Putting Everything on the Line Read online

  Just then, Kathy came from the bedroom with two suitcases. He looked at her questioningly.

  ‘Are you going somewhere?’

  ‘Yes, I am going to New York,’ she replied.

  ‘To sort the house out? How long will you be gone for? Because you never mentioned it to me or your mum.’

  ‘No, not to sort the house out. I am going to stay there for a while and decide what I want. I can’t do that here with you and my mum constantly deciding what is best for me without thinking about what I want.’ She started walking towards the door.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Us. I don’t know if we have a future, because you have never supported me in anything and I am tired of it, so I am going to New York to stay in my house and I will work out what I am going to do next.’

  ‘Should we not be doing that together? Are you prepared to throw everything away? Our whole relationship? For what? Because I don’t like you being a police officer?’

  ‘Don’t like? That’s an understatement. You have expected me to quit since the day I joined the force. I am not prepared to sacrifice what I have built and that part of my life and who I am.’ She paused at the door. ‘I have been given a transfer to the New York SWAT team and if it suits me, then I will stay. I am really sorry, Tony, but if you can’t support my dream, then I have to find someone who will,’ and with that she left.

  ***

  When she arrived in New York, she unpacked and got settled in her new home. She had stayed there many times before but it was strange now her grandmother had gone. She had decided she was going to use her grandmother’s old furniture until she could afford new, most of it was still in good condition except for the bed, so she would sleep in her old room for now till she could get a new one and redecorate. Her phone flashed, her mother was calling again, she had had seventeen missed calls since she left but she still wasn’t ready to have that conversation.

  After unpacking she had a drive round the area locating stores and facilities, things hadn’t changed much since she was last there, but her needs were different now it was her home. She then stopped by the SWAT unit, which was attached to one of the central districts. She had paperwork to fill in and uniform to collect. She was starting in just two days and had so much to do. She was shown upstairs, there was two teams sat at desks talking and typing, she wondered if one of them was her new team. They looked up as she walked in.

  Captain Bridge was waiting for her at the far side, at the door to his office, she followed him inside and he shut the door.

  ‘Officer Hill, welcome to NYPD SWAT. Now I have glowing references for Chicago. Seems they were very sorry to lose you and so I have assigned you to Sergeant Falco’s team. He runs the Alpha Team which is our designated sniper team.’

  ‘What? Really?’ she responded, shocked.

  ‘If you don’t think you can handle that I can try and rearrange…?’

  ‘No, it’s fine, honestly, Captain.’

  There was a lot of noise coming from the unit office, Captain Bridge got up and opened his door and shouted, ‘Sergeant Falco, get in here.’

  Kathy got a sudden feeling of nervous energy coursing through her. This was a big test for her, the transfer at Chicago was easy as she knew them but to be put in the Alpha Team was huge pressure and she hoped she could handle this. A tall dark-haired man walked in, he didn’t acknowledge her at first.

  ‘Captain, it was a clean shoot. That guy was not going to let go of that girl and I had no choice, I swear.’

  ‘Sergeant, for once you are not here to be reprimanded. I want you to meet the newest member of your team. Officer Hill, this is Sergeant Falco.’

  She stood and shook his hand and he surveyed her.

  ‘You had better be good, because you won’t last long here if you’re not,’ he said bluntly.

  ‘Sergeant, play nice. She starts on Wednesday so get her uniform and weapons sorted today. Tomorrow, if you like, you can get her down on the range before duty Wednesday.’ He looked at Kathy. ‘Officer Hill, I will see you then and good luck.’

  Kathy followed Will, wondering what the Captain had meant; they headed towards the door and then he stopped in front of another officer.

  ‘Tom, this is our new recruit from Chicago. Show her around, sort uniform and weapons.’ He looked at Kathy. ‘What’s your favourite colour?’

  ‘Purple,’ she answered, puzzled.

  ‘OK, that’s your call sign.’ He paused. ‘Now, be here at nine a.m., and I don’t accept lateness for any reason. We will go on the range and see if you are good enough to sit at these desks, because believe me, most aren’t.’

  With that he walked off to a small office next to the Captain’s and shut the door behind him.

  ‘Is he always like that?’ Kathy asked.

  ‘Yes, till he trusts you,’ Tom answered. ‘Come on, I will show you around and get you sorted.’

  Chapter One

  It was a beautiful spring day, not a cloud in the sky and it was already bright blue with the sun shining brightly. It was already warm and the smell of the spring blossom filled the air. There were already people on their way to work or walking dogs.

  Kathy Hill was going to be late for work. She came running out of her door, dropped her keys, ran down the steps, dropped her keys again then managed to get in her car. Well she believed it had once been a car but she really wasn’t sure when, as now it was all rust and dents and you could barely see it had once been blue. She turned the key in the ignition and nothing. She was running late after sleeping through her alarm, which she had never done before, but last night she had struggled to get to sleep. When she woke, there was a mad dash to get ready and had to skip breakfast and have a coffee on the go. She tried again but all she got was a splutter. Her old car was on its last legs but she couldn’t even dream of affording a newer one, not just yet anyway but she was hoping that soon that would change, she couldn’t keep risking being late.

