Only Vaughn didn’t understand the rules of the game he was playing.
“Turn, you son of a bitch. Turn!”
Vaughn’s SUV loomed larger and larger. He was close enough to see Vaughn’s oh, shit expression now, close enough to count down the seconds until impact or victory, close enough to—
A blur of blue and red flashed through Jack’s peripheral vision. In the same instant a bold, taunting voice blared across his radio. “I’ve got this one, old man! Back off!”
A black-and-white unit whipped around the corner in front of him, almost clipping Jack’s right fender. Adrenaline whooshed out of his body as Jack stomped on the brakes to avoid the crash. “Shit. Billington!”
Vaughn jerked his vehicle to the left as Jack skidded through the intersection behind him. In the seconds it took Jack to regain control of his truck, Vaughn’s SUV and the black-and-white unit had careened onto the highway ramp. He was blocks behind the chase already. But Paul Billington kept his speed steady, falling into close pursuit.
He’d asked for backup, hadn’t he? But Jack had been looking for his seasoned drug enforcement team to show up and save the day—not this fast and furious wannabe who’d answered the call from street patrol.
Cursing the young hotshot, Jack closed the distance between them, slipping into the unfamiliar role of playing backup on the arrest he was supposed to have made. “Damn it, Billington!” Jack watched the black-and-white police car slide into position to tap the rear of Vaughn’s vehicle and slam him into a spinout. They were going too fast. Too damn fast. “Billington!”
The kid was cocky. Reckless.
Perfect.
In a matter of seconds, the perp’s car had rolled to a stop in the ditch and Billington was dragging a dazed Lorenzo Vaughn from behind his deflating air bag. Jack pulled up in front of the wreck and climbed out. “Nice driving,” Jack conceded. “I appreciate the help.”
“Happy to save your ass anytime, Grandpa.”
Damn schmuck.
With Eric Mesner and the rest of the team finally reaching the scene to set up traffic control around the accident, Jack lowered his voice and reprimanded the young officer for the unnecessary risk he’d taken upon himself. “Speeding through a residential neighborhood where collateral damage is a definite possibility is not the way to prove you’ve got the cajones to make the drug squad.”
Billington jerked Vaughn to his feet and turned him toward the black-and-white. “Back in the day, when you set the police course driving record I’ve been trying to break since my rookie year, you would have gotten the job done yourself instead of calling for backup and giving me a lecture. Maybe it’s time to step aside and let some new blood into vice.”
“Back in the day?” Jack winced at the mix of awe and sympathy in Billington’s tone. “I’m hardly ready to retire.”
“Oh, yeah?” Billington’s expression blazed with an arrogance all too reminiscent of Jack’s earlier days on the force. “Who just made this arrest?”
“Good work, buddy.” Eric Mesner patted his shoulder as Jack eased the tight clench of his fists. “It’s good to see that bastard finally going to jail.”
Nodding, Jack replayed the night’s events in his head, trying to figure out where he’d lost that half-second advantage to Vaughn—and Billington—and wondering just how many other young bloods in NPD had taken to calling him Old Man and Grandpa.
Eric nodded his approval to Billington as he closed the back door of the official vehicle on Lorenzo Vaughn. “I’ve got the rest of the team securing the Suburban. We’ll check the accessible places for any hidden drugs. Otherwise, it’ll be up to the lab to break it down. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to putting him in an interrogation room and finding out how he’s getting his supply into Nashville in the first place.”
“You still coming over to the house for barbecue tomorrow afternoon?” Eric switched topics as smoothly as Jack eased through the gears on his truck. “I figure it’ll be the last weekend we can be outside before the cooler weather sets in. The kids and the missus haven’t seen you for a while. Not since you and Rosie broke up.”
Hell. His ego was taking it in the shorts tonight. There was no woman at home for him anymore, waiting to listen to his troubles, willing to ease his doubts and frustrations with the lush warmth of her body. Jack’s live-in lover of over a year had moved out a month ago because her job offer in St. Louis had been more tempting than a marriage proposal from him.
He liked Eric’s kids, was godfather to his oldest son. Even Eric’s wife welcomed him like a long-lost brother. But he didn’t feel much like celebrating with the family right now. Jack turned and headed back to his truck. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?” Eric followed. “Hey. We got our guy. We’ll find where the cars and drugs are coming from. The rest will fall into place. We did good.”
“No, Eric, we sucked.” Jack pulled up and turned to his partner. “I sucked. If it wasn’t for Hotshot’s help back there, Vaughn would have gotten away. He could have dumped the car and the drugs and we’d have zilch. Nada. Nothing.”
“So we had an off night.” Eric propped his hands on his hips at the hem of his flak vest and shrugged. “How many times in the past have we had to punt and go to Plan B—or C or D—because Plan A didn’t work out?”
Jack raked his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, but we were always able to make B, C and D work for ourselves. We never had to have some punk ride in to save our asses before.”
Eric’s dark eyes narrowed in that wise, patient way of his as he tried to assess Jack’s surly mood. “We may be slowing down, but our glory days are hardly over.”
Slowing down? Shit. Just the kind of pep talk he didn’t need.
“BACK IN THE DAY, MY ASS.” Jack thumped the truck’s steering wheel with his fist. It was late. He was tired. And his patience with himself had worn down to the driving need for an ice-cold beer or a long, hot lay to purge the restless frustration that gnawed at him.
But he was still on the clock, and there was no sweet, sophisticated Rosie waiting for him back home.
He couldn’t keep a woman. Couldn’t do the job. Eric had said it was an off day. That they’d crack the case tomorrow. Damn optimist. Probably why Eric’s wife had stuck with him for almost twenty years. Probably why Jack respected his partner so much. Eric could see the promise of tomorrow. He believed in it.
Meanwhile, Jack…? Well, hell. Even with the windows down and the damp autumn air blowing in his face as he cruised along Interstate 40, he couldn’t seem to cool down. Something was eating at him tonight.
And it damn well wasn’t the fact that he was forty, unattached and horny as hell with some adolescent need to prove he was still the man he once was. Yeah, right.
Exiting the highway, Jack veered onto Broadway—Nashville’s brightly lit, noisy magnet for tourists, partygoers and country-music star wannabes. Maybe there’d be a purse snatcher or scam artist he could haul in to headquarters. That’s it. Make an arrest. Protect and serve.
That’d get his mojo back. Then maybe he’d believe in tomorrow again, too. Jack inhaled deeply, feeling a surge of renewed confidence.
Scanning Broadway from sidewalk to sidewalk, Jack watched for anything out of the ordinary. Neon lights blinked on and off in modern contrast to the old brick buildings they adorned, marking open-mike joints, dance clubs and honky tonks. Despite the chill in the air, every door stood open to let the music inside pour out into the street.
With a beefy bouncer standing guard at every bar, he suspected there wouldn’t