Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

1. Dead Man's DNA

9 years later
New York City

The sprawling, busy streets of New York was home to millions of people.
It was just another one of those nights, everyone minding their own business, while a blue mustang raced through the streets, police lights flashing from its dash and the a very anxious and irritated Catherine Chandler behind the wheel, willing the unknowing public to move faster.

Reaching her destination, she pulls into a cut off lane and parks her car in the middle of it, getting out and passing a uniform who is there.
"Hey, detective, what ya doin?" The officer asks. She tells him to give her just five minutes, jogging past him, glancing only fleetingly at him.

She runs through the square, hoping that Zeke was still there because she was late for their date. Again.
She spots him standing at the entrance to the theatre and jogs up to him.

"Hey," she sighs and kisses him when he turns to look at her, nearly bumping him over but steadying them both in time. "Sorry," she chuckles. "You know my boss hates his wife so he never wants to leave work," she explains, not really noticing Zeke looking around anxiously. "which means I don't get to - "

"Which means you never got my text," Zeke interrupts her, while she just looks at him caringly, continuing before she can speak. "Look, at first it was kind of a turn on," he says. She stops smiling and looking apologetic. He shrugs. "Now it's kind of a drag." She doesn't know what to say. He just goes on. "Like tonight, if I wanna smoke pot - "

"No, you can smoke pot," Catherine says, waving her hands and chuckling. "I don't care."

"Hey! Z babe!" A blonde woman comes over from the other side of the square, and both Catherine and Zeke look at her, before Zeke looks back at Catherine.

"Z babe?" she asks. She isn't upset but confused by the new addition. And nickname.

"Sorry, Cat," Zeke hastily says, pointing to the new woman. That's when Catherine sees the tickets in his hand and she wants to laugh at him. Once again, she picked a dud. He waves between them, shaking his head. "You're stressing me out."

Catherine wrinkles her nose. "Really?"  She'll show him. Z babe? "That's what you texted me?" His text never mentioned him being stressed or that he wants to start seeing other people.

Zeke points back at the woman, who looks just as confused as Catherine but a little more guilty than that. "We gotta - "

He was squirming. She was over it. Catherine was never one to mince words. She sure knew how to pick 'em. She thought they were getting along great. Z babe? Yeah no.
"You know what, Z babe? This wasn't working for me either," she shrugs, already feeling less confused and more on calm. She takes out her badge and calls over to the nearest security officer, showing her badge to him. "Security, that guy's got pot on him." Then she leaves a gaping Zeke behind her, walking back to her car, answering her phone when it rings.
Break ups with assholes were liberating.

**************

"You shoulda tazed him," Tess Vargas, Catherine's partner and a detective, walked next to Catherine after meeting her at the site of a case that was just called in. "Kind of a turn on," she mocks Zeke. "So what, he was just in it for the handcuffs? Don't guys know they just remind us of - "

"Tess, he didn't ask for the cuffs," Catherine rolls her eyes.

"You have a blind spot for douches, see when I date a douche, I know he's a douche." She holds her hands up. "Which is why I'm on a man cleanse."

"Good, you can be my date to my dad's engagement party," Catherine says as they pass a uniform, ducking under the yellow tape and showing their badges and stating why they were there. They were Special Crimes, and apparently this was one.