“Not wearing a wire, and don’t want stars, why you here?”

“What, I can’t come around just to check up on you? See how your night is going?” I sneered and looked away. “I need to talk to Sunny. That’s all you need to know for now.”

Just then the door to the back of the house opened and Sunny walked out. Sunny wasn’t a big guy by any means, he was shorter than me by a good five inches, and didn’t have as much bulk on him. But this motherfucker was terrifying. It wasn’t the tattoos, because, well, honestly, I’m sure I had more than he did. It wasn’t the scar that ran down the left side of his face from his temple to his jaw that he’d received in a deal gone wrong years back. And it wasn’t his near-black eyes, which made him look dark and demonic and completely contradicted his name. It was all of it mixed in with this alpha-male, badass leader vibe he had that made men terrified to fuck with him.

Too bad I kinda thought I was a badass too. So instead of cowering when he walked into the room, I straightened and raised an eyebrow at him. We both eyed each other before cracking smiles and reaching out to shake hands and pull each other in.

“Hoping this is a good visit, Detective. K-money, huh? That was a good one, Shawn, quick. I’m impressed.” Sunny took a step back and crossed his arms. “Why do I have the unfortunate pleasure of having you hide out on my street, Kash?”

I smirked and matched his stance. “As I told Shawn, I won’t say a word about you, your men, your operation, or being here as long as you all cooperate. I just need to speak with you, I need a few favors.”

“And why would I do anything for you? I know your history, as far as I know, you’re back in the game of bringing crews down.”

“You and I both know I didn’t bring crews down. I stopped dealers. If that’s what you’re afraid of, like I said, I’m not here for that. I’ll leave here acting like I don’t know what’s happening in this house and with your crew.”

He laughed and brought his arms out before crossing them again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Stars, Sunny, really?”

Nodding his head to one of his men, they all began laughing as the guy walked over with a plate full of cookies in the shape of stars.

I glanced up at the man holding the plate before turning to level my glare at Sunny. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be playing me right now. You do me this favor, then I’ll turn a blind eye to your operation. But don’t make me out to be a fool, Sunny, you know who I am, you know what I’ve done, and you know what I’ll do to you and all your men.”

“Then talk.”

“Alone.”

He studied me for a few minutes, the tension in the room continuing to grow as everyone waited for him to make a decision. Finally, with a nod, he turned toward the door he’d originally walked out of and called over his shoulder, “Let’s go.”

I followed him through the door, down a hall, and through two more rooms before he finally shut a door behind me and shot me a dark look. “The fuck is wrong with you, Kash? You trying to come in here and screw all this up for me? You don’t just walk into my house . . . into my operation . . . into my assignment. Jesus Christ, you could ruin everything by being here.” He gritted his teeth and ran his hands over his head.

“Are you done?” I asked and went to sit in one of the chairs. “I don’t have time for your dramatic fits, Sunny. I really do need your help. I wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t crucial, you know that, man.”

Sunny had been in undercover narcotics for closing in on fourteen years. He was the one that had originally gotten Mase and me in with right crowds so we were able to easily slide in with our first crew. I knew he was right, I knew he had every reason to be pissed at me for showing up here. If I’d still been undercover, me showing up on his street while in another crew could have just been grounds for a fight, but as a known detective, it was suspicious on Sunny.

He huffed loudly and took the chair next to me. “It better be. Talk to me.”

“Before we get into what I need, please tell me Shawn isn’t on stars.”

“Kash . . .” he said in warning.

“Look, Sunny, I was glad he was the one to come at me tonight. But the kid is, what, fifteen? Bad enough you have him as the one going out to set up the deals, but even you can’t sit back and watch him waste his life on meth.”

Sunny rested an elbow on the arm of his chair and massaged his bald head as he answered me. “I’m not, and he’s not. I don’t want him setting things up either, he’s a good kid . . . but he was determined to get in a crew. I’m sure you’ve seen that. Has been since he was a little runt. So I took him under my wing so I could keep an eye on him, but I haven’t let him touch the product. He wanted more responsibility, and it would have looked weird making older members do grunt work when we have him. I have to do what I have to do. I know you understand that.”

I frowned because I did. Sunny and I shared a look that said everything. Neither of us liked the situation, but what could you do other than blow your cover? And Sunny’s was a lifelong cover, not something you could easily jump in and out of in a year and a half or so like Mason and I had.

“Enough about how I’m running my crew, tell me why you’re here.”

I got comfortable in my chair and folded my arms over my stomach. “Did you catch wind about Mase and me getting sent to Texas, and why?” When he nodded, I continued. “I met a girl there, and it’s a fucking long story, but short of it is . . . I’m in love with her. I’ll be in love with her until the day I die. She moved back here with me, knows all about my past undercover work, and knows about the job that went wrong that ended up sending us to Texas.”

“She got a drug problem?”

“No, Sunny, fuck.”

I rolled my eyes and kept my outward emotions turned off as I told him the rest. In the last few days, everything had changed. I’d done all I could to find her without the department’s knowledge. It’d been difficult, between going to work and doing my own investigations without letting anyone else catch wind. But it was about to get a hell of a lot easier. Starting today, Rachel and I would have been on vacation in Texas for Candice’s graduation, and then California to visit with her family for two weeks. When Chief asked if I wanted to still take the time off, or if I’d needed the work as a distraction, I’d chosen the time off. No one would be expecting anything from me, and I would be free to look for her more than I had been. He’d nodded and told me he understood it was a difficult time, that if I needed anything, to let him know.

I didn’t need a goddamn thing other than my fiancée back.

I’d gone to see living relatives that Juarez and the other boys had, and I’d spent days on the streets, talking to people. But I knew I was missing things, and that’s why I was coming to see Sunny now. He had a massive operation in Tampa Bay, the only reason it was still running was because he was a cop, and we weren’t about to shut him down because he was working at taking down suppliers that went much larger than Tampa Bay . . . that went much larger than Florida. So he knew pretty much everything there was to know, and if he didn’t know it, he knew who to talk to in order to find out.

“She doesn’t have a drug problem, but she was abducted two weeks ago right out of our bedroom. Mason and I were working a double homicide when it happened. Department has leads, but nowhere to go with them, and they haven’t gotten any closer to finding her than they were on that first day.”

“Shit, Kash. You serious?”

I stared at him, unblinking, not responding.

“Man, I had no idea. I can’t remember the last time I watched the news, and I haven’t checked in with the department in months. Are you—I mean, damn. Are you okay? I would be losing my shit.”