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“Thanks,” Logan said with a wry grin.
While she and Dean were having a good time, Logan was working his ass off. He rose and went to the coffee pot, the sun illuminating the heavy muscles in his back, his dark skin smooth and taut.
After he filled his cup, he said. “I’m taking a shower. Have some coffee, and we’ll be ready to go as soon as I finish.”
Ophelia looked over at Gage, who was sipping his coffee. “Where are we headed?”
“Skid Row. Benny frequents that area, but also sells in NoHo.”
“That’s a tough neighborhood.”
Gage shrugged. “Times are tough everywhere.”
“They are. Tougher since you got out of the Marines?”
He straightened. She hadn’t expected him to answer so she was surprised when he did. “Everyone has a story, Officer Barr. I’m sure you got all the pertinent information from my jacket when you brought us all down to Metro.”
“Facts and figures don’t make a man, but serving in the Marines, that’s different. It’s distinctive,” Jessica said. “First in, last out. No person faint of heart is going to sign up.”
It was an accurate assessment of Gage Moore. His only charge was from jumping in and saving his boss from a beat down. “What I found interesting about you, Mr. Moore, is that you were a guardian. You served as an MP, an embassy guard. You can take the guy out of the Corps, but you can’t take the Corps out of the guy.”
His face went tight and hard. “He’s a good man. I’m not going to sit by while he is in trouble.”
“You honor—”
“Honor,” he scoffed. “That word is nothing but a soft word in an ugly world where there is always another person around the corner to do something unspeakable.”
The low, hard tone of his voice raised the hairs on the back of her neck, and when he took a step toward her, she moved back. At that, his eyes narrowed, even as one side of his mouth curved in a grim smile.
“For every bastard you put away, a dozen more pop up to take their place,” he continued. “You fight every single day to keep people safe, but it’s a war you won’t win—ever. Because in the end we’re all predators, and it’s human nature to prey on each other. This is the stark truth.”
“Is that so? Then if you believe all that, why are you hip deep in this investigation?”
For a moment, his face appeared to soften—but only for an instant. “That is a good question, Ophelia. You’ll let me know when you come up with a good answer.”
“I will, Gage.”
Logan came into the kitchen. “It’s because Gage is a warrior, Barr,” he murmured. “They don’t call him Apex for nothing.”
Gage turned to look at his roommate, and there was a gunslinger stare-down between them, the two men, almost as if they were conducting an entirely wordless conversation. Her cop curiosity peaked, she had to wonder how they became friends. The decorated Marine and the former street hoodlum/gangbanger. It seemed incongruous to say the least.
“Let’s roll,” Logan said, pausing at the door. “Benny is skittish. It would be better if Barr and I talk to him. He knows me and he’s not going to feel threatened by her.”
“Why me and not Jessica?”
“You look like a kindergarten teacher and Jessica is an intimidating redhead.”
Jessica gave him the finger and Logan laughed. “See?”
“As long as Benny doesn’t find out Ophelia is a cop,” Gage added. “We’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, that.” Logan grinned and they exited his building. Logan headed toward a beat-up black van. Jessica, Ophelia, and Dean got into the back. Donner stretched out on the floor between the front and back seats at their feet. Gage took the passenger seat and Logan got behind the wheel.
Skid Row was a downtown Los Angeles neighborhood encompassing about fifty blocks and had a large and stable population of homeless people. Ophelia knew it as the epicenter of prostitution, drug addiction, and stolen goods. San Pedro would be her guess as to where Benny was hanging out. It was the street of illicit activities. But just up the street, closer to Little Tokyo, were high-priced condos.
There were attempts to gentrify the area, but it was still in the works.
Logan took the Santa Monica Freeway and exited onto San Pedro. He parked on the corner of 7thStreet and San Pedro.
