Prologue

"Ezra you need to move it along"

"…but Liv, aren't you scared. I am going to hurt you…"

Liv sighed. Ezra was a very nice boy and she appreciated his concern, but if one of her brothers noticed she was missing, it wasn't her that was going to be in any kind of pain. No, that wasn't true, she'd be in pain, but it would be nothing compared to the tsunami of rage they would unleash on Ezra.

"Yes, but I don't think there is anything we can do about that…so maybe you should just do it?"

Liv lay flat on the blanket she had pilfered from her mother's linen closet. Ezra had driven them to Crawford Park and together they had spread out the blanket on the stone-cold floor of the Gazebo close to the park pond. It was a popular destination with all the kids at Langley High.

The only time it wasn't teeming with teenagers and their unruly hormones was in the winter. It was just too cold for most. The place was always deserted in the Winter. Which was why she was up here freezing her ass off with Ezra. It was the only place they could have any privacy. A frigid wind blew through the open space and they both shivered. We should have stayed in the car, she thought. It is too cold to do this out here.

She had wanted to suggest they go back to the car, but she was having a hard-enough time getting Ezra to go along. She feared that the interruption to move to the warmth of the car would totally have unfocused him. She was having a hard-enough time with him already.

Why was she having to force him! Weren't boys supposed to be feening for this moment? She seemed more eager than he was. She was the girl; she should have been the one who was timorous. Instead here she was begging him to get along with it. She was starting to panic. This was not going the way she wanted it to go. She had spent weeks planning for this moment. She had come up with contingencies and backups for every possible nightmare scenario.

Condoms, check. Cute underwear, check. Advanced evasion tactics of the raging trio aka her brothers, check. Scrutiny of boyfriend's willingness to deflower…. oops! She had missed that one!

How did one anticipate that their boyfriend might not actually want to do it?

She heard Ezra's zip open.

Finally! Here we go…okay…lets go…she waited and… got nothing. He's hand was stuck on his zipper, seemingly unable to move.

Okay, that's about as much humiliation as I can take on one night. She was done. It was one thing to rush through her deflowerment so she didn't get caught by the raging trio, but it was another thing entirely to have to force the boy to do the darn thing!

"Ezra stop, we don't have to do it, you can stop" she said. She heard his sigh of relief as he got off her and felt tears prickle behind her eyes.

Was he happy?! What was wrong with her, was she gross? Was there a smell she wasn't aware of? She wanted to die.

Ezra had been so happy putting his clothes back together, he hadn't noticed the mood change until he looked over and saw her crying.

"Oh my god Liv, why are you crying? Did I hurt you"

Yes, you jerk! Why don't you want me? She decided she needed to say that shit out loud.

Why…why don't you want me….am I gross?" she asked vocalizing her fears. The tears were rolling down unchecked. She had put on so much mascara in anticipation of this moment, she knew she had to look a fright, but she didn't care at this point. Little sobs escaped no matter how hard she tried to keep them in.

"Liv, I am so sorry. No, you're not gross… your beautiful. You're my best friend and I love you…I just…" Ezra sighed.

Liv looked at him intensely. She was not letting him off the hook. This kind of freaking rejection needed an explanation!

"Why Ezra…why?" she pushed. She deserved to know. Abby, her best friend, had her virginity taken three months ago by Peter Crandall. Abby said he had been gone at her like a maniac once she had agreed to do it with him.

"Olivia…Liv, I'm gay. I think I'm gay"

Her heart stopped. Holy cow! Wait was this an excuse to not go through with it?

She stared at him…it wasn't…he wasn't lying. She knew Ezra.

"What…why…how do you know?" she asked

"…I just do. Liv. I love you more than anyone in this whole world. If I can't do this with you then…this confirms it to me. I have fought it…but I'm gay…I'm gay Liv"

She kept looking at him and she saw the tears. She tried to process but there were too many thoughts stampeding through her brain. She would start unpacking one and another would come to the forefront demanding attention.

She heard Ezra sniffle, and not from the cold. Her heart broke. Damn.

She was a horrible friend. How long had he been grappling with this…alone? Not only had she not been a good friend, she had compounded the problem by forcing him to come with her to and rid her of her virginity while her overprotective brothers were out playing football.

"Ezra, I…" the high beams of a car suddenly lit up the dark night. The light focused on the gazebo where they had laid out a blanket. Multiple car doors opened and closed with resounding force.

Shit! They had found her.

"Liv, I swear to god if you're in that gazebo in any state other than fully clothed…. I am going to end you and whomever you're with" Olivia cringed at the anger in her older brother Eli's voice. She was done for, her execution was a given, but she could save Ezra.

"Run Ezra…run!"

