Protecting The Single Mom. Catherine Lanigan

      The present slammed back at Trent as the sound of his men shouting broke through his PTSD terrors. He looked up to see the gang leader getting away.

      “Le Grande,” Trent shouted, and the hair on his neck prickled as he stared down the leader. Trent wanted this one—bad.

      Le Grande scrambled toward the far wall and was out the window. He bolted down the alley.

      Trent cursed and leaped across the overturned table in pursuit. He swung through the window.

      A black SUV started, and Le Grande jumped in the passenger’s seat. It sped down the alley, out on to the street.

      Trent shot at the tires and missed. He ran as fast as he could, trying to catch up to the vehicle. As the SUV raced through a red light, dodging one oncoming car and swerving around another, Trent realized that the license plate had been muddied enough he couldn’t get an accurate read.

      Out of breath, he stopped in the middle of the empty side street, bent at the waist and placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath. What he wouldn’t give to be nineteen again. At thirty-one, he felt like an old man.

      Trent hustled back to the building and heard obscenities fill the air, but the sound of bullets had died. Then he heard the rattle of handcuffs being latched to wrists. Miranda rights were recited. More curses.

      But Trent’s hands shook as he finally holstered his gun. He shoved them in his pants pockets and let his eyes scan the melee.

      The interior was exactly as his undercover investigation team had described, but that wasn’t what Trent saw. Suddenly, he was inside a bombed-out building in Kandahar where his special ops team had rappelled in to extract an American marine who’d been taken prisoner by al-Qaeda terrorists. He smelled rotted food, urine, sweat and blood. He heard voices hammering curses in Pashto and Dari like rattlesnakes. The images slithered across his memory, reminding him of horrors.

      Trent knew one thing—evil was everywhere. Even in Indian Lake.

      And right now, Trent’s home was under fire. Drug lords thought they’d found an easy target here. Little kids, ripe for the picking. Citizens so naive and trusting they couldn’t believe that drug lords would set up shop in their town.

      Yes, they were at war in Indian Lake—just like he’d been in Afghanistan.

      Sal Paluzzi was talking to him, but he couldn’t make out the words.

      Instructions.

      Sal wanted instructions, and Trent was their leader.

      Trent tried to remember. Yes. The chopper. There was always a chopper, and it would be here in seconds. Hoist them out as if they’d never been here.

      “...back to the station?” Sal said. “Sir?”

      Trent blinked. Only once. He was here. He never stayed back there too long. Couldn’t afford to.

      “Copy that. Get these creeps out of here,” Trent ordered, as his eyes scoped the interior. He touched the radio phone Velcroed to his shoulder. “Coming out. Send in Forensics.”

      Trent turned and led the way for his men—as was expected of him.

      * * *

      TRENT POURED COFFEE from the glass pot into a foam cup, sipped the stale, nearly cold brew, then dumped the rest down the drain. He looked around. The break area was vacant. Dead as a tomb. It was nearly midnight. Everyone had gone home. He stared at the stained coffeepot. He guessed the last batch had been made around suppertime—when he’d been bringing in the perps. Booking them. Filling out paperwork. Doing his job.

      He shoved the pot onto the warming plate. “Too late for coffee.”

      He went to the nearly empty vending machine and bought a pack of jalapeño potato chips. He hated them. But the Doritos were long gone. He knew. He was probably the only guy eating them.

      He went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. It was the only thing that the department provided free. That and the coffee.

      Trent went to his desk and stared at the computer screen. He’d nearly finished his report. He felt as if he’d written a book.

      Trent had been assigned to this sting for three months, but it had been ongoing long before his promotion to detective. The Indian Lake police chief told Trent that the Chicago Police Department had been hunting Le Grande for two years. The man was like a shadow. No one knew his real name, but he was a vicious drug lord, and his gang had tentacles from Houston to Chicago to Detroit. Le Grande’s network went straight through Indian Lake. Thanks to geography and unpatrolled country highways and roads, drugs moved from Mexico through Texas all the way to Toronto.

      In Trent’s background report on Le Grande, he discovered that Le Grande was the name of the gang, though the members called this man Le Grande, too. His largest contingent gang was based in Chicago. His minions sold drugs on the first floor of the John Hancock Building, the Merchandise Mart and even in the lobby of the luxe Drake Hotel. These were scores of a thousand dollars each. Sometimes more.

      There was nothing small-time about Le Grande, and whenever the CPD closed down his dealers, they were replaced within hours. Le Grande grew dealers like an amoeba replicated.

      But the one thing that Trent knew was that evil could exist only so long. Sooner or later, Le Grande would be apprehended. Trent had hoped to be the man who took him down. But not tonight.

      Just as Trent downed a slug of water, a new email popped onto his screen. It was from Richard Schmitz, a lieutenant with the Chicago Bureau of Organized Crime, with whom Trent had been working for months. Richard wanted to nab Le Grande as much as, or more than, Trent did.

      Trent respected Richard’s ability to sift clues out of a mass of information, and he always came up with gold. Richard’s analytical skills were the very reason Trent and the Indian Lake PD had been brought into the investigation. Richard and his superiors at CBOC strategized with Trent and Stan Williams, Indian Lake’s chief of police, about the plan for this sting. They’d all been so certain that this time they would lure Le Grande into their trap.

      But Trent had bungled it. He felt guilty. And angry with himself. He was better than this. It had been that split second. That tiny falter where his mind had tripped there. To Afghanistan.

      The military said he had PTSD. He hadn’t believed them at first. He’d thought it was just an adjustment to civilian life, but it had been over five years now. He’d tried counseling until he felt he was counseling the counselor. He’d meditated. He took medications guaranteed to stop the flashbacks. He’d been to the mountain of Zen and back. Nothing worked.

      Finally, he faced the fact that like the memories, the flashbacks would never go away.

      They just were.

      And that could get him killed. He couldn’t and wouldn’t tell a soul about his flashback today. It had been a blip. Two seconds. Maybe less. But that’s all it had taken. If Le Grande had been firing his gun, Trent or someone else could have been killed.

      Trent had to find a way to push through his demons. He’d learned to focus more on the moment, and that had helped. But it wasn’t perfect yet. He wasn’t perfect.

      The email pinged again.

      Trent shook off his dour thoughts and read Richard’s note.

      Trent—

      I can’t believe we’ve been on this guy’s case so long and missed this one. Get this. He’s been married before. Even has a kid. And yes, you guessed it, she’s right there in Indian Lake. My team is all over the news. No wonder the creep is in your backyard.

      Keep this on the down low. Except for your COP, I’d play it close to the vest for now. We don’t need anyone alerting her to our knowledge about Le Grande. She could be in on his gang activity. We’re checking that out.

      Trent, I have a man on the inside. Undercover cop. Not just an informant, which I don’t