Brutal (8 page)

“
K
issing and touching aren’t the same, allow me to show you the difference.”
That piece of fuck! Since I started listening to this conversation, I’ve busted all my lamps. Which isn’t too bad, given that I only have one. Although, if I had more than one, I’m sure they’d be on the floor, too. That motherfucker ain’t going to give up. She could have waved a god damned white flag, or announced she has the herp, and he wouldn’t have listened. I have a meeting with him tomorrow, and it’s going to be impossible for me to keep myself in check, knowing this prick wants what I want. And there is no doubt about what I want. I want
her.

I know she doesn’t like to be touched in general, but she let me touch her. Actually, she held onto me at the station, but I consider that the same thing. She looked as shocked as I was. I’ve never had anyone (minus Rafe) look me in the eyes, let alone touch me willingly. I’m thirty years old, and for the first time in my life, I want a woman of my own. I’ll be damned if some would-be criminal is going to take me out of the race before I get the chance to compete.

I can hear her singing on her drive home. I admit, she’s no Kelly Clarkson (so what, I like American Idol), but she
can
sing. Her voice has darkness to it; it’s deep and angry, but still soft. I start to imagine that there’s nothing about this female that I won’t like. Her file says she lives in the Brooklyn Lofts, which is on Brooklyn and Kaline. It’s where the artists live and blend, and it’s a tight group up there.

Skimming the file again, I see she has no credit cards or bad habits on record. Pays cash for everything. I guess the Captain really did try to keep tabs on her, up until about four years ago. In school she was an A/B student, plays guitar and drums, and was one hell of an athlete. At one point, she even wanted to follow in her dad’s footsteps. She knows several forms of martial arts, and has a lot of weapons training. Despite my earlier assessment, with her knowledge and training, she is a formidable opponent. Also, take into account she has access to a very powerful sedative, and she truly is a rogue; a law unto herself.

After she moved out of the Captain’s house, she virtually disappeared. That is, until now. She’s been under our noses all this time, and no one knew what she was doing in Detroit after hours. For someone who spends his time in the shadows, that’s fucking impressive.

I can tell she’s made it home safely when I hear her enter her place. It sounds like she’s turned on more music. It’s not familiar to me, which isn’t a surprise, but what does surprise me is that I know I probably should stop listening and give her some privacy, but knowing that I won’t.

U
tterly exhausted and needing to crash, I can’t get tonight’s events out of my head. Arrested. Tony. The Detective. Set up. A partnership. A decision. Ugh! I mean, really, what would you do in my heels? I need to talk to Macy. So once I’ve taken my clothes off, I climb into bed and hit the speaker, making the call.

“Everything okay, Venessa?” God bless her, just like that, I can breathe again.

“Tonight was a hot mess, Macy. You got a minute so I can vent?”

“Yep, hit me,” she says. “I’m taking a break.”

“I’m going to sum it up. I was arrested at the club for suspicion of murder, but not charged. Turns out it was set up to get me to the station. Clever, but still.  The Cap basically offered me a deal to help out DPD, in return for my continued efforts, without the risk of jail time. At least, I took it that way.  A green light, I guess? Anyway, Tony decided we should hook up out of the blue, and that’s not even the most bizarre thing that happened tonight.” Impressed I did that in one breath, I continue, “I met someone tonight Macy.” There, I said it.

“Ho-kay, so let’s start from the end, because the Cap doesn’t surprise me. He loves you. You knew it was a matter of time, didn’t you? Tony does surprise me, and though I think he’d cut his own cock off before hurting you, I can’t say I like it. What I want to know about is the mystery man, so spill it.” She laughs, and I’m reminded of why I love her so much.

“The Cap just finished railroading me and in walks in one of the biggest, scariest guy I’ve ever seen, right? Only he’s not scary to me. I wanted to jump in his lap, Macy. God, I couldn’t stop staring at him. It was like I was frozen. And it’s fucked up, because when the Cap dropped the bomb that he wanted us to partner up, he held my hand, and I didn’t want him to let go, like ever. But I introduced myself, and the whole time I was there he didn’t say a word. He just stood there, staring at me with this mean look on his face. He still held my hand, but he never spoke. I’m so messed up about this. I let him touch me, and I liked it! What does that even mean, Macy?” I ask, close to hysterics.

“It means you’re human, and that it’s okay to need people. This guy must do it for you on some level, and you’re reacting to it. Would it be so bad to try?”

I know that she’s right, but I’m still scared. Terrified, really.

“Tell me what you noticed first,” she says.

“You mean after he came in and sucked all of the air out of the room? Because I wasn’t noticing much after that.”

“Yes, after that, what was the first thing you noticed about him?” 

I immediately answer. There is no question. “His eyes.”

“What about his eyes?”

“His eyes say all of the things he doesn’t. There’s more to him than being a hard ass. He’s the job, anyone can see that, but there’s more, and that’s what I see. I wanna see me there, Macy. He’s home for me, I know it, and that’s dangerous.”

“Bullshit,” she retorts. “That’s chemistry. I’ve never reacted to anyone that way in my life. You need to see him again. How do we make that happen?”

“Cap wants him to go undercover at the club and be my bodyguard, in return for information regarding a big case they’re working on. The universe is messing with me, because Tony and Max want the same thing, so at this point it’s just a matter of if they hire him or not.; which I have no doubt they will. The Cap put this into motion, and when I’m thinking straight I need to give it more thought. But on the bright side, no one would dare come near me with him close by.”