Ezra knew of the Pope brothers. They were legends. He wasn't a fool. He got up and took off running into the night. She heard one of her brothers give chase. Probably Harold. He loved to chase the boys away; literally.

A giant dark shadow appeared near the gazebo and stepped into the small semi-enclosed space. Eli…. She could feel the anger vibrating off of him. He gave her a once over. She still had on her clothes, thank god, which seemed to calm him down some. Not much.

He continued his perusal of her and paused on her bare feet

"Put your shoes on and get in the car. NOW!"

Tears streamed down her face as she complied. What choice did she have?

Ten minutes later Harold appeared from the trees behind the Gazebo. He was alone. No Ezra. She threw up a silent thank you to the universe. He must have gotten away.

The ride home was mostly quiet. The only noise was her brother muttering under his breath about how much work she was and how she was going to get it when they got home. She sat in the passenger seat staring straight ahead.

Finally, she turned to look at her brother Eli driving. She turned back and looked Harold and Bryan squeezed into the back cab of the truck. All of them wearing the same vexed expression. She turned back around, sighed and leaned back on the seat.

She was going to die a virgin.

Chapter One

Thirteen Years Later...

"I need a woman"

Alexandria Police Chief Derrick Wright looked up as detective Fitzgerald "Fitz" Grant walked into this office and frowned. This should be interesting he thought to himself.

"You don't usually need my help in that department. Word around is that your raking them in hand over fist" the chief said. He pulled back from reading his report and watched Fitz settle into the shabby visitor chair in his office.

Fitz smiled. There was no point in denying it.

The chief had known Fitz going on twenty years. They had worked together for the United States Capitol Police, USPC, for five years before Wright applied for a transfer to Alexandria PD after getting hitched. Fitz was still single and enjoyed working for USCP.

"Dexter has finally decided we can go after Eze. I need the right kind of woman to draw him in. Our precinct doesn't have anyone that…fits" he said being tactile.

"Hmm…and exactly what kind of fit were you looking for?" Wright asked

"Petite, African-American, beautiful, I need a real head turner …I need the perfect bait to set up the trap if I am going to nail him"

"Dexter must be desperate to finally nail that son of a bitch" Martin Dexter was the current head of the USCP.

Fitz nodded. The USCP had been going after Daniel Eze for years. He had been flooding the neighborhoods with crack cocaine for 20 years. That in itself was a record. Drug dealing was not a career people could operate in without impunity for years. Sooner or later a bullet or the police called up your card and you were done for. Not Eze, he continued to operate without impunity.

Daniel Eze was a real honest to god warlord born and bred in war-torn Sierra Leone. He had come to the United States and been granted Asylum status within a couple of years of his arrival. Within five years of his arrival he was running the drug market on the entire block of Washington Heights. Five years after that he was the leading gun runner in the area. He was now working with Mexican Cartels to bring in cocaine. He had been operating in the criminal underground for decades and had made hundreds of millions of dollars.

Eze was an embarrassment to the USCP. He had been a successful criminal in Sierra Leone, but that was to be expected. Sierra Leone was a country mired by poverty and civil war; Lawlessness will abound. He shouldn't have been able to set up as easily in America… but he had.

He was smart and had the advantage of everyone underestimating him. What harm could a poor immigrant from a war-torn country do? The answer was simple. A lot. He could do a hell of a fucking lot.

"He's on a murdering spree. Taking out the competition. Once the competition realizes he's behind the executions, were going to have a blood bath on our hands. We need to neutralize him now. Plus, Dexter wants to run for office next year. Nabbing Eze is just the kind of press he needs right now"

"So why come here?" Wright asked. There were plenty of competent female officers in USCP that could handle the undercover work.

"Two reasons, I am pretty sure he has a couple of people on the payroll and Eze is not an amateur I am sure he has a 119D roster"

It was a trick most of the professional criminals used. Every few days you had one of the low rung lackies in the organization set up camp a good distance from police HQ and record everyone's going in and out. You took pictures and license plates and developed a HQ roster.

The roster was used as part of the vetting process for any newcomers to the gang. A criminal background check in reverse. They needed to know anyone who joined was really a criminal.

"Well, I have some good news and some bad news. Good news is that I have a woman that fits your description perfectly"

Fitz perked up at the news.

"The bad news is that this little head turner goes by the name Pope"

"So?"

Wright stared at Fitz but didn't respond. He waited for the him to solve the little puzzle he had just laid in front of him. He saw it on his face the minute the dots connected.

"Shit…close relation?" he asked. Please let her be a distant cousin; a cousin the family held little or no affection for.

"You could say that. Papa Pope's baby girl and Eli Jr's baby sister" Wright said smiling.

Fitz swore colorfully under his breath and Wright burst out laughing.

