I didn’t respond. The shudder that ran through me at the image of him making good on his words had left me speechless.
Chapter 20
Don
“I don’t like this,”I growled as I watched Jocelyn stroll across the street. I shifted in my seat behind the wheel of my truck. I took her in from behind. She wore a form-fitting black and white dress with a pair of boots that reached up past her knees. They screamed,“Come fuck me.”
At least thirty people were standing around, waiting in line at the nightclub she approached. I checked all of them out. Most of them looked like the typical group out for a night to party with friends or let off steam.
A few buildings down, I glanced at a guy walking in the same direction as the club wearing a hoodie. Two women in high heels brushed past him to get in line.
Jocelyn didn’t have to wait. The bouncer that night was an off-duty officer and knew Jocelyn from her time on the force. She’d talked to him a few days earlier about our plans and who we were looking for.
Her voice broke through my thoughts into the tiny earpiece I wore. “Are you watching the sway of my ass in this dress?”
“You know it,” I said, glancing over in the passenger seat. Not for the first time that night, I was glad that Carter wasn’t privy to the conversation between Jocelyn and me. He wasn’t wearing an earpiece.
“She’s got this,” he said, leaning around me so he could see out of the driver’s side window.
Running my hand through my hair, I sighed. “She shouldn’t have to do this. We could’ve found a different way.”
“You know I can hear you, right?” Jocelyn asked.
“Well aware.”
Carter made a clucking sound with his tongue. “Like she was ever about to let that happen.”
Smirking, I looked back out the window. “True.”
“True what?” she asked.
“Nothing, but make sure you’re keeping your eyes peeled in there,” I ordered right as she entered the club.
“She knows what she’s doing,” Carter said. “Probably more than either of us.”
I turned to him.
“She was a cop and still works undercover PI cases.”
His reminder didn’t soothe my anxiety one bit. I thought about the threat looming over us. That phone call still echoed in my mind. It’d been over a month since that initial call, and he hadn’t made any contact since. There hadn’t been any more fires that I could attribute to him either, but I knew he was still out there. Plotting his next move.
“I don’t like putting her in this position.”
“You didn’t put me in anything. I volunteered. We agreed I look better in this dress than either of you.”
I snorted at her comeback. “Whatever.”
Jocelyn and I had spent weeks tracking Rogers’ movements and narrowing down the right time to confront him. He was a frequent flyer of this club, especially since it was the worst kept secret that for a price, some of the waitresses offeredoutside benefits.
“How could a Captain do some shit like this?” I asked, staring out the window and holding myself back from busting through the door of the club.
I hated that Jocelyn was in there alone.
I’d adamantly fought against it, even when Carter, Eric, and Emanuel had tried to convince me that it was a good idea. Given her experience and expertise, yeah, it made sense, but fuck that. I still didn’t want her in there. Yet, I’d gotten overruled. This was the best solution I could come up with—me waiting outside with my gun and a listening device in case this whole situation went awry. Along with Carter as my backup.
“I hate compromises,” I muttered.
Carter chuckled beside me. “We know,” he and Jocelyn said at the same time.