Laughing, Macy says, “It’s not the universe, it’s karma. You put good things out there, and you get good in return. I used to think the Kharma thing was cliché, but I totally get it now. You deserve happiness more than anyone I know. In all the years I’ve known you, you’ve never once taken anything for yourself. If he gets hired, give it a chance to see where it goes.”

“What if he doesn’t want me with all of my issues?” I ask, fearful. I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t think I could handle it if he thought of me as a means to an end, maybe a promotion and not as a woman.

“But what if he does?” she asks. Ever the risk taker, this one. “Venessa, have you looked in the mirror lately? You are a beautiful woman. He’d have to be full on mental not to notice. Everyone else does, which brings us back full circle. Tony. What the fuck happened there?”

“God, I don’t even want to talk about Tony. As to what happened? No clue! He just said
it was time,
and when I said no he said he looks forward to changing my mind. I finally notice a guy, and now I’ve got Tony bringing the full court press. All I heard was 'you’re mine', then I freaked when he asked to kiss me. The man is lucky I didn’t stab him. When he asked to kiss me, I thought of the Detective, but when I look at Tony I bolted. This is why I don’t date!”

“Yeah, sounds awful. The last guy I dated liked to use me as a punching bag, and I had to have my best friend kick his ass and have him arrested for me. Forgive me for this, but it could be worse,” she says, and I feel instant guilt.

“Yeah? How so?”

“You could have vaginosis,” she says deadpan.

“Is that your way of telling me
you
do?”

“Relax. It’s a joke, not a dick, don’t take it so hard.”

She disconnects while laughing her crazy ass off, and for the first time in a long time, I fall to sleep with a smile on my face while making a mental note to look up vaginosis.

I’
m still riding high from last night’s conversation. One minute I’m staring at my ear piece, and then I get the signal that she’s making a call, so I listen in. I felt no guilt for it. I could have listened to the recording later, but I couldn’t wait. Her voice had the hair on my body tingling. Hearing her talk about me has me sitting there with my jaw hanging open.

So she felt it, too. She also feels there’s a good chance I wouldn’t want her. Not fucking likely. She thinks I’m attractive? I’ll admit that confession has me scratching my bald head. Maybe she has poor eyesight. She also confirmed she doesn’t date, and she doesn’t want that Gallo fuck; both points in my favor. She liked touching me, which from the sounds of it is a big fucking deal, and another point in my favor. All activity from her phone is recorded, so I listened to her over and over until I finally passed out with my phone in hand.

Waking up, I’m pissed I won’t see her in person today. I don’t think about how I ended up here often. I just always knew here was where I needed to be. If last night was any indication, she’s the reason I’m still here. I was waiting for her. She’s why I stayed, I just never knew it. Living here is all I’ve known. It’s not that I haven’t traveled some but no matter where I’m at, Detroit is home. It’s not perfect, but I’m not the only one trying to fix what’s broken here. We’ll restore this city to greatness one day at a time. Detroit gets a lot of bad press. Some true, some bullshit. Our city council? Yeah, that shit’s true. But we also have some fucking amazing people making a difference here, so my getting this gig as her ‘protection’ is step one. None of us are joking when we say something big is headed this way, and none of it good. Problem is, we don’t know exactly what it is, but that club is the key to finding out and so is she.

You have ‘Detroiters’ and then you have the people that come here for a ball game or some Disney on Ice bullshit and think they’re from Detroit. True Detroiters never leave. They stay and fight. Cops can’t be everywhere. Shit, they’re afraid to. The city lives by its own code. Citizens have no choice but to protect themselves, and that pisses me off. I’m supposed to protect them. But if I can stop this infiltration, I can prevent a huge turf war and keep Venessa safe, too. The criminals here aren’t going to sit back and welcome their enemies. It will be a blood bath, so this meeting is important. Visiting here and living here are two very different things. For me, I can’t imagine living anywhere else, especially knowing that I had something waiting for me.

One thing I noticed is she’s an early riser. I fell asleep about four am, here it is ten am and the tracker activated, which tells me she’s on the move. Dressing in a hurry, I jump in my truck to follow; assuming she was grabbing a cup was a mistake. What she is grabbing right now is Darnell White, by the back of the neck. By itself, this is shocking, considering Darnell White is six two, and two hundred thirty pounds of pimp. Hanging back, I put my Bluetooth in to listen with my Glock in my lap.

She’s worried about two of his girls; warns him that if he doesn’t protect them better, she’s going to remove the girls from his care, then remove his front teeth. Even more amazing is that he agrees, pretty much doing whatever he can to please her and keep his girls safe. As she turns to leave, he even fucking thanks her for coming out to talk to him in person. Accepting his thanks, she walks away, turns the corner, and I lose her.

Am I losing my mind, or did a pimp, a big player in the game, just thank a woman for slamming him against a wall and threatening him?  I’ve dealt with Darnell; you do not put your hands on him, ever. He has women covering every corner in the city, so he is not small time. He also has one goon for every five women working his streets, so what does Venessa know that he doesn’t?

My interview is at noon, and since Venessa went back home, I head over without worrying about following her anywhere else for an hour or so. Based on last night, she’s having lunch with Max so he’ll likely pick her up. After this interview, though? I’ll be right back at it.