I frown. “What situation?”
“We both need time.” She points to Tess’s apartment. “Take a look at where we’re sittin’. We’re in some goddamn senior citizen compound one EMS call from the morgue, watching some princess the mob’s not going to do shit to. You know why?”
“Enlighten me, oh wise one.”
“Don’t be a smartass, and pay attention on account of what I have to tell ya’s important.”
“Of course it is—” She smacks me upside the head hard enough to send my hat soaring into the dashboard. “Shit! What the hell, Lu?”
“You’re fucked up, O’Brien. You need the time this assignment’s offerin’ to screw your head on straight. Otherwise, five years from now, you’re gonna be that cop who goes down to his cellar and fires a round into his skull.”
I don’t like what she has to say, but that doesn’t mean I’m not listening. Suicide kills more cops than drug addicts and drive-bys.
She shrugs, the business of being a cop laying deep lines into her face. “Me, I need this gig to slide into retirement,” she says. “Six months, O’Brien. That’s all I have left before me and the old man hop in a Winnebago and leave the scum on the street behind us.” She rams her finger in my face. “I’ve had the shit knocked out of me by fat naked men with hairy asses, and dragged too many dead whores from the sewer. I’m done, O’Brien. But you, you’re just getting started. So take this time to get your shit together and maybe we’ll both make it to retirement in one piece.”
“Anything else?” I ask.
That earns me another smack upside the head. “Yeah. Don’t be an asshole, don’t get me shot, and don’t fuck the princess we’re supposed to be watchin’.”
Chapter 6
Curran
It’s late Friday night and snow’s dropping like the evil bitch she is. Meanwhile, Declan’s scribbling notes at warp speed and Tess is alternating between flipping through law books and scrolling through her iPad.
Montenegro’s third was set free. He wouldn’t talk, and there was nothing to hold him once his snitches disappeared.
“Deck, it’s late. Call it a night. We’ve been at this for hours.”
Declan stops scribbling, his face tighter than panties on a prom queen. “No, we’ve been at this for hours. You’ve been sitting here watching.”
“Watching your ass, dipshit. You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
Tess focuses fully on Declan, like I’m not even here. Something she’s done a lot lately, and something that really pisses me off. “There has to be something we can bring to Judge Bronson so he can grant a search and seizure. Something we’re missing,” she insists.
Declan throws his pen down. “We have nothing. On paper, this perp looks cleaner than the priest who baptized me.”
“But he’s not. With all these witnesses suddenly making themselves scarce—”
“Or dead,” Declan finishes for her.
Her expression turns grim. Even with her limited experience, she wants to help. That much is obvious. “There has to be something we can do,” she adds, quietly. “There’s almost no point sentencing Montenegro and his second if this man’s set to take over the family.”
I scroll through my phone when she and Deck start talking strategy again. My sister sent me a text, bitchin’ about catching our little brother banging some chick in her bed. I laugh, picturing the look on Wren’s face when she walked in on them. I pocket my phone in time to catch Declan’s glare and Tess’s disapproving head shake. Great, two of them. “What?” I ask.
“This isn’t a laughing matter,” Tess tells me. “We need to bring in the third in command and put the squeeze on him.”