  ‘Come on. Start you damn thing. Don’t do this to me, not today. COME ON.’

  She hit the steering wheel in frustration, people walking past looked at her suspiciously, she smiled at them then screamed in frustration. Then she took a deep breath and tried again. This time the engine came to life.

  ‘Yes,’ she shouted. ‘Knew you could do it.’

  Kathy was an NYPD officer and today was one of the most important days of her career so far. Three years ago, she had joined the elite New York SWAT unit after serving two years on the same department in Chicago. Not that you would know it to look at her. She was far removed from the male macho type that is usually associated with such a job. She was, in fact, just five-foot-four, petite with fair hair and blue eyes. She was good at her job though and had been recognised as such over the last five years. She had got used to the shock reaction that people gave when they found out what she did, it was usually a look of shock and a ‘Really? That’s so amazing,’ from the person asking, expecting a completely different answer.

  The one thing she wasn’t prepared for through the last five years though, was the vast difference between Chicago and New York. There seemed to be much higher numbers of gun crimes, or maybe they just had more call outs here, though Chicago was bad enough, but the job in New York was harder, more intense and also more physical. That combined with the fact her team leader was a perfectionist, made the pressure full on every working day. She had never regretted the move though, it had come at a perfect time. She had decided to split from her fiancée after her grandmother passed away, she had been left her a beautiful two story home in the city in her will, so she couldn’t resist the idea of a fresh start, and a letter from her grandmother, which she had never shared with anyone, had encouraged her to use it for just that reason. She knew her relationship was coming to an end which made it very difficult to go home to Seattle, as she knew her parents would have refused to let her walk away from her ex, they pretty much treated him like he was their child and not her.

  It wa
s still very hard being a woman in a man’s world, but she had always enjoyed her job, a fact her family and her ex-fiancée could never understand. She couldn’t recall a week since she moved when they hadn’t phoned her trying to get her to quit and move back, but she had no intention of doing so, she had even expected one of the family to show up on the door step but as of yet, no one had come to visit her and Tony had not managed to fight to get her back in person. This, though, had made things easier for Kathy as the future was starting to pan out just the way she wanted, so it would only cause more issues than it would solve if they were to appear and try and complicate things.

  Traffic was busy as always, she hated the journey to work, passing through Manhattan so close to Times Square was never a pleasure for her, especially at this time of day. She usually got up and set off an hour earlier than she had managed today. It was a good thing that it wasn’t so far away.

  She had never been late before and this was really not the day to start. Not only were her team involved in a special operation, but it was also the day she would find out exactly what the future would hold for her. She had taken her Sergeant’s exam and was waiting to hear if she had passed and ultimately, if the extension of the department would involve her heading her own team. There had been no direct implication that this would be the case if she passed, but she knew a whole new team was being recruited, which meant this was her chance.

  She was excited, nervous and thrilled at the thought of what doors could open for her. Then she glanced at the clock.

  ‘No, come on, some of us have to get to work you know,’ she shouted.

  She had fifteen minutes to get to work and she knew he would be waiting for her.

  Chapter Two

  The SWAT locker room was small and it needed a coat of paint. There was a locker squeezed in for each member, they weren’t very big, and were quite battered, looked they hadn’t been replaced for a good few years. They had a separate one to the rest of the Police department which was the only good thing about it. It had a small shower area at one end, but the teams never used it now, especially Kathy, as it was open and there was no privacy. It was, however, always peaceful before the start of shift, most of the officers worked shifts and so it got busy at different times of day, but at eight-thirty a.m., it was quiet.

  Sergeant Will Falco was always the first one there. He enjoyed these moments of quiet, it helped him gain composure before he started work. He had been on SWAT for fifteen years and led his own team for eight of those. His methods of training and running his team were not popular and often had received criticism and complaints but they got results and his team were considered ‘the best’. His team were the designated sniper team, and if a member didn’t match his personal standards, they were side-lined till they were as he wanted. Near perfect. He hadn’t always been so hard on his team but after an operation hadn’t gone to plan six years earlier, he got tough on his team and even tougher on himself.

  So, he pushed his team hard, to strive to be better and encouraged them to improve, he led by example and worked to the limits, both physically and mentally. Some couldn’t take it and over the last few years, he had replaced several, but even those who left could never say that it was a negative experience working with him. His job was his life and had been for years. He hadn’t been in a serious relationship since his fiancée left him and he always made sure never to mix business with pleasure, though sometimes that was hard.

  He opened his locker and started to get ready. Bennett, Palmer and Harvey walked in. Bennett was the youngest at twenty-seven and was only five-foot-six, a fact he never lived down as all the other men towered over him. He was stocky in stature and had brown hair and brown eyes. He was single and had an enthusiastic personality. Palmer was the opposite, he was quiet, which bordered on shyness. He was five-foot-eleven, slim and had blonde hair and blue eyes. He too was single but never had the confidence around women the others had. Harvey was African-American, stood at six-foot-one and was, like Bennett, stocky in stature. He was thirty-one and had been happily married to Serena for the last eight years; Will had attended their wedding as he had worked with Harvey for nearly ten years and when he had taken over the Alpha Team, he made sure that Harvey was there with him.

