Alex POV

My cell phone pulled me from a dead sleep.

In fact, it took me a minute to remember where I was.

In a hotel room.

In Denver.

I rolled away from Bobby and reached for the nightstand.

"Eames," I answered, my voice a cracked whisper in the darkness.

And as soon as the name came out of my mouth, I knew that it was wrong.

I shook my head and sat up in the bed, casting a glance in the direction of the clock.

Four-fifteen.

No, make that fucking four-fifteen.

Who the hell calls at this time of night?

Or morning?

Or whatever the hell it was?

Because I wasn't Eames anymore.

I didn't work for MCS.

And I did not do late night call outs.

"Goren," I said more forcefully and with full-blown annoyance, especially since no one had said anything yet.

"Alex?"

It was Cathy.

I closed my eyes and drew in a deep, calming breath.

"Yeah, it's me," I said. "You're calling me, remember?"

"Did I wake you up?"

I sighed heavily and got up from the bed so that I could hopefully finish my conversation without waking up Bobby.

"Yeah," I admitted.

"Don't you have to go to work?"

"I'm not in New York," I told her. "What's going on?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just trying to catch you before you went in. I…"

And then her voice broke and she burst into tears.

"Cathy, you need to tell me what's wrong."

"It's Travis," she said at last. "He…he's…I left him."

Mr. Wonderful.

The man to whom she had just gone a-running, leaving behind her husband and son.

Big surprise that I'd had headaches last longer than this relationship.

"Where are you now?"

"I'm at a hotel," she sniffled. "I'm going to try to talk to Steve, but I needed…I have to…I need some time first."

"You should definitely give it some time," I agreed. "He's not going to be as willing to listen if you get out of one guy's bed and then want to climb back into his."

"It's not that."

"It is that. Steve needs to know that you want him back, not just that you want somebody."

"I have to wait because…because he hit me."

"What? Travis did?"

"Don't get all crazy about it, Alex. I didn't tell you so that you'd yell. I just wanted to explain why I need to wait a few days."

"Because you're bruised," I stated, and the anger rolled through me in waves.

"Yeah, a little. But I'm okay. If Steve sees me like this he'd probably go try to kill him."

"He'd have to get in line," I muttered.

"Alex, I don't want you to do anything about this. I just wanted to talk to you. Please. Be my sister instead of a cop."

So I sat on the edge of the tub in the bathroom and tried very hard not to be a cop.

Because the whole time she was talking, I was trying to decide just exactly what I was going to do to Travis.

And I don't mean press charges or have him arrested.

I was debating between castration and death.

Twenty minutes later, when I finally got off of the phone with Cathy, I'd settled firmly on death.

I climbed back into the bed with Bobby, quickly seeking out his body heat to warm my now-cold skin.

But there was no way that I was going back to sleep.

That bastard had hit my sister.

I spent a restless hour in bed before getting up again to pace the room.

And then I picked up the phone.

"Lupo," was the groggy-sounding answer.

"It's Alex," I said, only feeling marginally bad for waking him up.

"Alex? What time…shit!"

There was a loud scrambling and a chorus of muttered curses and it was a long minute before Lupo got back on the phone.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I overslept. I'm supposed to be at work in fifteen minutes."

"You can tell Ross that you're doing a favor for me."

"I am?"

"I think you are now," I told him.

"What is it?"

So I laid it out for him.

He was going to arrest Travis.

At his job.

In front of his colleagues.

And he was going to be loud and obnoxious about it.

"And then what?" he asked me. "If she won't press charges, then it won't stick."

"Then you let him go."

"So the point is just to embarrass him?"

"For now," I replied.

"And if he happens to have trouble getting into the back of the car…"

"Then all the better."

"Consider it done. How's things out there?"

"Hairy," I admitted. "But I think that it's all coming together."

"Okay. Be careful."

"I will. Thanks, Lupo."

I hung up and turned to see Bobby staring at me.

"Why do I get the feeling that I've missed out on something?" he asked sleepily.

"I'll fill you in while we take a shower," I offered.

"We?" he asked hopefully.

"Come on."

An hour later, we met John and Mary in the conference room. This time, John had gotten coffee and doughnuts so my hero status was relegated to former hero.

"The wire tap is in place," Mary said while eating a doughnut. "Although so far Keyes hasn't called anyone other than his mother."

"Oh, so he's a good boy," I remarked.

"Yeah, except for the part about him being on a drug dealer's payroll," Mary added.

"Well, there is that," I agreed with a smile.

"So we're going into the police station this morning," Bobby said. "And then we're going to call you and request a meeting."

"Right," Mary replied. "We'll argue about it for awhile, but eventually I'll swear you to secrecy and agree to a meeting later tonight. John, you'll be so excited that you'll let it slip while you're talking to Keyes."

"And then what?" John asked. "What do we hope to get from this?"

"If we're right," I said. "Then Keyes will call Valero and tell him that he has confirmation that Heidi's alive. Valero will give orders of some sort, either for Keyes to follow and get a visual of her himself, or maybe to plant a tracking device on you so that he'll know where you go…"

"But he'll do something. They'll want to know where she is so that they can take her out. And whatever they discuss, we'll have it on tape," Mary finished. "That will get Keyes and Valero."

