Rock Chick 04 Renegade (11 page)

night.

* * * * *

Wreak enough havoc on the dealers and the suppliers of the dealers who made their sales in the places where the runaways hung out so that the dealers would eventual y give up and find some other place to do business.

If the runaways fol owed the dealers, I would move to new turf.

I wasn’t taking on al Denver dealers, trying to shut down their business. I just wanted them to leave my kids alone.

I knew driving Hazel was stupid and I was considering dipping into the ever growing mortgage fund that Nick never touched and buying something for patrol that was less conspicuous than a red, cherry-condition 1983

Camaro. I just couldn’t find the time.

I patrol ed and kept my eyes peeled for a tail. There wasn’t one.

Things were quiet. Some kids were out; it was cold, so not many. There weren’t any dealers around.

I was considering going to the bar where I’d seen Darius last night and watching him, or just giving up, packing it in and getting some needed shuteye when I saw them.

Martin and Curtis, two runaways from King’s. They were brothers, fourteen and twelve. They’d come in about a month after Park died and I knew it was because they heard about me (because of Sniff, everyone had heard about me).

They hit my caseload so I was working with them. They hadn’t told me much and didn’t spend the night at King’s hadn’t told me much and didn’t spend the night at King’s but I was hoping for a breakthrough soon.

I watched as they ran out of an al ey and down 15th Street. They were being fol owed by two dealers. I knew the dealers. They weren’t smal time. They were serious players.

My heart started thumping and I fol owed them. The kids ducked into another al ey and the dealers fol owed.

If I fol owed in Hazel, they’d see me. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad so I made a split-second decision.

Quickly, I parked on the street. I had my mace in my pocket, my stun gun and Glock on the seat. I grabbed the Glock, exited the car, left it unsecured, ran into the al ey and hoped I wouldn’t pee my pants.

By the time I got to them, Martin, the older brother, was stand up wrestling with one of them, grunting and losing.

The other one had Curtis against the wal .

Fuck.

I aimed my gun at the dealer on Curtis. “Back off!” I shouted.

His head whipped around. The other one got Martin in a headlock and twisted him around violently so he could look at me.

Their names were Clarence and Jermaine, no street names that I knew of. Clarence had Martin. Jermaine had Curtis.

I kept my gun and eye on Jermaine and channeled my internal badass mother.

“Back off,” I repeated, low.

“Holy shit!” Jermaine laughed. “It’s The Law.” He pul ed Curtis forward by his col ar and slammed him viciously into the wal and I heard Curtis’s skul crack against the brick.

Um…

I… did… not…
think
… so.

My eyes narrowed and my head cocked to the sight of the gun.

In a serious, pissed off voice, I said, “I’l say it one more time, let him go.”

To my surprise, he let him go. To my despair, he only did it so he could come at me.

Martin was stil struggling against the headlock, intermittently groaning and whining. His feral noises of fear were spurring me on by pissing me off even more.

Curtis was standing frozen, likely partial y dazed, partial y scared stiff.

“Watcha gonna do Law? Slash my tires? Throw a smoke bomb? Light some shit on fire on my doorstep? You’re a fuckin’ joke,” Jermaine taunted.

Excuse me, I never lit poo on fire on someone’s doorstep. That was immature.

“Go. Now,” I returned, ignoring his words. “Leave the kids alone. If you go, no one wil get hurt.”

“Fuck you, bitch,” Jermaine snarled and then came at me.

When he came at me, I switched my gun to the other hand knowing he’d get physical just to prove a point. The big man subdues the sil y woman.

Fuck him.

Right away he gave me my opening, throwing out his arm to grab me. So I took it.

When he arrived at me, I grabbed his wrist and leaned down, ducking under his arm, using my leverage, his momentum and bulk, and I twisted his arm and flipped him up and around and he landed with a sickening thud on his back.

Then without hesitation, I aimed and kicked him savagely between his legs. He let out a ferocious howl and curled into a fetal position. I put my boot to his neck and leaned my weight into it (maybe a little more weight than I needed but I told myself that I was new to this and al owed myself some leeway).

