The Chase Read Online Free PDF

darkening skies. He loved that city. Even with the brutality and ugliness he saw day in and day out, down deep he craved its frenetic energy. Each night, he went home to Queens where he lived in the third-floor apartment of his parents’ three-family home. His folks were on the first floor, where they’d been for the last forty-two years of marriage. Maybe he was a mama’s boy, but he didn’t see a whole lot of reasons to move out. If they needed him, he was right upstairs. He just had to make sure his mother and her bionic hearing didn’t hit on the nights he didn’t come home. Not that there were a lot because, truth be told, he was growing bored with the whole one-night-stand thing.
    It was, in fact, fairly disgusting at times. Sucked to get old.
    “Okay,” Jo said. “I have an appointment at nine-fifteen tomorrow. I’m all set. You can quit worrying.”
    “I always worry.”
    She tapped him on the top of his head. “You look comfortable. Great sofa, isn’t it?”
    “I want this sofa.”
    She dropped into the chair across from him. The one with no arms. That was a little weird. A chair without arms. Nothing to lean on.
    “Sorry, big boy. It’s all mine. Is this doctor you’re sending me to any good?”
    “Yeah. He’s my buddy from high school. He still lives down the street from me. You’ll like him. Go easy though. He can’t handle your wicked tongue.”
    “Ooh, a fresh victim? How thrilling.”
    He rolled to a sitting position. “I’m not kidding. Don’t harass him.” He flashed a grin. “He doesn’t have my stamina.”
    “You know, when you say things like that, you’re begging me to mouth off.”
    “I do know that. It’s fun. You’re not afraid to engage. Keeps me sharp.” He slapped his fingers against the edge of the glass coffee table. “Let’s talk about these warrants and I’ll give you a couple dozen reasons why you shouldn’t be on scene when we execute them.”
    She scrunched her nose. Such an un-Jo thing to do. “Let’s not.”
    “The first reason,” Gabe said, “is your broken hand—the ultimate proof that you could get hurt. From there, your arguments will all go downhill. My advice to you is to let New York’s finest handle the bagging and tagging while you stay out of harm’s way.”
    “Right.”
    He smacked his hands against his thighs. “Glad you agree. You made it easy on me.”
    “Nice try, Sergeant. I absolutely don’t agree. Today was an isolated instance. Your rookie screwed up, Gabe. That’s why I wound up with a broken hand. Frankly, I should sue the city.”
    Sue the…
    “Incompetence,” she said. “Who’s training these officers?”
    “Uh, that would be me. At least this time. And you’re not suing the city. You’re trying to shrink my balls. It won’t work. I got balls of steel, honey.”
    “I know you do. That’s why I will continue to go on these raids—sorry, hits. You and your balls of steel will take care of making sure the men do their jobs, and we’ll successfully shut down the major traffickers.” She waved a fist at him. “If we can get this guy we’re chasing, all the other crooks stealing from my clients will be running scared. We need to shut him down.”
    If they were going to knock heads, Gabe wanted to be first to knock. “We will get him. My problem is these merchants are starting to recognize you. When you’re roaming around looking for potential storefronts to hit, if you’re spotted on one end of Tower Street, it takes less than a minute for the merchants on the other end to know. Then everyone takes their counterfeit merchandise and hides. What good does that do us? It slows down the process. Let your investigators do it. They don’t have your, shall we say, assets , and will be less noticeable. Plus, they can rotate.”
    She leaned back and squinted. “Did you just refer to my tits as assets?”
    “I did indeed.”
    “I’ll beef up my disguises.”
    Crazy stubborn, this woman. “That’s not the