Little Romantic *Second Book*

Chapter 6: Her Leadership

Another day passed and I was at the park walking Murphy. He liked sticking his nose in the puddles on the middle of the walkways. I stopped at a bench and let Murphy have his fun in a puddle at the foot of the bench.

Jihwan and I would often take this walk together. But after figuring out last night that we should spend some time away from each other, I would be doing this walk with the first man in my life.

As I watched other dogwalkers, some joggers, and cute families, I couldn't help but think of the times Jihwan and I would cuddle each other on a bench and watch people walk by. Now that I think about it, I think Jihwan would just watch me. He would always do that sort of thing.

I sighed thinking about my boyfriend. It was then that I heard my phone ring in my pocket. I quickly pulled it out to answer it. I hoped it was Jihwan.

"Anastasia Barnes."

"Where are you, right now, Detective?"

It was Captain Butler. He sounded urgent. And he never called me when I was off the clock. There must be an emergency at the station.

"I'm at the park near my apartment," I answered. "What's going on?"

"You need to get to the station, now. Bring your dog if you have to. Just run here."

"I'm on my way," I said. I turned to Murphy, whistling to get his attention. He looked up at me confused. "We're going to run, okay. We can do it."

He looked even more confused as I stood up and began jogging towards the station. Once Murphy got what was going on, we both broke into a sprint. I don't remember the last time we actually ran. It had to be when he was a puppy.

It was only four blocks to the station, so it wasn't too awful for me. But Murphy was out of breath.

When I got to the station, I picked him up and ran inside. There were people everywhere, many I didn't recognize. I pushed my way through to my desk. I poured some water into a mug for Murphy and tied his leash to my chair.

"BARNES!" I heard my name shouted above everyone. I turned to see Watts glaring at me from his office. Butler was in there behind him looking at me. I quickly rushed over to the office and entered.

"Thank goodness you're here, Barnes," Butler sighed as he shut the door behind me. "We need your help."

"With what? What's going on?" I asked.

"Fire fight," Watts said shortly. "Between two small gangs. One of them said that they work under Gabos. The other works under Pericolo. So we pulled you in before we have a mob war started."

"But Gabos and Pericolo are working together. They're friends, why are their underlings fighting?" I asked.

"Don't know, but there were some that work for them that are wounded. And a few in critical condition," Watts said.

"We called NJ and Pericolo's leader, Romeo," Butler said. "They should be here soon to put some sense into them. But we want you to go talk to the Kids who are underneath Gabos."

"Me, why me?" I asked.

"You're NJ's girl, aren't ya?" Watts asked.

"Well yeah-"

"You have some respect among those who work for him. So these kids will listen to you," Watts said.

"We have them in interrogation room four. The ones under Pericolo are in room one, if you want to try to talk to them, go ahead," Butler said.

"I don't know much about Pericolo," I whispered.

"So just go talk to the Gabos' kids," Watts said. "Head out."