vacation and I’ll handle my own demons.”

“The hell you will. You saved my life in Oahu, Shane. You stopped a man from putting a bullet in my head while I was trying to diffuse a bomb and I won’t ever forget that. Somebody comes after you and they deal with both of us.”

Shane could stand there and argue all day, but it wouldn’t change things. Leo was a man of his word and once he committed to something he didn’t back down. He went after it, pursued it, fought for it, hard and relentless without mercy until he met the end goal. The mission that brought them together had been one of Shane’s last missions. He was there to uncover a domestic terrorism ring. That was the job of his team, to keep America safe from enemies in and out of its borders. They had needed local authorities assistance and they got Leo’s precinct, which was good because they had came upon a bomb that was so large it could have leveled a few city blocks. Leo, confident or cocky, depending on how anybody looked at it, walked right into hell without a second thought. Shane’s team went in to disarm the bomb of the human persuasion while Leo went in to get what the bastards had set up.

The group of religious fanatics had left a few of their own behind. Just in case somebody came in and tried to stop things they were there to shoot to kill. Shane couldn’t understand what would make anybody willing to blow themselves up for any cause, but there they were, eight total, just waiting for everything to explode in some big blaze of glory.

“I’ll look after your woman,” Leo said and Shane was sure that was his way of telling him he understood she was off limits. “You go find the bastard.”

“What if it’s not him? Seriously, Shane, why would he come after me?”

“To get to me,” he uttered those words with staunch anger in his tone.

“I have had my own problems lately,” she reminded him. “There was the lawsuit. And Dumas did say it wasn’t over. Then there’s Craig. I don’t think he’d do this, but who walks around carrying flex cuffs?”

“They’re not hard to get,” he told her. Anybody could walk around with those things. He had seen it before. A lot of predators kept their victims immobilized that way.

“The point is,” she sighed. “This could be anything. And maybe your friend’s death was something else.”

“No it wasn’t,” Shane stroked the back of his fingers along the bruise on her cheek. “I got a call last night that the reopened investigation on David’s car accident showed that it wasn’t an accident. Then you take that with Rick’s murder in that hotel parking lot and it’s clear; somebody is after our team. That somebody is working their way west and it makes sense that I’d be the next target from the direction he’s traveling.”

She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. “Why would anybody do this to you all? You’re the good guys.”

“We are, but we also pissed off a lot of the bad guys in the process. It comes with the job,” he noted. While they were mostly covert with their identities, there wasn’t complete anonymity. Somebody knew who they all were and whoever it was they were picking them off one by one. So far, both men killed had been assigned to the first Dove Team with Rick being the last one to come on board for their unit. He didn’t know if this were an attack on all the teams, starting with theirs, or if this had something specifically to do with his unit. Without knowing that information, he couldn’t fully know if he were looking in the right direction. It could be something in relation to their previous missions, or it could be somebody with a beef on the government sponsored teams in general. He couldn’t be sure, but he was leaning towards it being somebody pissed at his unit since both men had been a part of his unit.

“I’m supposed to be helping you stay safe,” he said softly. “And here I am putting you in danger.”

“You’ve helped me,” she said as she pulled back and looked in his eyes. “Now you have to help yourself and what’s left of the team you worked with. Go; do whatever you need to do. I’ll be safe here.”

“Freeze!” Alyssa jumped as they all turned around.

“Craig? What are you doing?” She asked breathlessly as she tried to get her wildly pulsing heartbeat back under control.

He lowered his gun. “I saw your back door open.”

“What were you doing back there?” Leo didn’t hold his tongue; that was one thing Shane liked about the man from the day he met him. He spoke what was on his mind without much censorship involved.

“My job,” Craig snapped. “Who are you?”

“Not important,” Leo said firmly. “Are you going to call it in or do I have to?”

“What happened here?” Craig proceeded to start a report without worrying about calling too much in until he got answers. Shane watched Alyssa give an account of what happened. She left out a few things, mainly her suspicion that it was a military man.

