“Present for you,” she said, grinning.
Taylor jumped up, eyes going wide as he ran his fingers over the red Enforcer. “You… Oh, Sargie. You got me a big red key?”
Her smile widened. “All yours, PC Campbell.”
He gripped the handle, swinging the hunk of metal over one shoulder. “I’m gonna batter the shit out of so many doors.” He turned to Johnny, dropping onto one knee in front of him. “We don’t need the shed, right? I can practice on the side panels, right?”
Johnny slowly turned to look up at Isla. “What the hell have you done?”
She gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorry. But this is for… I-if you want to come on the warrant, that is.” She handed him along metal Hooligan bar, which had a sharp spike on one end and a crowbar on the other. “If the hospital signs you off in time, I thought, maybe…”
Taylor watched as Johnny took the bar from her, testing the weight of it in his good hand. He wanted to say that Johnny was absolutelynotcoming on the warrant with them, but at the risk of sounding like an overbearing arsehole he kept his mouth shut.
Johnny winced as he switched his grip to his injured hand. Despite still having two black fingernails, the bruising had mostly gone, and he was down to just a thin compression bandage around his wrist.
Johnny blinked, lips pressed together as he propped the bar against the desk. Looking up at Taylor, he said, “You know what? I think I’m good. I’ll help with the search but I don’t want to be on the front line anymore.”
Taylor let out a relieved sigh, dropping the battering ram onto the carpet. “Yeah,” he said, placing his hands over Johnny’s knees. “Yeah, I think that’s safe.”
Isla nodded softly. “I understand, I really do. We should have plenty of other officers there to assist. The Environment Agency’s ready to drop some purification chemicals into the water, so as long as we don’t fuck up the warrant, no more wolves should get sick.”
Amil scoffed, appearing from the kitchen with a cup of tea between his hands. “We shouldn’t be putting anything in the water. Fighting chemicals with more chemicals makes my blood boil. I mean, how fucking dare they? These people might be old, but they’reourpeople.”
Wendy padded over to rub his back. “There, there, sweetie. Don’t give yourself an aneurysm.”
“I know,” Isla replied, patting the riot helmet that was propped under her arm. “Which is why we’re tearing that place to the ground.”
CHAPTER 28
RAID
Johnny
It was early,too fucking early even for Johnny, and he’d had to wrestle Taylor out of bed that morning just so they could make it for the 5:00 am briefing. A loud snore cut through the silence of the Falkington HQ briefing room, and Johnny thumped Taylor in the ribs to wake him up.
“U-uh—what?” Taylor slurred, squinting.
Johnny frowned at him in the glare of the oversaturated projector light.
Images of what looked like an overgrown barn deep in the woods flashed up on the screen. Ivy had taken over the entire tin roof, and it had shitty, ramshackle fencing made out of pallets. Isla had done some digging with the locals, and the rumour was that the government used to hide spies in it during the war.
The atmosphere in the briefing room was thicker than corn syrup, the stench of alpha pheromones getting worse the more people piled in. Taylor was fidgeting, both his legs beginning to bounce as he covered his mouth and nose with a hand.
Johnny butted their chairs together, wrapping his fingers around the nape of Taylor’s neck and not giving a shit who saw it.
Isla had managed to acquire over half the remaining Falkington night shift and a good chunk of the day shift too. That pissed them off, because why help another division when you’ve got your own shit to do? It didn’t help that some of the officers had been present when Johnny and Taylor were sacked from West Newton, and now they were looking at them down their noses.
It was awkward.Theywere making it awkward by laughing and whispering behind their backs.
“God, these guys are cunts,” Taylor muttered, digging a hand into his armpit.
Johnny sighed, patting the top of his knee. “Just get through it. Who gives a shit about them?”
“I’m with Tay on this one,” Amil said from his other side. “Pricks, all of?—”
Someone shushed them, the light from the projector shutting off. “Any questions?” Isla asked, flicking the main lights back on.
Johnny blinked as he squinted around the room. They were thirty officers strong, which was a good number for a raid.
