Dishonorable Conduct

Chapter Sixteen

Rosa woke at the sound of a door closing. She looked around, but it was still pitch black. Faintly, she could smell food. On her hands and knees, she tenderly crawled towards the source of the smell, until her hands touched cool ceramic. Checking for a spoon or fork, which there weren't, she began eating the food with her hands, licking the remnants off her fingers and sitting back.

Hurry, Relle.

* * *

Latrelle sat in the car, handcuffed to the door. Since he had rushed into Kyle's house headlong when he'd heard gunfire, Harold had decided to make sure he couldn't leave the car and get hurt.

* * *

Kyle had said that he'd brought Rosa to that warehouse, pretended to leave, then hid so he could see who nabbed her. The car he had seen was a sea green Denali with tinted windows, and the license plate number D07-HBR. When they traced it, it came back as stolen. However, just for good measure, a few detectives left to talk with the owner of the car and their neighbors, looking for witnesses.

After asking for ages, Detective Charles had finally found someone willing to speak with an artist. Once they had gotten the sketch, and were about to run it through the system, they heard a loud bang, and looked over to see Latrelle's fist in the wall. They didn't need to run it through the system; Latrelle knew who it was.

* * *

Latrelle leaned against the window, looking at the pale blue house before him, sulking. He knew why Hal had cuffed him: it was to keep him from ruining their perfectly laid out plan, to keep Latrelle from barging in there hot-headedly.

"He doesn't need to worry. I already told him I wouldn't do that," Latrelle mumbled. He watched as Hal, Com, Charles, and SWAT and a few detectives snuck towards the house, breaking up into three groups. Hal took his group around back, Charles took his group and positioned them in the front, and Com took his group inside the house.

* * *

A loud bang woke Rosa. She craned her neck, following the sounds of footsteps above her head.

Then, another bang.

And another.

As the footsteps began to fade, she heard someone yell seconds before another bang resounded through the home.

* * *

"Get off me!" Simon shouted as Com pinned his arms behind his back and cuffed him. Com roughly placed Simon in a living room chair, grabbing a stool and sitting in front of him.

"Where is she?" he asked. Simon only smiled maliciously.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Simon replied, his voice dripping with mock sweetness. Com fought to keep his anger under control as he asked again, leaning forward.

"Tell me where she is. Where is Rosa Walker?" Com shot a deadly glare at the man, who just yawned. He ground his teeth together, then turned to the detective beside him. "Bring him in."

The detective nodded quickly, exiting the room quicker, as he headed for the car parked out front.

* * *

Latrelle followed the detective into the house and into the living room. When he saw Simon, however, he was reminded of all the times he had been a guest speaker in his German class, how many times he'd come over to play with him and Rosa.

An undeniable and festering hatred towards the man before him took root in his heart, and, as if controlling his actions, made Latrelle unable to hold in all the anger any longer, and he walked up to his long-time role model and punched him in the face.

"What was that for?!" Simon shouted, clutching his nose as crimson droplets rained onto the pristine white carpet, like blood on snow. Latrelle glared at him, his hatred for the man shining in his eyes like the entire night sky were captured in them.

"Where is she?" he asked, his tone so deadly, he could kill an elephant with one look. Simon swallowed, building up all the courage he had.

"Like I already said. I don't--" Simon was cut off by Latrelle's wicked right hook connecting with his temple. Simon was sent reeling from the impact, and he knocked his chair over. Latrelle crouched over him and grabbed his shirt, then began shaking the incapacitated man. Immediately after he started, Simon got a weird look on his face as he shakily pointed towards the basement door.

Latrelle dropped Simon and made a beeline for the door, eager to see his sister.