Hers to Protect

by Nicole Disney

  “And you think I believe that? You think I don’t see the mark on your face? Or smell the weed on you? Or know that white dust on your shirt is coke? I mean, Jesus, Adrienne.”

  “Oh, is there coke on my shirt?” Adrienne snapped.

  “Yeah, there is.”

  “You going to arrest me?”

  “Of course not. Would you just—”

  “Go on, Kaia, arrest me. Serve justice.” Adrienne held her wrists forward for cuffs.

  “You know that’s not what I want. I told you I’m investigating the gang.”

  “You can’t arrest Gianna because I smell like weed.”

  “We both know what I’ll find if I go in there.”

  “Please, like you’ve never smoked a joint before.”

  “So far from the point, Adrienne.”

  “And what is the point? That you’re going to just barge in there because you want to and find the evidence later? Use a little cocaine you found on me to arrest Gianna? That the kind of cop you are?”

  “Of course not. We both know Gianna’s the dealer. I know she’s making you—”

  “No, Kaia. You can’t be that naïve.”

  Kaia’s eyebrows raised. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I’m not a member, but I am a dealer. It’s how I met Gianna. The coke is mine.”

  Kaia rubbed her temples, and Adrienne felt herself hanging on to the silence when she should be walking away. Finally, Kaia looked up.

  “I’m not going to mark up your record and give you an excuse to say this life is your only option. I can help you, Adrienne.”

  Adrienne wanted to believe that, to trust Kaia, to let her be some knight in shining armor who was going to just whisk her away from all of this and into the sunset, but she couldn’t. She thought of how incredible it would be to just get in this shitty car and leave, never return. But that wasn’t real. All she was going to do was get Kaia hurt if she leaned on her.

  “Please go, Kaia. Please.”

  “We’ll get you to a safe house.” Kaia wouldn’t let up. “Change your identity if you want. We can get you out of town. Gianna will go away for a long time with even a little of what you know.”

  “Why can’t you understand I don’t want that? I don’t want to put her in prison. I just want you to leave me alone,” Adrienne said. “I have to go. I’ve already been out here too long.”

  “Look, I’ll leave now, but I want you to call me. This isn’t you, Adrienne. Whether you go down with her or she kills you, this doesn’t end well. It’s just a matter of time. Let me help you.”

  Adrienne walked away without responding. It was the second time Kaia asked Adrienne to let her help, and it had melted her both times. She couldn’t let herself believe in a way out, though. It would crush her.

  Anna and Gianna were waiting at the door.

  “Well?” Anna asked.

  “She’s leaving.” Kaia had already started rolling down the street.

  “No shit,” Anna said. “What did she say?”

  “She was worried about me.”

  “She’s not looking into the drugs?” Gianna asked.

  “She didn’t say anything about drugs, or the Wild AKs. I think she’s just trying to see if we’re still fighting.”

  “Why the car?”

  “She’s on her own time. She’s my ex, I’m not sure it was exactly supervisor approved to come by.”

  Gianna nodded. “So this is all about you? That’s it?”

  “Seems to be.” If Gianna thought Kaia was a threat to the Wild AKs the whole gang would get involved. That was the last thing she needed.

  Gianna walked over and lightly grabbed Adrienne’s face. “You did good,” she said. “I’m sorry I hit you. I thought you were double-crossing me.”

  “I’m not. I just didn’t know what to say.”

  “You love me?”

  “Of course.”

  “Good. We can flip this on her then.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You can get information from her,” Gianna said. “She’s a cop, right? She has to know or be able to find out what they know about us. And then you can nudge them another direction. She’ll ask you about us. You can make them think there’s nothing to find. Get these assholes off our case.”

  Adrienne’s heart dropped. All this effort to get Kaia to leave and now Gianna wanted them in contact.

  “You want me to meet up with her again?”

  “She seems willing enough.”

  “Yeah, but she doesn’t know anything. Why get her interested by bringing it up? Then she really won’t drop it.”