"You can take your pick about who's going to kick your ass first if you try to get that little girl anywhere near your case" Wright said smirking.

Fitz looked at the chief and had only one thing to say to that.

"SHIT"

Olivia Pope was in the Alexandria Police Department Evidence Management Unit slowly dying.

She had completed her twenty-week basic Law Enforcement Training session at the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy five years prior. She had aced every aspect of the training. She was unmatched in her class at defensive driving, firearms qualifications and she had nailed the written test.

She should be out on patrol, conducting investigations…hell at this point she would have preferred to be on traffic duty. But no. she didn't get to do what everyone else in her class got to do. She didn't get to be a real police officer because of her overbearing father and brothers.

After graduation she had been handed her assignment and almost died from humiliation. The rest of the class had been expecting her to assigned to one of the better departments with a top rate field mentor based on her scores. Instead they had listened, shocked as she was banished to the EMU. The Evidence Management Unit.

Her father had made a call. She had rung her mother who had done her best to speak to her father Eli but there was no getting through to him. He hadn't wanted her to join the police force and this was her punishment for disobeying the great Eli Pope.

Of course, he had no compunction about two of her three brothers joining the force. Eli Sr. and Bryan had been welcomed, nay, encouraged to join the force.

She sighed as she labeled another bag with a permanent marker. Indicating the case number and detectives name on the evidence she was bagging.

The whole evidence room assignment was designed to push her to the edge. To break her so she could resign from the police force. She would never give him the satisfaction. Eli Pope had been on the force for twenty-five years. Retirement was on the horizon. She felt she would have a better chance of convincing someone to transfer her out of EMU once Eli was no longer a physical presence in the department.

"Pope, the chief wants to see you"

She looked up at Walter Ramirez. What?

"What are you deaf? Chief wants you upstairs" he repeated irritated. Walter was always irritated, so she ignored him. Speaking of people, she couldn't wait to see retire…

Why in the hell would the chief want to see me?

She bagged the last of the evidence and placed it into the cardboard banker's box she has prepped for the burglary case. She verified that she had labeled the box with was correct case number and then headed to the back to shelve the box.

She quickly made her way out of the cage and up the elevators to the chief's office. She walked by the desks of the other officers and detectives and felt the pang she always felt whenever she came out of her dungeon into the officer bullpen.

This is where I should be, I am good enough to be up here.

She walked up to Marie Crane, Chief Wrights assistant and waited silently as she finished up a phone conversation.

"Yeah, I will send her right in" she smiled up at her and Liv smiled back. She placed the phone back in its cradle.

"Go on in Liv, they are expecting you" she said pointing at the chief's door.

They? Who in the hell was they?

She rapped her knuckles on the door and pushed into the office.

"Liv, come in and take a seat" he gestured toward the seat across form his desk.

Olivia was so nervous she never noticed the tall man standing towards the corner. She took a quick seat and looked at the Chief. Her eyes travelled across his desk and she was startled to see her file on his desk.

"Liv, I want you to meet detective Fitzgerald Grant from USCP. You can call him Fitz"

Olivia turned in her chair to greet the detective, but nothing came out of her mouth when she saw him. He stood in the corner leaning on the wall.

She looked over and felt her heart stop. Wow!

The detective was very good looking. No that was an understatement. He was gorgeous!

She conducted a clandestine perusal of him. Tall, broad shoulders, gorgeous head of hair and his eyes…his eyes were…well it bore repeating. Wow!

He pushed off the wall and walked over to her with a confident stride. He stuck out his hand and she shook it. She almost jumped from the touch. Something passed between them. She looked up at him and saw he was no longer smiling. He looked puzzled…had he also felt it…?

"Liv, Fitz needs some assistance on one of his cases and I think you might be a good fit for what he is looking for" Chief Wright said interrupting her wayward thoughts.

She looked at the detective for a beat longer, her eyes didn't want to turn away from the visual buffet in front of them. She reluctantly faced the chief.

"I'm sorry, could you please repeat that Chief?" she said. She hadn't heard a word he said. She was too busy being thirsty.

"Fitz needs someone to work with him on a case. We think you might be a good fit"

A case! Was she finally being moved out of EMU hell?

"Am I getting transferred out of EMU?" she asked unable to hide her enthusiasm.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves Liv. Fitz needs to determine if you can manage what is required, and let's not forget that we have to run this by your father"

Olivia felt anger roil over her.

"I am sorry chief but why do you need to run this by my father? Do you call mommy and daddy every time you assign someone to a case to make sure that their parents are okay with them working a particular case? I was under the apprehension that you, not my father, are the police chief. With all due respect the only person who should be deciding whether or not I can be on the assignment is you!" she took a deep breath...

