Chapter 28

"Finally. That bitch is off my ass." Lester's smug voice was on speaker, via Galici's confiscated phone, as the group stood around and listened.

Galici had just told the corrupt agent that Joelle was dead, and the man was gloating.

Mike wanted to reach over the phone line and strangle the asshole, even though Joe was nodding her head calmly. How dare the rotten-to-the-core agent act sanctimonious while he was up to his gullet in drug dealing.

"Yeah, well," Galici answered as if killing a woman was nothing. "We've done your dirty work, now it's your turn to clean up the mess. When will you be here?" The drug supplier prodded Lester as Mason urged him on with a rolling hand.

Lester sounded haughty. "I'll contact the local authorities and tell them we have a missing agent; that the cunt has skipped several check-ins, and that we'll be traveling east to interface with them to find her. That way, when we come across her body and sweep the warehouse for evidence and prints, they'll be there to corroborate with us that the bitch was rotten to her nosy little core."

"Sounds good. I'll put the tracker you sent on her body so you can locate her," he said, as he'd been instructed by Mason. "And should I take some of the fentanyl out of Benji's truck to plant with the xylazine? You know, just to make sure she's really busted as a crooked agent."

"I like it," Lester returned. "But don't relocate too much. I don't want to lose any profits because of her."

"Got it, boss." Galici agreed. "Now I've got other important things to think about, like getting the operation back up and running," Galici continued gruffly. "Which means you'll need to make it here quickly. We not only need this wrapped up; we need to find a new place to cook our product."

"I'll be on a plane within two hours," Lester assured him. "I should be in Maine by late tonight. Then I'll make up some bullshit story to the local cops about tracking Pikens' phone signal—which they won't know we can't do with the encrypted device she's carrying—taking them with me to find her body first thing in the morning. In the meantime," he added, "you start scouting the area for a new venue, and I'll give my approval after we're through putting the final punctuation on Agent Pikens' sorry life."

Now Joe's brows scrunched together, furrowing a deep groove mid-forehead. Mike wanted to simultaneously smooth it away, and punch a wall, but he couldn't do either at the moment. The conversation between pricks had to wrap up first.

"Got it, boss," Galici responded. "I'll have the boys out looking today for a likely spot."

"You do that. And make yourself scarce when I'm in town. I'll arrange for a meeting, but it will be in an out-of-the-way spot where nobody will see us."

Mike glowered, but with a certain satisfaction.

The only meeting between Lester and Galici would be in a courtroom. Or in prison.

"I'll be waiting," Galici agreed.

Yeah.In a jail cell.

They both hung up, and Mason gave his approval. "A credible job, Anthony. I'll put in a positive word for you with the DA, but you'll have to tell her where the prison of choice is that you want to be your home for a good long time."

Galici grumbled, but smartly didn't say anything because he was surrounded by law enforcement in various forms.

"Take him away," Mason told two of the SWAT officers who were also OPD, and they quickly complied.

"So now we wait," Mason continued, once Galici had been hustled from the room. He turned to the other SWAT members still present. "Since we've pulled an all-nighter, and we'll be up to our ass in intrigue tomorrow, you've all been given the day off from your PD jobs. Make good use of your time and head home to bed," he ordered, making a point to look directly at Mike, then Joe.

Cisco snickered, seeing the message Mason was sending. "Oh, we'll all hit mattresses. But not every one of us will be sleeping."

Mike was about to respond to Cisco's snark, but Joe beat him to it.

"What? Jealous, Cisco?" she purred. "It's your own fault. If you weren't so busy bouncing from bed to bed, you might know where yours actually is."

Burn.

Boy, had Joe gotten Cisco's number from the short amount of time they'd talked.

But Cisco only laughed. He was certainly known for his undiscerning taste in women, and never tried to hide the fact.

"That's just the thing, Joe," Cisco responded once he stopped chuckling. "Since I have so many available ladies to choose from, I never have to travel far to find a warm bed."

"Meeting adjourned," Mason interjected loudly, clearly not wanting to prolong the conversation regarding Cisco's overly-active sex life.

Huh.Someday Cisco's escapades were going to catch up with him.

Mike walked over to Joe and put a hand on the small of her back. "Your place or mine?" he asked quietly, once the room had cleared out of everyone but Mason, who was on the phone and not paying attention.

"That depends," Joe answered. "My place is small and basic; no big shower to play in," she teased. "But your house comes with kids."

"Right," Mike agreed. "But they're in school, so if we head there now, we've got…" He looked at his watch. "…seven hours to…sleep."

