Amanda S Green [Green - Nocturnal Revelations

W hats your day look like?

Mackenzie Santos Caine turned and smiled at her husband. After a little more than a year of marriage, she still found it hard to believe. But then, anyone with a modicum of sanity would have a hard time believing all shed been through the last couple of years and that was saying a lot for a cop. She believed it only because shed live through it, even if a couple of times it had been by the skin of her teeth.

Literally and figuratively.

All of which paled at the sight of Jackson standing the doorway, a towel slung low across his hips. Skin still damp from his shower, he smiled and stepped inside the bedroom. For a moment, Mac considered locking the bedroom door, with their phones on the other side of the door and taking him back to bed. Shed much prefer that to what the day held.

Before the idea could take hold, she shook her head and sobered. The day was going to be hard enough to get through without thinking about could haves and should haves.

Ive got court this morning. She turned back to her closet and reached inside, her right hand closing over the uniform carefully tucked away in a garment bag. Not exactly the way I wanted to start the day.

And wouldnt that be fun? Even though she hadnt personally worked the case, the Assistant DA insisted she testify. When she reminded him how tenuous her connection to the investigation was, he said he needed her to take the stand. The defense attorney had a reputation for successfully calling into question how the police conducted the investigation She supervised the detectives in charge of the case. She signed off on all their reports and could vouch for their expertise and reliability. More than that, he planned on using her reputation as an honest and well-respected cop to bolster the testimony of the detectives. Then he reminded her shed dealt with the defendant before. So she knew how important it was to finally make sure he spent time behind bars, hopefully a very long time.

That, more than anything, convinced her not to fight the subpoena. If the system had done its job the first four times Ray Pence appeared before a judge, hed be sitting in prison right now. Instead, despite strong cases against him, hed been let off with little more than slaps on the wrist. The judges hed appeared before believed the baby-faced young man when he promised to follow the rules, swearing hed been rehabilitated since his last court appearance.

Because the judges hadnt followed recommendations from the DAs Office and hadnt listened to cops like her, Pence continued to use the streets of Dallas as his personal hunting ground. Over the course of the last year, he raped and killed three women, perhaps more. They left behind friends and families that would never fully recover from the loss. And why? Because the judges hadnt had the balls to do their jobs.

Fighting down her anger, Mac unzipped the garment bag and withdrew her dress uniform. For a moment, as she laid it out on the bed, her eyes lingered on her captains bars. A pang of loss tightened her throat. Shed worn those bars for a year now and this was the first time shed had to wear them at a fellow officers funeral. She should count herself lucky, but she couldnt. Not when they reminded her how shed gotten them.

Fourteen months ago, she lost her own captain. But then Michael King had been more than just her captain. Hed been her mentor and her friend. He had been the one to recognize the changes coming over her after shed been attacked and left for dead one night. He helped keep her sane when she realized monsters really did walk the streetsand she was now one of them. Not long after that, she joined the pride, and swore allegiance to him as her alpha, trusting him to help her accept and adjust to her new life.

Then, suddenly, he was gone, killed in an ambush along with two other members of DPD. Now she sat in Kings chair as captain of the revamped Crimes against Persons Division and every day she swore to honor him and all he taught her.

Then I have Frank Malones funeral this afternoon, she continued.

Jackson nodded, his expression serious. Do you want me to go with you?

Mac started to shake her head and then stopped. Jackson understood the demands of command, sometimes better than she did. More than that, he understood when she needed him and today was most definitely one of those times.

Thanks. Id appreciate it.

Shed been fortunate since pinning on her captains bars. Not one of her officers had fallen in the line of duty. In fact, none had been seriously injured. She said a prayer of thanks for that every day. But that didnt make Malones death any easier to accept. He died after a drunk driver hit his motorcycle on Malones day off. She was relieved she didnt have to live with the knowledge hed lost his life carrying out orders she gave or was ultimately responsible for. But that didnt take away the pain of knowing he left behind a wife and three young children.

She cleared her throat and tried to clear her mind. The image of Missy Malones stricken expression when she opened the front door to the small house theyd moved into less than two years earlier said it all. She knew, as any cops spouse would, that the sight of his CO, his partner and the department chaplain meant bad news. When Mac told her what happened, the tears came. Never would Mac forget the pain and anguish in the young womans face. All she could do was make sure the man responsible served every day of his sentence. If that meant attending every parole hearing, Mac would be there. She owed it to Malone and to his family.

DPD looked after its own.

Are you sure it wont screw up your day?

Jackson shook his head. All Ive got are some meetings. Nothing important.

His shrug told her different, but she knew better than to argue. Instead, she turned her attention to dressing. As she did, she smiled slightly. Wearing her dress uniform to court would earn her more than a few digs from the defense attorney. Was she trying to sway the jury? What was she trying to prove? Didnt she normally wear civilian clothes to work? It would be interesting to see how the jury reacted when she explained she wore the uniform because she would be leaving the courthouse to go directly to Officer Malones funeral. Even now, she could hear Laird Naylor objecting and asking for a mistrial. Not that the judge would grant it. After all, if Naylor ran true to form, hed open the door to her response and that was on him.