"Frankly chief, if this police department continues to pander to my father and his concerted efforts to derail my career, I will have no choice but to file a complaint"

Chief Wright stared at her, expressionless. I might have gone too far, oh god he's going to fire me!

The chief turned to Fitz

"Well?"

Fitz looked down at her and nodded.

"She's perfect"

Olivia stared at the detective and then at the chief. She looked at both of them again, trying to discern what was happening.

"What's happening? What am I perfect for?"

"I'll be back in tomorrow to discuss the details with you Ms. Pope; be in plain clothes and bring a separate bag of clothes you can work out in. Thanks, chief!"

She watched as Fitzgerald Grant walked out the door and down the hallway. His long legs eating up the space in seconds. She turned to her chief.

"You wanted to be out on the field Pope, this is your chance. Now if you would excuse me, I need to prepare for the hell that's about to rain down on me once your father and brothers find out you're going to be working on a case with USCP" he sighed heavily "You might want to do the same" he pointed towards his door indicating that she was dismissed.

Olivia stood nodded at the chief and made her way out of his office.

She headed towards the ladies' room. She walked along the tile floor stooping down to verify that there were no feet showing under the cubbies. She was alone.

A case! She was going to assist on a bona fide case! Hallelujah!

She jumped up and down in the bathroom, dancing like a maniac. She was so caught up in her dance, she didn't know the door was open until she heard a voice yell from outside the bathroom

"Hey, you can't go in there Eli, it's the women's bathroom!" an angry voice bereted.

Olivia froze. She turned slowly on her heels and faced her father.

"I want to see you in Chief Wrights office" he turned and walked out the door.

How the hell had he already found out? Wait I need more time... to prepare to face him...!

She took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom. She trailed her father out of the room back towards the chief's office. The normally noisy department was silent as they watched the two of them walk towards the back office.

The bullpen rippled, co-workers turned and looked at each other.

Oh yeah…shit was about to hit the fan…big time

Fitz sat in his government issue SUV after exiting the Alexandria Police Department and tried to get his thoughts together.

Olivia Pope.

Damn… she was…she was beautiful. He couldn't remember having that kind of immediate visceral physical reaction to a woman in years.

Her back had been turned towards him when she entered the chief's office. He could only see the back of the ugly standard blues of APD. She was a little thing. She couldn't be more than five-foot-two. That was good. Eze liked small packages….apparently he did to...

He had been watching her back as the chief spoke to her, wondering if she was going to able to handle the undercover work with her lack of experience when Wright had introduced him and she had turned to face him. It was like a punch in his gut from a heavy-weight champion.

The chief had been lying when he said she was a looker.

She was way beyond that; she was extraordinarily beautiful.

Perfect symmetry to her facial features, high cheekbones, beautiful brown skin and then there was her lips…that perfect mouth…hmm

He couldn't stop looking at it.

He was surprised by his reaction to her. Fitz had a definitive type. They were usually tall and voluptuous. He was a tits man, he liked them big. She was none of those things, and yet he had found himself enthralled.

That tiny little package, had him wanting things… good things, but in a bad way. Hmm...

He forced himself to focus on the reason why he was here. She was exactly what he needed. There was no way Eze would be able to resist her. He was having a hard time of it himself. He was however still worried that she didn't have any field experience.

It was easy to ace all your firearm classes and to do okay in field simulations, but what happened in the real world when you were facing an honest to god bad guy aiming a gun at you? A thug willing to end your life with no hesitation? That kind of experience couldn't be bought. That moment tested your mettle; it let you know if you were cut out for the job.

Detective Pope hadn't had that moment. There was no way to tell if she would cave under the pressure of such a moment.

He pulled out the file Chief Wright had given him and looked at her picture...He examined her with a clinical detached eye... well with as much as of a detached eye as he could manage, despite his attraction.

She wore almost no makeup and her hair was tied up in a severe bun. It was an attempt to downplay her looks.

It wasn't working for shit.

It was never easy being a woman in a male dominated field and they didn't come more testosterone laden then a police department. Most women chose the path Ms. Pope elected. They played down their looks so they could be seen as competent individuals and not eye candy.

She had been on the police force for five years but she hadn't done any field work. Her father and her brothers saw to that. It was a shame. He had seen her file. She had scored through the roof in the academy. Her firearms record was impeccable. If it was to be believed, and he saw no reason why not, she could hit a target from fifteen hundred yards. She should have been working as a sharpshooter in SWAT at a bare minimum with that level of skill.

All that didn't mean shit though. Not for this assignment. All the sharpshooting skills in the world wouldn't help her with Eze. He needed a seductress, someone capable of turning a man's head. He had a feeling that Ms. Pope was no femme fatale.

She looked the part, but could she play the part? He would find out tomorrow.

He started his car and pulled out of the Alexandria PD headed back to the Capitol.