The Price of Disrespect (Gray Spear Society Book 6) by Alex Siegel

Tawni got out and walked up to one of the doors. Tawni tried the door but it was locked.
    She was reaching for a buzzer button when Aaron said, "Don't. Smythe, let's see if those lock picking skills have improved."
    "Yes, sir," Smythe said.
    He took a set of lock picks from a hidden pocket in his pants. With the deft touch of a professional burglar, he opened the door in about thirty seconds. Tawni was impressed.
    "You've been practicing," Aaron said.
    "You ordered me to, sir."
    Aaron led the way through the door and up a flight a stairs. He found the apartment with the right number.
    "Does your mother live alone?" he asked Tawni in a quiet voice.
    "Usually."
    "Good. Don't use our real names in front of her. I'm very serious. You'll get your mother in a lot of trouble. Understand? Go ahead and knock."
    Tawni knocked on the door.
    Aaron and Smythe stood behind her. Both men carried guns as part of their military police costumes. While they waited for an answer, they put their hands on their guns and seemed very alert. They were ready for whatever was behind that door. Paranoid, Tawni thought.
    The door opened a few inches and her mother peeked through the crack. "Tawni!" she yelled. She opened the door all the way.
    Ladona Williams was an older, shorter version of her daughter. A hard life had given her wrinkles around the eyes and a permanently wary expression. A small scar disfigured her upper lip. She wore a purple dress made of thin cotton which did a poor job of hiding her varicose veins.
    "Hi, mom." Tawni gave her mother a hug.
    "Why are you wearing orange clothes?" Ladona looked over her shoulder. "Who are these men?"
    Tawni glanced back at Aaron and Smythe. "All I know is they won't fucking leave me alone. I came here to change my clothes."
    Everybody walked into the apartment. The main room served as a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen. A doorway led to a small bedroom, and there was also a bathroom. The cheap wooden furniture was very familiar to Tawni because she had grown up with it.
    Tawni sniffed the air. "I don't smell your cat."
    "Truffles died of kidney failure," Ladona said. "Oh, I have your mail."
    She handed a thick stack of envelopes to Tawni. She rifled through them and found only junk mail and overdue bills. She was still carrying student loans from her days at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Lately, her credit card debt had been piling up, too. She wasn't good at finding or keeping jobs.
    Aaron was looking over her shoulder. He snatched the stack out of her hand and handed it to Smythe. "Clean up this mess."
    "Yes, sir." Smythe stepped back and took a gray phone from his pocket.
    "What are you doing?" Tawni said.
    "Being nice to you," Aaron said. "Don't complain."
    Smythe called somebody on the phone. He started opening envelopes and reading off account numbers and balances.
    Aaron smiled at Ladona. "Hello. You have a lovely daughter."
    "Thank you," she said. "Are you military police?"
    "That's what it says on my uniform. I'm Sergeant Joseph Drake. If you don't mind, I need to ask you a few questions about Tawni."
    Ladona glanced at Tawni. "Why don't you just ask her?"
    "Because I'd rather hear your answers," Aaron said.
    "Mom," Tawni said, "you don't have to talk to him."
    He glared at her. She pretended not to notice.
    "What was Tawni like as a girl?" he asked her mother.
    Ladona smiled. "The prettiest little darling on the block. Boys were always coming around, even back in grade school. She broke a lot of hearts. Why?"
    Tawni crossed her arms and sniffed.
    "These are just standard questions," Aaron said. "Did she get into fights?"
    "She almost got expelled from high school. She punched one girl hard enough to break her nose."
    "Mom," Tawni said, "Nia wrote the word 'whore' on my locker with lipstick. She deserved it."
    "You went out with her boyfriend," Ladona said.
    "He asked me, and we never had sex."
    "What about that fight you had with a teacher? You kicked that poor man in the