Case by Case Love

Chapter 68: Roof Top Confrontation

Jay's eyes hadn't left the man before him. Nor did his fingers leave the gun that he held in his hands pointed at the man before him. He just needed him to get down on his knees so the cuffs could be slapped on him and this would be all over. It was why he wanted no part in the games that Kenny was trying to play right now. It was why he wanted to hear no more details. It was why he was forcing every single emotion he was feeling to be blocked out, not wanting it to distract him from the task at hand. There was only thing that mattered at the end of the day here.

"How about we go down to the station and you can tell me those details?" Jay suggests, trying to deescalate the situation as he had been taught in the Police Academy so he could get this man in cuffs and arrested as was the goal when they had arrived at his workplace that day. He had to focus on his training and what to do. He could not let his emotions tell the tale of how he acted.

"I thought with how curious you were, you would want to hear those details right now," Kenny retorts back in response. "I thought you would want to hear about the things I did to make Sterling scream. He needed it and deserved it, Detective Halstead." Jay takes a deep breath as he tries to erase every single emotion that building inside of him, eyes focused on the man before him, his fingers not allowing any movement on the trigger. "Those screams were necessary. He needed to know who was in charge. He needed to know that he could not run the show. He needed to know that he had to answer to me and me alone. That was why I took belt off of my pants...."

"I told you my rules of the house and yet you still did not listen!" Pat Halstead's voice bellows out as he walks from the kitchen to the living room, the belt that was wrapped around his jeans coming off with each step. "I work all the damn hours during the day. I earn all the money for this family. I decide how that money is spent. I decide which food is bought, and who gets to eat it and when. That does not mean you go into the kitchen and make a snack whenever you feel like it." 

"I was hungry," Jay says as he stands there in the middle of the living room, eyes locked on his father. He feels his left arm grabbed, and then yanked, forcing the 10-year-old to clash against his father's body. "It was just one lunchable!"

"The lunchable cost this house $3.00. I get paid about $15 an hour to work my dumb ass job. The loaf of bread is worth a quarter of that hour. Now I need to slave for that long again so you can have lunch. You just don't seem to care about your old man!"

He then forces the 10-year-old over his knee, holding the belt as high as he can in the air, bringing down as quick as he can against the buttlocks below. He then pulls down the pants, revealing the red skin from yesterday's session due to a backpack being left by the front door, and smacking against those not once, twice, but five times.

Jay's eyes flash open as he feels the gun go flying out of his hands across the rooftop, and the older man before him lunging at him. He had lost his concentration for a moment. He had allowed himself to get caught up in the emotions, and now he was in for a fight.

He feels himself fall back against the concrete, back first as he does so, a grunt coming from his lips. He goes to stand up, getting up to his knees, only to be forced against the side of the building. He bites his lip as the pain from his left side builds by the force knowing he could not keep taking this so easily. However, he is caught off again by a kick to the other side of his body, causing him to lose his breath for the smallest of seconds. 

Once he caught it with him, though, he grabbed the man by the ankle, forcing him to fall face first on the concrete before. With Kenny caught off-guard, he used the moment to crawl on top of him and yank his left arm behind his back. The process was repeated with the right hand, and the click of a pair of cuffs. 

With Kenny in a pair of cuffs and unable to fight back at all, he slowly makes his way over to where the gun had landed from the earlier struggle, putting it back in the holster. He then reaches for the radio had that had gone flying in the process, sitting back against a wall as he takes a series of deep breathes. 

He knew he was going to be sore that night by what he was feeling already. Why had he let himself get caught in the emotions and the memory?

"This is 5021 George," he states, taking another careful deep breath as his eyes don't leave Kenny in the process. If the man even tried anything, he was not going to put up with it this time. "Suspect apprehended on the rooftop." 

"Do you feel proud of yourself now?" Jay hears Kenny's voice, ignoring it as he only cared if the man moved. "Do you want me to tell you that you're a good little boy and made your daddy proud? Would that make you feel better, Detective? We both know that little boys need to be punished for their sins." 

"How about you just shut up?!?" Jay takes a deep breath, bringing his hand down his side as he could feel the pain growing with each passing second. Perhaps the annoyance in the situation was assisting with that. "I can't wait to watch you rot away in a jail cell for the rest of your pathetic life. You may think you are tough and amazing, but you are a son of a bitch!" 

"I hope you enjoy those being your final words...." 

Jay could not help but be caught off-guard by the tone of Kenny's voice, but there was no time to rest on that thought as he watched the man begin to move. He watched as he slowly rose to his feet and turned to face him. Jay did not bother to move from his spot, knowing if he stepped any closer, he would not take a chance this time and the trigger would be pulled. The guy deserved it anyway. 

However, instead, Kenny backed further away from him and stood at the very edge of the roof. Before Jay could even think of moving or saying something against the action, one more step back and that was the last Jay saw of Kenny Reynolds.