Then I lifted my head, my eyes slicing to Clarence. I switched my gun to my right hand, cupped it with my left and aimed.

“Let him go,” I ordered.

Clarence was staring at me in shock, so much so he didn’t let Martin go.

I dropped my aim and fired. The bul et hit next to his left foot. He felt the impact and jumped but he didn’t let Martin go.

I lifted my gun, aimed it at his head and cocked my own to the gun’s sight. “I said, let… him… go.” He let Martin go.

Martin ran immediately to Curtis.

I stood aiming at Clarence, my boot stil at the writhing Jermaine’s neck and I wondered what the hel I should do now.

Then Clarence’s eyes moved from their study of my gun to look over my shoulder.

“Holy fuck. It’s true,” Clarence whispered but loudly so I could hear.

Like a sixth sense, I felt rather than saw Crowe coming up behind me. Then he got up beside me and stopped, his eyes were on the man at my boot.

I guessed I was wrong about not having a tail.

God, he was
good
.

Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow move from behind Clarence. I focused and Mace arrived at the scene. He was looking at Vance. At the sight of Mace, I got over my admiration of Crowe.

This is just great,
I thought with mental sarcasm.

“Did I see what I think I just saw?” Mace asked to Crowe.

“You saw it,” Crowe replied then he looked at me.

It was dark; I couldn’t read his eyes and didn’t try. I looked back at Mace and Clarence.

Mace’s eyes had cut to me; he stared at me a second and I could tel by the white flash in his mouth area that he grinned. Then he grabbed Clarence’s wrist, twisted it around to his back and shoved him face first against the brick wal . He pul ed some cuffs out of the back of his cargo pants and slapped them on Clarence.

“Stay,” he said to Clarence as if he was a dog.

I dropped my gun and put it in the back waistband of my jeans.

“You can take your boot out of his neck now,” Vance said

“You can take your boot out of his neck now,” Vance said to me.

I looked down. Jermaine was stil curled up in apparent agony and not going anywhere.

“Whoops,” I muttered and lifted my foot.

Vance crouched and cuffed Jermaine. Mace had pul ed a phone out of his pocket and he’d connected.

“Luke. We got a pick up. Yeah, another couple from Law,” he faded a bit into the shadows and I heard him say,

“You are not gonna fuckin’ believe this…”

I walked to Martin and Curtis. “You guys okay?” They didn’t speak, just nodded, mouths open in disbelief.

“Curtis, your head?” I asked.

He just kept nodding.

“Why were they chasing you?” I asked them.

They kept staring at me.

“Come on boys, spil . These are bad guys, worse than most. What were they doing chasing you?”

“We thought we’d help you go after the drug guys,” Curtis told me.

“Yeah, we been fol owin’ them two for awhile,” Martin threw in with pride.

Oh crap. Not this again.

“Al the kids are talkin’ ‘bout doin’ it. We got sick of talkin’ so we decided just to do it,” Curtis went on.

“It’s so fuckin cool you’re workin’ with Crowe,” Martin said and turned to his brother. “Told you she was workin’

with Crowe.”

Curtis nodded but was silent, overwhelmed by the excitement of it al . His eyes moving between me and Vance who had pul ed up Jermaine and was positioning him against the wal next to Clarence.

My eyes returned to the kids. “Don’t say fuck and I’m not working with Crowe.”

“Yeah you are. I heard he’s like, your man and you’re like, his woman,” Martin replied.

“Yeah, Sniff said that, today, you two were huggin’ at that bookstore where they al hang out,” Curtis put in.

Damn Sniff and his mouth.

I looked at Vance and noticed he had turned to us. I didn’t know him wel enough to guess his reaction to this latest fiasco but, if I’d had to guess, it wouldn’t have been him smiling wide like he was pleased about something which was exactly what he was doing.

I sent him a look and turned back to the boys. “Al right, kids, let’s get this straight. You two do not go out on the street and get in the faces of bad guys. Anyone else you hear talking about it, you tel them I said the same to them.

Do you hear me?” I said in my word-is-law voice.

