Justice in the Shadows Read online

  Synopsis

  In a shadow world of secrets, lies, and hidden agendas, Detective Sergeant Rebecca Frye and her lover, Dr. Catherine Rawlings, join forces once again in the elusive search for justice. Rebecca is aided in her struggle to uncover a pornography ring and expose its connections to a traitor within the police department by a rag-tag team of dedicated cops and civilians: JT Sloan, a cybersleuth committed to avenging her lover's devastating injury who walks the fine line between justice and revenge; Dellon Mitchell, a young police officer who discovers an unforeseen talent for undercover work; and Sandy, a prostitute who develops an unexpected passion for cops. Ultimately, this secret investigation may risk not just their careers, but may cost one of them their life.

  Justice in the Shadows

  Brought to you by

  eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

  Justice in the Shadows

  © 2004 by Radclyffe. All rights reserved.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-265-8

  This Electronic Book is published by

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.,

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, New York 12185

  First Edition: March 2004

  Second Printing: September 2004, Bold Strokes Books, Inc

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Executive Editor: Stacia Seaman

  Production Design: J. Greystone

  Cover Photos: Lee Ligon

  Cover design by Sheri ([email protected])

  By the Author

  Romances

  Innocent Hearts

  Love’s Melody Lost

  Love’s Tender Warriors

  Tomorrow’s Promise

  Love’s Masquerade

  shadowland

  Fated Love

  Turn Back Time

  Promising Hearts

  When Dreams Tremble

  The Lonely Hearts Club

  Night Call

  Secrets in the Stone

  The Provincetown Tales

  Safe Harbor

  Beyond the Breakwater

  Distant Shores, Silent Thunder

  Storms of Change

  Winds of Fortune

  Honor Series

  Above All, Honor

  Honor Bound

  Love & Honor

  Honor Guards

  Honor Reclaimed

  Honor Under Siege

  Word of Honor

  Justice Series

  A Matter of Trust (prequel)

  Shield of Justice

  In Pursuit of Justice

  Justice in the Shadows

  Justice Served

  Justice For All

  Erotic Interludes: Change of Pace

  (A Short Story Collection)

  Radical Encounters

  (A Erotic Short Story Collection)

  Stacia Seaman and Radclyffe, eds.

  Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments

  Erotic Interludes 3: Lessons in Love

  Erotic Interludes 4: Extreme Passions

  Erotic Interludes 5: Road Games

  Romantic Interludes 1: Discovery

  Acknowledgments

  The Justice series has given me the opportunity to explore a host of characters whom I find more complex with each writing, while delving into topics that fascinate me on many levels. It’s a joy to reap pleasure in myriad ways from a process that in itself affords great personal fulfi llment. Writing never fails to reward me, emotionally and intellectually, and weaving the densely woven—at times tangled—threads of this ongoing tale is immensely satisfying.

  My thanks go first to Ms. Ann Bannon, who graciously found time in her busy schedule to review the fi rstbook in this series and to provide the cover quote. I am humbled to be so honored.

  I also wish to thank the many readers who have purchased the earlier works, written to me asking for a sequel, and recommended the series to others. Your encouragement and support spur me on when I think I’ll never figure out what’s around the next corner for our band of lovers.

  Thanks also to Laney Roberts and Stacia Seaman for expert editing, to my beta readers, Athos, Eva, Diane, Denise, JB, and Tomboy, for daily encouragement, and to the members of the online community, most especially the Radlist, for spreading the word.

  Lee and I took a midnight drive to the red light district with our digital camera to procure the cover photos, but Sheri, as always, made them art. She never fails to bring my words to life with skill and vision.

  I am fortunate to have two grand passions in my life – writing and Lee. Contemplating that, words fail. Amo te.

  Radclyffe 2004

  Dedication

  For Lee

  For embracing even the shadows

  Chapter One

  Dr. Catherine Rawlings awoke, naked, her cheek against her lover’s shoulder. They’d slept with the window open in the bedroom of her first-floor apartment, and a faint breeze ruffled the curtains at the window. It was dark. Five a.m.?

  Soon the alarm would go off, and another day would begin. She loved awakening to the still-new pleasure of Rebecca’s body, but even so, she was uneasy, haunted by all that remained unfinished. The last few weeks had been so intense, both personally and professionally, that she’d hardly had time to adjust to the emotional maelstrom.

  Despite the reservations of her police detective lover, Rebecca Frye, Catherine had agreed to consult with a joint police and federal task force formed to expose a local child pornography ring. In the process of profiling the perpetrators, she’d become friends with some of the investigators and had also become deeply invested in stopping the abuse of helpless young girls. And in the last twenty-four hours, things had gone terribly wrong. Now one woman lay in a coma, the team had been shattered by jurisdictional rivalries, and the criminals were no closer to being apprehended.

  Her last conversation with Rebecca just before they’d fallen into bed, both physically exhausted and emotionally numb, drifted back to her.

  “What’s going to happen now?”

