Blondie squeaked and leapt back, still in Jenna’s eyeline.
Barely an inch away from her, Garden Gnome hit the ground, the mezzanine floor shuddered under his weight and vibrated through the soles of her feet as Mason delivered his classic straight-armed punch. He dropped the man to the floor before Garden Gnome had the chance for his meaty fists to connect with Jenna.
A spume of frothy coffee burst upwards from the takeout cup which Garden Gnome dropped as he hit the ground. Jenna’s lips twisted, but she never so much as flinched as it splattered down the front of her smart, black work trousers and across the top of her neat, leather ankle boots, her attention purely focused on Lamonte and the other male.
Handsome boy dropped the tray, whipped around as his coffee hit the floor, but before he could take more than a step, Ryan had the man’s arm up behind his back. Considerably lighter-framed than the other man, Ryan held the upper hand on training, technique and the element of surprise as he lowered him to his knees on the floor with a certain gentility and slipped on a pair of wrist restraints. A beautiful textbook manoeuvre. The boy was coming on.
Jenna parked the small sliver of admiration for her young officer’s development until later when she’d allow herself to gloat a little. Not least because a deep, guttural growl resonated from behind her, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. If there was one sound that would make her freeze her arse to the spot, it was that of Blue, a highly trained police search and drugs dog. He may not be one of their attack dogs, but that didn’t mean to say he didn’t have long, sharp teeth he’d willingly sink into human flesh should the need arise, and the command be given.
Without taking her gaze from Lamonte, Jenna held still as Blue moved past her, sniffed Lamonte from the ankles, all the way up the length of his legs, and ended up with his nose in the man’s crotch. Lamonte might have attitude, but he never twitched a muscle, didn’t so much as breathe as fear whipped through his eyes. She had to admire the dog’s style. There wasn’t a man on earth who would do anything different when his tackle was quite clearly at risk.
Without a verbal command, the Belgian Malinois dipped his head and started digging at Lamonte’s feet.
Jenna recognised the aggressive alert sign for drugs and relief swarmed through her. She was right, she’d not made a mistake. Jesus Christ, she’d had no doubt, but she’d never have lived it down if little baggies of sugar were the only thing that exchanged hands.
Affirmation from Blue made her heart sing.
The solid, square form of Sergeant Chris Bennett stepped into her peripheral vision. ‘I heard your call. I was just grabbing my breakfast from Sainsbury’s.’ He cast a cool, calm gaze over the scene and ran his tongue over his teeth. ‘Blue says we have drugs.’
Jenna grinned. Blue had never been known to be wrong.
‘Come, boy.’ The dog shot to Chris’s side, whipping his backside around so he sat to attention, bang up against his handler’s left leg. Blue lifted his right paw and waited for his reward, which was quick in coming and then slid his gaze back to Lamonte to keep him frozen to the spot.
With all the eyes she needed on her suspects, Jenna stepped back to survey her scene and take in Garden Gnome on the floor. Mason seemed forever to step into the fray to take someone out on her behalf. She kept her voice low as she moved closer to him. ‘Did you hit him because I’m a female?’
‘I hit him because you’re human. He was bloody close. I thought he was going to have you around the neck. It would have been messy. You were in the line of fire, and he’s a big bastard.’ He slanted her a look. ‘I’m a bigger bastard and there’s no way I’ll stand by and watch you, or anyone for that matter, get hurt.’ He stared down at the inert body at his feet and clucked his tongue. ‘All it took was one punch from me. If I’d let him get to you, I have total faith that you would have got him – eventually. But you’d still be scrambling around on the floor right now, and that’s too painful to watch. Call it ego, call it sexism. It’s neither. It’s preservation. Of you, me and a whole lot of time we don’t have.’ Mason hunkered down next to the body and gave the man a prod. ‘I may have exerted a little more force than I thought.’ He sucked air in through his teeth with over-exaggerated regret.
As his head came up to look at Jenna, the man on the floor sprang to life, wrapped a beefy arm around Mason’s throat and dragged him down across his barrel chest.
Mason’s eyes went wide and he coughed out a surprised splutter as the man’s muscular forearm tightened around his throat to send his face an unhealthy puce.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Jenna placed her booted heel directly across the other man’s throat, exerting enough pressure to cut off his oxygen supply. She rubbed her fingers across her lips and met the man’s panicked gaze while she applied a little more pressure.
He dropped his arm from around Mason’s neck, his own eyes bulging, his face purpled.
‘Come on, Mason, stop scrambling around on the floor and get up.’
Mason thrashed around on his back for a moment longer, then rolled off the other man, flipped over onto his hands and knees, and staggered to his feet as he sucked in rasping mouthfuls of air. He shot Blue an accusing stare and then whipped his gaze up to Sergeant Bennett. ‘It would have been good if he could have helped.’
Without so much as a twitch, Blue remained where he was, gaze firmly fixed on his own suspect.
Chris Bennett glanced down at the dog by his side and then back up again. ‘Could have. Didn’t need to. Wouldn’t want him biting the wrong arse now, would we?’
Without taking her gaze from the man under her foot, Jenna’s lips twitched. ‘You’re under arrest for assaulting a police officer.’
That should take care of him while they conducted further investigations. She seriously doubted he had drugs on him, but that would all come out once they conducted their initial search.
22
Monday 20 April 0650 hours
Jenna touched her hand to Mason’s arm and drew him away from the uniforms they’d just handed over to so they could take their four suspects to Malinsgate Station. ‘Not bad for a morning’s work.’ She grinned, the excitement of the arrest still pumping through her veins.
‘The day hasn’t officially started and we’ve made the best arrests of the week.’ He nudged her almost taking her off her feet.
‘The week has only just begun.’
‘No one’s going to do better than this.’ His lips quirked up in a smile as he rubbed his knuckles.
‘Yeah, but we’re not dealing with it. I’ll hand the legwork over. We’re going to need to know what’s going on with the major incident.’ She snapped him a sharp grin. ‘Keeping the balls in the air, Mason.’
‘Chuck me a few if you need to.’
‘You’ll be having a few thrown your way. There’s going to be plenty to do. In the meantime,’ she nodded to the suspects as they were being searched by uniform. ‘We’ll let them cool their heels down at the station.’
‘Right.’
She cruised her gaze over the young blonde. ‘Tanya Boulding. Thoughts?’ She turned to Ryan, knowing he was desperate to answer.