“Seems not even your security guard can keep you safe,” he mumbled.

“She’ll be safe;” Shane snapped. “She’s packing a bag and she’s coming to stay with me.”

“Pardon me?” Alyssa tacked one hand to her hip and looked at him with scolding indignation. He knew he hadn’t asked her. Sure he hadn’t checked in to make sure it was okay, but if she thought he was going to leave her there unguarded she was out of her mind crazy. He could protect her better at his place. His security at home was better than what he was able to provide for her here. He wouldn’t leave her out in the open in case the bastard came back and tried it again.

“You’re staying with me and that’s not optional, Alyssa,” he nearly growled.

“What makes you think you have the right to tell me what to do?” She sassed him. She didn’t like people telling her what to do. She didn’t like the men in her life telling her what to do. Well, tough, he thought. He was going to keep her safe first and worry about getting a tongue lashing second.

“This,” he said as he angrily reached for her, pulling her close to his body and clasping one hand in her hair. Pulling her head back he let his mouth descend on hers, kissing her ferociously with the fervor of a man claiming full possession of his woman. He heard Craig clearing his throat, but he didn’t pay the man any attention. This, this heat and passion and proclamation that he had the right to keep her safe, was far more important than the man in uniform. When Shane pulled back and looked in her eyes he could see that her anger had softened.

“Oh, that,” she smiled on a breathless whisper. “You’ll get away with it this time because I hate snakes. But in the future, don’t think your alpha male routine is going to work on me. I grew up with two of them and if I didn’t take it from them I’m not going to take it from you either.” She said in a tone so serious and honest that he knew she wasn’t kidding. They were equals, and he was going to have to ask nicely rather than just assume things would be done his way. On the other hand of that, when it came to her safety he wouldn’t compromise. She would comply.

“Pistol,” Leo chuckled. “I love that fiery spirit in a woman.” He held up his hands when Shane cut him a look that told him to keep his hands off of her. “Not your woman,” he said.

“I’m still in the room here,” Craig snapped. “And I’m trying to take the report.”

“You need to call it in,” Leo said. “I’m sure the rules of engagement don’t work different here on the Mainland. Call it in,” he ordered as if he were on his home territory. Obviously Craig decided protesting would make him look like a bigger jerk than he already came off as because he called it in.

“You’ve had several robberies out here,” Leo went into on-duty mode fast. “Could this be related?” He, unlike Shane, seemed to be keeping his mind open to other enemies. Shane, however, was certain it was the same bastard that had killed two of his friends. He would have gotten three, but Larry was fortunately on his father-son bonding trip. He had been taking those trips with his son since he was a boy and he hadn’t stopped just because he was a grown man now. His son had been homeschooled and could easily take a few extra weeks away at any point in time, but now that he was a grown man, the trips went from three to four weeks on up to several months when Larry had the time off. Family was important to him, and with the death of his wife six years ago, Larry seemed to need the connection to his son even more. He put himself on modified duty, meaning he worked when absolutely necessary; otherwise, he came in after his time with his son. Larry Junior was a photographer for National Geographic; he could work from any place without needing to be in an office at any particular time. That trip had saved his life and he didn’t even know it yet.

“It wasn’t the robber terrorizing the Row. They caught him last night trying to break into another store. One of the other officers running patrol got him.”

“I haven’t seen any news about it,” Alyssa brushed her hair back behind her shoulders.

“It’s under wraps until the nine o’clock press conference. This was a big case you know. Makes me wish I had caught him.”

“Who was he?”

“I’m not sure I should say.” He looked her over and grinned. “It’s not official knowledge yet.”

“Oh come on; who am I going to tell?” She said sweetly.

He shrugged. “Gregory Alexander Dumas,” he noted.

“Oh my God. He applied for security at my store.”

Craig nodded. “He seems to have applied at everybody’s store let him tell it. He needed a job. He probably figured if he robbed a few stores the need for security would go up. Shatrel probably hurt his ego when he went into her store and asked her about security so he decided to hurt her. He probably thought the increased violence would make somebody hire him.”