  “If you feed her bad information you can get this whole case thrown out. Convince her we’re not in the game. Then she’ll go tell all her little cop friends and we’re in the clear again.”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think I have that much power over her.”

  “I think you do,” Gianna said. “And anyway, she’s still snooping around looking for another domestic violence charge. She has to go. Either you convince her to leave it alone the nice way or I can do it the bloody way.”

  “Fine, I’ll try.” She turned.

  “And, Adrienne.” Gianna pulled her chin back. “Betray me, you’re done.”

  Chapter Nine

  The novelty of detective work was already wearing off. Kaia hadn’t uncovered anything useful the last two days. She’d spent it researching the gang members but didn’t find anything she hadn’t already assumed. She knew it would piss Adrienne off, but she had to get back out there, and to do that she needed to ditch the Lincoln. She pulled up in the gang unit lot and went to Davis’s office. She set down her keys. “I’m going to need a different car.”

  Davis didn’t look up until he finished typing. “Are there bullet holes in it?”

  “No.”

  “Whew. They’re getting real testy about that at the garage. What’s wrong with it?”

  “They know it now.”

  “Okay, you got it. Update?”

  “Adrienne isn’t a member. I’m sure. She had hours to tip them off and didn’t when I was doing surveillance, and when they finally spotted me she came out herself to get rid of me safely.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything other than she likes you.”

  “Doesn’t a gang trump that if she’s really in it?”

  “Supposed to, but it’s not really like these are the rule abiding sort of people.”

  “We talked about it. She said she’s not a member and I believed her.”

  His face wasn’t exactly one of doubt, but Davis was clearly mulling it over.

  “Sometimes you just know when you’re hearing the truth,” Kaia said.

  Davis nodded. “I can understand that. We should look at flipping her, then. You think you can?”

  “I think so. With more time.”

  “All right, keep working it.”

  “Anything new I should know?” Kaia asked. She felt guilty she hadn’t provided more herself yet, but Davis had made her mission clear. Turn Adrienne. She preferred to look at it as rescue Adrienne, but she understood. Adrienne must have more than enough information to put Gianna in checkmate if only she’d provide it.

  “Davey is set up at Marco’s most days now,” Davis said. “Heavy traffic in and out of the home. We’ve been working on finding out who they all are. So far they’re small-timers. Corner dealers. I’m not even that interested in their drug game, to tell you the truth. I’ve seen it before. I just want to know where they’re getting these guns and shut it down. We don’t need our streets that heavily armed. They have way more firepower than our guys in uniform. It’s a matter of time before someone gets hurt.”

  “Got it.”

  Kaia’s phone rang. She ignored it while she made her way out of Davis’s office, but it went off again. She silenced it again. On the third call, she gave in and pickup up, even though she didn’t recognize the number.

  “Sorano.”

  “Kaia, Reid is
hurt.” She couldn’t process who was even talking to her. “We’re on our way to the hospital, meet you there.”

  “Wait, what happened?” Her heart slammed into overdrive while she ran to her car.

  “We don’t know exactly. We found him badly beaten.” Kaia finally placed the voice as her sergeant’s. “He didn’t even get a call for help out. The guys went to his GPS location to check on him when we couldn’t get him to answer the radio, but we don’t even know how long he was there before we got him.”

  “Suspects?”

  “Long gone.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Kaia knew his room by the horde of officers around it. Some were praying, others huddled in small groups, more still simply stood quietly on their own. They moved out of the way when they saw her. Her sergeant from the street crime task force found her and grabbed her arm.

  “It’s bad. Brace yourself.”

  When she walked into the room, she realized she had not braced herself. She should have. Reid had a tube down his throat and his face was mangled. It was bright red and lumpy to the point his adorable features weren’t even recognizable.

  “Oh, Reid.”

  “He’s going into surgery soon. They say they’ll know more after, but he’s critical right now.”