  They went to their lockers and started to get ready.

  ‘Morning, guys,’ Will said with a smile. ‘Ready for today? Should be an easy one.’

  ‘Ready as always, Sergeant,’ Bennett replied.

  They began chatting about the events of the weekend when Tom Hargreaves walked in. Tom was the oldest of the team at thirty-eight. He was six-foot-two and an average build. He had dark hair and was the ‘go to’ guy on the team. Tom had known Will since school, been through it all, joining the force and subsequently SWAT together. He had been around for Will’s nearly wedding and the death of his parents. He had also seen the many trophy girlfriends that had graced Will’s presence in recent years. He didn’t like that part of Will’s life but understood and never judged him for it. He himself was married to Lynne and had been for many years now. He had been the only real friend that knew all there was to know about Sergeant Falco. The only one who knew who he really was.

  The usual locker room conversations were in full swing when Kathy walked in. She had never been the biggest fan of the ‘who was dating who, who was sleeping with who’ type talk, but as she was working with five men aged between twenty-seven and thirty-eight, she expected and accepted it for what it was. She found some of it funny and even entertaining and the rest, she had learnt to shut out. But in recent weeks, she was finding that hard especially when it involved Will. The guys never hid their banter or conversations when Kathy was there as they saw her as one of the lads. She was not the newest member, Bennett and Palmer came over a year later, so she had always been around to them and it was usually Bennett that was involved in these conversations.

  Will looked at his watch then at her in a very serious manner.

  ‘You only just made it. I suggest you hurry up and get ready, we have a briefing in five minutes.’

  Kathy opened her locker and sat down. She looked over at Sergeant Falco, he was half dressed. He had an amazing physique, his body looked like it had been sculptured to perfection. He was tall, six-foot-four, with thick black hair and had the deepest brown eyes; that and his Latin appearance made him easily one of the most attractive men she had ever met. He also had a confidence bordering on arrogance which was strangely but overwhelmingly attractive to her. He was not her type anymore, that’s what had attracted her to Tony, and she knew it was not a good idea to even entertain that kind of person again, but she couldn’t help it.

  Thing was, he hardly acknowledged her any more, except when she did something wrong that is, which fortunately was not that often but something was missing of late and she didn’t know why.

  ‘Pull yourself together,’ she thought. ‘Why would a man like him look at me twice? He dates models not women like me.’

  She shook her head and started to get ready. The uniform they wore was completely black. The top was snug fitting to enable it to fit comfortably under the bullet proof vests, both emblazed with the word SWAT front and back. The trousers were also not loose but not overly tight, they couldn’t be, but had pockets on the legs, as the whole thing had to be one hundred percent practical for the work they did. The boots were very masculine, but Kathy found them hard wearing and very comfortable. The helmet, she wasn’t so keen on but that and the goggles, tinted or clear, were essential for her safety. She wore two hand guns, one on her belt and one on her thigh, and of course her main weapon, which today for a change would not be her sniper rifle. The uniform was not feminine or glamorous, but she loved it.

  Will was just about to leave when he glanced over to her. She was just closing her locker and she looked over.

  ‘Wow, she is beautiful,’ he thought.

  She was not his usual type, but there was just something about her. Maybe it was her bright blue eyes
or her amazing smile. He wasn’t sure but there was something, and it was something he had to push aside before it got him in trouble. He held her gaze for a brief moment before looking away.

  ‘Come on, let’s go,’ he said as he left the room.

  Chapter Three

  The briefing room always reminded Kathy of a school classroom. There was a marker board at the front and three rows of chairs with desks, as it was also used for training purposes, the room was not particularly large but had enough room to be comfortable.

  The Captain gave the briefing for all the special operations like the one today, though this one was very different to the usual. Captain Bridge was in his mid-fifties, balding and starting to get a bit large around the waistline. He was five-foot-nine so wasn’t really that tall but he had been on the force for thirty-five years in different cities; he had even served on SWAT so he knew what it was like on the ground and had earned his position and the respect of the whole department.

  ‘This operation may sound simple, but we are expecting some kind of offensive at some point,’ explained Captain Bridge. ‘The witness needs taking to a safe house after threats have been made to her life and that of her children. There are people with her now but you will meet them and move her. Then a team will take over and put her in witness protection.’

  ‘We are not usually asked to move witnesses. Why this one?’ asked Tom. ‘He is not even in custody yet.’

  ‘Because of the case, because he isn’t in custody, and you have been requested to do this,’ responded the Captain. ‘The man who she has given us information on and is willing to testify against will stop at nothing to stay out of prison. He is a high-level thief and smuggler who has been out of our reach for six years, but not any longer. This is our chance to build a case and get him and he knows it. He is also known for killing people who get in his way of his continuing freedom. We can’t afford any mistakes on this one. A lot of people are watching you on this one and it is high profile. Any questions?’