New York Detectives (Book 3)

Chapter 24

I came back to the moment as I heard a car start honking at me and I jumped to the side, my hands in front of me and I looked through the windshield of a sports car, the teen glaring at me.

"Are you gonna go?!" He yells at me and I motioned to my stomach.

"Sorry, I'll move my pregnant ass faster for royalty. Hope I get to arrest you before I leave." I yelled at him and he rolled his eyes.

"Next time, Sweetheart. Bring the fake badge. You're no cop." I pulled out my badge and started walking to him.

"You're right, I'm not a cop. I'm a homicide detective. And that means I can carry this," I said as I lifted part of my jacket to show my gun and he had his hands up, frightened. I looked down my nose at him, and covered the gun again.

"You let people walk across the street as slow as they want." I snarled and put my badge away. I finished walking across the street and shook my head, running a hand through my hair.

"Teens today, with their impatience and expensive cars. " I heard a familiar voice say and I turned, smiling.

"Ah, Jim! Nice to see you again." I said as I hugged him and he laughed.

"It's nice to see that you're not on the road like strawberry jam." He said and I laughed, scratching my head.

"Yeah, the night usually messes with me, so I forget to be a grown up and look both ways before I cross the street."

Jim nodded and shrugged both shoulders.
"Honestly? I do the same. Now, you're not really happy, that's a fake smile you wear. I'd say, fight with someone close. " He said and I nodded, my smile fading.

"Yeah, sadly that's the case tonight. I need to get away from here, but at the same time... I don't want to leave. There are memories on every block in the city, even the bad blocks I wasn't supposed to be on. I have friends upon friends in this city, or near here." I solemnly stated.

"And you want to curl up somewhere, hide from the world. Hide from people because not even your boyfriend knows or understands you." Jim said soothingly and I looked up at him and narrowed my eyes inquisitively at him.

"Ye-yeah. How the Hell did you know?" I asked and he smiled softly at me.

"I know the feeling." He said and there was silence besides the music from close bars. I swallowed past the lump in my throat and looked down.

"Well, at least we can, somewhat, understand one another." I offered and Jim nodded, chuckling softly.

"Yeah, that's true. So listen, I'm still new here and I need to get to a certain bar but, I've gotten lost and my friend is not making any sense. He sometimes forgets I'm not a New Yorker. "

"Or he's just getting to the fuzzy state of being drunk." I joked and Jim took a moment to think and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess that's definitely a option." He said and I laughed lightly, shaking my head.

"OK, what's the bar's name? Hopefully I know where it is. I'm a bit rusty with the street names. But, with luck, I'll know." I smiled and Jim smiled and looked at his phones, scrolling through it.

"It's a place called, 'Sweetberry'." He laughed and I smirked.

"Oh, wasn't that my bar? They hated me and sent me off to a different one. Said my outfit was made for 'Dead and Company's'." I said as I looked at the street name and smiled.

"OK, I don't remember the street name, but don't worry. You'll do fine as long as you follow these few directions." I said and Jim hesitantly nodded.
" What you're gonna do, is go down this street to the second lamppost, then turn left." I smiled and he nodded as he started to follow my directions, and as he turned he smiled.

"Was I really this close?!" He asked and I nodded. "This is bar central. There's twenty bars on a street for the next three streets." I joked and he nodded.

"Makes sense, now I know why there's all this music." He laughed and I nodded.

"You have a good one, Jim. Have a beer for me." I waved to him and started to walk straight ahead, hearing Jim say goodbye to me.

I pulled out my phone and dialled Sherlock's number, cursing as my phone only had 14% left.

"Destiny?!"

"Yeah? Sherlock, what's wrong?" I asked, starting to panic and he sighed into the phone.

"I haven't heard from you. It started to worry me, and I started to assume the worst." He said and I smiled as I turned down one of the "Bar Central" streets.

"Well, I'm glad to report that I'm ready to be picked up and I'm well." I said and he chuckled.

"Alright, tell me where you are and I will get you."

"Well, I'll meet you at some other building because where I am, you'll have no idea where it is. So, how does," I trailed off, looking around for a familiar building. "Mrs Viner's shop sound?"

"Sounds perfect. See you soon." He said and I smiled.

"Ok. See you then." I said and I hung up, thinking I heard Sherlock start to say something else, but I shook my head, only imagining things.

As I started to walk in the direction of the shop, I saw a group of people walking, several feet in front of me.

I rolled my eyes as I was gaining on them, slow walkers and they weren't even drunk.

"- is pregnant -- move much --she kick your ass?!"

The fragments I heard made me get curious, because another pregnant woman who can kick ass? Who wouldn't want to know about it?

I walked a bit quicker and was able to hear clearly, but at a safe distance.

"She was good. Nobody told me she could fight. She was able to kick my ass because she used a shower head to knock me down."

"A shower head? Really?!"

The group started laughing but the blonde shook her head. She waited for them to quiet down and stop making fun of her.

I bit my tongue after I realised that I was the pregnant woman, and the blonde was the woman I wanted to kill. I needed to follow and see where this would go. They had Nathan, and if I found him, I could go home sooner. The sooner the better.

Their jokes lasted longer than expected, because by the time I realized that I'd been following them around for a while, we were getting to the bad side of New York, to the worse bars. Bars that pregnant women should avoid at all costs.

"I tried to drown her, but she wasn't having it, apparently." she stated and I clenched my jaw.

"Nope, especially if she hit you with a shower head. How did she even unhook it without you knowing?"

"Yeah, how did she get it? Especially if those things are out of reach when being drowned?"

They walked down a side road, and I waited at a corner, knowing they weren't that dumb. If someone follows you down a side road, they want problems.

The blonde had scowled.
"Just shut up, Nathan should be here soon." she said and I closed my eyes. I felt my phone start vibrating, and I pulled it out, seeing Sherlock was calling and I ignored him.

I waited eight minutes tops, and when I peaked around the corner, a black car had pulled up and Nathan had walked out of the car, greeting the group.

They shook hands, greeted each other, and Nathan crossed his arms, but I didn't want them to get too much conversation in without me.

I stepped out and stood under the streetlight, gazes looking towards me, including Nathan's.

"Hi, Nathan. Long time no see." I greeted with a head nod.

"Destiny?"

BOOM.

The movement was so sudden and the sound was so loud, I heard people scream from inside the bar, and I felt pain somewhere. My brain wasn't comprehending that I had just been shot.

I stared at the blonde, seeing the gun in her hands and a smirk on her face. I looked down and didn't see a wound in my chest, but as my gaze lowered, the blood coming from my stomach caught my eye.