Chapter 17

Tony

 

She was silent the whole way over to the Ten-Thirteen. Yale parked us in the loading zone and said, “Make it quick, core traffic is going to be a bitch and we only have twenty minutes to get there.”

I got out of the car and went around to the driver’s side back door and opened it so she could get out on the sidewalk. Gotta love Old Town’s one way streets. She stepped out carefully with very little help, Yale’s old school Mercedes much easier to get in and out of than my truck. I walked with her to the door and opened it up for her. She went inside and I followed. Skids and Reflash both at the bar, Skids behind it, Reflash, too.

Golden and Angel, a pair of identical twins, twisted around on their stools. Golden was a cop, but Angel had legit earned his name. He was one of the city’s medics and had earned his namesake thusly.

“There she is,” Golden said cheerfully and I was safe and among just club and would take their ribbing later. Chrissy turned to say something to me and I covered her mouth with mine. She made a surprised noise and stiffened but relaxed into the kiss almost immediately. I pulled back and looked her right in the eyes.

“You did outstanding, precious.”

She swallowed hard and nodded, saying, “You’d better go. I heard Judge Spunkmayer’s name mentioned. She’ll be pissed if you’re late and things will go badly for you the rest of the day as a result.”

I popped a quick kiss to her forehead and backed off. I shot a look over her shoulder to my brothers who all sat around looking a bit gobsmacked and said, “You guys take care of my girl.”

“We’ve got you,” Skids said, but didn’t sound exactly happy about it. I wasn’t either, not about the fact I considered Chrissy my girl, but about the fact I had to leave her side while she was here, in the city.

I left, got back in the car with Yale and we hit it. We lucked out and hit just about every green light on the way there, it was about the only luck we had, though. The defense was on their game when it came to the case I was testifying for. Another banger on banger scenario. One we thought had been airtight, but the slippery bastard, one from Chrissy’s firm no less, managed to poke a big fucking hole in things. One that Jaime and I were gonna have to follow up on.

When I got back to the Ten-Thirteen, it was hopping, and that made me nervous. I caught Skids’ eye behind the bar and he pointed up. I nodded and went back out front and to the glass door between the restaurant and bar and the boutique next door.

I used my key to get in and took the stairs two at a time up to the top. The door a few feet down the hall and to the left was Skids, I rapped on it, the universal secret decoder knock that was to announce to the guys on the other side an Indigo Knight was on this side of the door. Angel opened it up and gave me a chin lift.

“Hey, how is she? Where is she?”

“Laying down, man, she’s okay. Relax.”

I pushed past him into Skids’ living room, Golden saying, “What’s up, man?”

“She okay?”

“Yeah, yeah… she’s in the guest room laying down. That shit really took it out of her this morning.”

“Yeah, I was there, I know.”

“Hey, no need to be a dick to us about it,” Angel frowned.

“No, you’re right, my bad.” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. I liked these two, a lot. Golden played on the ICPD’s basketball team against his brother. Angel was on the medic and fire side of things. I sometimes wished Angel was a cop, these two on the same team would have wiped the floor with ICFD.

“What happened?” Golden asked.

“She feels like shit, shit went sideways in court, it’s just been a red fucking letter day.”

“Gotta look at the bright side,” Angel said, dropping into a seat across from his brother.

“Yeah,” Golden agreed. “Way I hear it, she rocked that ID.”

I nodded and joined them at the table, pulling out a chair and dropping into it myself saying, “Yeah, yeah she did.”

“So what has you so worried?” Angel asked, taking a drink out of his Mexi-Coke, so called because it was one of them glass bottle ones made with real sugar that was an import from the country. Just because the boys were Hispanic, didn’t make Mexico their country of origin, however. They were born and bred American boys. Their grandad had been an immigrant, their daddy American born like them. Their mom, however, had immigrated, and had just two years ago landed her citizenship, just in fucking time, too, at least now with our orange overlord in office.

While Indigo City wasn’t a sanctuary city, it’d been an unspoken rule of the department that status didn’t matter. We didn’t actively go arresting vics on their immigration status, at least not anymore. It’s one of those things that’d gotten the department into trouble. Not because it wasn’t the right thing to do, but because the unsolved crime rates in the poorer neighborhoods had skyrocketed right along with unreported crimes.

People had been too scared to come forward or were too scared to even call it in on fear that their illegal status would be uncovered and back to their country of origin they’d go.

