Dana Mentink - Act Of Valor

Her mother embraced her quickly, hard and tight, the contact telling her all that she couldn’t say in words. After a breath, she straightened. “Carter filled me in. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, Mom,” she said, pulling the apron around herself. The apron made her feel safer than a suit of armor. “I’m completely fine. I’ll bus table seven.”

“I’d like to see you try,” she said, smiling. “You’ll have to get around your dad first.” Violet decided that nothing would stop her, but when she made it to the dining room, the place was swimming with cops. They were collected around their favorite tables in their private room, set apart by French doors and affectionately dubbed “The Dog House,” grilling Zach for the details. On the walls of the cozy room were the photos of those NYPD officers who had lost their lives in the line of duty. The K-9s were given the names of these fallen heroes to keep their memories alive. With a pang she realized that Jordy’s picture would soon be added to those photos. The dogs were settled into their private porch area, and Zach led Eddie in to join them. Zach’s brothers, Carter and Noah, were there with their dogs, and siblings Reed and Lani Branson along with Luke Hathaway, Brianne Hayes, Tony Knight and Gavin Sutherland. They were not all related by blood, but all were part of the K-9 unit Jordy Jameson had supervised, so that made them as close as kin could be.

She was about to grab the coffeepot and start pouring out for the cops when her father hastened up, quick though he sported a potbelly, and wrapped her in a hug that lifted her off the ground. “Baby,” he said. “What is this world coming to? That airport is full of crazy people. You could have been killed. I think you should come back here and work full-time. Forget the airline job.”

She squeezed him in return, furiously blinking back tears. “You always say that, Daddy.”

“And I always mean it.” He cupped her face and kissed her on the nose like he’d done since she could remember. One of her earliest memories was her and her little brother Bobby dressed up for Easter morning, her father presenting them each with a kiss on the nose and a basket full of goodies. Lou Griffin was a softie, through and through.

Before she could protest, he steered her to the back room into an empty chair at the table full of cops. “You’re my baby, and I need you to be safe. Sit down and rest.”

“I just got here.”

“Rest from your ordeal. No waiting tables for you.”

Her mother chuckled, carrying in pitchers of ice water. “See? I told you.”

Everyone broke into a vigorous inquisition about her health and safety with a liberal amount of teasing thrown in. Holding on to her tough and independent demeanor was hard when she spoke of the attack, but she kept herself in check. She was Violet Griffin, known for her sass and wit, a strong woman who wasn’t going to present anything else to her cop family, and they knew it, counted on it. When the conversation turned to shoptalk, she breathed an inward sigh.

“We got the intel back on the Joe Brown guy,” Carter said. “His real name is Xavier Beck. Small-time, petty theft, some drug arrests. He may be a courier, but he’s not the boss. Though there’s been some street chatter that he’s moving up in the ranks, trying to prove himself. We’ve heard the name Uno.”

“You think he’s the guy in charge?” Zach pressed.

Noah shrugged. “Nothing definitive, but it’s telling that when we bring up the name, all our sources close up tighter than a tick on a coonhound. There’s something behind this guy Uno.”

“Another drug ring putting down roots here in Queens?” her father asked with a shake of his head.

“Plenty of noise that there’s a drug-smuggling operation organizing,” Carter said, “but we can’t prove this Uno character is behind it. Malcolm Spade was running things until recently, but thanks to Declan, we got him put away.”

Declan Maxwell was Zach’s longtime friend and the newest K-9 officer with the elite NYPD Vapor Wake Squad. Along with the Jameson brothers, Jordan among them, Declan and his dog Storm had helped take down the drug kingpin. Thinking about it set loose a wave of sadness inside her. She had not seen Katie, Jordan’s pregnant wife, at the diner in several weeks. Zach’s grimace made her believe he’d been thinking about his lost brother also.

“What about the TSA guy?” Noah asked.

“No sign of him but we’re looking.”

Zach toyed with his coffee mug. “Bill Oscar’s got to be involved. I’m going to put him under a microscope and tear his past apart until I get to the bottom of it.”

Violet bit her lip. Her heart told her Bill was a good boss, a good father, a good friend, but there was no way to overlook the fact that he’d acted suspiciously at the airport. Zach’s flinty expression told her she had zero chance of diverting him from that course of the investigation, anyway.

“You shouldn’t go back to your apartment,” Zach said, fixing her with eyes darkened to navy. “It’s not safe. If Bill’s involved, he can feed Beck your address.”

There was universal agreement around the table.

“He wouldn’t...” she started to say, until uncertainty dried up the words.

“She can move in with us,” Barbara said. “Help take care of that little stinker of a puppy.”

The pup’s mother, Stella, was a gift from the Czech Republic to the NYPD. The yellow Lab had surprised one and all by having eight puppies shortly after her arrival, leaving the department scrambling for homes for all the pups. K-9 officer Brianne Hayes was now training mama Stella in the ways of bomb detection, but her babies were unharnessed hurricanes needing constant supervision. Latte, the precocious pup, had found a home with the Griffins. Two others had been placed with Carter and his daughter Ellie in the Jameson home. Violet figured them to be a welcome distraction in the wake of Jordy’s murder.

“Yeah, you’re gonna need another set of hands at least,” Carter said with a groan. “The two we’ve got are tearing up the place. I’m down a gym bag and a Yankees cap already. Ellie is all set to keep them forever, even though they’ve mangled her toy sewing machine.”

“So everyone agrees, then,” her father said. “It’s settled. Violet can work here and stay at our place. I need help keeping up with the pie demand, and everyone says that your pies are superior, Violet. Your mother’s got a little birthday shindig here on Tuesday afternoon, remember. She’s expecting big stuff in the pie department.”

Violet steeled herself. Her father would be content if she never left their family dwelling in Rego Park, right next door to the Jamesons’ shared family home. She was never sure if his overprotectiveness was due to losing his son, or the fact that she was a female, or just his natural bent, but whatever the reason, she’d fought for her independence and she wouldn’t let it be stripped away because of Xavier Beck. “Hold up just one minute. As much as I adore you all, no one is going to organize my life. I am perfectly fine at my apartment, and I’m not giving up my job at the airport.”

“But...” her father started.

“It’s not safe,” Zach said again. He got to his feet. Eddie eyed him from the porch room and stood, too, tail wagging in anticipation of a departure. “This guy Beck knows you saw the drugs in his bag. You can testify. You shouldn’t be alone.”

She stood. “I’m not alone. I have a roommate.”

He was unmoved. “Who is away on an overseas assignment for another three weeks, correct?”

“Yes, but I live in a building with a hundred other tenants. The guy next door is a butcher, and he knows how to handle a meat cleaver, if it comes to that.”