  Kaia put her hand gently on his forehead. “I’m here, Reid. I’m so sorry.” She looked to Sergeant Cruz. “I should have been with him. This shouldn’t have happened.”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong. You know that. You can’t always predict this stuff.”

  “Is he going to be okay?”

  “They don’t know.”

  “Oh God.” Kaia’s throat swelled and tears ran hot.

  “Hey, they’re not writing him off. He’s got a hard road, but he’ll make it. He’s young and strong.”

  Kaia nodded. “What happened, Sarge? How could he not have even been able to hit his emergency button?”

  “We have the scene secure still. They’re talking to witnesses, checking cameras. We’ll figure this out and we’ll get the sons of bitches.”

  “He got jumped?” It was the only conclusion she could draw from his scattering of bumps and injuries.

  “Or hit by a car. But my money’s on jumped too.” He paused. “I haven’t let many people see this yet, but there’s more.” He waved Kaia to the corner where he handed her Reid’s shirt. “WAK” was spray-painted across the chest.

  “Motherfuckers!” Kaia spun for the door, but Cruz grabbed her.

  “That’s why I haven’t told people. Don’t make me regret telling you. Don’t get crazy. I don’t want you trying to handle this yourself and getting hurt too.”

  “Why are we acting like we don’t know what happened? Why aren’t we doing something? They claimed him. Like a fucking achievement.”

  “We’ll get them, but we don’t need to be idiots about it.”

  “Where is the scene?”

  “What?”

  “You said the scene is secure. What scene? Where?”

  “Garfield and Wentworth.”

  “I’m going.”

  “They have it. You should stay with Reid.”

  “Reid is going into surgery. The only useful thing I can do right now is make sure no one misses anything or fucks up the scene. That is right in WAK land. The more of us out there the better. They’re going to be threatening witnesses and trying to mess with evidence.”

  She knew he didn’t want her to go, but he nodded. She brushed Reid’s hair with her fingers one more time. “Be strong, Reid. You’re going to be okay.”

  Kaia screeched into the square at Garfield and Wentworth fast enough to alarm the officers until they recognized her. She received a dozen hugs before she could get them to focus. Finally, a rookie named Jason took her to the corner where they’d left Reid. There was more blood than she expected, and she had to gather herself.

  “They left him to die,” she said.

  “Oh, yeah. My guess is they were pretty sure he was done for or they’d have kept going. It was no quick beat down. They wanted to kill him.”

  “Get anything from the witnesses yet?” Kaia spotted seven stores within sight.

  “No, they’re not talking. Scared shitless.”

  “See any Wild AKs trying to sneak a look?”

  “Wild AKs? Don’t know ’em. Wouldn’t know how to spot them.”

  “They fly blue and most have it stamped right on them. W-A-K or rifle tattoos. Could be any race, male or female.”

  “Got it. I’ll keep an—”

  “They’re right there. Come on,” she said. “You too.” She pointed at two more officers. “They’re nasty and probably armed.” Kaia powered over to the group without a second thought to her safety. Gianna, Anna, and Celeste were sitting at a restaurant’s outdoor patio watching them like it was a show.

  “You’re going to need a really good explanation for why you’re here,” Kaia said.

  Gianna sipped her drink, then held it up. “They have good margaritas.” The group chuckled.

  “You need to leave.” Kaia hated that she couldn’t just arrest them on the spot. A WAK tag on Reid’s shirt didn’t mean it was them; there were a lot of members. It wouldn’t hold up in court, anyway, but she knew it was. Hate filled her body.

  “Leave? We just got here. Loosen up. Let me buy you a drink,” Gianna said.

  “I think you’ve been here for hours, on the other side of the square. This is a secured area, you need to leave or I will escort you out.”

  “Escort me, is that what you’re calling it now? You know, you should really ease up with the inappropriate use of your power, the excessive force. People can really get hurt.” Gianna winked.

  “I’ll give you excessive force.” Kaia felt herself raise her fist. Jason’s arm wrapped around her upper body and pulled her back. Gianna laughed.

