Tori slammed the door and dug in her purse for the front door keys. phoenix was taking a long pee on her mother’s flowers in the front yard. Sean stood watch, searching up and down the street, his duty bag slung over one shoulder, hands in his front pockets.
“All clear?” Tori yelled out to him.Sean put his finger to his mouth, but nodded. phoenix followed him as the three of them entered the foyer. Sean spotted an open sliding glass door to the patio from the kitchen.“I don’t like that at all,” he said to her. “Stick with me. We’d better check things out first.”Tori came up behind him and embraced him from the rear. “I have no intention of going anywhere.”They looked through the kitchen windows to the back yard and, other than the sprinklers running, nothing appeared out of place. They locked the slider and then tried all the windows downstairs. Sean made sure the plywood covering the broken window in her dad’
Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
Risen To The Top CHAPTER 151
Detective Ryan Dole was on his way over to Detective Manson’s office, on recommendation of Sean’s liaison, Marshall. He was determined to check out Sean’s background. He knew the kid wasn’t the real suspect. But the case wasn’t going anywhere at the moment, and he had to be doing something. So, eliminating him as a person of interest was part of the job he could do. He wasn’t focusing on what he couldn’t do.His cell phone chirped. It wasn’t a number he recognized.“Dole.”“Detective Dole, this is Joe Manson of the downtown precinct. I’m afraid something’s come up, and I’m not going to be at the office.”“Sorry to hear that. Can I meet you later today?”“Um. Well, it’s kind of a personal thing. Not sure how long it’s gonna take.”“I got you.” Dole was disappointed. He’d wanted to get this done today. “Look, this isn’t really a big deal, Manson. What I’ve got to ask you will only take five o
Risen To The Top CHAPTER 152
Sean picked up Tori’s bag in one arm, and wheeled out her mother’s suitcase with his free hand. That didn’t leave his hands free to touch Tori’s ass as she sashayed down the hallway and then bent over to give phoenix a pat on the head, encouraging the dog to go down the stairs.He was beginning to lose track of how many times they’d fucked today, orally or otherwise. He was getting addicted to her and he couldn't withdraw.Like every true addiction he’d run across, the more he got inside her, the more he wanted her.He was even finding it hard to pull out, whenever they got into it, he loved hearing her moan ring, whenever he touched her.Sean shook his head, he was getting addicted to her, it was a bad and good thing in both ways. He was going to have to talk to Marshall. Maybe he should sit out the next rotation until this fever died down.Right. Like that will happen. That’s when he kne
Risen To The Top CHAPTER 153
Dole didn’t like tattoo parlors, because he didn’t like seeing people violating their paroles. Even with the increased popularity of tattooing, inking their skin was still something the underworld crowd habitually did with their spare change. Some were excising demons, and others were decorating or memorializing their bodies. It was impossible to tell, just from the size, color and subject matter of the tattoos what statement they were aiming for.But now he had a pretty good idea about this frog footprint tattoo. He needed confirmation of his hunch.Monique was quite the stunner, just like Lucas had told him, and side-by-side, Dole probably would have chosen her over Libby. But he could understand why Sean had made his decision. On Dole’s radar, a woman with lots of worldly experience was way more valuable, and probably more able to deal with his personal demons, not that he ever wanted to show them.He knew Monique could pick up
Risen To The Top CHAPTER 154
Sean was on his way to drop Tori off at the Hotel where her family was staying in. Lucas called him during the trip over. Sean had pulled over to the side of the road to listen. Tori could hear Lucas squawking on the other end of the line, telling Sean about a confrontation with someone named Mia, and the visit with Dole. She remembered hearing somewhere that Mia was Lucas’s sister, and that made her feel a little better.Tori stared out idly, leaning against the passenger window. phoenix sat tall in the back seat and observed his humans.“Honestly, Sean, don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Tori could hear Lucas say on the other end of the phone. “But wanted you to know he’d be talking to Monique. The tat was definitely hers. But here’s the thing. The guy had scars on him, like he was a nut job.”Tori froze in place. Nut job? Who was Monique?“Scars?”“Southern Cross.”Tori saw S
Risen To The Top CHAPTER 155
The call came in to Dole just as he was about to suggest he and Monique might be able to retire to the Pink Slipper or some other hotel. She’d had two margaritas, and much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, he liked his women drunk. Besides, it took some of the pressure off if they didn’t remember his performance. Not that he was ashamed, but he wasn’t used to having lots of sex with more than just a couple regulars. He wanted to make sure Monique had a good time, so he could have another.“This better be good.” He had recognized the number from the dispatcher at the precinct.“All good, Ryan.” She insisted on calling him by his first name, even though he had reprimanded her several times for doing so. She did seem to be pleased with herself. “You’re gonna love this news.”“Oh yeah?” he looked at Monique, who had just begun her third margarita.Christ. Hope I’m not going to have to miss anything. He wondered if
Risen To The Top CHAPTER 156
Dr. Hoades clicked the TV on to see if there was any breaking news about the arrest of Dr. Vlad. He was disappointed to find nothing. Then he decided to check for a news update on his computer.Scanning through local live feeds, he still came up short.“Let it ride till morning, Aaron,” his lovely wife said as she walked into the room and stood behind him.“Well, I guess it takes a few hours. I just expected it to be here, since Dole told me Duke had been arrested this afternoon.”“It’ll be there tomorrow,” Rachel said. “Come on, Aaron. Let’s go to bed.”He wiggled his eyebrows at his wife, who had walked backward into the master bedroom and waved to him from the doorway. He was about to close his laptop when he noticed a new email.Something compelled him to take a look at what the email contained. The subject line of the email said, “Thought you might like this.” The sender had some kind
Risen To The Top CHAPTER 157
Sean and Alex wound their way up the street towards the Hoade house. A pickup truck almost scraped the driver’s headlights on Alex’s SUV as it took the angle of the corner too steep, traveling at a high rate of speed. Alex hadn’t had a chance to downshift from high beams, so the lights flashed on the face of a man behind the wheel wearing a Padres baseball cap.The Hoade’s gardener. “That’s strange.”“What?” Alex asked.“The fuckin’ gardener. Tori said his regular day was tomorrow. He’s about as good a driver as he is landscaper,” Sean snorted.“Something wrong about that, Sean,” Alex replied.Sean turned and looked toward the rear of the truck that was smoking, picking up speed as it barreled down the hill to the commercial district. Something was definitely wrong. He started having that feeling like he did sometimes when he was in an unfamiliar neighborhood overseas, when they didn’t know what was arou
Risen To The Top CHAPTER 158
Tori was being hauled from a truck that smelled of gasoline into a chilly, dark covered space, perhaps a garage. As her feet dragged along the floorboards, they snagged a gasoline can and tipped it, sending it crashing to the concrete below. She heard a man’s voice swear. The gasoline smell was almost overpowering.With his arms under her chest, her kidnapper dragged her through a doorway and into a carpeted small space. The room was done up in pink, complete with a set of Barbie Dolls on a French Provincial sideboard that looked like it came out of a little girl’s room.And then it hit her. It did look just like a little girl’s room. A single bed with a hot-pink, fuzzy bedspread, dotted with stuffed animal pillows was in the corner. An overhead chandelier in pink had lit up automatically as they entered the room. The massive arms hoisted her up and onto the bed. She was left in sitting position. She couldn’t feel much of her body below the neck