Page 16 of Max

He tried to smile, but the worry was etched into each of the wrinkles around his eyes. I knew why. He tried to call me ten times, and I refused to answer. He only stopped after I came in and signed the papers. Damn, the man had aged fifteen years in the last six months.

"Good to have you here," he muttered.

"What do you mean here, you're back, right?" Joe, the biggest motherfucker I ever saw, asked.

"No, Joe, I'm here to ask a favor."

"What do you need?"

As ever Olivia was action ready. She had the roughest go of all of us here. She had to work double, train harder and all but forget about having a family one day just to make the cut. Just because she was a woman. It was fucked up, but S.W.A.T. was still considered a man’s occupation. Then came Olivia and proved them all wrong.

“Yesterday morning, I got pulled into an unknown situation,” I started, the taste of the day before still bitter in my mouth. And not because of what happened, but because of who was involved.

“How?”

“What happened?”

“Is everything all right?”

The questions were fired at me from all sides. I didn’t have the energy to answer them all individually since I knew answering would just bring up more questions, so I just raised my hand to stop them all.

“I’m fine, everything’s fine, just listen for a second,” I took a big breath and started talking.

“How I got into it, it’s not important. What's important is that the main player in it is Nico Barone.”

That last statement was met with total and complete silence. I knew it would.

As I said to Bean, almost everyone knew about Nico. And almost everyone did their best to avoid him.

“I got a hold of a file about him,” I continued, tossing the file on the glass table. “It’s not much since the PI who looked into him was shit. Most of it, we already knew.” I looked to my right and clashed eyes with Brody. “I need you to go from what’s in that file and dig up as much dirt as you possibly can.”

The kid instantly nodded. Always ready to do something for us.

“And when you do, I need you to give it to me before you do anything about it.”

“Now, wait a second, Ryan,” the captain spoke up.

I swung my eyes to him. By the look in his, I knew what was coming. In my ten years as a part of S.W.A.T., I watched the man climb the ladder, never once forgetting where he came from. This very room. He was one of us, started at the bottom, and shot his way right to the top. And still to this day, it wasn’t unheard of that in certain situations he suited up and was right with us on the front line. So, fuck yeah, he had my respect. But respect or not, I’m not gonna stand down, no matter who asks.

“You can’t just stroll in here and demand we open up an investigation on a man, no matter the crimes he committed, without giving us any hard evidence. That file there,” he indicated to the thin, manilla folder on the table. “Is not enough. You know that every time DPD went against him, we got jack shit. Somehow, he got that warehouse clean in time, and all we found were couches and whatnot. And you know why that is.”

I jerked my chin up, acknowledging all he said. It was unspoken, but we all thought Nico had someone in DPD that fed him information.

“Not to mention the DEA has an open investigation on him for the past five years. The word on the street is, they’re getting close, and he’ll be where he belongs soon.”

“Not soon enough. And I know damn well the DEA is investigating him.” I fired not able to keep my cool.

Recognition flashed in the captain's eyes, but he said nothing.

“What?” Brody asked.

“Chace,” Olivia whispered.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Chace.”

“How long is he in?” Joe asked-

“Three years,” I levelled my eyes to each and every person standing around the table so they would know just how much I meant when I said. “I need to get him out. And I need to do it fast.”