"Which leaves us with Lovell," Bobby said.

"We're going to need Rollins for that," Mary said with a nod. "If you guys can get him to give you copies of the old case files, then we can track down exactly which cases Lovell is denying involvement. Once we have proof that Lovell was blacked-out of every case involving Valero's gang members, then that'll go a long way towards showing probable cause on Lovell."

"Rollins may even still have case notes," I added. "He's going to be an integral part of this take down. If we're a hundred percent sure that he's on the right side, then we should make him aware of what's going on."

"Are we?" Mary asked as she looked around the table. "Can we be sure?"

"I'm sure," Bobby said. "He's not involved. And when he realizes how big this thing is, he'll likely be even more willing to help."

I nodded in agreement.

"And we can use another body," I added.

Mary had mentioned that her partner wasn't going to be coming. We could use some inspectors from the local office, but Rollins knew the guts of the situation, and he knew the players.

"So we're all agreed?"

We all were.

"Now what about Kara Quintana?" John asked. "Is she going to skate on everything? I mean, she's the one who got Heidi involved in this to begin with, right?"

"Once we have Valero under lock and key, then Heidi can testify as to the workings of his whole operation," Mary said.

"But won't that make her susceptible to them? What if Valero assigns someone else to take her out?"

"I'll be looking out for her," Mary assured him quietly. "I'll be bringing her to the trial and then taking her home safely. I won't let anything happen to her."

"Okay," he said slowly, giving a nod.

"And as for Kara, we don't want to pick her up just yet, but I'll make sure that someone is keeping an eye on her. If Valero gets wind that his runners are getting nabbed, then he'll know something's up."

"But you're not going to let her get away."

"No."

"And no deal for her," John said firmly.

And I didn't blame him.

Kara was ultimately the one who'd set this whole thing in motion, the one who'd introduced Heidi to Valero.

"No deals," Mary agreed with a nod.

We were all quiet for a few more minutes, drinking coffee and mentally preparing for our day.

I had to push thoughts of Cathy out of my head because I just couldn't deal with that right now, and I couldn't let it be a distraction.

Although, what in the hell had she been thinking? What was wrong with her?

"Are you okay?" Bobby whispered.

"Yeah. I'm just…"

"I'll go pay him a visit when we get back to the city."

"You will?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at him.

"We will," he amended with a grin.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll have a record. Lupo will pull it when he runs him through processing."

"I wonder how Ross likes you using Lupo as your personal police force," he mused.

"I should probably call and apologize for that, huh?"

"I hate to ask a stupid question here, but…" John said, interrupting whatever Bobby's response may have been.

"What's on your mind?"

"What happens if Keyes follows us? He's going to see us meet you," he said, tipping his head toward Mary. "But you mentioned that he might get instructions to get visual confirmation of Heidi. How are we going to do that?"

"It won't get that far. If we have Valero on record instructing Keyes that he wants the confirmation, then we'll have to pick up Keyes," Mary said with a shrug. "We'll have to arrest him and make him flip."

"Not to mention the fact that we'll have Valero on tape ordering a hit while he's on bail, so we can pick him up, too," I added.

"Right," Mary agreed.

"So it's all hinging on how the conversation between Keyes and Valero goes," John said.

"You've got to sell it," Bobby said. "As real, and as an accident that you let it slip."

We left the hotel within the hour after going through a role-play version of the conversations.

Bobby and I would make the call to Mary while Keyes was in earshot. Then we'd leave the room and allow Keyes to pump John for information, at which point, being the amateur that he is, John would let it come out.

Mary would be standing by, listening for what Keyes chose to do with that information.

Bobby and I would get everything we could from Rollins so that we could hopefully tie Lovell into this whole mess.

We wanted to be able to coordinate the take-downs so that no one remaining had the opportunity to jump ship.

And if everything went as planned, we might be heading back to New York tomorrow.

Where I could promptly pull my gun on Mr. Wonderful…

"Something's going on," Bobby said quietly as I pulled the car into the police station parking lot.

I'd dropped Mary off in a coffee shop down the street. She wanted to be nearby, but obviously she still couldn't be seen with us.

"Why do you say that?" John asked as we got out of the car.

"You can feel it," Bobby replied.

John looked at me for clarification, but I just nodded my head.

Bobby was right. It was something.

We went up the steps and inside the police station where people were gathered in small groups and speaking in hushed tones.

I spotted Keyes at the same time that he saw us, and he quickly approached.

"I just can't believe it," he said quietly.

"What is it?" I asked cautiously.

"It's just…it's…" he began, and then he ran his hand over his face as though he couldn't say the words. We gave him a moment to compose himself, and then he took a deep breath and looked me in the eye. "Rollins killed himself last night."

"What?" I nearly shouted.

"Uh huh. He shot himself with his service weapon."

I was in shock.

Why would he do something like that?"

"He left a note," Keyes continued. "It looks like he was in cahoots with Manny Valero."

And as soon as he said the words, I knew what had happened.

Rollins didn't commit suicide.

Someone had killed him.

TBC...