The city was a fucking PR nightmare at this point when it came to community relations, and cops on the beat had finally wised up and had just stopped asking. It helped, but it wasn’t perfect, and the rift just grew bigger with no solution in sight. At least, not for now.

Golden reached back into the fridge and used a bottle opener off his key chain to crack one of the Mexi-Cokes for me, pushing it across the table towards me.

“Looks like you need something stronger, though,” he commented dryly and I picked it up, twirling the bottle between my hands to read the label all the way around.

“Got any Jack to put in it?” I asked, and Angel laughed.

“Downstairs.”

“Nah, I gotta drive, anyways.”

There was silence at the table for a long minute and finally Golden sighed, “She’s really a tough chick,” he said and I nodded.

“I know that.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, you guys.” Her voice startled all three of us. We turned as one to the hallway leading back into the rest of Skids’ place and found Chrissy leaning against the wall, her good shoulder pressed to the green painted surface. No tellin’ why Skids had picked an Army green to paint his walls, but he had and surprisingly, it kind of worked.

She was barefoot, her blouse slightly wrinkled, her hair foaming around her face where she’d let it loose from the clip in order to lie down comfortably. She was beautiful, even unkempt. In fact, maybe even more so because of it.

She pushed off the wall and came to me, hugging me to her one-armed, bending and kissing the top of my head. I put my arms around her and pressed my ear to the satin between her breasts, listening to the beat of her heart inside the delicate cage of her ribs. I didn’t care about sharing this intimate moment in front of my club brothers. I don’t think she did either. We’d spent the entire day apart and after so many tumultuous emotions both for her and for me, we needed this. A closeness, a contact that grounded and centered us both.

I was so going to take her home and make love to her tonight, but first…

“Feel like staying for dinner downstairs?”

“Sounds really good,” she murmured softly.

“You boys joining us?” I asked.

“Yeah,” they echoed in unison, and both of them were all smiles.

“Thanks for not making a thing out of this,” Chrissy said softly and they both shook their head.

“That’s your business,” Golden said.

Angel, the easier going of the two, said, “You guys look pretty good together.”

And they both left it at that.

I followed Chrissy back to the guest room where she’d left her things and took up her hair clip off the side table where it rested by her purse. She slipped into her low heels and I gathered up her hair into a loose ponytail. I didn’t have a brush, or a comb to do anything else, but the clip was burly enough for a loose pony and so that’s what I did. Just something enough to hold all that long, sable soft hair back from her beautiful face.

She turned and looked at me and we both just sort of gravitated into each other’s arms, lips meeting as if by magnetic pull. We kissed and it was something real, with none of the stiffness or unease of anyone watching. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other, but we were going to have to downstairs. There was public, and maybe cops from the 12th down there and you never could tell with people. Someone construes something as inappropriate, they’d dime you out… as much as it was anathema to a cop to dime another cop out, it happened and we didn’t need her case turning into a shit show for yet another reason and they’d pull her case files out of my cold, dead hands…

“Gotta be on our best behavior downstairs,” I murmured, giving her the heads up.

“Oh, right, cop bar.”

I chuckled, “Yeah, and public. Should be alright, though. We’ll grab some dinner and then grab a cab or an Uber back to the station to get my truck and I’ll take you home.”

She smiled and it wasn’t entirely without mischief when she asked, mock-innocently, “Will we have to behave there, too?”

“Don’t think so, but then again, Jesus might be watching so…”

She burst out in a light laugh and shook her head saying once more, “You’re incorrigible.”

“Yeah, and you love it.”

“Starting to,” she whispered, voice husky, and to that I only had one response and that was to kiss her again.

“Mm,” she moaned against my mouth, a short, small thing but the sound traveled straight to my cock which perked up and definitely paid attention.

Down boy, I silently admonished and broke apart from her with some serious effort.

Dinner felt like it took forever, and even though the place had cleared out some, it was still plenty full. We tucked ourselves back into a corner booth, but still there were some lookie-loo’s that were craning their necks and who followed us with their open staring as we walked through to take a seat. All of their eyes were on Chrissy.

I let her into the booth first, and slid in beside her, Angel and Golden sliding in across from us. It was a six person booth, all of them on this side were, but there was no tellin’ if one of the other guys would show up or not to join us so it was always good to grab a spot with a little extra room.