  “I’ll be back on regular duty in a day or so, and I’ll have new cases to worry about.” Rebecca rested her cheek against Catherine’s hair and closed her eyes. “It happens like this in police work. You work your ass off, and then you can’t make the case because of a technicality, or you do make the case, but the perp plea-bargains it down to nothing.”

  “So you’re letting this go?” Catherine asked, surprised.

  Faintly, Rebecca shook her head. “Clark will pull the plug on this task force—he’s probably already made the call. But I’ll keep doing what I’m trained to do until we make this right—for Jeff, for Michael, for those young kids.”

  Jeff Cruz had been Rebecca’s partner in the Special Crimes Unit of the Philadelphia Police Department, until he and an undercover detective, Jimmy Hogan, had been murdered three months ago. Their killer was still at large, their murders unsolved.

  Michael Lassiter had been struck down the night before the porno sting operation by a hit-and-run driver in a thwarted attempt to kill J.T. Sloan, her lover and the civilian computer consultant on the task force. She lay in the intensive care unit at University Hospital in critical condition.

  Jeff, Michael, those n
ameless teenagers—victims all.

  “I’ll keep doing what I’m trained to do until we make this right...”

  Make it right. That’s what Catherine’s lover did. Stood for right, sometimes at peril to herself.

  Catherine’s right hand rested on Rebecca’s chest, her fingers motionless against the ridges of scar tissue above Rebecca’s left breast. Some of the scars were only days old. She didn’t need to trace the outlines to feel each one intimately. She saw them with her eyes open or closed. She saw them in her dreams.

  She shivered and pressed closer.

  “Catherine?” Detective Sergeant Rebecca Frye kissed the top of Catherine’s head, one hand drifting up and down her arm in a slow caress. She was still a bit stunned to find herself in Catherine’s bed—in Catherine’s life. They’d been together four months, and for a large chunk of that time, she’d been in the hospital recovering from a near-fatal gunshot wound. Hardly the best way to start a love affair. “Are you cold?”

  “No.” Catherine turned her head to press her lips to the skin beneath Rebecca’s collarbone. “I love you.”

  Rebecca caught her breath. “I can’t get used to hearing that. It’s so...damn good.” She held Catherine tighter.

  “We’ll practice,” Catherine murmured. “But I don’t want you to get too used to it.”

  “No chance.” Rebecca felt Catherine shiver again. “Is it last night?”

  “What?”

  “Whatever it is that’s bothering you.” Rebecca laced her fingers softly into the thick auburn hair at the base of Catherine’s neck, stroking her slowly.

  And you wonder why I love you? You, with your cop’s instincts and your gentle hands. Catherine took a deep breath and made a conscious effort to shake off the melancholy. “I keep thinking how unfair it all is. You and the others—you worked so hard, put yourselves at risk, and to have it all taken away—God, aren’t you angry?”

  “You worked just as hard helping us nail down the perp’s identity,” Rebecca pointed out. “Aren’t you angry?”

  “Yes.” Catherine startled herself with the vehemence of the reply. “God, yes. I am so angry about Michael being hurt, and Sloan suffering, and Jason putting his life on the line. And you—working around the clock when you’re barely out of the hospital. It’s just so unjust.”

  Rebecca laughed quietly, and the sound was harsh with frustration. “I can’t think about it that way. Because if I did, I’d turn in my badge...or pick up a bottle again.”

  “I’m sorry,” Catherine said swiftly, realizing that she was just getting a taste of what was Rebecca’s daily fare. As a psychiatric consultant to the police force, she’d seen the alcoholism, the broken marriages, the gradual loss of humanity resulting from the stress and frustration of the never-ending violence and senseless brutality that police officers faced regularly. She’d witnessed it clinically and thought she’d understood it. But now that she had experienced the disillusionment and helplessness personally, she felt it as an ache in her bones.

  Catherine rose up on one elbow to study her lover’s face in the rapidly brightening dawn light. Rebecca looked drawn, and with good reason. She wasn’t yet completely recovered physically from the gunshot wounds, and she couldn’t be emotionally healed from the loss of her partner or her own near-death, either. Her state of mind, however, was difficult to discern. Like many cops, Rebecca kept her pain and uncertainties to herself.

  “You have to deal with this all the time, and I’m not helping, am I?”

  “You’re wrong.” Rebecca drew Catherine down and kissed her mouth, then murmured, “You are the one sane thing in my life.”

  “You don’t know how glad I am that’s true.” Catherine framed Rebecca’s face with her hands, lightly tracing the strong jaw with her fingers, then skimming through the thick blond hair. She thought about the bottle of scotch that Rebecca had purchased only the week before and then poured down the sink without drinking. Searching the deep blue eyes, Catherine tried to see what Rebecca could not share. “Do you still want to drink?”

  “Every day.” Rebecca’s full mouth lifted into a shadow of a grin. “But I’m okay. I promised I’d tell you if I got into trouble, and I meant it.”

  “Thank you.” The words were barely a whisper as Catherine’s lips brushed Rebecca’s.

