Page 27 of Hidden Ties (Made Men #11)

TWENTY-ONE

RELEASE THE KRAKEN

H aving eaten the whole pie by herself, Valerie sat back on the couch full as she watched Lyle gun down someone in Fortnite.

“Ha-ha, you bitch!” Lyle screamed into the headset to a probably fourteen-year-old kid. “That’s right; go cry to your mommy.”

Having seen enough, Valerie just shook her head, then went into his kitchen for a drink. While Lyle’s taste in video games sucked, he at least had good taste in drinks when she pulled a cold blue Powerade from his fridge.

Valerie quenched her thirst; she hadn’t had one of these bad boys in days. She wondered when Justice would finally reach out. If he didn’t get a hold of her soon, she was about to take her chances and go on the run to Texas to find him in person.

About to seriously give up when she heard Lyle yelling at a girl player to go back in the kitchen and make him a sandwich, a knock could be heard on the door.

Peeking her head back into the living room, she gave Lyle a look of death. “Who is that?”

Lyle stopped playing a moment to look at her then shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Valerie’s eyes turned into slits, smelling bullshit, and it wasn’t his dirty underwear that was lying about. “Did you tell anyone I was here?”

“No—”

“Who did you tell?” she whisper-screamed at him, knowing instantly that he was lying through his fucking unbrushed teeth. “Tell me right now, or so help me God, Lyle, that’ll be the last fucking game you play on your Xbox ever again.”

It wasn’t until she was about to rip the console out of its place that Lyle finally gave in.

“Fine! I might have told Gerald that you’re here.”

Gerald was another one of their coworkers, but when another knock came at the door, this time louder, she began threatening him with her hands still on the Xbox.

“Tell me exactly what you said. Word for word .”

“All I said was that he wasn’t going to believe who was here, and then I told him it was you.” He added the last part in a rush after she had ripped out its cords and looked like she was about to drop it. “I swear that’s all!”

She was contemplating throwing the stupid thing to the ground and smashing it to tiny bits when Lyle stood up and went for the door.

“It’s not a big deal. I’m sure Gerard just came over to say hi—”

“No! Do not open the door!” she screamed out when her gut told her that something was wrong, but it was too late as a bullet went right through Lyle’s face.

It was much different in real life than in her video games.

It was certainly a lot messier and strangely a lot quieter than she had expected, due to the silencer on the end of the barrel of the gun.

Splattered in blood and knowing that her time had come, Valerie had nothing to lose.

And, frankly, Lyle didn’t either, considering he was dead, so she chucked the Xbox she still had in her hands right at the fully covered intruder.

Having knocked them senseless, Valerie ran as fast as she could to her car and shut herself in before starting it.

“Shit!” she cried out when she found her keys no longer sat in the ignition. Whoever had come in to kill her had been thorough in giving her no possibility of escape, which led her to no other option but …

She eyed her bat in the passenger seat. The bitch had fucked up by leaving it in her car. She made a promise that that was going to be the last mistake he would ever make.

Gripping her bat as she exited the car, she prepared to fight to the death when the masked assailant rushed out of the house at the same moment. Once he caught sight of her, Valerie ran right at him, holding her bat high in the air as he pointed the gun right at her.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The blood that coated Valerie this time, she wasn’t sure if it belonged to her or not. It didn’t feel like she had gotten shot, and she certainly hadn’t been the one to fall to the ground.

“Are you fucking stupid?” a masculine voice roared from behind her.

Turning to see Officer Daniels with his gun still smoking out from the barrel, she dropped the bat, still in shock, and realized that she wasn’t dead and dreaming. “Huh?”

“I said, are you fucking stupid ?” he roared at her again, but she was only barely able to catch it over the ringing in her ears.

“Well, what the hell was I supposed to do?” she asked snarkily, trying to calm her heart rate down from almost being killed. “Let him kill me without a fight? No, thanks!”

“No,” he said harshly, looking at her as if she were fucking crazy. “You were supposed to run the other way!”

“And let him shoot me from behind?” She picked her bat back up and swung it over her shoulder. “Again, no, thanks.”

For both of their safeties, Officer Daniels put his gun back in its holster.

While grateful to still be alive, Valerie gave him a curious look. “How’d you know this was happening, anyway?”

“I followed you—”

“Well, that’s not creepy at all,” Valerie had his words coming to a halt.

“Fucking hell, woman, a thank you for saving my ass wouldn’t hurt.” When he knew he wasn’t going to get that, as she kept staring at him to continue his story, he did. “After Sal found your house ransacked, he asked if I could keep a patrol out on your neighborhood.”

“Oh, so, it wasn’t the police who broke all my shit …” She understood now. Obviously, since Sal hadn’t mentioned that he had her computer, he couldn’t tell her that it wasn’t the police who had trashed her home.

“No.” Unimpressed, he continued, “So, when you left the neighborhood in your little blaze of glory earlier today, I happened to be nearby, and he asked me to tail you.”

Slightly embarrassed he had witnessed that, and that she absolutely sucked at making sure no one was following her, she twirled her bat in her hand. “I see. So, he knows I’ve been here this whole time …?”

