Page 8 of Above ’N’ Beyond

Jamie continued down the sidewalk. It was nearly eleven p.m., dark out, with only a few lampposts and a sliver of moon illuminating the mid-July sky. The steady hum from the nearby thruway reminded him of where he’d grown up. His hometown, Plainview, New York, was only a stone’s throw from one of the country’s biggest parking lots—the Long Island Expressway, the same highway he’d commuted to work on for most of the fourteen years he’d been assigned to JFK Airport.

Before turning up the path leading to the house, he searched for vehicles that screamed “U.S. Government.” He’d gotten so adept at picking them out he could spot them two blocks away. Probably because being a criminal came easily to him.

His CO, Captain Washington, joked that she didn’t know which job Jamie was better at—being a cop or being a felon. Only Jamie wasn’t laughing. Considering all the shitty things he’d done after his dad was arrested, maybe he really was a chip off the old block. With his family history, he worried one day he’d get in so deep he might never come back. So he’d begun declining UC requests. Until last year, when he’d been approached by an FBI agent named Barry Jenkins. The FBI had done their homework. They knew just what strings to pull.

His father had been diagnosed with leukemia and wasn’t due for parole for another two years. Time was of the essence, and Jamie wanted to give his dad a fighting chance. When the FBI made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, he’d taken the deal. Get in deep with the Mancuso Crime Family and the FBI would get Jamie’s father paroled early.

Too bad the deal required a six-month stint in hell.

Wherever Jenkins and Captain Washington had parked, their vehicles were nowhere nearby.

He took the stairs to the front door two at a time, eager to hear the agency’s decision about returning Jax to him but not feeling optimistic. He’d been out of jail for four weeks already, waiting for the decision to come down from the top. If Captain Washington had good news to share, she would have done it over the phone.

Sadness gripped him like a vise around his neck. Even if he’d known for certain losing Jax was part of the deal, he would have agreed to the FBI’s plan. His dad needed better care, and he wasn’t going to get it from the prison system.

Taking a deep, fortifying breath, Jamie rapped lightly on the door. When it opened, Jenkins stepped aside, then closed the door behind them. The man was nearly six feet tall and as lean as a bean pole. Two seconds later, Jamie had the answer to the question that had been eating him up inside for over half a year.

Ninety pounds of German shepherd galloped from the kitchen, then leaped through the air. Jax’s front paws nailed Jamie in the chest. The hit was so hard and powerful, the back of his head slammed against the door. His vision blurred, although he couldn’t be sure if it was from the head whack or from the wetness stinging his eyes.

He wrapped his arms around his dog, letting Jax take him to the floor, then straddle him as he licked Jamie’s face again and again and again. Jamie’s heart pounded with so much joy he thought it would fly out of his throat. He laughed, trying to turn his head to the side so Jax couldn’t French-kiss him.

Jax let loose with a series of keening, high-pitched whines and yowls. Keeping his arms wrapped around his partner—his friend—Jamie buried his face in Jax’s thick fur. Vaguely, he heard Jenkins and Captain Washington chuckle.

“Damn,” Washington said. “My wife’s never been that happy to see me. Not even on our wedding day.”

“Mine, either,” Jenkins agreed.

Jamie remained where he was, lying with his back on the floor, a giant German shepherd full on top of him with his head pressed to Jamie’s chest. Jax weighed so much Jamie could barely breathe, and he didn’t care. His dog’s breath warmed his neck. Both their chests heaved, and he didn’t want to move, preferring to soak in the complete and utter relief rolling through him.

He had Jax back. His world was now solidly repositioned on its axis.

Finally, Jax lifted his big black-and-brown head and gazed down at him with pure, unconditional love. His mother always told him he should never marry a woman unless she looked at him the same way.

Jax landed one more lick on Jamie’s bearded jaw before he pushed his dog’s muzzle away. “I missed you, too, buddy.” Understatement of the century. Being without Jax was like missing an arm or a leg.

Woof.

Slowly, Jamie got to his feet. Jax pressed tightly to his side, like he was afraid of letting go. Same here, buddy. Same here.

After swallowing the basketball-size lump of emotion, Jamie nodded his thanks to Captain Washington. He was still too choked up to utter anything remotely coherent.

“Good to have you back, Jamie. Especially in one piece.” Washington thrust out a large hand that matched her six-foot-plus frame. With a full head of gray hair, she was pushing fifty, but still hit the gym every morning with the younger cops, one of many reasons he respected the woman. “You doin’ okay?”

Again, Jamie nodded.

“Uh, yeah.” Jenkins cleared his throat as he, too, held out his hand. “Sorry about what happened.”

Jamie hesitated before taking Jenkins’s hand. He’d known the man was a driven, highly motivated agent, and as they locked gazes, he wondered if the FBI had actually told that inmate to shank him, to make things more believable.

Would they really do that?

Yeah, they might. Because no one the FBI had sent to infiltrate the Mancusos’ operation had ever actually succeeded. Through his own contacts, Jamie had learned the last of the FBI’s paid informants had died trying.

Finally, he shook the man’s hand. To his credit, Jenkins didn’t look away. “You better have paid that inmate enough to keep his trap shut,” Jamie warned. Otherwise, he was a dead man. Jamie and the inmate.

“He was very well compensated,” Jenkins assured them. “And he has no idea who actually paid him. The money came down through so many hands inside the prison, no one will ever be able to trace it back to us.”

“Let’s hope so,” Captain Washington said in a deadly voice, reminding all of them of just how risky this plan was.