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  Recker cleared his throat, not really wanting to tell her who the meeting was with because he knew she’d worry. But, since he was trying not to keep secrets from her, decided to just spit it out. “It’s a contact of Vincent’s.”

  “OK? Still seems kind of sketchy to me.”

  Recker sighed. “You know, you’re too smart for your own good sometimes.”

  “I know. Maybe it’s a byproduct of being around you so much. You’ve rubbed off on me. I hardly ever take anything at face value anymore. There’s usually always something else beneath the surface.”

  “OK, the person I’m meeting is a cop on Vincent’s payroll. He asked Vincent to contact me and set something up.”

  “You’re meeting a cop?” Mia asked, astonished. “There’s so many ways that can go bad.”

  “I know. And we’ve been over every one of them. Vincent has assured me this is on the level.”

  “I mean no disrespect when I say this, and I know he’s saved you before, but you do realize he’s a criminal, right? And they’re not always trustworthy people?”

  “I know. We’ve been over it,” Recker said again.

  “OK. Well as long as you know.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. Nothing will happen.”

  There was silence for a second as Mia thought of her reply, trying not to sound like the worried girlfriend, even though she was. “Is Chris going out with you when you meet this guy?”

  “Yes. He’s gonna be on the outside keeping a lookout. First sign of trouble, he’ll let me know, and we’ll be out of there. Does that make you feel better?”

  “I guess a little bit.”

  “I promise, everything will be fine. If I even had the slightest bit of hesitation about this I wouldn’t go.”

  “OK. I trust your judgment.”

  “I’ll get home as soon as I can,” Recker said.

  “I know. I’ll wait up for you.”

  “You don’t have to do that. I know you had a long day.”

  “It’s fine. I don’t like going to bed without you. I always get this . . . never mind . . . I probably shouldn’t say anything.”

  “No, what?”

  “When I go to bed without you, I get this weird feeling that I’ll wake up and you still won’t be there, and you won’t be coming home. I dunno, it’s stupid. Just some dumb nightmare that I have, I guess.”

  “It’s not stupid.”

  “Yeah, well, I think I’m becoming more of a worrywart as I’m getting older,” Mia said.

  “I wouldn’t want you to be any different than you are.”

  Recker didn’t realize he had been speaking louder, the other two in the room clearly hearing what he was saying. And they weren’t going to miss the opportunity to tease him some more.

  “I wouldn’t want you to be any different either,” Jones said.

  Haley also chimed in. “I love you just the way you are too.”

  Recker slowly turned his head toward the pair and tried to give them an evil stare, though it didn’t stop them from making a few more sarcastic responses. After a few more minutes, Recker and Mia finally hung up. Recker put his phone in his pocket and walked over to the desk to get back to the meeting preparations.

  “I wasn’t aware we had the goof troop come into the office,” Recker said.

  Haley snickered, trying not to look at him.

  “Yes, well, it’s not every day we hear someone with your talents talking sweet nothings into his girlfriend’s ear,” Jones said.

  “Sweet nothings? Really?” Recker asked. “OK, how ‘bout we stop talking about my love life and get back to business?”

  “I’ll concur with that.”

  The three men continued going over and perfecting their plans for the meeting for the next couple of hours until they were all comfortable with it. Once nine o’clock rolled around, Recker and Haley left the office. It was a little under a half hour drive to the bar and Recker wanted to get there early to scope the place out first. Gino’s was a place he’d been to a few times before, so he was already familiar with the layout, but wanted to make sure he didn’t spot any unfriendly people staking up a spot on the outside waiting for him to arrive.

  Recker drove through the shopping center parking lot several times, both him and Haley looking for undercover police in the area. Neither could spot any, though. After they made their fifth pass without noticing any signs of potential trouble, Recker finally pulled into a parking spot. Before getting out, Recker and Haley made sure their communication devices were working and placed them inside their ears.

  “First sign of trouble, you let me know,” Recker said. “Even if you’re not quite sure.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out.”

  Recker then got out of the car and walked into the bar. There was a good-sized crowd inside, but it wasn’t jam-packed. Recker looked around the place, just to make sure Detective Andrews didn’t beat him there, and to see if he recognized anybody else that might give him pause. Andrews wasn’t there yet, and nobody else made him jumpy, so he found a table in the middle of the room against the wall. He ordered a beer while he was waiting.

  “Hey, handsome,” a woman said.

  Recker’s eyes had been focused toward the door and didn’t even noticed the attractive brown-haired woman standing just to his right. He was a little unnerved as he sensed the woman out of the corner of his eye, looking at him. He slowly turned his head to look at her and gave her a smile.

  “Is this seat taken?” the woman asked.

  “Uhh, I’m actually waiting for someone.”

  “Your girlfriend?”

  “No, just a, uhh, just a friend,” Recker replied.

  “Oh. Well, in that case, mind if I sit down and join you for a while?”

  Haley had been carefully listening and spoke into Recker’s ear. “Think she might be a cop?”

  “Uhh, no,” Recker whispered.

