Which is my parent?

Chapter 19: Maria Kelly (Long chapter)

I got out of the van and started walking down the streets. I decided to try and stay on the main roads so the boys can see me, rather than ducking into the ally's and hiding in the darkness like I usually do. It let's the people see me, showing them I am here, also, it gives the team following behind me a better chance if I need it - I won't but it's a good piece of mind to have.
Antonio's voice came through the super small ear piece like he was talking right in front of me. "Maria, checking in, can you hear us?"
I didn't want to talk too loud, I still need to keep low, "yep loud and clear." 
I kept walking down and changing streets as often as possible. 
Finally, finally I stumbled upon a group of people huddled around a chain linked fence. 
"Got something." I whispered to the boys. 
I walked up to them, "yo," I stood behind them and crossed my arms. I was alert to everything, always ready for a fight. 
"What's a pretty little thing like you doing out here on a street like this?" A man asked. 
There was five men gathered around one man, he was probably important in the drug world. 
"Need information, who you got hiding behind there?" I asked. 
"Why don't you come and get it?" He asked all cocky, moving his hands down to his junk. I bet it was as small as his IQ. 
Out of the corner of my eye I could see the van pull up down the street, hiding behind a chain link fence looking inconspicuous. And I knew they could hear me. 
"Gladly." I shot at him dodging a punch, pulling his arm behind his back, kicking his legs out from under him. I lifted his head with his hair. "Did I get it?" I laughed and kneed him in the face. 
"Muchitel," one of the men whispered. 
"Muchitel?" The man being hidden asked. He pushed threw his buddies and my heart dropped. 
"Holy shit...." I took a step back. 
"Maria, Maria what is it?" Antonio's voice asked in my ear. 
"Mataya?" 
"Maria?" He asked. 
I smiled and ran into his arms. He picked me up and spun me around, then put me back on my feet, "well I'll be damned." 
"I could say the same, I thought you were dead!" I punched him in the arm. 
"I thought the same." 
"So what are you up to now?" I asked. 
"Just low dealing, enough to get me by but not enough to get on the gangs radar. How about you, still with TT?" 
"No, I got out six months ago, been hunted since. That's why I'm out here right now." I decided to keep the part about the cops and potential dad's outta this conversation. Mataya was a great guy, until you rub him wrong. Then he was bat shit crazy. But I knew he would never hurt me. Probably. 
"Hunted?" He asked. 
"Yeah, did you hear about the thing with Dex's sister?" 
"Oh yeah, that's all that's going on around here right now, he said he almost has the bitch cornered." 
"That bitch is me asshole." 
"Oh shit, really?" 
"Yep, he's killed my mother, Martina and Jack, he also beat Anna." 
"That bastard. Never liked the guy. What can I do to help?" 
"Got any info I don't already know?" 
"Probably not, I don't go anywhere near Dex's arena, TT is chill with me, we still good, but Dex? That man is bat shit banana's. I do know that a few guys in his tight group hangs four blocks that way." He pointed down the street. Deeper into the drug infested and gang surveillanced streets.
"Okay thanks, I'll hit there next." 
"Are you going to go all beast on them? You are wearing the outfit." 
I looked down at the gear I always wear when I go hunting. "I am. Gotta get answers. No one else can die because of me. I won't allow it." 
"He was bragging that he gave you an ultimatum, you or everyone you love." 
"That he did." 
"What are you going to do?" 
"Well I'm going to go beat those buffoons until they spill something useful to me. If it comes down to it, I will go." 
"The hell you will!" Jay yelled in my ear. Ouch. 
"Well good luck babe, if you need me just holler, I'm always around." 
I hugged him tight. "Thank you Mataya." 
We parted, "be careful and give em' hell." He called after me. 
Oh I plan to. 
"This isn't a suicide mission." Hank spoke firm. 
"I know," I whispered under my breath, "but I couldn't bloody well tell him I was working with cops could I? I know what I'm doing, just chill." 

