The Cop and the Crook

Chapter 20 - Jax

The door closes with a soft click and my hand lingers on it for a moment, before I shake the doubt about bringing her here and get my head in the game. I reach the stairs to find Carlos leaned up against the wall, waiting at the bottom. Taking the stairs fast, his head swings up to look at me as I come down.

"What the hell boss?"

"Don't even start with me. Where the fuck is he?"

He silently points and we walk through the foyer, down a hallway and into a room that was designed for this type of shit. The walls are lined, making the sound harder to travel through, while the floor is tiled, and only one piece of furniture is set up in the room.

It's a simple steel framed chair, which usually sits empty, but on this particular night a wide eyed scared looking guy, by the name of Jimmy, is strapped to it. I really don't blame him for looking scared, as the five of us are intimidating to look at, Carlos particularly who's build like a brick shit house.

Amazingly Jimmy's eyes get even wider when he sees me enter the room and he attempts to struggle, with no luck, against the cuffs he's in. I walk right in and smack him hard in the face, making his head whip to the side and his right eye immediately redden. Flexing my fist I step back.

"Now that I have your attention, would you mind fucking telling me where the fuck my product is?"

"I'm sorry boss......"  Jimmy gets out before I smack him hard in the face again, causing blood to spurt from his mouth.

"I'm not sure that's what I fucking asked you." Pausing I turn to Carlos for a moment, who shakes his head. "No I didn't think so....... Where...is...my...fucking...product?"

Jimmy just stares at me, confirming my suspicions that it's most likely all gone.

"Ok, so you've taken my fucking shit and fucked off with it,.....did you sell it Jimmy?"

Jimmy continues to just stares at me, I'm not entirely sure he even blinked. Ah fuck. I smack him again in the face and wait while he spits out more blood.

"How about the fucking money then? Where is the money you got for it?"

I flex my fist again in the silence, before stepping back to grab a towel to wipe the blood off my hand. I take one more look at Jimmy, and hold my hand up for Carlos to step forward. I stay back, crossing my arms over my chest, as Carlos gets to work.

I never really thought he would tell me anything, but I had to ask. I also can't let him leave this room. Fuck, being the boss sucks some days. I clear my throat and Carlos stops punching Jimmy for a moment. Fuck, he's a fucking mess.

"Do you really think I'm that fucking stupid? That I fucking wouldn't notice?"

Moving one arm away, I turn to Jace beside me and hold my hand out, as he places the cold metal in my hand.

"What do you expect me to do? I can't let you go. You've cost me fucking thousands."

Crossing my arm back over my chest, I make sure the gun is visible to Jimmy. His eyes are as big as saucers as I sigh, bringing to gun up to point straight at him. There's a loud bang behind me and my heart stops beating when I see Dani. She's frozen in place staring at me, her eyes wide in panic while her hands out stretched against the door, like she's trying to steady herself.

This is all fucking wrong.
 
 
 
   

There's a shout and sound of gun shots outside right before I hear, what I'm assuming is, the front door crash open. I can see Dani flinch at the sound, but she still doesn't move from the doorway. The sound of footsteps float quickly down the hallway, and I spin, nodding to Carlos, before sprinting to Dani. I grab her arm gently with one hand and cup her cheek with the other, leaning down to look in her eyes.

"We've got to go beautiful."

Dani blinks a few times, and doesn't protest as I hold her arm and guide her quickly down to another room that leads outside. The house is a bit of a maze on this side of it, but I have this route well planned out. The gunshot behind us tells me Jimmy is dead and Carlos and the guys appear right behind us seconds after. There's a car already running and waiting outside, I'm nothing if not prepared.

The cops burst out the door just as we reach the car, and it barely registers as I'm more focused on getting Dani away from this. I get her in the car, following right behind her, just as Carlos jumps in the passenger front and the others spin to return fire. The car flies off and I pull Dani into me. Fucking hell, how did that shit go wrong so quickly? Dani still hasn't said a word, she's sitting so still and quiet, clutching her small bag. Reaching my hand under her chin, I gently tilt her head up to face me, and stroke my thumb along the edge of her jaw.

"Are you ok?....... Dani talk to me."

She blinks at me a few times before finding her voice and whispering back.

"I'm ok."

I can't believe this shit. I should have told her everything long ago. Fuck, I shouldn't have brought her here tonight, but I just can't seem to let this women go. She's consumed my every thought I've had lately, and I just can't get enough of her. My arm circles around her as I pull her more into me like I'm holding on to her for dear life.

Maybe I am.

"Planes ready to go boss. Just waiting on us."

Looking up, I catch Carlos's eyes in the rear vision mirror and nod, still clinging on to Dani.

 
 
 

We reach the small strip and I help Dani out the car carefully. She still hasn't said much and it's absolutely terrifying that I have no idea where her head's at. My hands run down her arms, before I step away, leaving her for a second by the car and tap Carlos on the arm, inclining my head to walk with me.

"What the fuck happened? How the fuck did they find us?"

Carlos shakes his head, blowing out a breath.

"Fucked if I know boss. Maybe they were tracking Jimmy, fucker has been running his own deals, could have been too sloppy."

Reaching up I run both hands through my hair, tugging it slightly.

"This is the last time we fucking hire extra people. This whole thing has gone to shit. Call the buyer and cancel the deal. Something has been off with the shit the whole time. It's time to walk the fuck away before we end up caught...... How much is still on the plane?"

Carlos pauses as he thinks about it.

"All bar what Jimmy took, fucker took his cut while they were transferring it over from the dock."

I nod back. Well at least that's one thing that's gone right.

"Good. Fucking take off and be done with this shit."

Carlos looks over my shoulder at Dani, and I catch his eye.

"Don't even fucking start with me." I groan.

"You're so screwed boss." He laughs back. "Good luck there."

Turning I leave Carlos and walk back over to Dani, wrapping one arm around her waist, pulling her into me when I reach her. Dani's eyes find mine, my heart just breaking as I look at her, seeing her eyes shining and slightly wet. Fuck, she's been crying.

"Don't cry baby."

I'm practically begging her, while she brings her hands up to lean on my chest.

"I'm sorry Jax."

Her voice is so quiet, as her eyes travel down to her hand, and I realise she's holding something small in one of them. There's a name that flashes across the screen as it lights up.

My heart stops beating for the second time tonight as I stand there and hold her tightly, barely even noticing when Carlos grabs my shoulder, or when I hear people's voices yelling. All I can do is stare at her eyes and the hurt in them.

I'm suddenly ripped away from Dani and a fist connects to my face. I go down hard on the ground, and before I can get up there's a gun shoved in my face.

"I beg you to move right now and give me more of a reason to shoot you."