“Yes.” He nodded at her pityingly. “He asked me to keep an eye on you till you hopefully cooled down and came to your senses.”

If Valerie thought she could get away with using her bat on Officer Daniels, she would. But she was almost positive it wouldn’t go as well as it had on Sal.

“So, if you’ve been watching me this whole time, then how the hell did you almost let me die?”

“Because I got called off scene. The only reason I came back in time was because your boyfriend must’ve been tracking me and forced me to come back.”

Ah … While she wasn’t sure she and Sal were on boyfriend/girlfriend terms yet, having a friend in the mafia who was also conveniently good with computers definitely had its perks. Hence, while she was still extremely pissed at Sal, she was a bit less furious with him now.

“What does he have on you?” she finally asked after not only seeing but hearing the disdain in his voice.

“That’s between me, God, and The Great Salvato—”

“You know I can easily look it up, too, right?” She gave him her own pitying gaze.

“Fine,” Daniels grumbled, giving in. “I fucked Sheriff Calloway’s wife, but that was only because he’s fucked over half the women in the precinct.”

Valerie simply shrugged, finding it completely understandable. “Oh, okay.”

Officer Daniels just laughed.

When he wouldn’t stop throwing his head back in laughter, she looked at him strangely. “What’s so funny?”

“The fact that I’ve been worried sick about you in the hands of the Carusos. But something tells me you fit right in.” He approached the dead body on the ground and gave it a turn. “Actually, I think you might be safer with them.”

Considering her predicament, that was probably true.

“Do you know him?” Daniels asked after removing the ski mask.

“Yeah, some idiot from work.” Valerie hated to speak ill of the dead, but it was the truth. “His name’s Gerard.”

“And who’s that?” he asked, pointing to the dead guy at the door.

“Lyle. An even bigger idiot.” She didn’t even bother to look at her other deceased coworker and instead bent over to go through Gerard’s pockets. Frankly, what was done was done. “There are my car keys.”

“Valerie …” He watched her dumbfoundedly. “Why does he have them in the first place?”

At that point, Valerie held up her hand. She had heard enough from the male species in one day. “Don’t ask.”

“Here you go.”

Sal caught the keys Officer Daniels had thrown his way, looking down at them to see they were Valerie’s.

“I didn’t think you’d want her to get away again. It almost cost me an unmarked car. But, thankfully, I felt when she lifted the keys off me.”

“Thanks,” Sal said, clearing his throat of embarrassment. As much as it hurt for Sal to do, he held out his hand for the man to properly thank him this time. “Thank you, Officer Daniels.”

Daniels took the strong hand in his, knowing it meant a truce between the two. “No problem.”

“If you need anything , just let me know,” Sal said the words, knowing he understood them perfectly.

“Same to you,” he agreed before he had to clarify, “As long as it doesn’t involve Valerie Monroe. That , you’ll have to get the Caruso soldiers to take care of next time.”

“All right,” he agreed to happily with a laugh.

He’d noticed that Valerie had caught Officer Daniels’ attention; it had been the only explanation as to why he hadn’t wanted to hand over her computer, but he was happy that Valerie had forced that ship to sail.

Sal didn’t like being jealous. After being jealous of everything anyone had for the first thirteen years of his life, he no longer wanted to feel that feeling.

And he especially didn’t like being jealous of a jacked cop in a uniform.

“Listen, I had to use Valerie’s computer to track you. I just wanted to be sure that won’t cause her any trouble.”

“No, I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “My bet is Gerard was the one to frame her, so I expect her charges to be dropped in the morning.”

“Sounds good.”

“How’d you get here, anyway?” he asked Sal, knowing he had been stranded at the house.

“I might have jacked my neighbor’s car,” he admitted without remorse, giving him back a different set of keys from his pocket.

Why every woman on Prairie Drive thought their neighborhood was so safe from carjacking was beyond him.

“Is there any way you could take it back to Katie, our neighbor across the street, and let her know the situation? I think it might be better coming from a cop than out of her thieving neighbor’s mouth. ”

“Sure. Anything else?” He laughed, sensing there was.

“There is another thing …” The request Sal was about to ask for was highly different than the last. “It’s about Officer Dunbar.”

Daniels crossed his arms over his chest. “What about him?”

“He gave a speeding ticket to Valerie a few months back.”

Confused as to where this was going, he didn’t understand. “What am I supposed to do about that—”

“It was for eleven over,” Sal revealed, and in that instant, even Daniels’ face couldn’t hide his disbelieve at the weak number. “So, either you lower your partner’s expectation of the people of Kansas City, or I will.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Daniels told him, getting the message on behalf of his partner’s sake. “You sure you can handle it from here?”

Sal took a deep breath before giving a nod, having only one thing left to do.

“Shall I release the Kraken?” the officer asked, just to be sure.

It had been awfully quiet the last ten minutes, and he could only hope the monster had tired itself out. “Go ahead.”

However, he should have known he wasn’t going to get that lucky when Officer Daniels opened the back of his unmarked cop car, and a trapped Valerie jumped out with a vengeance.

“You motherfuckers.”