“And nobody did.”

“That’s probably why he sued you,” Shane said. “Maybe he thought he could get enough money from you not to worry about the job.”

“And when that didn’t work he decided to keep on going? Maybe,” she shrugged. “Just seems odd. Do you all have DNA confirmation? After the attack on Shatrel I would have to imagine there’s something to take into court. Unless you have a signed confession…”

“There wasn’t anything on Shatrel that was useable, at least not from the reports I’ve read. No seamen, so he probably had on a rubber, and no hairs, so he’s probably shaved. Doesn’t matter. He confessed.” Craig shifted his notebook and pen to his other hand. “We do have more important things to worry about here. Do you know who might have done this to you?”

She shrugged. “You already arrested my prime suspect.”

“Anybody else?”

“I can’t say,” she said expertly evading the question. Shane knew she was thinking his observation might be right. The only other person excessively bothering her was the cop in front of them, and if it wasn’t him…which he was sure she was thinking it wasn’t by now…then it had to be the guy after his team. He would have to remember to thank her for not mentioning it. The last thing he needed was some overzealous hormonal cop to muck things up now.

“And where were you during all of this?” Craig fixed his gaze on Shane. Shane was ready to show him why he shouldn’t mess with a SEAL when Alyssa placed one warm palm on his chest and smiled at him. That smile could calm a tiger, at least he thought so. He knew she was trying to keep him from assaulting a police officer and ending up in jail for doing it, but good Lord, the man was working what was left of his nerves. Seeing Alyssa tied to that chair, knowing she could die at any second, was enough to break his reserve—but knowing it happened because of him was the final straw. He had brought this into her life and now, whether he left or not, she would probably still be in danger. He was going to fix this. First, he would get her back to his place, which was more secure than her place. Then, he would make sure he got details on the current homicide investigation in Austin. He needed details. His team had worked a lot of high security threat missions, they had also turned down a lot of candidates, either way he looked at it his suspect pool was growing by the second.

“You don’t have anything to say?”

“I have a lot to say,” Shane’s voice was a lethal mix of anger and measured restraint—restraint that was about to break. “I’ll just hold off on saying it until a real cop gets here.”

“Okay,” Alyssa intervened. “I think we should probably have some tea; yes? Yes, tea,” she nodded. “And you’ll help me make it.” The tone in her voice told Shane she expected him to comply with her request, but he had no plans to go help make tea. He really was starting to hate the man in uniform. He had never had such a strong reaction of hatred to somebody in uniform—one of the good guys in uniform at least—as he had right now toward this one. “Now,” she said and her low authoritative tone told him she wasn’t leaving room for argument. She practically dragged him over to the kitchen area. It wasn’t as if the kitchen was closed off. It was a flat for crying out loud, and the divider screen she had in place had been knocked over so there wasn’t anything to shield his view. He could still see the bastard gawking at her. Having a visual on his enemy was making him angrier. Craig watching his woman as if he had every right to look at her like a side of beef was going to be his breaking point. He felt his reserve, the controlled nature he had been perfecting for years, starting to crack.

“Go downstairs right now and pull yourself together,” she mumbled in a low, but serious voice.

“I’m fine.” But he wasn’t fine. He was holding on by a thread here. Control, he needed to remember his training, his skills, but right now he wasn’t able to talk himself down.

“Go downstairs right now,” she placed her hand on his chest. “Because if you don’t you’re going to do something stupid that gets you arrested, and then where does that leave us, huh? You would be stuck in lockup while whoever is after your team runs amuck in Arizona. Who do you think his first target is going to be, huh? Me.” She pointed her finger to her chest. “Because he’ll know it would nearly destroy you to know you failed at your protection detail.”

