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  Jacob’s Grace

  ATF Agent Allison Jacob is temporarily assigned to the Milwaukee Police Special Crimes Division to assist in solving the gruesome murder of a woman known as X-Girl. The FBI and the DHS become involved as the investigation widens into human trafficking, and AJ and her team must go undercover to solve the murder and stop the exploitation of innocent victims.

  Captain Tag Becket isn’t used to being a rookie. Returning home after ten years in the Army, she takes a position as the newest member of AJ’s team. She wants to keep her head down and her past behind her, but her but feelings for AJ’s second in command Grace Fields makes keeping secrets next to impossible.

  As the task force draws closer to the perpetrators, team members risk their lives and their secrets to see justice prevail.

  Praise for C.P. Rowlands

  Jacob’s War

  “C.P. Rowlands has another winner on her hands. An excellent and realistic police procedural about drug dealers and killers. She is an excellent storyteller.”—Library Thing

  Lake Effect Snow

  “This is my kind of political thriller—methodical, dangerous, and complicated. It challenges the reader without frustrating her, and there is just enough realism thrown in to make it relevant to today’s international political scene as the story features the war in Iraq. The politics are easy to digest, though, adding to the context and setting, but not preaching. The romance is genuine and thoughtfully done, but it does not distract us from the main plot. The non-stop action and impressive storytelling make this a must read for those who like thrillers in the tradition of Frederick Forsyth, quite a feat for first-time novelist Rowlands.”—Curve Magazine

  “Anyone looking for a book that comes straight off of the front pages of the newspaper or headline news doesn’t need to go any further. Lake Effect Snow is set in the middle of today’s war on terrorism and its far-reaching consequences. It tells a story that’s chilling in its reality and starts with a scene that will keep the reader hooked until the final pages…Lake Effect Snow is a page turner, one of those books the reader hates to put down. This reviewer highly recommends you give it a try.”—Just About Write

  Hardwired

  Hardwired “pulled at my heart with both sorrow and joy. The plot is a huge eye opener that needs to be more publicized…you will learn something from this book. Rowlands did a magnificent job developing the main characters Clary and Leefe. This book helps in understanding the truth for the children displaced due to homelessness.”—Library Thing

  Jacob’s Grace

  Brought to you by

  eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com

  eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

  Jacob’s Grace

  © 2018 By C.P. Rowlands. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13:978-1-63555-188-4

  This Electronic Book is published by

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, NY 12185

  First Edition: September 2018

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editor: Cindy Cresap

  Production Design: Stacia Seaman

  Cover photo by Kathie Solie

  Cover Design By Sheri ([email protected])

  By the Author

  Lake Effect Snow

  Collision Course

  Hardwired

  Jacob’s War

  Jacob’s Grace

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to Bold Strokes for publishing this book, the sequel to Jacob’s War, and for all the hours and work that go into a single book. It is an astonishing process, from author to printer and everything that comes after that.

  Thanks also to all the local law enforcement and volunteers. They give everything, each and every day.

  In memory of “Agent Jack” of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. He made a difference.

  Chapter One

  Brutal August heat held them like a fist. Allison Jacob turned her back to the hot wind that peppered her with dirt and debris and ducked behind her vehicle with two of her agents.

  “What’s taking them so long?” Grace grumbled beside her while they waited for the Milwaukee Police to enter the house across the street. Bonnie stood at the back of the SUV, adjusting her vest and swiping at her face.

  Allison squinted down the elegant street with its manicured yards, flowers, and century-old trees. How had they ended up here? It had mostly been back streets, condemned houses, and alleys with Chief William Whiteaker’s Special Forces during their temporary summer assignment. Worse, if this wasn’t the headquarters of the trafficking network they’d been chasing, they’d be out of the loop after today. Her new ATF task force began tomorrow.

  Finally, the police went through the front door, and it was quiet for a few minutes. Then there were shouts, and two people ran from the back, across the yard. It looked like an adult woman holding a kid’s hand as they ducked into the alley. Skidding on loose stones, Allison and her two agents moved right, guns drawn. Grace led the charge as they rounded the corner.

  “He was falling before he hit the garbage cans…like he was fainting,” Grace said, hands braced on her knees as she caught her breath. “The woman ahead of him just disappeared.”

  Heart racing, Allison went to her knees by the young boy and checked for breath and a pulse, but there was nothing. She shook her head at Grace.

  “Bonnie, get the medics. Look at his skin. It’s yellow.” She shoved the hair off his forehead. “He’s just a kid.” An ambulance squeezed down the alley toward them.

  “What the hell, AJ?” Chief Whiteaker called out, walking around the EMTs working on the young boy. “Did you shoot?”

  “No shots fired.” AJ watched them work on the kid, still hoping. “Is the house under control?”

  “Yes, but the freakin’ place is like a furnace. Only four kids in there, but they look well fed and healthy. I saw a woman’s touch to the place.”

