Intoxication: Blue Line Book Three Read online

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Also By Brandy Ayers

  About Brandy

  Intoxication

  Blue Line Book Three

  Brandy Ayers

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Intoxication

  COPYRIGHT © 2017 by Brandy Ayers

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Visit me at www.brandyayers.com

  Digital ISBN B06XYTS6NL

  Published in the United States of America

  Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Also By Brandy Ayers

  About Brandy

  Dedication

  To all the men and women in blue who risk

  Their lives to serve and protect their communities.

  Chapter One

  Jon

  Sweat dripped down Jon’s face, stinging his eyes, as he wiped to clear them with his forearms. The trainer held up the focus mitts once again and they went through the combination. Jab, cross, hook, cross, jab, haymaker. The trainer, Tony, came at him with the pads, the vinyl slapping against the bare flesh of his arms and shoulders as Jon curled up protecting his head.

  The workout did its job. It took his mind off everything going on in his suddenly messed up world.

  Twenty-five years he’d served as a cop. Fifteen working up the ranks in Pittsburgh. The last ten as the chief of police in Middleburg. Never before had his mind been such a mess.

  The trainer backed off and they moved on to work on grappling and floor work. The aggression which had built up in his system came roaring out as he pinned the young man to the mat, released him, and did it again. His muscles, flexing and stretching to their limits, had a strange kind of peace washing over him.

  One of his officer’s, Bryan Coy, liked to call him ‘old man’, but Chief Jon Gallo was in better shape today than he had been when he joined the force, as a punk twenty-year-old kid. Discovering this MMA gym two towns over had been a damn godsend. His hair might be more grey now than the dark brown it had been back in those days, but his abs and arms were what the kids called ‘jacked’.

  Jon might not go out on the street anymore to patrol, but he still needed to stay at the top of his game.

  Hell, now more than ever.

  Now he had something worth fighting for.

  He just had to find her.

  An hour later he walked out of the gym freshly showered, dressed in his crisp navy blue uniform, and more than a little sore. Tony had gone extra hard on him, but Jon needed it. The not knowing was driving him nuts, and the only way he could release the tension was with some good old fashioned physical strain.

  Walking through the front doors of the station, his spine straightened, and his chest puffed out. This was his domain. His niece Sophie sat behind the front desk, a thick wall of bulletproof glass separating her from the lobby area.

  “Hey Uncle Jon, how was your morning?” Having never had a family of his own, he thought of Sophie as his daughter, and had taken great pride in helping her along after her own father passed away over two years ago.

  God, almost three now.

  “It’s good Soph.” His niece buzzed him through the security doors, and he rounded the corner to meet her on the other side of the wall. They hugged briefly, and Jon’s hands automatically reached for her slightly swollen belly. “How about you? How’s my little great nephew doing this morning?”

  Her sweet laughter brought an extra lightness to his heart. “Everyone is so insistent we’re having a boy. It could just as easily be a girl. And she is great this morning. Kicking up a storm.”

  “I hope it is a girl.” Jon’s chuckle echoed across the mostly empty bullpen. “Would serve McCracken right to have a daughter after stringing you along for two years.”

  “Hey, I made up for that.” The devil himself, Sergeant Luke McCracken, stepped out from the break room and crossed over to Sophie, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her in close to him.

  Jealousy itched beneath Jon’s skin. He’d never cared too much about the lack of female companionship in his life. There had been a few women here and there over the course of his life, but none that stuck around for too long. He was married to the job, the force his life, and the men and women who worked there his children. No woman seemed to be able to accept that. But ever since a dark haired, hazel eyed woman crossed his path a month before, the loneliness had become almost too much for him to bear.

  Which made no sense.

  He hadn’t even talked to her, not one word. And she was way too young for an old man such as himself.

  Camille Artiga. A twenty-two-year-old woman and pharmacist’s assistant for the past year. She’d dropped out of a highly competitive pre-med program at the University of Pittsburgh two years ago for unknown reasons. Both of her parents were deceased due to a car accident five years prior. Her only living relatives were two brothers and her whereabouts were currently unknown. Camille was currently wanted on charges of resisting arrest and failure to appear in court.

  Jon had her damn file memorized. He’d sat in that courtroom for three hours waiting for her to appear and plead guilty to the charge of fleeing from a police officer. But she never showed, and that didn’t sit well with him. The tail he had placed on her, that first day she crossed his path, had lost her after only two hours. Since then, not one single shred of evidence had been found about where she could be or how she was involved in the growing drug problems in their area.

