Building Empires (MidKnight Blue Book 1)

by Sherryl Hancock

  “Yeah, so?” the man in front said, glancing behind himself meaningfully. “There are twenty of us and only two of you.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you what,” Joe said, fingering the trigger of his gun and looking at it thoughtfully. “This here is a forty-five caliber with eight rounds in the clip and one in the pipe, and oh yeah, if you get hit with a forty-five, you don’t get up. And Spider what do you have there?” He looked over at his backup. Spider held the gun up obligingly. “Ah yes, that’s forty-five caliber Glock, if I’m not mistaken.” Spider nodded in acknowledgment. “Twelve rounds in the clip and one in the pipe. So that makes twenty-two rounds. Oh, and it’s actually only eighteen of you, perhaps you should spend more time in school.” Joe paused, smirking at the young man in front again. “So that makes four extra rounds for us, and since Spider here and I are expert marksmen I’d say the odds of you getting us before we get you are slim to none.”

  As he wound up his assessment, Joe reached over and pulled the slide back on his gun. Spider did the same.

  “First two are ready, who wants to die first?” Joe asked. His voice was the only sound in the room.

  Dibbins had been surprisingly silent through the whole thing, but now he stepped forward, past Joe. He held a broken bottle in his hand, and eyed his former allies meaningfully.

  “And anyone they don’t shoot, I’ll take out myself,” Dibbins said, his voice dangerously low and strangely devoid of the stoned slur it had previously held.

  There was a lot of shuffling of feet at what had been said. Joe looked over to Spider, catching the Laotian man’s eye he nodded almost imperceptibly.

  “So what do you say man?” Joe asked, looking at the young man up front. “Call it a draw?”

  There was silence. The young man who had taken over leadership of the Apostles, eyed Joe and Spider and then his eyes came to rest on Dibbins.

  “Let’s just forget it, Jess,” someone said from the crowd.

  “Yeah, he ain’t worth dyin’ for,” someone else seconded.

  Jess was apparently considering his options. He put a nervous hand through his hair. Joe pinned him with a look.

  “Yeah, Jess,” he said, “why don’t you wise up, so you can grow up.”

  More silence ensued.

  “Come on Jess,” someone said.

  Joe could see that the crowd was already thinning out. Good he thought to himself.

  He didn’t like the idea of having to use a gun on kids. He knew if it was him or them he would, but he didn’t like it.

  Finally, only Jess remained. He stood eyeing Dave Dibbins.

  “What’s it gonna be?” Dibbins said, watching Jess closely. “You gonna try me?”

  Suddenly, Dibbins didn’t act like the stoned loser that Joe and Spider had seen. He stood taller, with more authority in his voice. Joe and Spider exchanged surprised looks, but they stayed out of it.

  Jess’s hand tightened on the length of chain he held as he eyed the three of them. Finally, he let out his pent up breath in a rush.

  “Forget it,” he said, dropping the chain. He turned and left.

  To Joe and Spider’s surprise Dave Dibbins turned to them, his eyes a lot less glassy than before. He was very aware of his surroundings now.

  “Okay, so,” Dave said, tossing the broken bottle aside. “Now what? Do I join FORS, or do you kill me now?”

  Joe and Spider broke into laughter. Obviously, they had a new teammate.

  ****

  Joe and Midnight’s relationship proved to be a benefit for each of them. Although they cared very much for one another, they both knew that they were not “in love” and for that reason those all-important three little words were never spoken. It was something they didn’t discuss, they just knew. It was a kind of a healing stage for them both.

  For Joe it was a way to cure the loneliness he had felt since his parents’ death, and since leaving England. For Midnight, it was learning to trust a man for the first time and to realize that she could rely on him.

  The relationship was, however, very intense. The highs were very high, and the lows fiery. It was the simple fact that they needed to be close to each other in every way at that point in their lives, and being so close made for strong emotions and strong fears.

