Lying in bed, she realized how quickly she missed him. The bed seemed cold and lonely without his presence. Just a few more days, she told herself. Once he gets to his mom’s house later this week, he can call. With that thought, she scooted over for the cats and fell asleep.
* * *
“Are you shittin’ me?”
Shane’s growl had the others around the table glancing his way. Those who knew him best knew that he was barely containing his anger. His debriefing was now going to take all week and was not going in the direction he wanted.
“I gave up two years of my life for this assignment, getting very little help from you all, and you are questioning how it ended? I handed you everything I had. You have enough to convict most of the traffickers in this area and significantly tightened the noose around the top man, Gerard Washington, and his right-hand man, Xavier Thomas. And you are dickin’ me around ‘cause I saved my dog’s life by goin’ to a vet that we already knew wasn’t involved. And then I was able to confirm that she wasn’t involved.”
“Detective Douglas, we are simply questioning your decision to start a relationship with a possible witness. She has already been injured and now we have to spend taxpayer money insuring her safety until the case is over.”
Shane looked across the table at the Internal Affairs investigator. Tailored suit. Immaculate haircut. Hell, even his fingernails look buffed.
Shane stood putting his fists on the table and leaned forward. “You spend two years of your life on an assignment that was originally going to take only six months. You spend two years of your life with the lowest scum of the earth. You spend two years of your life away from family and friends and spend them with unclean, unwashed junkies, addicts, and the pimps that pass around women like joints at one of their parties. You spend two years doing unspeakable things just to get on the inside and high up enough for them to trust you. And you do NOT want me telling you what those things were. You spend two years of your life finally getting high up enough to see how they move the drugs in and out and in doin’ so, watch dogs being hacked up. You spend two years of your life that you cannot ever get back and then come sit at this table with me. Until you do that, I’ve got nothin’ more to say to you that isn’t in my reports.”
With that, he turned and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. The silence in the room was broken when Matt and the chief also stood as they moved to leave the room. Before reaching the door, Matt turned and spoke to the small assembly.
“He ended it because it needed to be ended. In the process, he found somethin’ worth more than that hell he’d been livin’ in. If you can’t understand that, then you’ve been off the street too long.” Then he and the chief followed Shane out of the room.
They walked outside to find Shane standing with his back next to the building, his head hanging down. He looked up as they approached.
Matt walked straight up to him, getting in his space, and said, “Do not let those fuckers get in your head. You did what you did. You made the calls no one else wanted to make. That asshole IA dick has his hands in the pocket of the District Attorney and he just wants his job to be easier.”
Shane looked into the eyes of his one-time partner seeing anger as well as honesty. “Thanks man. Jesus, how cocked up can something get?” Swinging his gaze over to his chief, he asked, “How long do you think this shit is going to go on? I was headin’ out of town to see my family in a couple of days and then told Annie I’d be back to take her out on an actual date this weekend.”
The chief shook his head saying, “Don’t hold your breath waiting on them. They’re up there right now seeing which play they want to make. But you should be done soon. Just hold on, Shane. Just a little bit longer.”
“Goddamn, this is so fucked,” he growled. Sucking in a huge breath, he pulled himself away from the wall and said, “Let’s go back in and get this over with.”
By the end of the day, Shane’s debriefing was coming to an end while his fury had increased. He and Matt sat talking as he tried to process what had happened.
Matt said, “You know you had no choice. It’s only for another couple of weeks.”
Shane’s eyes cut sharply to Matt’s. “Tell that to the woman I am having to leave behind for several more weeks. Weeks, I might add, I can’t have any fuckin’ contact with her. And weeks I am supposed to be with another woman.”
Shane’s superiors and the DEA wanted a few more weeks to tie up their case and while he wasn’t going back undercover, they wanted to make sure he did not fully integrate back into his old life immediately, possibly tipping off the top of the drug chain they were still hoping to catch. They impressed upon him the necessity of separating himself from Dr. Donavan for a few weeks for her own protection. And that was the only reason he agreed. Her protection. Her safety.