Hers to Protect

by Nicole Disney

  “Did she mention anyone—”

  “No.”

  “Ms. Wilkes, I realize this is hard, but even small details can turn out to be very helpful. Do you remember any names that stood out? People she talked about a lot? Even just a first name or a street name?”

  “No.”

  “Detective Sorano.” Collins waved her over. She found him crouched over bloodstains. They’d been cleaned but the outline of them was still visible.

  “What’s up?”

  “Just figuring out the angle of this,” he said and turned to look back through the window. Kaia followed his gaze. There weren’t many vantage points someone could realistically use. There was a square building a ways off, maybe an office building.

  “You think he shot from that roof?”

  “I think so, and it’s a good half mile away at least. Davis is right. This looks like a legit sniper.”

  “That matches retaliation for the body we found at Marco’s.”

  “Does it?”

  “Hijos are the big gun guys. Makes sense they have sniper rifles. That’s not something your average dealer carries.”

  “Doesn’t mean they have the skills for this,” Collins said. “That’s a hell of a shot.”

  “I suppose that’s true.”

  “Retaliation is as good a place to start as any. Let’s get out of here and see if we can track down some Hijos de la Santa Muerte.”

  “What about the brothers?”

  Jack shrugged. “They’re not going to tell us anything. Why make them relive it?”

  “All right, let’s go.”

  They each left a card with Kendra’s uncooperative mother and headed for the car.

  “Where do we find these guys?” Kaia asked.

  “Beats me. They’re ghosts lately.”

  “Any idea why?”

  “My guess is because of the mess with Kitchen,” he said.

  Kaia felt her cheeks flush. Adrienne’s tip about Kitchen being crooked had been upsetting. She couldn’t imagine how the people who actually worked with him felt. It had been a good thing Adrienne told them, and it certainly wasn’t her fault Kitchen was dirty, but the mention of him made Kaia feel guilty and disliked.

  “How so?” she asked. “You think he tipped them to lay low?”

  “I’m not sure I believe he’s dirty,” Collins said. “I do think all the extra surveillance we’ve put on him trying to figure it out has probably spooked them all into laying low.”

  “What do you mean you don’t believe it? We know he’s dirty. Adrienne was inside. She told us so.”

  “Yeah, but Kitchen is a cop. And a friend.”

  “I can understand that, but Adrienne isn’t a liar, and even if she was, why would she lie about that? How would she even know he was an undercover if he hadn’t turned?”

  “Calm down, I’m not calling her a liar. I’m just saying sometimes shit goes sideways undercover. Maybe he had to do some things to stay alive. All I’m saying is we haven’t heard his side. It’s all just rumor right now. Davis is leaving him in the field trying to get proof, and I’m not going to think the worst of a friend without even hearing him out.”

  “Fair enough.” Kaia wanted to be amiable, but she had a hard time swallowing his denial of reality. Kitchen was lying to the department. It was clear where his loyalties were now. They wouldn’t arrest Kitchen until they were positive they could prove everything. He still represented a threat, and Kaia couldn’t see him as a detective anymore, let alone a friend. She knew it would be an unpopular position. Cop loyalty ran deep. Many would protect Kitchen even if they did believe he’d gone sideways. They’d assume it all amounted to an indiscretion or two for a little extra pocket money, something many of them had done. They wouldn’t easily believe he’d abandoned the force entirely.

  “It has to be connected to what happened at Marco’s.” Collins got back on topic.

  “All just a gun deal gone sideways?”

  “Maybe. Deal goes bad, sour feelings, someone takes advantage of Gianna being alone on the wrong street. WAKs get the Hijo for revenge, but why Marco? And then why Kendra?”

  “I don’t know,” Kaia said. She felt horrible concealing what had happened to Gianna. She knew she was misleading the entire investigation, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Gianna was going to taint her entire career in the Gang Unit. How long would it follow her? How many more times would she have to lie about it?

  “I think we have to go rattle some cages to shake something loose,” she said. Even if she knew damn well Gianna wasn’t killed by Hijos, she had no explanation for Kendra or Marco. The investigation wasn’t a complete sham. She could still do worthwhile detective work.

  She was terrified that Adrienne’s worst fear was exactly true, that their cover-up was causing a gang war, that they were the ones responsible for all the bloodshed. Kaia would do it all again for Adrienne if she had to, but that didn’t make her okay with innocent people dying over it.

  “I’m all for rattling cages,” Collins said. “But we can’t find Anna Fields, we have no idea where the Hijos are holed up. Who do we rattle?”

  “There’s still Celeste Romero and Christina Vickers.”

  “Will they even know anything? Are they big enough players?”

  “I bet they are now. The big players are gone. I wouldn’t be surprised if the shuffle to fill those shoes has somehow contributed to all the bloodshed.”

  “There’s a thought. And I do have addresses for them.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  “Bold move, Sorano. They’re not exactly friendly.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  * * *

  “We have company,” Christina said. Anna sat up and looked through the blinds.

  “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

  “It’s your cop friend.”

  Anna reached for the AK-47. Christina cut her off. “You have to hide.”

  “Bullshit. She’s here, I’m taking her out.”