  All Jon knew was that the moment their eyes connected as she passed him in the lobby of the Middleburg Police Station, something sparked to life inside him. A need he had never felt before. To own. To protect. He’d been so dumbstruck with the overwhelming weight of her presence he hadn’t even run after the obviously terrified woman. All he did was stand there and watch as she climbed into the passenger seat of a car with dark tinted windows, as it sped off.

  That moment had played on a loop in his head for the past week. What he would have done differently. How he would have pulled her into his arms and wiped away whatever it was that scared her.

  “Chief.” McCracken broke into his obsessing, and apparently had been trying to get his attention for some time. “You okay, Chief?”

  “Sure, just got a lot on my mind. Are you done groping my niece now?” Sophie scoffed and smacked him on the arm, but her smile showed she really didn’t mind the teasing.

  “Yes sir, I have some things I’d like to go over with you if you don’t mind.” McCracke
n was a good sergeant. Great even. A natural born leader and cop. He could have easily made his career in a bigger city, but Jon was glad he’d decided to stay in Middleburg.

  “Let’s get to it then.” He led McCracken into his office, Jon taking the tall chair behind his desk, while the sergeant settled into one of the two chairs on the opposite side. “What’s up?”

  “Chief, we have to get more help in here with this drug case.” Luke steepled his hands in front of his face, taking a minute to gather his thoughts. It was one of the many things Jon liked about the guy, he never spoke before formulating his words, measuring them to ensure they would get the point across in the most effective manner. “This case is much bigger than we originally thought. One organization peddling pot, heroin, and meth. Not to mention the intentional destruction of a house and the increase in unexplained assaults. The victims might be refusing to cooperate, but we all know these assholes bringing drugs into our town are to blame.”

  “I know all this, Luke. What do you suggest we do? The mayor and city council have denied us the funding for more man power and better equipment. I’ve tried everything I can to change their minds, but they insist we can do this on our own.” The frustration he’d been able to take out on in the ring that morning quickly built again in his chest. “Honestly, part of me wonders if some of those on the council might be getting kickbacks for denying us the budget increase to hire a detective.”

  It wasn’t a suspicion he would voice to anyone other than Luke. They might be a relatively small community compared to their big brother neighbor, Pittsburgh, but they had their own share of corruption and power hungry politicians.

  Luke leaned in, his eyes growing more intense. “I might have a way we can get the help we need, without the permission of the council.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “I’ve got a friend from college, she got her degree in criminal justice and abnormal psychology. She’s a detective in the city, but she’s run into some trouble because she made the mistake of getting involved with her commanding officer. Turned out the guy was also banging the daughter of the commissioner. Word got out and now things aren’t exactly comfortable in the office for her.”

  “Less gossip, McCracken, more explanation about why I give a shit.”

  Luke shook his head, a wry smile pulling at his lips. “She’s looking to get away for a while. The commissioner has agreed to loan her out to us, salary still paid by the City of Pittsburgh.”

  Jon raised one eyebrow, the familiar expression cluing Luke into his skepticism. “What’s the catch?”

  “Nothing you need to worry about. The commissioner wants her gone until the dust can settle, but he can’t fire her. I’ve talked to her on the phone about this, but she’d like to come down and see what we’re dealing with before making her final decision. She’s reluctant, but knows she needs to do this to keep her career on track. I’ll owe her a favor, but it won’t come back on the precinct.”

  Jon leaned back in his chair, looking at the situation from all angles. Luke wasn’t exaggerating, the drug problem was spiraling out of control, and it had been for a year now. Whoever was behind the operation just kept getting more and more ambitious. They had a perfect storm of circumstances, the city of Pittsburgh had cracked down hard on drugs and crime two years ago. Desperate dealers drifted out of the city limits and settled into neighboring suburbs. The nearby college had also expanded three years ago and ever since then an influx of young adults flooded into Middleburg. The timing couldn’t have been worse if someone had been planning it. Dealers saw a built in and growing population, prime for drug and alcohol abuse, and worked it to their advantage.

  It pissed Jon off to no end that these guys were smart enough to evade their efforts to corner them. He’d thought more than once about asking the ATF to step in, but he wasn’t ready to hand over control of his town yet.

  “Okay, it’s worth a shot. I’ll get on the phone with the commissioner and work out the details. Let’s keep this between us for the time being though. Once we get everything set in stone we’ll tell the guys.”

  Jon spent the rest of the morning trading phone calls with the commissioner and Detective Formosa, preparing materials for the next city council meeting, and writing performance reviews for five of the men on his force. There were times he missed patrolling and investigating; paperwork and bullshit filled his days now. But then he reminded himself that his job was to fight for the well-being of the people putting themselves on the line for the safety of their town, and he felt his purpose solidify.

  Around two o’clock a roar of cheers and applause sounded through the station. What the hell is going on now?