  A couple of months into the relationship, however, Midnight started to feel increasingly stifled; Joe had become overly protective of her. Without meaning to, Joe had unconsciously put all of his dormant fears of losing someone he cared for onto Midnight. He was constantly after her to be more careful, to take more backup. They fought about the issue regularly, usually after she’d been hurt working a case and he’d overreacted to her injury.

  One of those fights occurred when Midnight was hurt while he was out of town for three days. He had traveled up to Sacramento, in Midnight’s stead, to represent FORS at a conference sponsored by the State of California, Bureau of Investigation on Organized Crime and Criminal Identification. Midnight had been too busy with a case and had asked him to attend in her place. The day he was to return, Midnight went on a raid with three other members of FORS and a San Diego Police Department entry team. Her backup, a huge Samoan man nicknamed Tiny, had fallen behind her going up the five flights of stairs in the apartment building they were hitting. So she had been alone when she had entered the apartment door they had just forced open.

  The officers searching the apartment didn’t know the suspect had been hiding in a hall closet. He was on his way out of that closet when Midnight started to open the door. The man was heavy set and easily three times Midnight’s weight. He threw the door open, pushing Midnight into the wall behind her. She cried out as her head hit the wall, and that alerted the officers that were farther into the apartment. They came on the run but it was Tiny, who had finally made it up the stairs, who rushed the suspect who was headed out the front door at a full run.

  By the time the officers had secured the suspect, and someone thought to check on Midnight, she was sitting on the floor, knees up, arms folded, with one hand holding the back of her head. There was blood seeping between her fingers. Tiny picked her up in his arms and carried her downstairs, Midnight all the while telling him she was fine.

  The big Samoan stood by impatiently as the paramedics checked her out and stopped the bleeding. It was that same big man who almost passed out from relief when they told him she would be just fine. She had a nasty cut on her head, and they said she’d have a headache for a few days. Tiny thanked the paramedics profusely. He looked at Midnight apologetically as she got up from the curb. Tiny rushed to help her. With exaggerated care, he walked her over to her car, asking her over and over if she needed a ride home.

  Midnight only shook her head. “I’m okay, Tiny, but I’m taking the rest of the day off.”

  “You sure you don’t want a ride home?” he asked, his big brown eyes looking worriedly at her.

  “Yes I’m sure!” she said laughing. “But I will let you write the report on this one, okay?”

  He looked down at his shoes then, still feeling very bad about the whole thing. He nodded solemnly. “I really am sorry, boss.”

  “Hey, you got him didn’t you?” She smiled at him, stooping down just slightly to get under his eyes, which were still focusing on the ground. It always surprised her that someone like Tiny, who had been a hardcore gang member until about a year before, could turn into such a good ally. Disillusionment in the gangs tended to send its neglected or abused members in the exact opposite direction, and that’s what FORS was all about.

  “Go on, Tiny, get out of here before I change my mind and run you over.” She laughed and saw a slow smile starting on his face.

  She got into her Corvette and left the scene. Her head did hurt a great deal. She was glad that Joe had taken his car to the airport so she didn’t have to pick him up that night when he came in.

  Midnight went straight home, which was currently Joe’s house. She had left her house in the capable hands of the now retired Tom Ryan. He
kept an eye on it and occasionally she would let members of FORS stay there when they were in between places.

  Tom Ryan, the man Midnight credited with her survival after her brother’s death, had opened a restaurant/bar called The Pit. It was a block from the police department so a lot of cops frequented the place. Midnight and FORS had a permanently reserved table and Midnight’s unit gave Tom a lot of business. She figured it was the least she could do for him, since he had helped her so much throughout the years. He’d become the father she’d never had.

  At Joe’s she took a double dose of aspirin and closed all the blinds in the bedroom, but left the windows open so she could hear the ocean. She kicked off her boots, stripped off her jeans, and discarded the white cotton shirt that now had her blood on it. She pulled one of Joe’s shirts out of the closet, put it on, and lay down.