She made sense. If this guy were after his entire team, after him, then he had probably spent a lot of time studying them, learning what made them tick. “Fine,” he mumbled before walking out of the flat and going downstairs as ordered. “That woman,” he sighed as he stood in the hallway alone. “I swear she’s a peacekeeper to the core.” He was willing to bet, whether she would acknowledge it or not, that she was the rope connecting her family together. He had heard her conversation with her sister. He had heard her advising her to not shut off her heart to love and life. In the most compassionate way she could, she had told her she needed to start the healing process, and she needed to move forward. “You can’t bring him back, Eve.” She had spoken those words with heartfelt compassion. “No matter how many crazy dangerous assignments you go on, you can’t change what happened. You know he wouldn’t want this for you. You know he would want you to go on, to live your life without regrets. He was that kind of man, Eve, and you know that.”

“I know,” she had said.

Every word that he heard her utter had been supportive, yet had been a firm statement that her sister needed to hear. He also heard her conversation with Gavin and Thomas. She had advised both brothers not to push Eve too hard. “She’s coming around, slowly, but if you push too hard she’s going to retreat.” Shane knew she was right, and they probably did too. Alyssa was more psychologist than sister sometimes, or maybe she was both. Maybe how she treated her siblings was how family relations were supposed to be—supportive, loving, caring. He wouldn’t know because his family wasn’t anything like that.

He watched officers go in and out of her flat. He had spoken with one of the detectives that had arrived to work the case, and then he decided to return to the flat. He couldn’t hide out in the hall all morning. He should have been up there, by her side, helping her with the questioning process. Of course he knew she didn’t need help. She was a strong woman who could survive on her own, yet still, he felt as if he should have been there for her.

He wasn’t halfway through the door when Alyssa approached him, put her hand on his arm and urged him to leave. “I’m not going to do anything rash,” he said as if she should have known that.

“I need you to come downstairs with me,” her voice was nearly a whisper. She had something she needed to say, and for some reason the look in her eyes worried him. Had he come off as a total caveman to her because of his inability to keep his growing rage under control? He looked to Leo who was talking with another one of the detectives and he gave him a subtle head nod, as if he needed to go hear what she had to say; so he did.

She made sure they were down the hall, closer to the door to the store before she spoke again. “Detective Burns tells me they released Gregory earlier this morning.”

“What? He confessed.”

“No, he didn’t.” She looked back down the hall as if checking to make sure nobody was coming. “When Burns was questioning me about the attack I told him that I thought it could be Gregory Dumas, but that Officer Davis had told me he was behind bars already, and Burns told me he wasn’t. They had to release him this morning.”

“I don’t understand. Craig lied?”

“I’m not sure it was intentional. He may have just heard the first report that they caught the guy, and not the second report that they hadn’t. Apparently Gregory says he received a call to come to the location late last night, not super early this morning, and he thought somebody was finally going to give him a job.” She held up her hand before he could utter his next words. “I know,” she shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t understand it either. So I told Burns that Officer Davis had told me he confessed. Burns told me he didn’t. What Gregory said was, “oh so you think she cut off my balls with rejection and I went back to show her I still had some;” He did not say he actually did it.”

“That’s a far cry from what Craig said.”

“I know. That’s what I said. That’s when Burns told me that Officer Davis is still a patrol cop because he has been denied every promotion he’s tried for. They say he’s kind of a…loose cannon I guess. He rushes to conclusions that usually turn out to not be true.” She sighed. “I seem to attract the dishonest lunatics,” she laughed sarcastically.

“I’m neither of those things, Alyssa.”

She placed her hand over his heart. “I know.” She sighed. “Anyway, I’m telling you all this because it could be that whoever attacked me has nothing to do with your issue after all. I just thought you should know that in case you were still beating yourself up about it.”

“I wasn’t beating myself up,” but in reality he was.

“Yes you were. It’s why you weren’t able to control yourself up there—barely able to control yourself,” she amended her statement probably realizing that he had, indeed, controlled at least some of his rage impulse. “Don’t take the blame for somebody else’s actions, Shane. Just figure out how to stop him, or maybe both of them.”

He nodded his understanding. She needed him alert, not stuck in some self deprecating stupor.