He scowled then, as something occurred to him, and he raised his voice so Mason was privy to his thoughts. "You can't go back to your place anyway, Joe. I'm sure Lester-the-dick will check out the cabin, first thing when he gets in. More than likely he'll plant evidence in your stuff."

"Good call, Mike," Mason said as he hung up. "I'll put eyes on her room for the next twenty-four hours, along with a few hidden cameras, just in case." He pointed a finger at Joe. "You'll go with Mike and stay at his house until it's time to run our op on Lester."

Joe smirked and laid a hand on Mike's large chest as she acknowledged the order. "Why do I have a feeling that if I follow that order, Mike and I will be more bleary eyed at the end of the day than we are right now?"

Mason gave a huff, picked up several folders off the conference table, and walked out, shaking his head.

"Speak for yourself," Mike teased once his chief was gone. "It'll take me fifteen minutes, tops, to take care of business for both of us, then I'll be ready to pass out."

"Is that a challenge or a threat?" Joe quirked up her lips.

"Both," he growled, his dick already responding with a lurch in his pants. Damn. He'd have to make sure Joe was sated pretty quickly, because he wouldn't last even fifteen minutes if he got inside her tight warmth before she'd been taken care of.

"Let's go," she responded breathlessly. "Now."

It was good to know Mike wasn't the only one who was already ramped up.

After a brief stop at a big-box store to pick Joe up some clothes—since she'd been in her server's uniform for far too long—they headed off to Mike's house, making giddy promises and goo-goo eyes at each other the whole way.

Four o'clock rolled around far too fast.Mike stretched, then reached out a hand to cup Joe's heart-shaped behind, giving her a little shake.

"Go away," she groused, wiggling as if to sink her sated body deeper into the mattress.

"As much as I'd love to continue sleeping next to you, my kids will be finished with their practices in an hour, so we need to get up."

Joe cracked an eyelid and snorted. "You've already gotten it up two, maybe three times, today. My mind is so mushy, I'm not sure exactly how many orgasms we've had, but there's a definite soreness in my lady parts that tells me we banged-out more than a couple."

Mike recalled every single climax. "Four," he stated proudly and yawned. Yes, they'd fucked, then slept, fucked, then slept, etc., so he hadn't exactly had the amount of shut eye he needed. Maybe he could talk the kids into sleeping over at their grandparents' house tonight…

Or maybe not.

He really needed to stick Joe safely in the guestroom until go-time with the team, or neither of them would get the necessary z's.

And wait.Joe was sore?

"Are you okay?" he asked gruffly. "I didn't…hurt you, did I?"

Joe slowly rolled to her back and sent both hands up in a cat-like stretch, lifting her pretty pink-tipped nipples toward the ceiling. Mike couldn't help but reach out and cover one soft orb with his palm.

"It's a good hurt, Mike," she assured him with a grin. "But I wouldn't mind a bath instead of that tandem shower you implied earlier."

He glanced at the clock again. "We wouldn't have time for a shower together, anyway," he said reluctantly. "I have a feeling the minutes would get away from us, and the last thing I want to do is get caught with you in there by my impressionable-aged children. So, you'll have to suck it up and bathe alone."

Joe's face turned serious. "Uh, Mike? How do you think they'll feel about me being in your life…in their lives?" she asked worriedly.

"Are you kidding? They've already been teasing me," Mike assured her. "Which means they like you. And once they find out you're a bad-ass federal agent, their heads are going to just about explode. But for now, I don't want to shock their little brains by letting them know we're already getting naked together."

Joe made a noise that was half laugh, half groan. "They're teenagers, Mike. In their heads, they probably have us doing things we haven't even considered yet."

Mike put his hands to his ears. "La, la, la, la, la," he chanted. "These are my babies we're talking about."

Joe didn't argue, but got out of bed and padded toward the bathroom. "I'm going to pee, then you can show me where your guest bathroom is located. I'll bathe in there, and I promise to come out fully dressed and looking like a grown-up."

Mike sighed. "Not what I want, but I guess it's for the best."

He watched Joe's fine form prance to the bathroom, his cock stirring again, and thought for a few minutes about palming himself until she got back, but… "Down boy. We can't have her again. Yet."

"Did you say something?" Joe asked, sticking her head out of the door with…his toothbrush in her mouth.

Instead of grossing him out, he actually liked that she'd helped herself.

Mike laughed. "Just telling my prick he needs to behave."

"Seriously?" She rolled her eyes with her mouth full of foamy toothpaste. "I'm not sure how you haven't already worn the skin off that randy tally-whacker," she snorted, ducking back into the bathroom to spit.

Mike groaned amusedly and called out. "We're going to have to find a happy medium between your swears and the creepy words you come up with. Once my kids hear your substitutes, they're going to start using them, and I'm not sure my ears will be able to take it."