  “Damn, I think I underestimated you, Blondie. Now I kind of like you a little.” Gianna turned to Jason. “Don’t worry, rookie, I won’t make a fuss about you harassing us or your buddy’s temper. We’ll even leave nice and orderly for you. Bye, Blondie.”

  Kaia headed across the street, back to the scene. Jason was in her ear.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “They’re the ones who attacked Reid. I can’t prove it yet, but it was her. She is not to be in the area. She’s the one scaring our witnesses quiet.”

  “What if someone calls internal affairs?”

  “Did you not just hear me say they beat down our boy?”

  Jason flushed. “I know, I didn’t mean—”

  “We have legitimate cause to remove them from the area. If you’re referring to the disagreement back there, you heard her, this is a quiet zone. They do not report. The only one who would tattle on me is a no good rat of a cop.”

  “Shit, I didn’t see a thing.”

  “All right then.”

  * * *

  Kaia felt frozen inside when she woke up. Reid’s beaten face was her first thought, and it came the moment she was conscious. It was like she went from a nightmare to the reality that it was all true seamlessly. She sat up and looked at her phone for updates on Reid. She had a message from Cruz that simply said, “All same.” When she’d last checked on him he was out of surgery but still critical, so the same wasn’t great. She also had a voice mail. It was from a number she didn’t know, but since Reid got hurt she was getting calls from all sorts of law enforcement she didn’t have numbers for. Adrienne’s voice surprised her.

  “I heard about your friend. I’m so sorry. I don’t know if you can, but I want to meet you. I’ll be at the coffee shop at Racine and Taylor at ten.”

  Kaia looked at the time. She needed to leave soon to make it. She didn’t really want to see Adrienne right now. It was her psychotic girlfriend that did this. Adrienne could have pressed charges that would have put Gianna safely behind bars and Kaia could have been with Reid to watch his back. She knew it wasn’t fair to hold Adrienne responsible f
or everything, but her heart hurt too much to stop feeling it.

  Still, Adrienne knew about Reid, which probably meant Gianna told her. And now she wanted to meet. Adrienne might finally be ready to give her a lead, and she couldn’t ignore that.

  Chapter Ten

  Kaia showed up in sunglasses again. Another rough night. Adrienne knew this one was probably from crying. She got up and walked toward her. It was a compulsion she couldn’t stop. She wrapped her arms around Kaia and held her tight.

  Kaia felt stiff. It took her a long time to return the embrace, but she finally did. Adrienne released her and sat.

  “How is he?”

  “Not good, but fighting. He’s alive. You can tell Gianna that.”

  Adrienne heard venom in Kaia she wasn’t used to. “I will if that’s what you want.”

  “Please tell me you’re here to give me a statement that Gianna did this.”

  Adrienne pulled back. She should’ve seen it coming, but she hadn’t. “No.”

  “What the fuck are we doing here, then?”

  Adrienne winced. Kaia had never talked to her that way. Had she lost her? Pushed her away too well? Did she not see all this coldness was just to protect her? Adrienne had assumed she was transparent and that Kaia would always be hers in their own way. Maybe that had been arrogant. She wanted to explain herself, to go back to when Kaia first walked into her kitchen after tackling Gianna in the alley and give her the gratitude she’d deserved.

  “Kaia, I’m so sorry about your partner. I really am. He didn’t deserve that.”

  Kaia wiped away a tear. “No, he didn’t.”

  “I can’t give you a statement because I don’t have any proof. Gianna went out with the gang like always, but I don’t know where she went or what she did. She didn’t tell me she did it.”

  “How did you know it happened then?”

  “She told me it happened, just not who was responsible. She told me she ran into you, that you were accusing her of it and that you tried to hit her. Kaia, are you out of your mind?”

  “Give me a break. I’m not afraid of your stupid thug girlfriend. I walk around with a gun too. I wish she would.”