  She tossed and turned for a while, unable to find a comfortable place on the pillow, where it didn’t bump the cut on the back of her head. Finally, she settled on her side and listened to the sounds of the ocean, loving the smell of the salt air and the coolness of the breeze coming through the windows. She was asleep ten minutes later.

  She awoke with the sensation that someone was in the room. Opening her eyes, she saw Joe’s silhouette by the closet where he was hanging up his jacket. By the light of the hallway she could see that he was wearing jeans and a sweater, with his shoulder holster over it. She watched with an appreciative eye as he moved quietly about the room, pulling off his holster and hanging it on a nearby chair. She liked to watch him move; he was fluid, like a big cat. She realized she had missed him a great deal over the last three days.

  He turned then and, walked toward her. As he neared the bed, he could see that she was awake watching him, and he smiled down at her. He sat down on the bed and touched her cheek. Leaning down, he kissed her lips, and the kiss quickly turned to passion. When he reached his hand up to touch her hair, she stiffened. He had touched the cut.

  He pulled back immediately, surprised and instantly worried. “What?” he asked, his eyes searched her face.

  “Oh,” she said casually, “I just got a little banged up today, that’s all.”

  She reached up to pull him back down to her again, but she could see from the look on his face that he wasn’t going to accept her vague answer.

  Oh boy Midnight thought, here we go again! She kicked herself for flinching the way she had, but she knew she wouldn’t have been able to hide her injury from him for long. He’d see the accident report, if nothing else.

  “What the hell happened?” his asked, his voice strident.

  Midnight shrugged trying to keep the whole discussion light. “No big deal, I just banged my head today on a raid. Now tell me about the conference, was it as good as we’ve been hearing?” She was trying to distract him, but she could see that wasn’t going to work.

  “To hell with the conference, Midnight!” he said, exasperated. “Who the fuck was your backup?”

  Sighing, Midnight sat up. “Tiny, but there were about five flights of stairs and you know how big Tiny is, it wasn’t his fault, I—”

  “What the hell do you mean, not his fault? Like hell it wasn’t!” He cut her off. “Can’t he do his job now? If his size is becoming a problem, then he’ll have—”

  Now it was her turn to cut him off. “Joe! It’s still my unit and if I say that it wasn’t Tiny’s fault, then it wasn’t. You got that?” She was as angry as he was. She was tired and all of this was making her head hurt again.

  “Yeah,” he said, his voice quieter now, but his eyes burned with anger.

  Joe stood up and looked down at her. If he’d been paying attention he would have seen how beautiful she looked at that moment. With her hair hanging loose and wild around her face, wearing his shirt, her tanned legs tucked up under her, eyes a fiery green. But, he was pissed and he didn’t notice. He was too busy thinking if he had been with her she wouldn’t have gotten hurt. His frustration from knowing he couldn’t be there all the time had been building for some time. Now it spilled out in anger at her for pulling rank on him in a personal situation, which it really wasn’t, but in his anger he saw it that way.

  “Yeah,” he repeated, his voice harsh and angry, “I got that. And I guess I’m some dumb fuck who just walked in off the streets that don’t know jack about anything? Yeah, well fuck you Midnight!” He turned and left the room, slamming the door on his way out.

  Midnight was out of the bed like a shot and followed him down the hall. She didn’t catch up to him until he was outside and almost to his car. She was worried, because she knew how mad he was and how dangerous it would be for him to be driving. She also knew he had taken off his shoulder holster and so didn’t have his gun with him. In the type of business they were in, someone was always gunning for them so going anywhere without a gun was a bad idea.

  “Joe!” she yelled at him, determined to stop him.

  He turned and saw her standing on the front steps, in nothing but his shirt. The wind was blowing and he could see her shiver. But she wasn’t paying attention to the cold; she was watching him. He strode back over to her, his anger lengthening his already long strides. He was face to face with her within seconds. They stood eye to eye staring at each other angrily. Joe broke the stare first; he looked away and over her shoulder.

  “Get back in the house before you freeze to death,” he said, but even his concern for her health came out harsh and angry.

