Free Jacked by Tina Reber

of it.” I took a deep breath. “I didn’t sign on for all of this.”
    Cap sighed hard. “Yeah, well, unfortunately you did. We all did.”
    I glared at the ominous office door down the hall. “If I would have known it would turn out like this I would have said no.”
    “Just hear them out. A few more months and our contract will be up and we can all get out of this clusterfuck.”
    I wanted to punch the wall. “We fucked up— majorly —last night. This lack of focus is stacking the shit pile higher. I need to know that every one of them has their head in the game and has my back and I gotta tell ya, Cap, I’m not feeling it.”
    My captain’s eyes slid back and forth down the hallway, obviously worried that we might be overheard. I knew we had to be careful; so much was on the line.
    When he glared at me in silence, I felt like he needed a wake-up call. Insubordination be damned. “Three bodies on the highway, Cap. Three. And one hanging on by a thread. Bad intel on the Taurus SHO, pulling over that doc last night, then that multi-car wreck. Jesus… We’re lucky no one else died.”
    “Hey, you know damn well that every man on this team takes their job very seriously. You making this personal?” Cap questioned.
    He’s lucky I didn’t turn around and take a walk after that remark. “Yeah, I am. I got blood on my hands and I’m not liking that one bit. We should have stopped that Nissan before it got out on the Schuylkill. But instead of figuring out where we all went wrong tonight, our team is going to be distracted by fucking fan mail. We need to sort this shit before someone else gets hurt, or worse—one of us gets killed.”
    Cap growled at me but I didn’t give a shit. It was the truth and he knew it.
    “Listen to me, son. I get your anger. I do. But like I told you before, sometimes it’s out of our power to prevent bad things from happening. We can only do our best, that’s it. I’ll put foot to ass for the fuck ups. Mark my words.”
    I tried to take another calming breath. “The call on the doc’s car was a complete diversion. I just reviewed the reports. Four high-end vehicles were boosted at the same time we were chasing bogies. That’s no coincidence.”
    The entire thing made my skin itch, and that was not a good sign. I had a gut feeling why it played out like it did, and that made me feel even more uneasy. More often than not my gut instincts turned out to be accurate and if they were on the mark now, the criminals just played us at our own game. “We were set up like chumps and we fell for it.”
    Cap heaved a heavy sigh and nodded. “That’s not lost on me either, Adam. I got a report back on the driver on the stolen Nissan. They ID’d him as one Harrell Manley.”
    My brain seized. “ Manley? ”
    I instantly recognized the name since I’d busted him a few years ago. He was young but a seasoned car thief, repeat offender, gang member, and I knew for a fact that he had connections with chop shops, using their illegal activities to support their other illegal habits. I also knew who he’d been working for these days.
    “Yep. Had his younger brother Dwight in the car with him, too. Both DOA at the scene.”
    I rubbed my hand down my face as the news sunk in. I’d also busted Dwight back when he was only thirteen. He was a good kid at heart but fell victim to his shitty environment. Mom was on welfare with a heroin habit; dad was unknown and definitely not in the picture. He followed his brother right into the gang life.
    I tried to scare him straight when I had him, even put Dwight in contact with free counseling services that worked with at-risk kids. His brother was too far embedded in his ways to turn away and make something out of himself, but I really tried to make a difference with the younger Manley kid. Tried, but obviously failed. Now he was dead and gone and there would be no future for him. No redemption. Just another kid I couldn’t save. Before I could stop it,