  “What was that?” the woman asked.

  “Oh, uh, I was just saying I don’t think that’d be a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, I have a girlfriend. I wouldn’t exactly be too comfortable.”

  “Why not? Don’t trust yourself?”

  Recker wasn’t sure what to say and didn’t really want to keep the conversation going too much longer. He hated awkward situations like these. Though he was good at coercing confessions out of people, or questioning them about their behavior, some things he wasn’t as proficient at. Fending an interested and flirty woman away from him would definitely classify as something he wasn’t entirely comfortable with. She wasn’t an unattractive woman, but considering he already had the most amazing woman at home waiting for him, and he was there on business and waiting for his contact, it wasn’t a proposition he was particularly interested in.

  Recker looked up at her and smiled. “Maybe another time.”

  The woman shrugged and grabbed a napkin off the table. She pulled a pen out of the pocket of her jeans and leaned on the table, trying to give Recker an ample view of her cleavage through her low-cut top. Recker caught a quick glimpse of her chest before he realized what she was trying to do and cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows as he looked over toward the door, not wanting to view her assets. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw she was finished and standing straight again and he turned his head to look at her again.

  “If you ever decide to change your mind, give me a call,” the woman said, giving him a smile.

  Recker nodded. “I’ll do that.”

  The woman walked away, taking a quick peek back at him, hoping he’d be glancing at her in her tightly worn jeans. He wasn’t, though. If he was single, maybe he’d have given her a second look. But not with Mia. Recker thought it was inappropriate and disrespectful to be looking at other women, even if it was just in passing or for a quick second. He wasn’t interested in playing around, or seeing what else was out there, or even just looking for fun.

  “Did, uhh, what I think happ
en . . . happen?” Haley asked, breaking up the silence.

  Recker coughed, putting his hand over his mouth. “Yep. Sure did.”

  Haley laughed. “You sounded like a fish out of water.”

  “That type of stuff is definitely not my scene.”

  “You gonna call her later?”

  “Are you crazy?” Recker asked. “I’d have to be an idiot to do that to Mia.”

  “I agree. Just checking.”

  “You want the number? You can have it. I’ll save it for you.”

  “I think she might ask questions about how I’d have it,” Haley said.

  Recker looked over to see where the woman was, watching her standing by the bar, talking to another man. “Something tells me that I’m not the only one she’s tried that with. She probably doesn’t even remember everyone she’s handed her number out to.”

  “Well, hopefully we can get you out of there soon to save yourself.”

  “You and me both. I think I’d rather have ten hit men walk through that door and attempt to kill me than have to deal with that type of conversation again,” Recker said.

  “I dunno, you seemed to have done all right with Mia. You can’t be too bad.”

  “That was kind of an accident. And it happened naturally. If one of us went up to the other in a bar and started talking, who knows how it would have turned out? Maybe we would have never talked again.”

  “From the way I hear it, that’s kind of how it happened, isn’t it?” Haley asked.

  “Not quite like that. It wasn’t anything where one of us went up to the other and started flirting. She came up to me in a diner after spotting me tailing her. A slightly different circumstance.”

  “I don’t know. You two seem perfect for each other. I’d like to think that somehow you two would have found each other no matter what.”

  “What? Like fate or something?”

  “Yeah, something like that,” Haley said. “Despite the business we’re in, I’d like to think that not everything is left purely to chance. I’d like to think some things are just meant to be. Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll leave all that kind of stuff to you,” Recker said with a laugh. “How’s everything looking out there?”

  “Quiet. Not seeing anything out here unusual. The bar’s open later than everything else in here and some cars are starting to leave, so most of the cars here are probably people inside the bar.”

  “That’ll make it a little easier to identify trouble.”

  Five minutes to ten, Haley saw a white car pull into the shopping center and park in front of the bar. He kept his eyes glued to the car and a few seconds after the ignition shut off, a man got out from the driver side. Haley looked at the picture of Andrews on his phone and compared it to the driver. It was a match.

  “Mike, Andrews just pulled in. He’s walking in now.”

  “Got it. Any signs that he brought friends?”

  “Negative.”

  “All right, keep a lookout.”

  Detective Andrews walked into the bar and looked around, not sure how he was going to recognize the man he was meeting. Vincent had assured him that Recker would find him once he entered the bar. He just stood there for a minute, trying to keep himself in plain sight to be recognized. Recker thought the detective looked a little nervous. It wasn’t a particularly warm, muggy night, so he assumed the sweat on Andrews’ forehead was due to his nerves. Recker then stood and waited for Andrews to lock eyes on him. Once their eyes focused on each other, Recker gave the detective a subtle nod. Andrews walked over to Recker’s table and stood in front of him.

  Andrews pointed at the chair, not wanting to assume anything with the famous vigilante. “You mind?”

  Recker shook his head. “Go ahead.”

  Andrews pulled the chair out and sat across from him. He clasped his hands and fiddled with his fingers as he began speaking. “I guess I should say thanks for agreeing to do this. I know you must’ve had some reservations about it.”