  “Fuck you!” she snapped at him, her eyes blazing. “What part of this don’t you understand, Sinclair? That I’m a cop or that I won’t stop being one because you and I are together? I’m not going to stop going on raids and taking cases because you might worry. If you’re worried about me that’s your fucking problem and you better get over it fast!”

  Stepping down two of the stairs, she reached out and snatched his keys out of his hand then stormed back up to the front door. She turned again to face him. He was staring at her dumbfounded by her outburst.

  “And you aren’t driving in the state you’re in right now. As your supervisor it is my job to look out for the well-being of my subordinates!”

  She stepped back inside the doorway and slammed the front door.

  She stood inside, taking deep breaths and shivering. She hated it when they fought. She was always worried that this time one of them would go too far, say the wrong thing and their friendship, which was the most important thing in the world to her, would be irreparably damaged.

  Midnight leaned against the entryway table, closed her eyes, and tried to calm down. Her head was pounding wildly now from the yelling she had done. She didn’t hear the front door open, and suddenly Joe was there, pulling her into his arms, murmuring apologies in her ear.

  “I’m sorry, babe,” he whispered.

  He lifted her face to look up at him, and he could see that she was in pain. His eyes reflected his chagrin at having inadvertently caused her more pain by trying to protect her. Joe lifted her up in his arms and carried her back into the bedroom. He laid her on the bed carefully and went to get her some aspirin. After she had taken them, he lay down next to her and pulled her gently into his arms.

  Midnight put her head on his shoulder and threw a leg over his. He held her and soothingly stroked her hair. After a while she looked up at him. He was staring off into space, but at her movement he looked down at her with solemn eyes. She reached up and touched his lips with her fingertips as if trying to hush his self-effacing thoughts.

  “I’m sorry, too,” she said quietly. “I’ll be more careful.”

  He smiled at her then as if she had missed the whole point of the argument, but that he loved her anyway. They said nothing else about the incident. He continued to worry about her, but he tried to be less vocal about it.

  ****

  A month later, the culmination of all of his fears came to bear. While on an undercover case, Midnight was stabbed by the gang leader she was working against. Like a dog that smells fear
, the girl had sensed Midnight’s caution. She decided Midnight was a cop and knifed her in the back. Though she had tried for Midnight’s heart, she hit her lung instead.

  Joe was listening in on the tap when it happened. He threw down the headphones he was wearing and leapt out of the surveillance van, not caring if he blew their cover. He went through the door to the house with his weapon drawn. He intended to get to Midnight even if he had to blow away everyone in his path. The door to the room was open when he got there. He saw the gang leader stood with her back to him. She was standing over Midnight’s motionless form. Midnight’s blood pooling around her. Without stopping he moved toward the woman standing over his partner. He placed his foot square in the small of her back and shoved her as hard as he could, sending her flying into the wall. She sunk to the floor unconscious. He holstered his weapon and dropped to Midnight’s side.

  “Midnight!” he said, touching her face. “Come on, babe, give me a sign.” He felt for a pulse, and was relieved to find one, but it was weak. He knew he had to hurry.

  Pulling out his radio he yelled, “Eleven ninety-nine! Officer needs help! Officer down!”

  He called out their location and heard an instant response on the radio. He knew he had to get Midnight out of that house. There were other gang members in the house who would gladly kill them both, given the chance. Joe lifted her up and ran through the house. As he broke out into the afternoon sun, he saw four police cars screech to a halt. He could hear the ambulances coming too. They sped around the corner as he watched.

  Joe was afraid to lay her down. He was afraid if he didn’t have contact with her she would slip away from him. Other officers ran up to assist him, but he shook his head.

  He looked back at the house. “Get the bitch that did this. She’s in that back room.” His voice was deadly calm, although his pulse was racing.

  The paramedics were there and they took Midnight’s still unconscious body from his arms. He stayed right next to where they were working the whole time, watching them intently as if he could keep them from losing her that way.