  “There was a woman leading this one, but she disappeared at the end of the alley. Was it the right house?” AJ pulled in a breath when he nodded. “Good.”

  The medical team shook their heads and stepped back from the body.

  “Wait for the ME. I’ll get him identified,” the chief said as they walked back up the alley.

  “Poor kid.” Grace tossed her sweat-soaked vest into the back of AJ’s vehicle and pointed at the clock tower. “Look at that.” The LED thermometer sizzled at ninety-five degrees.

  “God.” AJ threw her light body armor on top of Grace’s and Bonnie’s. Black clouds were building up to the north. “Go help Bill process that house and make sure they call CPS for the kids. Catch a ride back with his cops, and I’ll wait for the medical examiner. I want to know what happened to this boy.”

  * * *

  At home, AJ braced herself against Katie’s car in the garage as she tried to get her wet boots off. The storm had broken while she and the ME stood over the body in the alley, and she was soaking wet.

  The boot finally came off, and she hurled it against the kitchen door. The noise was sudden and loud, followed by complete silence. She looked around the garage. A few months ago, she’d known exactly what her job was, but now she was out of
the drug world, chasing sex trafficking. Worse, she couldn’t get the young dead boy out of her head.

  She picked up the boot just as the back door flew open. Katie stood there, wrapped only in a towel with a stunned expression. Her wet, black curls hung across her face. “What was that?” she said.

  AJ held up the soaked boot. “It wouldn’t come off. When it finally did I—”

  “Threw it?”

  “Um…yes. You were in the shower?”

  “What do you think? Drop everything in the garage and go to the shower.”

  AJ looked down at her sopping, dirty clothes. The pants and shirt were salvageable. Maybe. “I have to go out again.” She dropped the boot and began to pull off her clothes. “Is this how you open our door?” she snapped.

  “Hey.” Katie looked hurt.

  AJ strode past Katie toward the shower wearing only a frown. She turned the water on and stepped inside. Katie followed, slipping an arm around her.

  “Here, stand still. Let me wash your hair. I assume you got caught in the rain?”

  “The storm broke while I was outside.”

  Katie’s warm, strong fingers calmed AJ, but when she closed her eyes, the dead boy was still there. She grabbed Katie’s shoulders to steady herself.

  “I’m sorry for what I said,” AJ murmured against Katie’s ear, starting to explain why she didn’t know how the boy had died and neither did the ME. Katie kissed her, long and slow. She said something else, but AJ was beyond listening. The world was manageable in Katie’s arms.

  * * *

  Later, lightning painted the sky over Lake Michigan as AJ sped north through dark city streets, water licking at her tires. They’d eaten dinner, both wrapped in big robes, and afterward, she’d fallen asleep in Katie’s lap. The temperature had dropped into the low sixties, and she now wore dry boots, a clean black hoodie, and jeans.

  She stopped at a red light. Milwaukee had been a battlefield since May, including two full-blown weeklong riots. The city was struggling with drugs, guns, and car thefts. The house they’d taken down today might solve the murder they’d chased all summer, but they were just beginning on the human trafficking operation they’d stumbled into. In all of her years of law enforcement, she’d never seen anything like it. It was huge. She’d fought to continue working with Chief Whiteaker’s group, but her bureau chief, Lawrence Kelly, was dead-set on his new task force in northern Wisconsin. He’d hardly paid any attention to any of her requests.

  She pulled over to the curb in the quiet, dark neighborhood and checked her time. Right on schedule.

  A full August moon hung in the sky behind the retreating storm but began to fade behind thick patches of Lake Michigan fog that turned the ancient brick church ahead of her gray and silver. Her boots scraped on the old stone steps, and she settled into the dark doorway. The wood vibrated against her shoulder as the church revved up for its single night song, the stroke of midnight bell. One deep note rolled out through the air, trembling across the city.

  She jammed her hands into her black hoodie and waited for her confidential informant. Last fall, she’d found Frog, homeless and selling drugs on the streets, the orange jacket with the frog on it catching her attention. For a couple of months, Frog was invaluable for the drug task force until AJ had found her almost dead from meth after a winter blizzard and gotten her into rehab. Frog had gotten a job and gone back to school. Then everything had gone to hell.

  They’d met right here three weeks ago when Frog had told her about human trafficking at the group house. AJ had immediately taken it to the Department of Justice as part of the FBI’s ongoing national investigation. The next day her bureau chief had surprised her with an order to take a week’s vacation. Katie had been thrilled with their first-time-ever time away but AJ had been puzzled at the timing. Then, when they returned, she’d found she had a task force on her hands and Frog was going north, right in the thick of the trafficking. She hadn’t intended on Frog going anywhere and was still angry.

  Steps sounded to her left, and a young voice said, “AJ?”

  “Here, Frog.”

