At that moment, they all heard the door to the hallway burst in, and a voice Gideon didn’t recognize screamed, “Arnold!Arnold, get down here or your twinkie is toast!”
Gideon and Joey didn’t evenneedto meet eyes.Joey, who was nearest to Kael, grabbed him and shoved him toward the sleeping quarters.“Bathtub?”he whispered, and when Kael nodded, Joey said, “Get in it, get down, cover your head.”
Kael disappeared while Gideon pinged at the comm on his collar.
“SCTF, overwatch,” he enunciated as Joey got behind the couch and he got behind the door, arm braced so it wouldn’t rebound off his face.“Hostile intruder at the house of Jay Arnold.We are inside, without weapons, protecting a civilian asset.Request immediate backup, going silent, out.”
And after dropping that bomb, he crossed both his arms in front of his face and sucked in his gut.This would hurt.
Hurt it did, but it worked like clockwork.
The door cracked open and bounced off his crossed wrists like a blow, and Gideon took advantage of the bounce and thrust forward, shoving an unsuspecting Halsey Garber back into the doorframe.As he stumbled back, whacking his head hard enough to leave hair and blood, Joey shoved the couch sideways against him, hitting his knees and hips.He went over, hard, landing on his stomach, and Joey catapulted over the sofa and landed on his back.Joey pulled his drop piece—the wicked little dagger—and held it at kidney level, hard enough to pierce the man’s gray wool coat and the sweater underneath.
“Help!”Halsey wheezed, and Gideon wiggled from behind the door and knelt on his wrists, to keep him from going for a weapon.
“SCTF,” Gideon said, knowing his comms were picking up the exchange.“Halsey Garber, you’re under arrest for breaking and entering and threatening the occupants of a private residence, with other charges pending.You have the right to remain silent….”
He finished reading the man his rights and watched as Jay Arnold rounded the corner, his personal weapon held out in front of him in a credible three-point stance.
“Mr.Arnold,” Gideon said in his calmest voice.“We were let into your residence by somebody with a key.This man, Halsey Garber, damaged your door, and he’s been subdued.He was threatening bodily harm to somebody you know.Would you like to press charges?”
Jay Arnold wasn’t slick and in control—not tonight.His hair was wet, like he’d been in the shower, and his eyes were red-rimmed and hollow, like he’d been crying there.He was wearing old sweats—too small, perhaps Kael’s—with holes in the knees, and a cheap, threadbare hoodie.Yes, he was in his early thirties, but he suddenly seemed young and sad and overwhelmed, and when his gaze fell on an infuriated, and nowhandcuffed, Halsey Garber, terrified.
“Oh God,” he whispered, glancing from Halsey to Carlyle to Gideon.“Hebroke in here?”
“And threatened someone you know,” Gideon said softly, with meaning.
Jay’s expression of pure panic was enough for Gideon to forgive him.
“Somebody who’s safe for the moment,” Gideon said meaningfully.“But who won’t be if we have to let this man go.”
And he could see it, the whole of it, crossing Jay Arnold’s face.Confess to being blackmailed, to using his job to leverage law enforcement, to turning his back on a dogfighting ring in the heart of the city and not doing anything until a civilian was threatened.None of what he’d done would get him prison time—Gideon had no doubt—but all of it was potentially career ending, including the poor barista currently hiding in the bathtub with his arms over his head.
Gideon kept his face calm and impassive as he watched the war of the wolves on Jay Arnold’s face.One wolf wanted his career, power, the things he’d worked for his entire life.
The other wolf wanted the kid hiding in the bathroom, and a small three-bedroom home, and love.
Gideon thought he’d be hard-pressed to know which wolf would win in his own heart, but then, he’d never been in love.
Abruptly the war was over.Kael Rogers must have fed Jay Arnold’s soul well, because with a deep breath, Arnold’s shoulders relaxed, and he turned a look of resignation toward the thrashing, furious man on the floor.
“Yes,” he rasped, and then tried again.“Yes,” he said, his voice even.“Iwouldlike to press charges.And I do believe I should call the New York DA and my own counsel.”
“Understood.”Gideon allowed his eyes to dart toward where Kael had disappeared.“You may want to use the landline in the bedroom,” he said, with the emphasis on the landline, although which phone Arnold used wouldn’t matter.
Arnold’s eyes widened, and he nodded.“Thank you,” he said, with dignity before stepping over Garber’s furious form and walking toward the darkened room—and presumably the bathroom—with admirable restraint.
“Close the door,” Gideon called, and Arnold did just that.Garber would never know that Kael had been right there and was a potential witness.Arnold would take all the heat, and that was exactly as it should be.
At that moment Pearson and Kylie called through the door, emerging with their weapons drawn, and Gideon and Carlyle could turn Garber over to people whoweren’ton administrative leave.
He was a bulky middle-aged man with a soft stomach and the wide shoulders of a linebacker.
“I’m going to fucking kill you all,” he frothed as Pearson grabbed his bicep.“I know politicians in this town.I know people.I willeatyour families with my fuckin’eggsin the morning.”
Gideon laughed dryly.“My family goes best with cornflakes.Carlyle?”
“Arsenic,” Carlyle said.“You’re welcome to them.”
