Turning Tables (WeHo Book 3)

by Sherryl D. Hancock

  Sable narrowed her brown eyes at Elizabeth, but said nothing. Elizabeth pointedly leaned down to kiss Cat on the lips, before she left. The women gave each other half-hearted smiles, and Elizabeth left the room.

  “She’s always so charming,” Sable said, her tone sarcastic.

  “Sable,” Cat said, her look cautionary.

  “I know, I know,” She said, waving away Cat’s look, her tone annoyed, moving to the side of the bed, to look down at Cat, her look assessing, “What happened?” she asked, her tone concerned now.

  “Shot,” Cat supplied, “Bad guy, dead now.”

  “Good!” Sable said, her tone succinct.

  Cat nodded, curious if Sable was going to let it go at that, knowing she wasn’t that lucky.

  “Were you undercover?” Sable asked, her tone curious.

  “Supposed to be, yes,” Cat said, knowing there was no way to keep Sable from knowing what had happened and why.

  Sable caught the tone in Cat’s voice and narrowed her eyes, “He knew you were a cop,” she said, her tone not really questioning.

  “Yep,” Cat said, nodding.

  “Because of me,” Sable replied, nodding and looking a bit sick at the idea.

  “Sable…” Cat said, her tone entreating, “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “Right,” Sable said, her look knowing, “Cause you had that problem when you were dating people like her.”

  Cat knew without asking that Sable was referring to Elizabeth.

  “Uh, if you’ll recall,” Cat said pointedly, “I got attacked while I was dating her.”

  “Yeah, but that wasn’t about you, it was about…“

  “Her,” Cat supplied.

  “But not something you could control,” Sable replied.

  “And you control the media Sable? Really?” Cat countered, feeling exhausted.

  “You know that’s not my point,” Sable said, sensing she was losing a battle here.

  “And you know that we can’t control everything,” Cat said, sounding tired now, “It’s done, it’s over, I’m fine.”

  Sable swallowed, nodding her head.

  Cat grinned, “I’m just kind of out of a job right now,” she said, accidentally supplying Sable with something new to fight about.

  Cat saw the idea enter Sable’s head, just like a cartoon light bulb blinking on above her head. Sable had always wanted Cat to quit her job and just travel with her, and be taken care of with no worries of work.

  “No,” Cat said, before Sable could even say anything.

  “But,” Sable began.

  “No, Sable,” Cat said again, “I’m not ever going to be that girl, you know that.”

  “You could try it,” Sable said, her tone already sounding disappointed.

  Cat looked back at her for a long moment, then shook her head, “Sable, I’m never going to be what you really want,” she began.

  “No!” it was Sable’s turn to refuse, “You’re not going to break up with me right now, Catalina, I won’t allow that,” She said, making a cutting gesture with her hand.

  Cat grinned, finding amusing that Sable had stated she wasn’t going to let her break up.

  “Stop it,” Sable said, seeing the grin on Cat’s face, and trying not to be affected by it.

  Catalina Roche was someone that Sable could never get enough of and it drove her crazy! Sable was fairly sure it was because she could never fully possess Cat’s heart, and it was therefore a challenge. She was willing to take anything she could get from the beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed narcotics officer.

  Cat laughed at the petulant look on Sable’s face.

  “Okay, okay,” Cat said, then, shaking her head, “But we are going to talk more, soon,” she said, her tone serious.

  “Of course,” Sable said, her tone circumspect.

  Cat narrowed her eyes, catching Sable’s tone, but she was too tired to pursue the matter.

  A day and a lot of visits from the Gang later, Cat got out of the hospital. Elizabeth picked her up and brought her home. They had bought a house together as an investment. It had taken a lot of convincing by Elizabeth to get Cat to do it. She had agreed that the housing market being as depressed as it was, would be a boon for them if they bought during that time.

  “We don’t have to be a couple to buy the house,” Elizabeth had reasoned, “You’ll have a room and I will too. We’ll be partners.”

  Cat had given in, figuring if things didn’t work out, Elizabeth could certainly afford to buy her out of her half of the house. She made sure that was written into the agreement, just in case.

