"And he shows the ugly mug," the good-hearted taunt came from behind Brody, giving him an escape to deal with what he was feeling. I didn't need to look up to know who it was.
"Only so you can drool over the said mug," I winked at Brody then walked slowly toward the only female member of the team, spreading my arms wide. "C'mon, you know you're dying for me to hug you."
She didn't say anything, didn't hurl some comment as to why she wouldn't be caught dead with my hands on her. For the first time since I knew her, Olivia Evans walked to me without giving me shit, then wrapped her arms around my middle.
"Good to have you back, big guy," I didn't correct her.
There was no point.
"Where are the others?"
"The squad room," she indicated with the tilt of her head to the room behind her.
For a second, she just stood there, allowing me to hold her in my arms, her eyes roaming my face. "You're not coming back, are you?"
As ever, she had the uncanny ability to read me.
I just didn’t have the patience to get into it.
"I'm here for information," I sighed. "And a possible case, but we'll see how this goes. Come, we also need a captain here, too."
I could feel Olivia's eyes drilling a hole in the back of my neck, but she followed me.
"You.” Joe pointed at me, a smile on his usually serious face. “Max!"
"Max, my man."
Greetings could be heard bouncing off the walls, and I got a few slaps on my back. Each one pushed the breath from my lungs. Fuck, it felt good to be here and see all of them. It was familiar, and they were family.
"Officer Ryan," I shook the offered hand and looked into the eyes of a man I called my captain for the last ten years. "It's good to have you here, Max."
He tried to smile, but the worry was etched into each of the wrinkles around his eyes. I knew why. He tried to call me ten times, and I refused to answer. He only stopped after I came in and signed the papers. Damn, the man had aged fifteen years in the last six months.
"Good to have you here," he muttered.
"What do you mean here, you're back, right?" Joe, the biggest motherfucker I ever saw, asked.
"No, Joe, I'm here to ask a favor."
"What do you need?"
As ever Olivia was action ready. She had the roughest go of all of us here. She had to work double, train harder and all but forget about having a family one day just to make the cut. Just because she was a woman. It was fucked up, but S.W.A.T. was still considered a man’s occupation. Then came Olivia and proved them all wrong.
“Yesterday morning, I got pulled into an unknown situation,” I started, the taste of the day before still bitter in my mouth. And not because of what happened, but because of who was involved.
“How?”
“What happened?”
“Is everything all right?”
The questions were fired at me from all sides. I didn’t have the energy to answer them all individually since I knew answering would just bring up more questions, so I just raised my hand to stop them all.
“I’m fine, everything’s fine, just listen for a second,” I took a big breath and started talking.
“How I got into it, it’s not important. What's important is that the main player in it is Nico Barone.”
That last statement was met with total and complete silence. I knew it would.
As I said to Bean, almost everyone knew about Nico. And almost everyone did their best to avoid him.
“I got a hold of a file about him,” I continued, tossing the file on the glass table. “It’s not much since the PI who looked into him was shit. Most of it, we already knew.” I looked to my right and clashed eyes with Brody. “I need you to go from what’s in that file and dig up as much dirt as you possibly can.”
The kid instantly nodded. Always ready to do something for us.
“And when you do, I need you to give it to me before you do anything about it.”
“Now, wait a second, Ryan,” the captain spoke up.
I swung my eyes to him. By the look in his, I knew what was coming. In my ten years as a part of S.W.A.T., I watched the man climb the ladder, never once forgetting where he came from. This very room. He was one of us, started at the bottom, and shot his way right to the top. And still to this day, it wasn’t unheard of that in certain situations he suited up and was right with us on the front line. So, fuck yeah, he had my respect. But respect or not, I’m not gonna stand down, no matter who asks.
“You can’t just stroll in here and demand we open up an investigation on a man, no matter the crimes he committed, without giving us any hard evidence. That file there,” he indicated to the thin, manilla folder on the table. “Is not enough. You know that every time DPD went against him, we got jack shit. Somehow, he got that warehouse clean in time, and all we found were couches and whatnot. And you know why that is.”
I jerked my chin up, acknowledging all he said. It was unspoken, but we all thought Nico had someone in DPD that fed him information.
“Not to mention the DEA has an open investigation on him for the past five years. The word on the street is, they’re getting close, and he’ll be where he belongs soon.”
“Not soon enough. And I know damn well the DEA is investigating him.” I fired not able to keep my cool.
Recognition flashed in the captain's eyes, but he said nothing.
“What?” Brody asked.
“Chace,” Olivia whispered.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “Chace.”
“How long is he in?” Joe asked-
“Three years,” I levelled my eyes to each and every person standing around the table so they would know just how much I meant when I said. “I need to get him out. And I need to do it fast.”
No one said anything; they were all wondering what had changed for this urgency to have come about. I didn’t stand down; I couldn’t. My brother’s ass was on the line, and Skylar's. The determination must have been written all over my face since the captain took his phone out of his suit jacket pocket and walked away.
“I’m going to give a courtesy call to the DEA,” he turned, continued walking backwards, and pointed his finger at me. “Do not make me regret this.”
“I won’t,” I grunted.
I didn’t know if I would or not, all I could do was hope, and for the first time in a long time, I did. But not for him or my brother. I hoped for her. If this went sideways, she was the first to take the brunt of it all. I couldn’t let that happen.