  “Damned fog. Can’t see more than two feet in front of me. Hurry, they’re leaving soon.”

  AJ pulled the girl into the doorway. “How many are going with you? Be careful. This is dangerous.”

  “Eleven girls and two women, brought in this afternoon in a big box truck. We’ll ride in that on the trip up north.” Frog impatiently shuffled her feet, looking every bit of her nineteen years, her spiked hair weaving shadows in the fog.

  “Here’s the phone. Leave it on but toss it after you settle.” AJ shoved it into Frog’s light jacket. “Greg and Jeff will be about twenty minutes behind you. Any idea where you’re going?”

  “No, but here’s the bank card for the money they gave me.” Frog handed her a debit card. “You know…just in case.”

  Her heart lurched and she grabbed Frog’s arm. “Someone gave you money?”

  “The two cops that hired me to go with the girls.”

  “How do you know they were police?”

  “What the hell, AJ? I’ve known cops for years. They had IDs and badges.” She backed up. “I gotta go,” she said, fading into the fog.

  AJ gripped the bank card and moved back into the dark doorway. She didn’t know anything about someone paying Frog to do this.

  An owl hooted in the trees behind the church. The fog lifted for a moment, and she stopped. She thought she heard footsteps. Suddenly, there was a sharp gunshot. A bullet lodged right above her shoulder with a jarring thud. She went down, ears ringing, and crawled forward, trying to get to her weapon.

  The second shot hit the wood just above her head, and she sprawled on the wet stones. Heavy footsteps moved away into the fog. She took a breath so deep it hurt and dialed her team.

  * * *

  Chief Whiteaker sank down on the church steps beside her. His police and her ATF group were still going through the side streets.

  “We’ve got the brass,” he said over a tired breath.

  “This is crap. My task force’s not even official until the meeting tomorrow, but look.” She held out Frog’s bank card. “She said two policemen gave her cash to go undercover. She put it in the bank.”

  He gave her a stunned look. “I don’t know of any police that have contacted her.”

  “She’s dealt with police for years and believed them, right or wrong.”

  “I have Frog marked everywhere as ours. There isn’t a cop in this city that would have touched her. That money’s off, damn it.” He stood and started toward his car. “My team’s waking people up, and I’m going to finish the neighborhood. Go home. Get some sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

  AJ pointed her agency SUV toward home on back streets, sliding carefully through patchy fog. She’d argued when Frog told her about the undercover scheme, but the kid never said a word about money. The kid. She thought about the young boy this afternoon.

  “Damn this day.” She hit the steering wheel with her hand. For the first time in her career, she wanted to fight an assignment but she was busy. There was the meeting in the morning to pull Chief Whiteaker’s group into her new task force, the press conference to announce the new Milwaukee human trafficking task force, separate from hers, and then pick up the surprising new member of their group at the airport tomorrow afternoon.

  Chapter Two

  Crashing glass jolted Tag Beckett out of an exhausted sleep, and she groaned at the noise. A man swept up the spilled tray beside her. Her head felt like a bowl of Jell-O as she lifted it off the bar. The bartender placed a glass of ice water and a bottle of aspirin in front of her. “They said you’d probably need these,” he said kindly.

  “They?” Embarrassed, Tag read Mitchell Int’l Airport, Milwaukee on his shirt. “Do I owe you anything?”

  He pointed at three women at a nearby table. “They paid.”

  Tag rubbed her bleary eyes, following his hand. Hell. She was about to meet her new team. T
he two women in dark suits probably were agents, but the third, smaller with dark loose curls, was too relaxed…and damned adorable. The pale green summer dress was mostly business but a little risky. She straightened for a better view.

  “Aren’t they amazing?” A female voice came from behind her left ear. An attractive blonde with amused brown eyes was looking at the same table that Tag was. She turned to Tag with a smile. “Your bag’s ID says Captain Tag Beckett, US Army, IIC. If that’s you, I’m Allison Jacob, but call me AJ.” She held out her hand and Tag automatically shook it. “I’d take that aspirin if I were you.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Tag washed two pills down with the water. Trying to stand, she knocked her bag off the stool, but AJ caught it before it hit the floor.

  A hand on her shoulder steadied her. “How long since you’ve eaten?”

  “Early this morning when I got on the plane.” Tag tugged at her clothes. Her khaki cargo pants looked as if she’d slept in them. She had but remembered changing her shirt in a restroom somewhere. “What time is it?” she said.

  “Time to get you some food. Come with me.”

  She followed AJ’s easy path through the crowd watching people automatically move out of her way. Of course they did. Taller than average, her new boss was lightly muscled with sun-streaked blond hair and tan skin. And all that authority shining around her. Her almost gold, elegantly tailored suit matched her bright hair. Tag went over things she’d heard about. Allison Jacob had earned a lot of respect, but she was also the woman who’d killed one of her own ATF agents.