  “What about the guy? She has a partner with her. If you kill her now that will be it. You’ll get shot or arrested or at the very least you won’t know where to find Adrienne anymore. You wanted Adrienne.”

  “I’ll find a way.”

  “We will, but this isn’t it. You can’t die or get arrested until it’s done, remember?”

  They knocked on the door. Christina hated cop knocks. They were over-the-top, too hard and demanding, like they thought they could bully people through the door. The part she hated most was that it often worked. People let themselves be intimidated into giving up all kinds of rights.

  “Chicago PD.”

  “Christina, I have to take her out,” Anna said. “She’s right fucking there. You don’t even have to open the door.”

  “If that’s what you want to do, Anna, but you know it’s not the right move. We’ll have an extra cop to deal with, two bodies on my doorstep, and no idea where Adrienne is. We can get them both and we can do it clean.”

  Anna pulled the gun to her chest. “I’m going upstairs. I’m taking this. Get rid of them. If they search the house I will shoot them.” Anna walked quietly up the stairs. Christina gave her plenty of time, ignoring several more knocks. She knew they wouldn’t leave. They knew she was here. Her car was parked out front, the lights were on, music was playing. She waited for the next hard bang on the door and finally opened it.

  “What do you want, pigs?”

  “We need to talk to you.”

  Christina didn’t recognize the guy. She always made an effort to commit their faces to memory in case she came across them in plainclothes, but right now she couldn’t focus on anything but the woman. Gianna had called her Blondie. Adrienne’s former lover. Adrienne’s new lover. The dirty blond hair barely held Christina’s attention next to the way she carried herself. She had a quiet confidence that was disconcerting. Christina couldn’t figure out if it was real or if it was just a trick of her imagination sprouting from the
knowledge that this woman had played some part in Gianna’s death. Gianna had been invincible to Christina. The idea that anyone could chase her down or outfight her or survive a shootout with her was intimidating, though she hated herself for letting that thought manifest.

  “What do you want to talk about?” Christina asked. “The reason you all are useless when someone from the streets dies? I have three dead friends. What have you told us? Nothing.”

  “Makes it pretty difficult to investigate when no one close to the victim will talk to us,” the blonde said.

  “What was your name again?” Christina asked.

  “Detective Sorano.”

  “Detective, huh? I thought you were a uniform.”

  “I was.”

  “What’d you get promoted for? You haven’t solved shit.”

  Sorano glanced around the house like the question hadn’t fazed her. “Who had a problem with Kendra?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I want to find you your answers, but you have to give me some information to work with.”

  Christina laughed. “Right, so I’m supposed to believe you’re here to help me? You’re here to provide a civil service, huh?”

  “Yes.”

  “Has nothing to do with you looking for Anna?”

  “You know I can’t ignore it if we find her here,” Sorano said. “But no, that’s not why we came.”

  “Jesus, you’re all the same. How do they train you people? They just make you memorize a list of ways to manipulate people?”

  “I wasn’t—”

  “Who killed Gianna?” Christina looked Sorano in the eye, daring her to answer. She searched for guilt, for doubt, for a sixth sense that Christina knew. “Who killed her?” She raised her voice. “You’ve had days. What have you found out? Are you even trying?” Blondie still didn’t answer. “You’re not trying because you don’t fucking care. You’re here pretending like you care when really all you want to do is pump me for information and throw us all in jail. You don’t give a shit about justice. You hated Gianna, just admit it and ask me what you came here to ask me so I can tell you to go fuck yourself and we can all get back to our days.”

  “All right, I have a question for you,” Sorano said.

  “What?”

  “Why are you only asking about Gianna? Why not Marco? Why not Kendra? Marco was your founder. Kendra was someone you recruited yourself. Why not ask about them?”

  “Fuck you. Gianna was my best friend.”

  “No, Gianna was Anna’s best friend. There was nothing exceptional about your relationship,” Sorano said. “I think you’re not asking about the others because you already know what happened to them.”

  Christina felt her face twitch with contempt. Anna was right, they should have just shot her.

  “You do know, don’t you?” Sorano stepped closer. “Were you there?”

  “Get the fuck out of my house.”

  “Was it Los Hijos?”

  “You tell me.”

  “Or did you do it? You trying to take over? Gianna dies, you see a path to the top so you take Marco out. Maybe Kendra found out and you had to take her out to keep it quiet.”

  “You have no idea how stupid you sound right now,” Christina snapped.

  “It’s making sense to me,” Sorano’s partner jumped in.

  “See how that holds up in court then.”

  “You’d be surprised,” he said.

  “So you’re threatening me? If I don’t talk you’ll just make a bunch of shit up and throw me in jail? You call that investigating?”

  “We’re drawing the best conclusions available with the information we have,” he said. “Thanks to you, that’s not much. That’s how mistakes happen.” He stepped closer too. “You know who doesn’t cooperate with investigations? People who don’t really want the crime solved. You know who that is?”

  “I told you to get out of my house, you arrogant, condescending shits.”

  “Guilty people. That’s who.”

  “You bitches would know.”

  “Just tell us what you know,” Sorano jumped back in.