  “I did.”

  “I figured as much. I just want you to know right off the bat there’s no tricks involved or anything.”

  Recker nodded to let him know he understood. “So, what did you wanna talk about?”

  Andrews looked around and wiped his forehead, still looking nervous.

  “Looking for somebody?” Recker asked.

  “No. Sorry. I guess I’m just a little nervous here.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m a cop. You’re a wanted man. We make strange bedfellows, no?”

  “Is that any different than you working for Vincent?”

  “That’s a little different,” Andrews answered.

  “How you figure?”

  “He flies a little bit underneath the radar more than you do. You’ve almost become a larger than life figure in this town. Seventy percent of the boys on the force wanna give you a medal and erect a statue in your honor.”

  “And the other thirty percent wanna lock me up?” Recker asked.

  Andrews tilted his head and made a face.

  “So which side do you fall on?”

  “Listen, from what I can tell, you’ve never hurt an innocent person and only have targeted criminals. Plus, there was that business with Bernal a while back where you prevented a cop from getting shot. From where I stand, that puts us on the same side.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Hey, if I ever roll up on a crime scene and you’re still there, you can keep on walking as far as I’m concerned,” Andrews said.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “As far as working with Vincent, that’s something that just kind of happened,” Andrews said, looking away and making a face, indicating that he wasn’t very proud of it. “My wife got really sick, had cancer, medical bills really started piling up, couldn’t afford payments on the house, just got deeper and deeper in debt.”

  “And you reached out to him?”

  Andrews laughed, almost not believing himself how it went down. “No, not quite. I was working a case that involved Jimmy Malloy, Vincent’s right-hand man.”

  “I know him.”

  “One day, Vincent approached me as I was eating lunch at a diner, offered me a deal.”

  “What kind of deal?” Recker asked.

  “To let another one of his boys take the rap instead of Malloy. In exchange for that, and for providing information that he might need periodically, he gives me a little something every month.

  Recker nodded, sympathetic to the man’s story. “Must come in handy.”

  “It does. I wanna make it clear, though, that I’m not a dirty cop. I don’t do anything illegal, well, outside of that I guess. But I love my job, I love this city, and I love helping people. If it came down to helping Vincent or helping another cop, I’d choose the cop all day, every day. A hundred percent.”

  “What exactly do you do for him now?”

  “He has certain business interests all over the place. If I ever get wind of anything that involves those interests, or any of his men, I let him know. That’s all. I know, you’re probably thinking I’m a hypocrite, but the reasoning is sound on my end.”

  Recker shrugged. “Who am I to say you’re wrong? We all have to have a justification for what we do.”

  Andrews let out a laugh, agreeing with his point. “Yeah. I have to say, you’re not quite what I was expecting.”

  “Oh? What were you expecting?”

  “I dunno. I mean, I’ve seen your face before, you know, with it being plastered on the news and all. But you seem like a normal, regular guy just sitting here. You see and hear news stories about you and your work and I guess I kind of expected someone that’s . . . I dunno, a lot different. Like one of those old-time movie gangsters that’s just mean and nasty and wants to shoot someone on sight.”

  “Well, I guess people rarely live up to expectations,” Recker said.

  “Only personality wise. You work still speaks for itsel
f.”

  “Thanks. I guess we should stop talking about ourselves here and get down to business.”

  “Yeah. I guess you’ve heard about the two police shootings by now?” Andrews asked.

  “I have.”

  “You don’t happen to have any info on it, do you?”

  “No. I didn’t even find out about the first one until this morning,” Recker answered.

  “Yeah, they did a good job of keeping it out of the news.”

  “Is that what you wanted me for? To see if I knew of anything?”

  “Well, partially. I’m actually one of the detectives who’s been assigned to work the cases, along with four other guys.”

  “And you want me to help?” Recker asked.

  “I know you got your own way of doing things. You’ve got some system perfected that you can find things out about people. In some ways, you’re probably better at finding stuff than we are.”

  Recker smiled. “I won’t argue there.”

  “Yeah, well, if you could keep an ear out and if you turn anything, maybe give me a shout?”

  Though Recker wasn’t against doing as the detective asked, something wasn’t making sense to him. It was still very early in the investigation period. The fact Andrews was already asking for help seemed a little strange. If it had been a few weeks or a month, and the police weren’t making any headway, Recker might have understood reaching out to him. But the second shooting just occurred that morning. It was way too soon in his mind to be asking for help from someone who wasn’t considered on the same side of the law. It reeked of being a desperation move. One that didn’t need to occur just yet.

  “You’ll have to forgive me for being a little skeptical, but isn’t a little soon to be asking for help from me?” Recker asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The first shooting just happened a couple days ago. The second this morning. I mean, that’s hardly enough time to just get the facts of what happened written in your notebook, isn’t it?”

  Andrews moved his head around and sighed, looking at various people in the bar. Recker could tell by his face he was holding something back. Andrews then ordered a beer, figuring he could use a little something extra in his system to help explain things.