  Jon stood from his chair, ready to give the guys hell for whatever they were doing, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Coy and his girlfriend, Lexis, standing in the bullpen, ready for a wedding.

  “What do you say Chief, will you marry us?”

  Pride swelled in chest, as well as a lump in his throat. Coy was one of his greatest accomplishments. The punk had spray painted a giant pig on the side of Jon’s house back when he was a detective in the city. Instead of arresting him, Jon took Bryan Coy under his wing and helped him to find a place in the world. Showed him that he didn’t need to succumb to his circumstances. Even though they had been supremely shitty circumstances.

  “I’d be honored to, son.”

  They all filed into the briefing room, Lexis’ son and parents included. Jon had only married one other couple, his brother and sister-in-law, Sophie’s mom and dad. Speaking off the cuff, Jon told the room of the strength it took for Bryan to overcome his childhood in an abusive foster home, and how far he had come. He also spoke about Lexis and her strength as a single mother, raising a son on her own, while working three jobs. Combined, their strength would be able to move mountains.

  His own thoughts drifted back to Camille. Where was she at this moment? He wanted her there by his side. If only so he could be sure of her safety. He wouldn’t let himself dream that a young, beautiful thing such as her would lower herself to be with a man twice her age. But just to know she was okay would go a long way to easing his mind.

  Jon pronounced the happy couple man and wife, Bryan dipping his new bride into a dramatic kiss before Jon could even get the words out, welcoming him to kiss his wife. Over the cheers of the crowded room, Jon thought he heard something like sobbing in the lobby. Just as he turned to move that way, a crash echoed through the station.

  The whole room burst into action, twenty cops, four civilians, and a child, coming to a screeching halt at the scene in the lobby. A badly beaten girl lay on the floor, the chairs that had once lined the wall now overturned and scattered around the room, as if she had tried to make it to them but only succeeded in taking them down with her. Lexis, a nurse, kneeled next to the woman’s prone body, turning her to lay flat on her back. Once the hair fell away from her face, Jon recognized the girl who had haunted his thoughts for the past month. Even through the blood, bruises, and swelling that covered her face, her beauty and innocence still shone through. Lexis listed off her many injuries. Broken fingers, toes, and facial bones. Burns peppered over her skin. Shallow gashes along her arms. All signs that she had been tortured. And those were just the injuries they could see. The color of her shredded shirt was indistinguishable because it was so saturated in her own blood. But as Jon’s eyes swept down her legs, he saw she was wearing the same jeans as the day she’d walked out of the station a month ago. There was no way you could mistake the peacock feathers drawn along the side of them.

  Coming to kneel by her head, he had to exercise more control over his emotions than ever before in his life. Inside he raged, dying to tear apart whatever monster could do this to anyone, let alone a little sprite of a woman like Camille. Outwardly, he gently cradled her head in his hands, making sure to stabilize her neck in case of head injury. Around him people rushed about, calling an ambulance, escorting Lexis’ son and parents out of the buildin
g, securing the scene, and taking pictures of Camille. Jon desperately wanted to cover her, tell them all to go away and leave her to him. He’d take care of her. But he knew she needed more help than he could give her.

  Time ceased to exist. The paramedics were there one minute and in the next they were arriving at the hospital, rushing her to a room. All the while Jon stayed by her side. Each time someone tried to get him to step back he only glared at them.

  The only thing that got through to him were the words of a surgeon. “She has hemorrhaging in her abdomen. We need to operate. If you want her to live, you need to stay here and let us do our work.”

  Reluctantly, Jon let her go and stepped back as they wheeled her away.

  A hand clamped onto his shoulder, but he was too numb to even be surprised at the sudden intrusion.

  “Chief, she’s going to be okay.”

  “Luke, when we find the bastards that did this. I’m going to need you to keep me away from them. That, or get your handcuffs ready for me.”

  Chapter Two

  Camille

  Everything hurt.

  Not that pain was anything new to Camille.

  This was different though. A dull sort of sore pain. Not the sharp torturous pain she’d been subjected to for weeks. Glimpses of what she’d been through flashed in her mind, but she pushed them away.

  Her eyelids were heavy and refused to open, but she knew she was no longer lying in that filthy room. Wherever she was now smelled clean, sterile. A hospital.

  That would explain the faint beeping in the background too.

  She’d escaped, but it wouldn’t be for long, especially since she was lying helpless in a hospital. Nothing stopped them from walking in and finally ending her. Strangely, she didn’t feel the panic she expected at that thought. Maybe the doctors had her on some great drugs, she hated that thought. As soon as she could open her eyes she would tell them to take her off everything. She’d rather endure unending pain than turn into the addicts she’d seen do anything for their next hit.