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up so you can
drink.”
    “ Fine,” I muttered and hung
up the phone.
    A drink sounded like a pretty good idea
right now.

6

    Blue
    This time I wasn’t going to screw this
up. With a woman like Julie, a guy didn’t get many chances. Hell, I
was surprised she gave me a second chance. But she had. And I
wasn’t going to waste it.
    She didn’t seem like the kind of girl
who needed a lot to be impressed. Julie struck me as the kind of
girl who wanted to feel like she was all her man could see. All he
wanted. She was the kind of girl who would rather be lavished with
attention than money.
    I could do that.
    It might not always be easy, but I had
a feeling she was worth it.
    I figured we’d drive out to Topsail
Island, have dinner at a place on the water, and then end up on the
beach. I was going to kiss her. Not kissing her the first time we
went out had been hard and it was a decision I regretted to this
day. Not knowing what she tasted like haunted me.
    I locked my apartment and jogged down
the concrete steps when my phone went off in my pocket. I glanced
at the screen: Work.
    I answered it with, “I’m
busy.”
    “ Markson, this is Cramer. We
have a situation. We need you to come in,” said a gruff,
no-nonsense voice into my ear.
    I winced. Cramer was like the boss of
my boss. When he called, I came. Damn. “I’m actually on my way
out,” I tried.
    “ Good. I’ll see you in a
few.”
    Clearly the guy didn’t know how to take
a hint. I pointed the Challenger in the direction of the JPD and
prayed this was some kind of situation that required five minutes.
I was early to pick up Julie so I had a little bit of time to get
this taken care of.
    I strode into the station and swiftly
made my way back to the police chief’s office. I didn’t bother to
knock. They called. I came.
    Chief Watson was bent over his desk
with Cramer, and I got my first inkling that something big was
up.
    “ Have a seat, Markson,”
Chief Watson instructed when he noticed me hovering in the
door.
    I sat down even though I felt like
pacing the room. This reminded me of the last time I got called
into his office. It ended with me falling off the face of the earth
for months.
    “ We need you to go under
again,” Watson said, getting right to the point.
    My stomach clenched. I sat there
stiffly for the span of two heartbeats. “Same case?”
    “ Yes.”
    I exhaled. I always knew there was a
possibility I would have to go back, but I really didn’t think it
would be so soon… if at all. “Was there a break in the
case?”
    Cramer spoke up for the first time
since I walked in and sat down. “The department has learned some
new information. Apparently, the supply of drugs pumping into the
Myrtle Beach area has been followed back to this area.”
    That was surprising. Months ago I was
called into the station unexpectedly and was told I was needed
undercover on the outskirts of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Because the area is such a hotspot for entertainment and clubs, the
drug scene was growing rapidly and new cocktails of dangerous drug
combinations were appearing and claiming lives.
    I was pulled from the unit here and
sent deep undercover with a background story and a new ID to try to
ascertain where the drugs were coming from, who was funneling them
in, and to gain leads on how to stop the poisoning of a well-known
vacation hotspot.
    I was gone for months. Months of living
in the ghetto. Months of no contact with my family. My friends. My
life. I literally walked in the station one night a cop living his
life and stepped out hours later with a new identity and strict
orders to speak to no one that could possibly identify who I really
was.
    It had been the night I had my first
and only date with Julie.
    And now it was happening all over
again.
    I shook off the trip down memory lane
and told myself I could wallow later. “So you’re saying that
someone here, in our town, is the cause of all the drug and violent
activity down