"Suck it up, Mike." She giggled, using his words from earlier. "They're in high school. By that time, my vocabulary was already honed and edgy. I'm sure if they let fly with a few of my euphemisms, your tympanic membranes won't bleed."

An hour and a half later,Mike, Joe, Dilly, and Tim were sitting around the kitchen island, sucking up chips and snacks, and making small talk when Dilly's astuteness kicked in.

"So what are you doing home today, Dad, and doesn't Elle have to work?" She turned her eyes to Joelle. "I thought you worked Tuesday through Saturday, five to close."

Yup.His daughter had a steel trap for a brain.

Joe raised a brow in Mike's direction, and…

Well, he knew the entire op would be wrapped up by tomorrow, so spilling some of the deets now wouldn't screw things up. His kids knew when to be quiet.

Oh, wait. Mike paused.

Except with their mother. Which now that everything was coming out, needed to be addressed. Mike held up a finger to Joe, letting her know he'd be speaking first.

She easily gave over, which was another thing to love about her. She liked to take charge, but also knew when to step back.

"Before we discuss Jo…Elle," Mike managed to amend. "I have a little bone to pick with you two."

Dilly didn't look worried, but Tim might have blanched a little.

"Shoot, Dad," Dilly told him, grabbing another handful of pretzels.

"It seems that someone might have let their mother in the house a few weeks ago, against my instructions."

Dilly immediately shook her head, but Tim's face lost even more color.

"Tim?" Mike asked.

"Yeah," he confessed. "She said she lost one of her diamond earrings, and thought it might be in your office."

"In Dad's office?" Dilly responded incredulously. "Duh, Tim. Even I'm not that stupid." She turned to her father. "What did she do?"

Mike huffed, not sure how he wanted to deal with Tim's naiveté, but answered Dilly first. "She went through my papers, and saw that I hadn't taken her off my will or my life insurance policy yet."

"So?" Dilly shrugged and went back to eating. "What's she going to do, Dad? Kill you?" A snicker emerged from her mouth, but died out when Mike didn't answer. She raised her head and stared him in the eyes. "No way. You've got to be kidding me?"

Mike shook his head, sadly. "I wish I was. But Joe here, heard her and Cameron plotting at the bar, which is how the two of us actually met." There was no need to rub salt in the wound, and tell the kids their real meeting had been under his truck, after Mellie had already cut his brake-lines.

Dilly's entire countenance went stiff. "What are you going to do?" she asked.

"First off, I've already changed my documents, and I will let you two know when to spill that, after I confront her. Which I will be doing this coming weekend. I dropped the hint that Joe and I will be hiking Baxter Peak, and by the look on her face, she'll take the bait. I'm just not sure what to do with her once we've caught her red-handed. I don't want to scar you kids for life, having your mother put away as a felon."

Tim still wasn't verbally engaging. He was looking down at his hands as he laced and unlaced his fingers.

Dilly, on the other hand…

"While I think on that one, Dad, why have you called Elle, Joe, two times? What aren't you telling us?"

Mike sighed. Of course she'd picked up on that. "You want to take this one, Joe?"

"Gladly," she said with a commiserative smile.

She regarded the kids, her face an open book. "My real name is Joelle Pikens, and most people call me Joe. I'm actually not a server at the Local Moose… Well, I am, but it's an undercover gig."

"You're a cop?" Tim spoke up for the first time, no longer frozen.

"No. I'm a federal agent with the DEA," she apprised. "I've been working to bring down a fentanyl ring that operates locally, and had intel that the people involved frequented the bar."

"Cool," Tim breathed out excitedly.

But Dilly looked really worried. "It's not our mother, is it?" she asked shakily. Apparently, she could wrap her head around her matriarch being a cold-blooded killer, but picturing the woman dealing drugs was beyond her comprehension.

"No. No, it's not," Joe was quick to assure her. "It's a totally unrelated group, and it's also the reason we need to keep this conversation totally under wraps. With the help of your father and his SWAT team, we'll be tearing that consortium apart tomorrow, then I'll be giving my notice to the DEA in Nevada."

Shit.That was news to Mike. But a reveal he highly welcomed.

"At that point," Joe continued, "you can tell anyone you want who the woman dating your father really is."

"We won't say a word until you tell us it's okay," Tim answered. "Promise."

Mike believed him. Tim had made an error in judgement with his mother; following his heart instead of his brain, but there was no duplicitousness in his son. Of that he was certain.

"Of course we won't say anything," Dilly added, then put the ball in Mike's court. "Now. What are we going to do about Mom?"