Kitty

How the hell did I miss those cops?

Slammed up against the side of the building, I evaluate my life choices and recent decisions. A female officer is patting me down, getting far too intimate with various parts of me for my liking.

This is total bullshit. This isn’t how stings go. There’s usually a van. An unmarked car. People loitering in a way that’s so casual it’s suspicious. There were none of those signs this time. It’s like they fucking appeared out of thin air, pouring from other doorways, out of alleys, even a burned out car without wheels hid a few of them. These officers look like homeless people, and smell like them too. If it wasn’t for the badges, I’d think I was being robbed. That’s some serious dedication to their work.

No fewer than eight officers are on scene. This is some fucking… I can’t even finish the thought in my head. If I go to jail for this, I am going to be pissed.

In spite of my anger, I don’t resist arrest. That’s what stupid people do.

I let them cuff me. I tell them the name on my ID. I ask for my lawyer. And I shut the hell up.

After a quick ride to the station, I get processed. Then I get put in a single cell, which is weird because on the rare occasions I get taken in, I usually end up in a holding pen. There’s nothing but a concrete wall to look at as I wait for a court appearance. I have been arrested before on several occasions. It’s not a big deal. I know what to expect. I get pulled in front of a judge, I get bail set, I walk free. The person I was evaporates. My fingerprints are pulled from the system no more than twenty four hours later when I pay a friend of a friend to take them down. This wouldn’t be a big deal if it wasn’t for the criminal potentially waiting to kill me for fucking his delivery up.

I’m still not sure if Vicious did this to me or if I failed him. I don’t really even want to find out. My best chance is to hope the judge is in and that court is flowing smoothly. Maybe I can get through the system and out in time to run before Vicious even knows what happened. I do not want to see him again, not for a long time. Not ever. He should have picked Blaze up instead of me. She’d be loving this.

“Well, well, well.”

I freeze in place, like a deer caught in headlights, and just as stupid. It’s not like sitting very still is going to stop him from seeing me.

“The kitty cat got herself caught,” he tuts.

When I get the courage to look up, Vicious is outside the cell, stalking back and forth in front of the bars. I don’t know if he’s pissed at me for getting caught, or if this is one of his games. I don’t trust him anymore - not that I ever did. Our relationship began with a kidnapping and a beating and has been rocky ever since then.

“You were careless,” he says. “I thought you were better than that, Kitty.”

“I guess I’m not. I guess you’ll need to find someone else to do your work.”

“Oh no. I’m going to punish you for your failure, and we’re going to try again.”

I get to my feet and cross to the bars. When I speak, it is in a hiss designed to let him know how angry I am, and stop the cops from hearing.

“You set me up. Those cops were waiting.”

“You should have seen them.” There’s no apology in his voice, just outright censure.

“I…” I stumble verbally into silence as he just outright admits that it was another trap. Another lie. “Fucking what? I should have seen them?”

His brows rise. “It was a rookie mistake, Kitty.”

No, it wasn’t. It was a set up. Another lie. I can’t trust this guy and I sure as hell am not going to work for him.

“Fuck you,” I curse. “When I get out of here…”

The corners of his eyes crease with amusement. “You’re going to what?”

“Make you regret ever touching me,” I promise, my fingers wrapped around the bars of the cage that keeps me in and him out.

He lets out a low chuckle. “Temper, temper, Kitty. I am going to have to clip those claws of yours, aren’t I.”

I cut my eyes at him. He is the most infuriating, arrogant… beast of a man I have ever met. The fact that he can walk into a police station and not immediately be arrested is testament to just how broken our system is. He deserves to be behind these bars, not me.

“Alright, you’re out of here.”

A cop interrupts our exchange and lets me out of the cell. This is very much not protocol, but I’m not going to start arguing now. Even with Vicious by my side, out of the cell is better than inside it.

Vicious walks me out of the station. I don’t want to make a scene, so I let him do it. As soon as we’re outside, I pull free of his grasp.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going home.”

“I don’t think so,” he frowns. “We need to debrief.”

“You debrief by yourself,” I say, raising my voice. Eyes start coming in our direction. We’re getting attention. He doesn’t like that. He lets me go, even though he’s more than capable of grabbing me up again.

“What is your problem? I’ve offered you work… I’ve paid you, even though your test run was an abject failure…”

“What is my problem?” I hiss back at him as I stalk down the street. He follows me every step of the way, dogging me like some oversized dominant pup. “You lie to me. You scare me. You’re a total fucking asshole. You set me up. You used the police force like your own private army.”

“Manners, Kitty,” he drawls. “I might lose my temper with you.”

“Yeah, and god knows what would happen then. You might be really unpleasant to be around.”

“Smart mouthed little girl,” he shakes his head. “You don’t know when to quit, do you?”

“I disagree. I absolutely know when to quit. I’m quitting right now. Goodbye.”

I walk away, and to my surprise, he doesn’t actually stop me. He lets me storm down the street and into a cab. In seconds I’m free of him, and wondering why I didn’t just do this in the first place.