Dinner conversation was pretty polite and bland, mostly trading a few war stories and pointedly avoiding the couple of elephants in the room. The big one being the threats on Chrissy and things being a bit dicey where her being out in public was concerned. The other, smaller one being what it could do to her case if it were found out that she and the lead detective were bumping uglies. That part was a hell of a lot easier to keep under wraps, though by making sure we were nothing but stiff, cordial, and polite with one another where there was a potential for a camera to catch us.

I made sure to keep my hands on the table where they could be seen, and Chrissy pretty much did the same. She wasn’t a dope, it’s part of why I liked her, and I figured if we were careful we’d get through this and out the other side and once the case was closed, go from there. Enough time passes by and it goes from ‘oh my god, how could they’ to ‘oh my god, how sweet.’

I wasn’t the first detective in history to get involved with a victim or witness, the trick was to not be caught out doing it during an active investigation and jammed up for it.

As always, the food out of Reflash’s kitchen was top-notch, but the place was starting to get packed again with the dinner rush, and there were a few people I’d caught pointing cameras in our direction. I threw more than enough money down on the table to cover mine and Chrissy’s tab and told Angel, “Make sure the wait staff gets the rest, man. We gotta bounce.”

“Cabs out there?” Golden, who was sitting on the outside, looked back around the booth and out the front windows. I was already on my phone, pulling up the app to get an Uber enroute.

“Already on it,” I said, and with a good ETA, too. Three minutes or less. I texted the driver to text us as soon as he pulled up in the loading zone out front and sat back.

“Everything okay?” Chrissy murmured and I detected a hint of nerves.

“Yeah, everything’s good. It’s just starting to pick up in here and that means it’s time to go.”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that…” she murmured and I smiled.

“Gonna be fine, precious, you’ll see.”

She nodded and forced a smile when she too caught a camera in her direction, although, it was kind of hard to miss. The chick snapping the photo used her fucking flash.

“Did I seriously just see a flash go off?” Golden demanded.

“Ah, yeah,” I answered.

“Aw hell no. Where is he? Who did it?” he asked.

“The blonde chick at table seven, out on the floor,” I answered and he twisted around and looked.

“The one in the hooker heels?” he asked, and Chrissy laughed a little, hiding it behind her hand.

“I’m sorry, that wasn’t right laughing, it was terribly judgmental,” she said and Angel smiled at her like she’d done something cute, which she had.

Golden got up and stretched saying, “Naw, fuck that. She went there first, takin’ pictures and shit like you ain’t got a right to privacy or to eat a fuckin’ meal without everybody all up in your shit.”

Chrissy’s expression sobered and she nodded. I looked up at Golden and told him, “Stay inside the lines, brother.”

Golden winked and said, “Check me out, this holster humper doesn’t know what’s gonna hit her in a minute.”

Chrissy looked up at him aghast, and asked, “You’d honestly go there?”

He winked at her and said, “No way José, and that’s exactly the point I’m gonna make.”

Angel started laughing as Golden walked away with a certain amount of swagger in his step and it was all Chrissy could do not to explode with laughter herself. The blonde was looking our way, and I schooled my face into good cop face while Chrissy did a fucking admirable job of looking dubious.

The blonde’s attention diverted to Golden who pulled a vacant chair from a nearby table and turned it around, straddling it and talking to the blonde and her friend at the two seater table they occupied. Angel shook his head.

“He can be such an asshole,” he said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But in this case, he’s using the power for good.”

“Oh, I hope it doesn’t sting too much,” Chrissy said and with a sigh added, “It looks like he’s quite the charmer.”

“That’s Golden,” Angel said with a nod. “He learned it from me.”

We shared a bit of a laugh and my phone went off with a text from the Uber driver.

“Okay,” I said standing. “That’s us.” I stood aside so Chrissy could get out of the booth and Angel gave us a little salute.

“Night, Youngblood, night Ms. Franco.”

“Good night, Angel. Thank you for everything, and its Chrissy, if you please.”

“Anytime, and okay.”

I took her around and out the front door, giving our Golden boy and his new pet project a wide berth. I stepped out of the entryway and onto the street first, giving the Uber driver a nod and looking both ways up the sidewalk which was relatively clear. I opened up the back door to the car and waved Chrissy out. She kept her head down and hustled into the back seat and I closed the door, getting in up front myself.

“How you folks doing?” the driver asked and I took stock of the inside of the car. It was nice, clean, and the dash cam was a good personal safety touch for the guy. I approved with half the crazy shit that went on in this city.