“We hear you,” Curtis said.

“No need. You workin’ with Crowe and that Mace guy in on it too…” Martin replied, trailing off, awe stil in his voice.

“Streets’l be clean in no time,” Curtis added, like we were superheroes.

I looked back at Vance and he was stil smiling.

I rol ed my eyes.

Headlights came from behind me and I turned and saw a black Ford Explorer heading down the al ey. It stopped close to us and Stark swung out of the driver’s side. A huge blond guy that looked like a relative of the big man at Fortnum’s got out the passenger side. They walked up to us, both of them were grinning.

Martin and Curtis’s mouths had dropped open again.

“God dammit,” I hissed under my breath.

Just what I needed, Super Dude Stark and Paul Bunyon sweeping up the trash. The kids were going to talk about this until Christmas.

Mace re-emerged from the shadows just as the huge blond said, “Jesus, Law, you ever take a night off?”

“The Law never takes a break,” Curtis offered.

I looked skyward. As I was doing so Vance approached me and curled an arm around my neck, pul ing me into the side of his body. Martin and Curtis had trained their gazes on us and, again, their mouths dropped open but now their eyes were bugged nearly clear out of their heads.

“Knew you were his woman,” Martin final y said.

I’d had enough. “You two know Hazel?” I asked.

More awestruck looks.

“Your Camaro?” Curtis breathed.

“Yeah. She’s parked on the street, lock yourselves in until I get there. Tonight, you’re sleeping at King’s.”

“We get to ride in Hazel?” Martin asked.

“Move!” I snapped.

They both ran.

I turned toward Vance, which only succeeded in my curling into his body. I pul ed back at the neck but his arm didn’t go anywhere so I gave up.

He was grinning down at me.

“Take your arm away,” I said.

He didn’t, instead he leaned in and kissed my forehead.

This was such a strange thing to do in the current situation, and I was so shocked by it, I blinked at him.

“What was that for?” I asked.

“I’m just relieved that when you told me you knew what you were doin’, you actual y knew what you were doin’.” It wasn’t a wel -lit al ey but I was pretty sure he was looking at me with new respect. I felt a rush of warmth, starting at my bel y and going outwards. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.

The big blond guy and Mace were pushing Clarence and Jermaine toward the Explorer.

“Where are they taking them?” I asked.

“Don’t know. We stil got Shard in the holding room.

You’re chal enging our capacity,” Vance replied.

“You… you… what do you mean you stil have Shard?

What’s a holding room?”

Vance was watching them load up Clarence and Jermaine. His eyes came down to me and his arm loosened, sliding from around my shoulders. I pul ed back but he kept me close with his fingers curled around my neck.

“I didn’t like the way Shard was lookin’ at you last night.

We took him to the holding room in the offices to talk to him, convince him he didn’t want retribution. He’s being difficult.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed. That did
not
sound good.

“Oh my God,” I breathed. That did
not
sound good.

“Don’t worry, he won’t touch you,” Vance said and I figured either they would talk him out of it or Vance would stop him. One way or the other, he wouldn’t touch me.

Something about the thought of that made that rush of warmth intensify.

“So what about Clarence and Jermaine?” I asked.

“They aren’t low level. We’l need to talk to their people.

Lee’s already taken his side in this, whatever happens, you won’t feel it.”

My head jerked in surprise and I stared at him in the shadows. “What do you mean, Lee’s taken a side?”

“I mean he’s made it known where he stands,” Vance replied.

“And where does he stand?” I asked.

“By you.”

My breath caught and it was my turn for my mouth to drop open. “You’re joking.”

“Nope. Not a popular opinion. Hank and Chavez both want you shut down. They think you’re gonna get hurt and vigilantism isn’t a big hit with them. You aren’t real popular with Darius either. Stil , Lee decides somethin’ that’s it,” Crowe said.

“Where do you stand?” I asked.

“Got your back when you’re on the street. The rest of the time I’l be tryin’ to talk you out of it.” I put my hands to my hips. “I thought you just said I knew what I was doing?” I asked.