  Lying in her room, Cat did her best to let her mind rest, but it kept coming back on her that she wasn’t going to be able to do undercover work for a while. Kyle had assured her that she was not out of a job that they’d just have to find something for her to do while things cooled off. Cat got up and began pacing, she couldn’t settle her mind and knew she needed to do something to get a resolution. She sat down, pulling out her phone and called Kyle.

  “Masterson,” Kyle answered.

  “Hi, Kyle, it’s me,” Cat said, rolling her eyes that she’d gotten so familiar with the Chief of Police that she referred to him by his first name.

  “Hey, how are you doing?” Kyle asked, leaning back in his chair, grinning.

  “I’m okay,” Cat said, “I don’t suppose you know anything yet about what I’m gonna be doing for the time being.”

  Kyle chuckled, Catalina Roche’ was very high strung, and he knew she wasn’t going to do well with being stuck at something like a desk. It was why he’d put in a call to his friend Mackie, to see about Cat doing some bodyguard work. They’d done the same thing a year and a half ago when another narcotics officer, Donovan Curtis, a member of Cat’s team, had been made on a job.

  “I don’t have any details yet,” Kyle told her, “But I’ve put a call into Mackie, is that something you’d be interested in?”

  “Bodyguard work?” Cat asked, sounding like it was an alien term.

  “Yeah,” Kyle said, “You’ve got the skills, and maybe your feet won’t go to sleep on ya.”

  Cat blew her breath out, not sure what she’d been expecting, but this hadn’t even been in the realm.

  “I guess…” Cat said, then realizing that she was looking a gift horse square in the mouth she hurriedly said, “Sorry sir, yes, it would be good.”

  Kyle smiled at his end of the line, knowing that Catalina wasn’t thrilled, but he wanted her to have a chance at using some of her skills, and this was better than sitting at a desk. He told her as much.

  Catalina had to agree, riding a desk was something that would make her insane. She ended up hanging up a few minutes later with a better perspective and a promise from Kyle that he’d get back to her as quickly as he could.

  True to his word, Kyle called her that evening, telling her to plan to report to Los Angeles in about three weeks, so long as her healing went well.

  That night Cat lay in her bed, glancing at the clock, Elizabeth hadn’t come home yet. She’d left that day saying she’d just be gone to the restaurant, that she owned, for a few hours. That had been eight hours ago. It occurred to Cat that Elizabeth might be seeing someone again. There’d been a couple of times when Cat was sure Elizabeth had starting up with someone, but she’d always kept her mouth shut about it. If Elizabeth was dating other people, it was probably better in the long run for the both of them. For whatever ridiculous reason, though, it still hurt.

  In truth it had been Cat that had put a stop to their physical relationship. For a while, Cat had allowed herself to become a person she’d been before, free-spirited and able to sleep with more than one person at a time. A relationship with Kana Sorbinno, and subsequently with Elizabeth had changed her, and then Elizabeth had betrayed her so badly that Cat wasn’t sure she ever wanted a relationship again. That was essentially where her mind had stayed, but she also realized that she could no longer just have casual sex, she wanted someth
ing real, or she just didn’t want it. At that point in time, she wasn’t meeting women that she wanted anything to do with, she didn’t trust any of them anymore.

  Prior to dating Kana Sorbinno, Cat had dated bi-sexual and bi-curious women, because they required so little real time commitment. Dating Kana had shown Cat what it would be like to date someone who was capable of deep abiding feelings. That had, of course, turned out badly as well, since Kana had still been in love with her ex, a super model named Palani Ryker.

  Cat had finally gotten out of that relationship, only to end up in one with the highly heterosexual, but needy Elizabeth Endicott. Liz had needed her, first to get off drugs, and then to love and support her through opening her restaurant and bar. Cat had done that, and when Cat had needed Elizabeth the most, she’d been off in San Francisco screwing the bartender, the male bartender, from the club. It had just about killed Cat, and had definitely hardened her heart. Even the rock star Sable Sands hadn’t been able to wiggle her way into Cat’s heart.