I walked four blocks and one man knocked into me, "watch it bitch." 
"I beg your pardon?" I turned around. He looked at me and on his neck I saw the branding that meant he was with Dex. 
"Hey, you look familar. Have we hooked up before?" He asked pinning me against a wall. 
"If we did, trust me, you'd remember. Do you know why?" I asked all flirtatious. 
"And why's that baby?" 
I grabbed the knife out from it's holster on my thigh and held it to his throat. He chocked on his breath. "Because I don't play well with others." I smirked. 
"Neither do I." He moaned, literally moaned. Not phased by the knife pressing against his jugular at all. Pig. 
"I need information, and you're going to give it to me." 
"What do you want to know baby?" 
"Maria Kelly. You know her?" 
"The bitch that killed Dex's sister? I know of her, what's it to you?"
"I want her too, she hurt someone I'm very close to me. I want to get to her before Dex kills her, I won't kill her, just want a taste before he get's the meal." I looked him once over, just sealing the deal. "If you know what I mean?" 
He grinned wickedly. "I do." 
"So what's Dex got planned?" 
"I don't know major details, all I know is he's making his move in the next few days. If she doesn't turn herself over to him he is going after TT. He has a shipment coming in, I don't know when, but he will kill him." 
My stomach sank. "Why would he go after TT, what is he to Maria?" I asked playing stupid. 
"Killing her mother was a good one, but if you really want to get to Maria, make her eat herself from the inside out, go for TT. Tyrone. He is her Achilles heel." 
"I think I will do just that." I whispered in his ear. 
"Now what do I get in return?" 
I slid under his arm and started to walk away. "Hey! Bitch!" He came running at me. 
"Gun!" Jay yelled. I spun around to a gun pointed at my chest. I grabbed the barrel of the gun with my left hand, and with my right, I grabbed his right wrist and snapped the gun away, spinning it on him before he knew what had happened. I jumped up and brought my elbow down on his shoulder, almost his neck, knocking him out with a single blow. 
"Honey I'm way outta your league." I spat and walked into an ally a block away. 
"You know where I am, someone come get the gun, I have on finger less gloves and have only touched the trigger and barrel, you can get something off of this. 
Within a minute Hank came with a baggie, I dropped the gun in it. "Are you okay?" 
"Yep, I'm going to go fin out when this shipment is coming in." 
"We will follow." 
I sprinted off down the ally. 
I came up on another one of Dex's men. He refused to talk. Dropped him too. 
I went through like five maybe six men, none of them were talking. 
I was getting antsy and pissed off. TT wasn't answering his phone. That wasn't like TT to not answer my calls. Something was off. Seriously wrong.
When I got to the seventh I slammed him against a wall. "Look, I am really not in a good mood anymore so either you tell me where TT's shipment is and when it is happening or I will kill you." I threaten not screwing around anymore. The ass prick was right, TT was my Achilles heel. 
"I won't tell you anything." He spat. 
"we'll see about that." I grabbed my knife from the holster and slit his shoulder. He screamed out in pain, but I was quick to cover his mouth before he could get the whole scream out. I had him pinned with my body, my knee between his legs, resting on his junk, it was a good hold. 
"Gonna spill yet?" He shook his head. 
I pressed my thumb on the wound and pressed him, he screamed and whimpered into my hand. "How about now?" He stayed quite. 
"Loyalty is going to get you nowhere right now. I can promise you that." I threw him to the ground and bent down so my knee was pressing into his rib cage. I kept my hand over his mouth. 
"Tell me." He didn't. I pressed down until I could start to hear the cracking of his ribs. I guess so did the boys threw the wire. "Maria, stop before you actually kill the man." 
"Back off!" I yelled at them. 
"Look, I will give you one more chance to tell me or you will be asking Lucifer for forgiveness after I slit your throat." I promised.
I pressed my knife into this throat. Nothing. I pressed harder until a drop of blood came onto the tip. He finally tapped out on my kneecap. "Finally feeling chatty huh?" I asked. He nodded, "if you scream, I will kill you." He nodded again. 
He coughed and cleared his throat before he spoke. "The docks, one A.M." 
"That's in twenty minutes." 
"Well than you better hurry." He laughed. "I will find you and I will kill you if Dex doesn't." He promised. 
I smiled at him. "You won't remember this in the morning." I told him before I sent him to the sleeping God's. He won't remember anything about what happened to him in the morning. 
"Maria don't, we'll get Units and Swat down to the docks." Hank said. 
"They won't get there in time." I told them grabbed the man's gun and checking. It was a fully loaded SIG Sauer P226 handgun. Nice. "I can." 
"Don't even think about it." Jay said. 
I didn't think about it, or anything. I already had my mind made the second I realized TT was in danger. 
I sprinted faster than I ever had before. Going threw ally's, hopping fences, ducking beams. 
I could hear the boys in my ear. "Maria, stop." "Maria, please don't do this." "Maria, god please don't leave me." I heard them, all their attempts to try and talk me out of this but I couldn't. 
I wouldn't watch the only one in my life to love me unconditionally, to ever be completely devoted to me be killed because of me. I wouldn't survive if I knew there was something I could have done. No, I will do something. I've been powerless most of my life, but not here, this is my chance to prove to everyone that I'm not just a street kid that was hooked. 

I got to the docks in record time. I could see TT waiting by a big metal shipment container. 
I also saw Dex slowly creeping up with a gun in hand. 
"He's here. I'm going in." I said as I decended the hill to the docks. 
"Maria fall back, disengage!" Hank yelled. "We are four minutes out." 
"We don't have four minutes!" I told Hank out of breath and desperate.
I ran down the hill and ran to TT as fast as I could. It felt like even though I was running as fast as I could, it wasn't fast enough - that everything was going in slow motion. All I had in my head was, get to TT, save TT, he can't die, he can't die, I need him, he can't die. 
I saw Dex raise his gun at TT who had his hands raised up, why didn't he have a weapon? 
Wait, I have a weapon. I grabbed it out of my belt and kept going. Dex's finger went to the trigger and so did mine. I dove in front of TT as a popping sound ran through my ears. I squeezed the trigger, and then hit the ground. Hard. 
Fire lit up my front. Then arms grabbed me, and pulled me up. "Maria? Maria?!" A frantic voice called out. TT. He pulled me on him. His back was against the metal shipment container and I was in his lap. Safe. 
"Are you okay?" I asked. It didn't sound like my voice, but I'm pretty sure it was me who asked. 
"Why did you take that bullet for me?" 
"I couldn't get you die. Not for me. Are you okay?" I asked again. 
"Yes. Yes I'm okay." Tears spilled out of his eyes and down his cheeks. 
"Good. Okay." I reached up and placed my hand on his cheek. He kissed my palm. "I love you." I told him.
"I love you. You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay. It's okay. I love you. It's okay." He kept repeating. 
Blackness clouded my vision and of the beautiful face looking down at me. The sound of his voice traveled further away until I couldn't hear him at all. 
I get to die in the arms of the only person who's ever loved me. I was safe in Tyrone's arms. I always have been. Always will be. 
Everyone I loved was safe now. I can go. I love you. 
Then I let my body go limp and I stopped struggling to breathe. No suffering anymore. No pain.