“Doing good; how about yourself?” I asked.

“Doing fine.”

He signaled and pulled out into traffic smoothly and we rode in silence a ways. He looked into the rearview and asked, “Hey, I know you, miss? You seem awfully familiar.”

“Um, no, I don’t think so,” Chrissy murmured and he frowned and I knew he was trying to place where he’d seen her.

“Do us a favor, man.” I said gently and he glanced my way. “Just leave it alone.”

When we pulled up to the station it clicked and he said, “Oh, man, wait! You’re that lawyer! The one who got shot. Man, I’m sorry what they did to you, Tina. That just ain’t right.”

She looked up suddenly, her expression darkening.

“What did you call me?” she asked.

“Sorry, uh, Tina… like the hashtag, you know? Hashtag where’s Tina?”

“My name is Christina, not Tina, and thank you for the ride.”

I got out quickly and she did too, before I could come around and get her door. I called out, “Thanks man,” and went to the garage surface entrance, putting my badge up against the RFID reader so that my access card in the holder behind it could be read. The door buzzed, the red light on the pad switching to green and I dragged the door open. Chrissy rushed inside and I ducked in right behind her as the Uber driver looked on.

The door shut behind us and she let out a breath saying, “God, can’t I go anywhere in this city without someone looking at me funny?”

I shook my head and said, “Come on, let’s get you home.”

“Yes, please; let’s,” she agreed.

I went to my truck and pulled the stool out of the back for her. She was so upset, but on the angry side, that she hauled herself up this time without so much as wincing. I threw the stool back in the bed with a clatter and shut her door, going around to my side.

The drive across the bay seemed to help. Her shoulders were losing some of the tension that rode them, her expression calming into one that was almost meditative as she looked out over the water.

We stopped in at the pharmacy, one, so she could get her morning after pill, and two, so I could grab some condoms until she could get an alternate form of birth control online and working for her.

Still, even with the stop, by the time we got back to my place, and I pulled into the garage, she was downright placid. She took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh once the garage door had finished closing.

“Feel better?” I asked.

“I’ll feel much better when we’re upstairs and in bed.”

I smiled, “Ain’t gotta tell me twice.”

I got out of the truck and went around to help her down, taking her hand gently and towing her up the stairs and to my room.

I took off my coat, hanging it in the closet and kicked off my shoes into the bottom of it. The belt came next, the gun going on the dresser in its holster, before I thought about it and changed my mind, setting it within reach of the bed on the nightstand.

Chrissy stilled, she’d laid her purse aside, and had unclipped her hair and was working her blouse out of the waistband of her skirt when I’d made the change.

“Just being overly cautious, don’t worry about it.”

She nodded and stepped out of her cute black pumps and I went to her, the sound of tearing Velcro loud in the room as I peeled the strips back from each other to get her sling off of her.

She lowered her injured arm carefully, wincing, and I asked her, “When was the last time you had a pain pill?”

“A while,” she admitted, “but its fine for now.”

I took her at her word on that, I mean, only she really knew her own body and what was going on with it, but it didn’t sit well with me, and I worried. I turned her back to my front and drew her to me until we were pressed together, my fingers finding the top button of her blouse. I undid it, letting my fingers drift down from the next, to the next; to the next. I let the tips of my fingers trail against her silky skin between buttons, unfastening them carefully as I went, bumping over the lace and wire of her bra between her breasts her breath catching, her arms hanging limp to her sides as I supported her body with mine.

When I reached the last button and let the material fall away from my hands, I put my hands gently on her hips and took a half step back, dragging the shimmering material off her shoulders and down her arms, letting it fall to the floor. It landed with a hushed whisper on my bedroom’s area rug and I let my hands drift up her back, pleased at the sweep of goosebumps following them. I rested them lightly on her shoulders and dug lightly with my thumbs in that sweet spot that always seemed to be tight on me.

Her breath spilled from her lips, carrying a groan of pleasure as I worked away the tightness in her muscles, easing the tension in her upper back and neck with careful, even pressure. The sounds she made causing my dick to rise to attention, I wanted so badly to turn her around and kiss her. To start working us the rest of the way out of our clothes and get us both into the bed that waited for us.

I kneaded between her shoulders, carefully along her spine and along the supple curve of her neck to either side until she was nearly asleep on her feet and as relaxed as I could get her. Only then did I take back my hands, and start in on my own shirt, quickly, before she could come back to herself.