  Lying in the darkness, Cat did her best to shove away the ache in her heart. Her life was a mess, and all she wanted to do was to run away. That’s when the idea of going home to San Francisco, the Castro District, where she’d grown up occurred to her.

  Guess I can heal pretty much anywhere, Cat thought to herself. Picking up her phone she made plane reservations. She then texted her mother, Melanie Roche’ to tell her she’d be there the next day. Decision made, Cat thought to herself, feeling a little better suddenly. She lay back down, and was asleep a few minutes later.

  Elizabeth got home well past midnight and cautiously went to check on Cat, hoping that Cat would be asleep. She was relieved when she was. She went in to the bathroom and took a long shower, then climbed into her own bed. Guilt was heavy on her, but she pushed it away. She couldn’t make Cat love her again, and things just weren’t the same. She fell asleep with tears on her cheeks.

  The next morning when Elizabeth finally rose at 9:30, she found a note on the counter from Catalina.

  Gone to San Francisco to visit mom, don’t know when I’ll be back.

  Cat

  Elizabeth balled up the note and threw it across the room, feeling angry, not at Cat, but at herself. She knew that the liaison the night before had been a mistake, but she wanted to feel wanted again, and Roger had been pursuing her. It was stupid and she knew it, but it was too late to change it now. She was just glad Cat hadn’t caught her this time.

  Zoey Cabbott left her advisor’s office with a spring in her step. Her proposal for her dissertation had been approved by the board. Now all she had to do was write it. Right, it was just that easy! Part of her had been worried that her advisor would tell her they’d reject her proposal, but now she didn’t have to worry about that anymore. It had been approved. Now, if she could only get the permission from the Attorney General’s office to do it on the person she wanted to do the report on. One of her asks had been for the California Attorney General herself, Midnight Chevalier, but now she’d added to that request the new Director of the Division of Law Enforcement, Jericho Tehrani. Both women were prime examples of strong women in power positions in law enforcement.

  Zoey’s dissertation on the effectiveness of strong women in the political arena via law enforcement, a predominantly “man’s world”, centered on these two women. She really hoped she’d be granted the opportunity to meet with both women, and to perhaps shadow them in their areas. She knew it was pie in the sky, with all that was written about Midnight Chevalier, she could write the paper with good research, but Jericho Tehrani was an unknown. The little that had been written about her detailed some very interesting stuff, but she needed to get more, so she was really hoping she’d get lucky there.

  Her day further improved when she got home and her answering machine held a message from the Attorney General’s office. Her request to meet with Midnight Chevalier had been approved. She excitedly called the office to schedule a meeting with the dynamic top cop for the State of California. After the meeting was scheduled, Zoey looked around her tiny apartment thinking that this might be the start of great things. That night she met a group of friends and the local hot spot and celebrated.

  The day of the meeting arrived, and Zoey nervously waited for the Attorney General, who was running late. Zoey sat in the reception area of the office, on the first floor. She wrote and re-wrote questions she wanted to ask the AG. There was no mistaking it when Midnight Chevalier entered the building, all activity stopped, not because she was the Attorney General, but because Midnight Chevalier was a legend in the law enforcement community.

  Midnight Chevalier was considered a tiny powerhouse. At 5’4”, the strawberry blond haired, gold green eyed woman was small but mighty. As a police sergeant and the head of a gang task force, she’d been known to go toe to toe with the biggest baddest gang leaders out there. She’d been shot, stabbed and actually believed dead at one point in her career. A year and a half before, a disgruntled ex-employee had tried to kill Midnight using a biochemical agent, infecting the AG and her bodyguards.

  Midnight’s bodyguards were members of her original gang task force, called “F.O.R.S” which stood for “Former Organized Riot Seekers”, Midnight’s version of “gang”. Kana Sorbinno and Tiny Ako were very large, very intimidating Samoans, and whenever they were with Midnight, which was most of the time, they were a solid wall of muscle between Midnight and anyone foolhardy enough to try and hurt her.

  Striding into the building, Midnight was on her phone, apparently arguing with someone.