  “I love you. You don’t ever have to thank me.” Rebecca kissed her again, then shifted upright, drawing Catherine with her. Encircling her with an arm and softly cupping her breast, Rebecca rested her chin atop Catherine’s head and mused out loud. “I know Avery Clark and his whole Justice task force ties in somehow with Jeff Cruz and Jimmy Hogan being assassinated. That can’t be a convenient coincidence. Clark might think he can just pull the plug on this operation and we’ll take it lying down, but he’s wrong.”

  Catherine’s heart thudded painfully. “What are you going to do?”

  “Just dig around a bit.” Rebecca was evasive, both out of habit and out of a desire not to alarm her lover. She’d lost more than one lover who couldn’t stand the constant worry of being involved with a cop. She didn’t intend to let that happen this time. What she felt for Catherine went far beyond anything she had ever known, and the thought of losing her made her stomach churn. “I know Sloan won’t walk away from what happened to Michael, and I’d rather keep her busy doing computer checks for me than worry that she’s running around grabbing people by the throat.”

  Remembering the fury in Sloan’s face when she had accosted Avery Clark in the hospital, accusing him of being responsible for Michael’s injury, Catherine could only agree. “She’s in agony, Rebecca. She feels guilty for what happened and helpless to change it. Plus, she’s terrified of losing her lover. Until Michael recovers, Sloan’s going to be very volatile.”

  “I’ll keep an eye on her,” Rebecca promised. As if anyone could control Sloan.

  “Who’s going to keep an eye on you?” Catherine asked, only half teasing. “Watts?”

  Rebecca snorted. She thought of the overweight, perpetually rumpled, and generally believed to be washed-up cop she’d been saddled with after Jeff’s death. The same cop with whom she’d gone through a door the night before without a second’s hesitation and to whom she’d entrusted Catherine’s life when she’d thought herself about to die. “Yeah, right.”

  Catherine merely smiled.

  “What are you doing today?” Rebecca turned to stretch lazily against Catherine’s body, running both hands up and down her lover’s back. When she circled her palm in the small hollow at the base of Catherine’s spine, she felt her tense. She pressed harder, insinuating a leg between Catherine’s thighs. “Hmm?”

  “Back to routine.” Catherine’s voice was husky and slow. She rested a hand against Rebecca’s chest, rubbed her thumb across a nipple. She smiled when Rebecca gasped. “Rounds in the morning, then clinic...ahh, yes, right there...in the afternoon. I thought...that’s nice...I’d stop to see...Mmm...” Catherine tilted her head back, her eyes hazy. “Unless you intend to make good on what you’ve started, Detective...”

  “Oh, I do.” Rebecca grinned and slid one hand between them, cradling Catherine’s breast as she rocked her leg a little higher.

  “Thank God.” Catherine felt Rebecca’s mouth on her neck, felt teeth against her skin, and felt herself grow heavy and wet. “When you touch me...” She lost her thought as fingers closed around her nipple, sending streams of pleasure streaking along her nerve fibers. Her stomach clenched with excitement.

  “What?” Rebecca squeezed the hard nub, twisting very gently, her head suddenly light at the sound of a quiet whimper. “When I touch you...what?”

  Catherine found Rebecca’s eyes, tried to focus on them through the blur of desire, needing something to prevent her surrender to passion too soon. “You make me...forget...everything. Oh, darling...stop...for a second.”

  “Too much?” Rebecca murmured, easing her grip on the tense nipple.

  “Too good. You’ll make me come.”
>
  “Didn’t you just say...” Rebecca’s eyes widened as fingers stole between her thighs, sliding unerringly around the hard ache of her own desire. She felt a tug along her length, and her whole body twitched. “Ohh...Jesus, don’t do that unless you want me to go off right away.”

  “Not right away.” Catherine stroked her lightly. “But soon.”

  Rebecca’s brain was already swimming. She drew her fingers down Catherine’s abdomen, laced them through the silken hair between her legs, and glanced gently over her clitoris. “You’re so beautiful.”

  “Kiss me while you make me come,” Catherine breathed against Rebecca’s mouth.

  Their lips brushed tenderly, as lightly as a breeze through summer leaves, their fingers echoing the kiss over flesh ripe with promise. A sigh, a quiet moan, the only sounds. A lip sucked gently between careful teeth, the touch of a tongue soothing the tiny bite. A lift of hips, a flood of arousal, a cry cut short by the quick rush of pleasure.

  “Catherine,” Rebecca whispered. “I love you.”

  “Please,” Catherine moaned. “Don’t stop...” touching me, loving me, needing me...

  When their tongues slid inside warm welcoming hollows, hands followed, until they filled one another, body and soul. They pressed ever closer, muscles straining, hearts thundering, blood racing, climbing for the heavens.

  Rebecca groaned, shuddering in Catherine’s embrace. “You’re making me come.”

  “Yes, oh yes.” Catherine pressed her face hard to Rebecca’s chest as she clenched around the fingers curled inside her being, holding her very life with certainty and strength. “I’m coming...with you. Always...you.”

  *