  “I know I’m real tired of this conversation. I know this is your job, not mine. I know if you’re at my door it means you’re not even close to figuring this out because I had absolutely nothing to do with it.”

  “Los Hijos de la Santa Muerte had something to do with all this. Tell us how to find them.”

  “What kind of stupid do you think I am?”

  “Do you want the truth or not?” Sorano snapped.

  “Please, if I talk to you about another gang I become a target, and call me crazy, but you two don’t exactly make me feel safe and protected.”

  “We can offer you protection,” the partner said.

  “Right. And you’re trustworthy.”

  “We’ll get it in writing for you,” Sorano said. “This is how we get to the bottom of this.”

  “You guys just don’t get it,” Christina said. “You really don’t. You see all of us out here struggling in the streets as these violent, mindless criminals. We’re the bad guys and you’re all heroes trying to stop us. But the truth is there’s not a gang out here that I wouldn’t rather face than you. Y’all are the meanest, dirtiest gang on the streets. Y’all are so bad all of us out here had to put our differences aside when it comes to you and make a code that no matter how much we hate each other, we’re together against the cold blues. It’s the only way we stand a chance. You mistreat us, disrespect us, beat us, kill us, incarcerate us, frame us, forget us. And you get away with it. Shit, you get a pat on the back for it. You’re not here to help me. You don’t really care. So no, I will not tell you where to find Los Hijos.” Christina leaned closer to Sorano. “Now get out of my house.”

  * * *

  Christina was shaking when she finally locked the door after them. She watched them drive off through the peephole, then turned and rested against the door. She hadn’t seen any guilt in Sorano’s eyes. If she didn’t already know the cop was involved she would have never guessed. Even with the upper hand she thought her knowledge gave her, Sorano had still very much gotten under her skin.

  Anna walked down the stairs. Christina wasn’t sure how much she’d heard, but she suspected quite a bit by her expression. Anna came over and hugged her.

  “She’ll pay. Everything you said.” Anna paused. “You’re right, and she’s going to pay for all of it.”

  “What do we do?”

  “I don’t know, but we’re going to do it clean, just like you said. We’re going to get both of them. Adrienne and Sorano. They’re not going to know what hit them and they’re not going to have a shot in hell at getting help.”

  “I want them to know what hit them,” Christina said. “I want them to suffer. I want them to know we know.”

  Anna smiled. “They will. I want to know which of them actually killed Gi, and I don’t care if I have to peel their skin off an inch at a time to find out.”

  * * *

  “You really think Christina did it?” Jack asked in the car.

  “No, but I do think she knows who did.”

  “Agreed. I think your rise to power theory works. Two top dogs go down, someone’s climbing the ladder.”

  “But who? Anna wouldn’t have killed Gianna, everyone agrees on that, and she’s the one who climbed the ladder.”

  Jack shook his head in frustration. “Well, our next bodies were Marco and the Hijo. We thought that was retaliation for Gianna.”

  “But who was the target and who was collateral damage?”

  “If this is just a chain of retaliation, the Hijo would be the target and Marco would be collateral damage. Then the Hijos hit back by taking Kendra.”

  “But if this is just two gangs that don’t like each other anymore, how did Marco end up dead?” Kaia asked. “It was his place and it would have been his crew. Who pulls that trigger?”

  “Yeah, he throws a wrench in everything.”
>
  “And we still don’t even know what started all this. These gangs were allies.”

  “That part doesn’t bother me,” Jack said. “Gangs turn on each other. It could have been anything, really. Someone looked at someone wrong and they took it as disrespect.”

  “I just can’t make sense of the double kill. The bullets came from the same gun. Someone killed a member of each gang. That kills the gang war idea, doesn’t it?”

  Jack shrugged. “Maybe it was both. Revenge and climbing the ladder. Hijo for Gianna, Marco for ambition?”

  “We need Anna. We have to figure out how to flush her out. She has to be pulling the strings.”

  “Maybe she wanted retaliation for Gianna and Marco wasn’t on board. She took over to start the war.”

  “That’s good,” Kaia said, sitting forward. “Word is she’s dangerous right now. Marco wanted to make peace, she wanted to raise hell.”

  “What does Contreras say about where Fields would be?”

  “Adrienne? Nothing anymore. She had information at first, but she’s been out of the loop too long already. They know she’s with us. They’re not going to use any channels she knows about.” She didn’t like him bringing up Adrienne. She didn’t want them thinking Adrienne was a tool they could use whenever they needed her. Adrienne was trying to distance herself from this world as much as possible, and she needed to be allowed to do that.

  “Finding new connections and places to stay can be tricky,” Collins said. “They can’t instantly re-create a decade’s worth of setup just because Adrienne knows about them. That’s part of why they’re so hard on rats.”

  Kaia refused to admit he was right, but she knew she had to go back through the information Adrienne had given. She had to find Anna before more people died. She couldn’t make sense of everything that was happening, but she knew Gianna’s death started it all and she knew people were dying because of it. She had to stop it.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Adrienne read the stress on Kaia when she walked in. She came over to the couch and kissed Adrienne, then slumped into her arms and snuggled close.