Scotch and Shooters

o

Jake cursed under his breath. He had lost Sara twice, only the tracking device he'd planted on her Buell allowing him to catch up with her again. When she'd pulled up in front of the house, McCarty had wondered whom she had come to see. This was an old suburb, filled with families and retirees.

When Joe Siri answered the door, Jake smiled. That explained a lot. He pushed an ear bud into place and pointed the listening device at the porch. He felt a small surge of guilt for hearing, much less recording, such a private and emotional conversation, but he squashed the feeling firmly. There was too much at stake for him to get squeamish now.

The conversation ended badly, as Jake had suspected it might. He had been pleasantly surprised that Sara had not broken his cover, not even as an incentive to get the retired captain to help her. He was even happier about that when he realized he wasn't the only one listening in on this conversation. A late model sedan sat a little further up the block, and he could see the edge of a very similar device peeking over the edge of the car's doorframe.

He'd intended to call and arrange a pickup for some point in the next few days, Siri would clearly be an important witness, but something told him he'd better make it happen tonight. Jake waited until Pez roared off on her motorcycle before picking up his phone.

"I need to place a witness in protective custody."

"Uh-huh. I'd feel better if you sent a squad down here. His place is being watched. I don't know how much resistance we're likely to run into."

"Yeah, I'll stay put and monitor the situation until the extraction unit arrives."

"Thanks. It's about time we got a break. No, Pez lead me to this one, I'll pass on the congratulations though." Jake said, wincing. He had no intention of doing any such thing. Sara would be livid if she knew he had followed her and listened in on her chat with Joe.

Well, he had some time to kill; the guys were coming from across town after all. Maybe he could come up with something to tell his partner by the time the extraction unit arrived. If she was mad enough that she didn't try to talk to Joe again for a while, he might be able to get away with not telling her that he followed her at all.

Twenty minutes into his wait, a battered blue Crown Vic came to a stop in front of Joe's house. Glad of the tinting on the windows, Jake watched as Dante slid out of the car and stalked up the steps. He opened the door and went inside while McCarty swore softly, but with feeling. What the fuck was going on?

Jake opened his cell phone and dialed. When the other end picked up, he asked abruptly, "What's the ETA on my backup?"

"They're ten minutes out."

"Shit. Too long. Tell those bastards to get the lead out. What are they afraid of, a speeding ticket?" Jake growled in frustration. He had a very bad feeling about this.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Joe stood by the fireplace, not moving for several minutes. He should have told Sara the truth a long time ago. Maybe he could have saved their relationship if he had, but he had never expected Pez to find out the truth.

How the Hell had she found out anyway? Siri would have bet any amount of money that Dante had covered his tracks better than that. Maybe Gallo had told Sara the truth when she captured him, in some attempt to make a deal?

Feeling the need for a stiff drink, or three, Joe finally moved away from the mantle. He reached for the decanter of scotch and poured a tumbler of the amber liquid. He slammed the contents and refilled his glass. Getting drunk wasn't the solution, but damned if he could think of anything better to do right now.

Hopefully, Marie would be out late with the girls. He didn't want her to see him right now; she'd want to talk about it. Joe could just imagine how that discussion would go. She wouldn't understand, and she'd be pissed. The idea of being in the doghouse with the other important woman in his life made him flinch.

The bottle was halfway empty when the front door opened. So much for Marie not seeing him like this. Crap. He listened as footsteps echoed down the hall, turning off and heading down to the bedroom. After several minutes passed and no cheerful feminine voice called out a greeting, a chill ran down Joe's spine. Marie would have said something by now, even if just to ask where he was, or to start telling him how her night had gone.

Come to think of it, he hadn't heard her car pull up, and with that little muffler problem that he'd been meaning to get around to fixing, he should have. That meant it wasn't Marie, and it wasn't Sara coming back for another round. The Buell was just as loud as Marie's Delta 88.

Joe shifted in his chair to face the entrance to the living room with a sense of fatality. He knew something like this would happen when he talked to Sara, he just thought he'd have a day or two before the Bulls moved on him. He supposed he ought to be afraid, but he just couldn't work up the enthusiasm. He was tired and the scotch had gone to his head, giving the whole thing a kind of fatalistic surrealism.

When the footsteps came back down the hall, hesitating at the threshold, Siri called out, "What took you so long?"

"You finally grew some stones, huh, Joe?" Bruno Dante stepped into the room.

"Yeah. Feels pretty damn good, too." Siri grunted and tossed back another shot. He was mildly surprised that he rated so high. He figured they'd have sent a flunkie.

"What? Telling a girl her dad's a hero instead of telling her the truth?" Dante's voice was incredulous.

"That is the truth. Jim was a hero." Siri poured himself another glass without offering one to Dante. If the bastard was going to shoot him, he could do it thirsty.

"And you're a schmuck. All you did was sign Pezzini's death warrant." Bruno shook his head at the stupidity of the man in front of him.

"Not to mention my own." Joe laughed mirthlessly. He had known what he was doing when he had confessed to Sara. His life just wasn't worth the lie anymore. He was so tired of looking over his shoulder.

Bruno nodded at the sally, a little surprised by how calmly Joe was taking this. Was he that drunk, or did he just not care any more? The old man certainly looked resigned, as if he had been expecting this all along. And so he should have. As long as Joe had kept his silence, Dante had been content to leave him alive. That had all just changed. If he'd tell the bitch, who else would he talk to?

"You're right, Bruno. I did sign two death warrants tonight, but they weren't Sara's and mine. They were mine and yours." Siri raised his glass in salute before tossing it back. He'd done all he could. Sara knew the truth now; at least he had settled that debt.

Returning the gesture, Dante raised the revolver he had been carrying in his hand. It was an old wheel gun, like the department used to issue, back when he'd been an idealistic young officer. Bruno had lost that innocence long ago, but he still knew to check the direction of the revolver's revolution.

With a flick of his thumb and a practiced twist of the wrist, the cylinder opened and spun to the left. The powder caps of six .38 mm shells glinted up at him. "Joe, I found this in your room. You don't mind if I use it, do you?"

Joe waved his hand casually, sort of a 'go ahead' gesture. There was nothing he could do about it now, and he rather thought he deserved this. "Tell Maria I love her, will you?"

"Yeah Joe, I'll do that." Dante takes one of the bullets out and replaces it with one of the Bulls special rounds. Moving the cylinder so that the engraved bullet will be the next under the hammer, Bruno closes the gun and raises it to Siri's head.

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

A/N: Thanks for letting me know you're still interested. I appreciate the feedback. I hope you're not to cross over the cliffhanger, but it was the place to stop. The next chapter is at the Beta now, so hopefully I'll have it back andcorrectedon Wednesday or Thursday.