  “I could care less about his feelings, sir,” she was saying, lifting her shirt to show her ID, that was clipped right next to her holstered gun and badge, to the security guard, “Hold on sir,” she said, as she handed Kana the phone, pulled out the weapon setting it on the connector to the security station, and walked through the metal detector. On the other side, she picked up her weapon, a rather nasty looking gun, and holstered it. Kana had done the same and handed Midnight her phone back before picking up her own weapon. This was all accomplished without a word or even a look. It was obviously something that occurred a lot.

  “Look,” Midnight said into her phone, stopping near where Zoey had stood up and waited anxiously, Midnight’s eyes found her, and she nodded to the girl. “Sir, look,” she said, making a face as the person on the other end of the line said something that annoyed her.

  Zoey noticed that Kana and Tiny exchanged a look over the AGs head. Kana held up three fingers and counted down with them, three, two, one.

  “Gimme a fucking break here, will ya?” Midnight exclaimed, startling the people around her, even as Kana and Tiny started to chuckle, “The chucklehead was where he didn’t belong and his ass got arrested, if he wants to make bail, that’s fine, but I’m not going to pretend he wasn’t where he shouldn’t be just because he’s a damned politician.”

  With that Midnight hung up her phone and shoved it in her pocket. Then she looked around as if just realizing that people had just overheard what she’d said.

  “Thank you, thank you,” she said, holding out her hands like a comedian receiving applause, causing people to laugh, “I’ll be here all week.”

  Glancing back at Kana and Tiny she saw that they were still grinning.

  “Shut up,” she told them, her look wry, which only caused them to laugh harder.

  Shaking her head, Midnight looked over at Zoey. Walking over she extended her hand to the young woman.

  “You must be Zoey,” she said, smiling warmly, her gold green eyes sparkling in the sunlight coming through the high windows of the building, “I’m Midnight. I’m so sorry we’re late, we had a politician in a local bathroom get arrested for indecent exposure and he seems to think that calling his dogs down on me will get me to do something about it.”

  “I imagine that kind of thing gets kind of sticky,” Zoey said, making a face.

  “You have no idea!” Midnight said, gesturing toward the elevators and leading
the way to them with Zoey following.

  Once in her office, Midnight took off the jacket she wore, exposing an emerald green sleeveless blouse, tucked into black slacks, she was also wearing black leather dress boots. Zoey had no way of knowing that this was a generally standard outfit for Midnight, she wasn’t very formal when it came to how she dressed, and suits weren’t her thing. On her belt she wore her holstered weapon and her badge; she removed the weapon from its holster, placing it in her top desk drawer as she sat down.

  “Do many Attorneys General carry a weapon?” Zoey asked.

  Midnight grinned, glancing at where Tiny and Kana stood.

  “No,” Midnight said, shaking her head, “But I’ve made a lot of enemies over the years, so I get to be special.”

  Zoey nodded her head, smiling.

  “You certainly have gotten people’s attention,” Zoey agreed.

  “Well, people tend to forget that technically I’m not just the Attorney General, but I’m also responsible for the Division of Law Enforcement and that makes me the top cop for the State too.”

  “But I read that you do have a law degree too, correct?” Zoey asked.

  “Yes,” Midnight said, “But I’ve never practiced, I just wanted to understand the law, so I knew how to apply it.”

  “That’s really incredible,” Zoey said, ever amazed by this woman.

  “So what’s your major?” Midnight asked, unable to remember what her secretary Chris had told her.

  “Women’s studies, at UCLA,” Zoey said, her hazel eyes bright.

  “And you’re going for your Doctorate?” Midnight asked.

  “Yes, I’m hoping to finish my degree in the next couple of years.”

  “That’s impressive,” Midnight said, nodding, “what do you plan to do with it?”

  “I’m not totally sure yet,” Zoey said, “I’m just really hoping to make a difference for women in this country.”

  “Well, more power to you,” Midnight said, grinning, “So, how do you want to do this?”

  “Well, ma’am, I was hoping I could ask you a few questions.”