Page 84 of It's Going to Be a Chrome Christmas
She did as she was told but didn’t take the seat he offered. She was too jumpy to possibly sit still. “Is he alive?”
Holloway ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “I don’t know. We have divers in the water now to find out.”
“What happened?” she demanded. “And don’t give me some bullshit about police procedure or keeping me safe. I just watched the love of my life crash a prototype on the news and I don’t know if he’s alive to come home to me. Talk.”
Holloway, though, was not a man easily intimidated. “Lee wasn’t kidding about you. You’ve got some serious balls on you, Ms. Romero.”
“Trixie,” she snapped. “We can discuss what genitalia I do or do not have later. Tell me about Cayden.”
He studied her carefully for a moment. He was still standing behind his desk. Maybe he felt he couldn’t sit unless she did.
“He stole the motorcycle,” Holloway finally admitted. “I can’t tell you all the details, but it wasn’t the real prototype. He was supposed to take it to Carver and where he believed Carver was stashing the drugs he hadn’t yet moved.”
Sounded simple enough. Cayden stole the bait, bait leads Carver to the trap. Obviously, though, it hadn’t beenthatsimple. “What went wrong?”
He shook his head. “Not sure. Somehow the state police got involved. Cayden made the decision to keep going. He said he could get away. He still wanted to get the motorcycle to Carver. He was wired, so we were able to communicate with him. Then suddenly he cut out. We lost the connection to the bug we had on him too. We couldn’t hear him or trace him. We were blind, and then…” His voice trailed off. “Well, you saw.”
She forced herself not to remember what she’d seen. Once was one time too many. “Did Carver call in the tip? Did he know that Cayden was working with you?”
“It’s always a possibility.” From the look in the man’s eyes, the police captain thought it was more than a possibility. Trixie did too. Why call the state police over local?
“Where’s Lee?” She needed to know her brother was safe too. She needed to know both of them were safe.
“Out looking for Cayden.”
A shudder ran through Trixie at his name and she felt a crack in her control. Saying his name was fine, but hearing it from someone else…He’s not dead, he’s not dead…
“You served with Lee, right? You’re a former Marine?”
“Once a Marine, always a Marine, Ms. Romero,” the captain confirmed. “We served two tours together. We were in different units, but we knew each other very well.”
She could feel her heart hammering in her chest. “I don’t know how all this police shit works. You people have royally fucked up my life for over two years. First with Marco and Lindsey, and then Lee apparently becoming a cop but not even telling his family, and now with you stealing Cayden from me for Lee’s stupid crusade. I’m so sick of it. I tried to be strong. I tried to be supportive. But all of this is bullshit.”
“I understand?—”
“Youdon’tunderstand how I feel,” she interrupted. She knew she was being disrespectful, but she couldn’t find it in her to care. “Why would you allow Lee to go after a crook like Massey? And don’t tell me that you don’t know he’s your anonymous source or that Lee is responsible for what he does on his own time.”
Trixie crossed her arms over her chest. She hoped it looked like it was in anger but, in truth, she was just trying to hold herself together. Literally.
Holloway, though, paled. Not the response Trixie had been anticipating. “Because Massey is, as you so aptly named him, a crook. He needs to be stopped and no one has been able to do it. When Lee came to me after Marco’s funeral, I saw my first real opportunity to take that first-rate bastard down. Lee was an unknown, meaning he never walked a beat, but he is a Marine. He is smart and he is trained, perfect to go under.”
“So you gambled Lee’s life to further your career?” she spewed out the words like they were vile. She had never wanted to hit someone so hard in her life.
“No,” Holloway snapped so immediately that she believed him. “I gambled my career on Lee’s success.” He squared his shoulders, reminding her very much of Lee. “Your brother is oneof the finest men I know, Ms. Romero. He took a bullet for me on my last tour. Did you know that? I wouldn’t be here today if not for him. I wouldn’t have been able to return to my wife and children if he hadn’t done what he did.
“So when Lee came to me after Marco’s funeral and told me he was going after Massey with or without my help… Well, I jumped on the chance. I knew it was dangerous. I knew it was selfish. I knew I could be throwing away my career and pension, but I had to take the chance. Massey needs to be brought down. Too many lives have been ruined by that man’s greed and cruelty. And Lee? He doesn’t fail. Did you know that about your brother, Ms. Romero? I’ve never known a finer man or soldier. And even after everything he’s been through, his moral compassstillpoints north.”
Trixie was still trying to figure out how to respond to that when Holloway’s phone rang. He picked it up. Her ears perked up at, “Don’t bother, she’s here with me now.” The only person she could think of that Holloway would talk about her to was Lee.
She approached the desk, needing to know. Not needing to know. What if… No, don’t think it. He can’t be. She needed him to be alive. She gripped the coin hanging from her neck tighter.Please…Please be alive…
Then Holloway hung up the phone. He took a deep breath before saying, “I don’t know if it’s good news or not, but they didn’t find a body in the water, and they say there’s no sign of him at the crash site.”
Trixie hung her head, her hair falling from her messy bun. It wasn’t relief she felt, but at least it wasn’t grief. “What now?”
He rounded the desk. “Now I’m going to ask you to remain here. I’m going to go help my men and do what I can to find yours. There’s a couch behind you, make yourself comfortable.I’ll send one of the rookies to check in on you. Do you want any coffee, water?”
She shook her head. The only thing she wanted was Cayden.
