Page 5 of Blood Money

“Damn, but this shouldn’t have happened,” Gray said as he watched blood from the man’s wounds begin to soak through the fabric.

With Dom’s assistance, he verified the rest of the entry team was unhurt. He also ordered the apartment vacated until the place could be thoroughly swept for additional explosive devices. The tenants who’d been evacuated would be pissed off at being homeless for another day, but better that than get blown to bits.

After briefing Capt. Kree and Lt. Frye, Gray let Dom drive him to the hospital where a doctor stitched up the back of his head. They checked in on Pete, who had several busted ribs from being flung against the doorjamb. Despite Gray’s assurances to the contrary, Pete was still kicking himself over what had happened.

“The FBI is out for blood over the loss of their agent.” Dom maneuvered the car out of the hospital parking lot. “They want in on the case.”

“Christ.” Gray groaned. “It’s bad enough they think their guy getting killed was our fault, and now, in typical fed-fashion, they’re all up in our face telling us how to do our jobs.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Dom agreed. “The lieutenant’s trying to calm them down and keep them off our asses.”

Gray still felt like shit that they’d lost someone today. Never shoulda happened. “Lt. Frye oughta tell them it wasn’t the guy’s fault for pulling the blinds. It was his fault for being late for the briefing during which Pete warned everyone not to touch a damn thing.”

They drove the next few minutes in silence as Dom headed downtown to Gray’s apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Dom kept sending him sideways glances. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Not even close.

Dom braked at a red light. “You think the janitor was the only one the Pyramid got to?”

“Dunno.” Gray rubbed his forehead, which had finally stopped throbbing like a snare drum. “But I intend to find out.”

A year ago, Gray’s sister, Detective Cassie Yates, had been working an undercover assignment when a contract hit was put on her. She’d been hiding out in upstate New York under a fictitious identity while he and Dom worked to discover who contracted the hit. During a phone conversation with Cassie, bugs were discovered in both his and Dom’s desk phones.

Shortly thereafter, Ahmed Methopolis found Cassie and blew up her Trail Blazer. Luckily, she hadn’t been in it at the time, and Cassie’s now-husband, Chief Mike Flannery of the Hopewell Springs Police Department, killed Methopolis before he could finish the job.

It hadn’t been much of a stretch that it was an inside job, so Gray worked with Internal Affairs to obtain bank subpoenas for select employees in One Police Plaza, where he and Dom worked. They focused on employees working night tours of duty, figuring too many people were around during the day for the job to go unnoticed. And they got lucky.

Records showed a large cash deposit to One PP’s night janitor, who turned out to have a major gambling debt. The janitor fessed up that he was contacted via phone by an anonymous man with an accent. The man promised cash if he planted the bugs.

“Did the banks get back to you on those other subpoenas?” Dom asked as he wove in and out of traffic.

Gray shook his head, instantly regretting it when his head began throbbing again. “Not yet.” He braced his arm against the door as Dom turned left onto East 12th Street. “We should have them in a couple of days.”

On a hunch, he and Internal Affairs recently served a second set of subpoenas for all remaining One PP employees’ bank records, including those of employees working the day shift. One PP was so integral to the city’s safety and security that Gray couldn’t ignore the possibility that the Pyramid had a backup plan in case the janitor didn’t work out, or might even go so far as to try to plant one of their own inside police headquarters.

“Still got a date with Alex tomorrow night?” Dom asked as he braked for a bunch of teenagers emptying out of the Village East Cinema.

“Yeah.” Gray grinned like an idiot. Only Alex could make him do that.

From the moment Alexandra Romano, the Intelligence Unit’s Police Administrative Aide, had begun working at One PP ten months ago, Gray had been attracted to her like a heat-seeking missile locked on target. To say he was looking forward to his date with Alex was a colossal understatement. The only thing casting a dark pall over his impending date was the Pyramid.

They’d tried to kill his sister, and now they’d killed a federal agent. They had to be stopped, and Gray was the one to do it.

As Dom hung a right onto Avenue C, heading for the East Village, Gray vowed that if it was the last thing he did on this earth, he would bring down the Pyramid. He’d let nothing stand in his way.

Nothing.

Chapter Two

Alex eyed the clock on the wall for what must have been the tenth time in the last hour. If she didn’t know better, she’d say the damn thing was ticking backward. One hour until…

My first date with Gray.

She glanced at his desk, but he wasn’t there and hadn’t been all day. Has he forgotten about our date? She certainly hadn’t. It had been the subject of her dreams for months, long before he’d even asked her out.

“Hey, beautiful,” a deep voice said from behind her.