Sonny/Calla Part 2

I sat at my desk and looked over the push-pin board that was filled with info on Sonny Sugerland. Pictures of him and the guys that worked for him flowed down one side like a pyramid and we had an officer tailing each and every one of them. I had started to work like a mad man on this case since the paint blow up a few months ago. Between Alanna giving birth to Anna and the deal almost closed on the house I was buying for myself and Calla, I barely had time for much else. Tonight would be the first time I would get in the ring since before Christmas and I was itching to hit something, not to mention that I needed the money with the construction of the house going on.

Myself and Calla had decided on a model home instead of one pre-built and she was busy making everything just right for us to have “her” perfect dream home. The cost was digging into my pocket but a few fights would bring me up to what I sunk into the home already.

I was thinking about the fights so much that I hadn’t noticed some of the places where Sonny was being photographed. I leaned in to look at the photos closer and studied the background, each place looked just that little bit familiar. Frantically, I started to go through the papers of addresses where he was located, no wonder the other officers had to follow him and couldn’t find a set pattern to the places he was going to. Sonny was going to the same fights me and Dice went to. How could we have not seen him or noticed him there? The place was packed but there was no way he could stay hidden from us this long. Someone with Sonny’s profile would draw a crowd, people would gather around him, he’d have some kind of protection.

I filled Dice in on what I knew and he went to the fights ready to catch sight of Sonny. I was in the change room getting myself ready for the fight. The tape on my left had to be tight, it was still giving me problems since the bullet went through it. The last time the doctor had looked at it he said I would have feeling back into it again soon but still nothing. I could move it and grab things but it was numb. I needed to have it wrapped tight to prevent it from being hurt too badly, I wouldn’t even know if it was until I took the wrappings off.

“I saw him come in but I lost him.” Dice lit a smoke and checked my wrappings.

“He’s gotta be here somewhere. Ain’t like he can just hide.Not someone like him.”

“I’ll go find him, you just worry about the fight. I got a lot of money riding on you.” Dice always had a lot of money riding on me. He would bet twice as much as I would but I guessed he had more faith in me than I did.

“Yeah. Sure thing.”

“Your hand is still bugging you, isn’t it? You should tell the doctor about that.” Dice was comparing how tight the wrappings were on my hands.

“It’s fine.” I lied. It was far from fine but I’d be damned if I would admit it. “Lee is coming home. He called me the other day.” That was a good way to change the subject.

“It’s about time. When was the last time he was home?” Dice handed me the last half of his smoke.

“I don’t know, three years? Maybe it’s only been two.” I relaxed back against the wall and finished the smoke Dice gave me, hopeful that Lee would come back and stay this time.

“He’s in for a rude awakening when he shows up. I’m going to get back to work. Look at the plus side to this, for  once we can’t get in shit for being here.” As Dice left to go look for Sonny he laughed.

As I entered the ring and sized up my opponent I gave a quick look around the ring before I snapped my mind back to the fight.  needed to pay attention since the man across from me had a few inches and several pounds over me. I had to leave this search up to Dice and let him find Sonny.

The fight started and we quickly set to a rhythm of hooks and jabs back and forth at each other. He had power behind his punch and one of his hooks sent my head snapping around to one side. It was then when I caught sight of Sonny, he was sitting not too far from the ring, watching me closely. The distraction was enough to let my opponent get another strong hit in to the side of my head and sent me to the floor. I was looking only at Sonny, I wanted out of the ring and I wanted to start pounding on his head. My ears were ringing and I received a kick to my gut, the wind was knocked out of me quickly and when I brought my eyes up to Sonny, he had a pleased smirk on his face. He was enjoying this, watching me get my ass handed to me. Another kick, far too close to my balls was enough to get me back to my feet and throwing accurate jabs and hook punches at my opponent. I had hoped that Dice had seen where I was looking, he needed to keep his eyes on Sonny since I couldn’t. I finally had caught sight of Dice on the other side of the ring and he was looking around the large room, he hadn’t seen Sonny.

“Damn it!” With a heaved breath I hit my opponent in the stomach to make him bend over and as he did I sent a hard right hook down on his temple. He dropped to the mat hard and didn’t move, he wouldn’t either. Not for a little while at least, he was knocked out cold. Now was my chance to go, I didn’t need to be announced the winner, I needed Sonny. I jumped over the side of the ring and started to take off after Sonny and the two men at his side. This time I was praying that Dice saw me, I had no gun or cuffs on me, Dice had everything and I could only go so far on my own unarmed.

“Behind you!” Dice shouted as I kept running. If Sonny got outside and in his car we would never catch him now. I hit a dead-end with two ways to go. Right or left, I wasn’t sure. There was no sign of Sonny down either way and Dice had caught up with me.

“Split up or stay together?” I was bent over and panting heavily. Running after a fight was not a smart thing to do.

“We’re going left.” Dice handed me my gun and we started down the hallway. There were offices along each wall, after we opened some of the doors we found most of them to be rooms filled with crap or empty and falling apart with holes right though the ceilings.

I moved, with my back along the wall and Dice facing me, working with hand signals since we didn’t want to make noises and alert Sonny. We finally hit the last door in the hall and if this wasn’t his then we had to go all the way back down this one to go the other way or give up and hope for better luck next time. Dice gave me the nod and we pushed open the door, guns drawn and we scanned the room. It had to have been Sonny’s office, it was the only one that looked new and didn’t smell like a homeless man was living there and using it as a bathroom.

“I think we missed him.” I put my gun in the back of my pants and started to look around the room a little more as Dice did the same. There wasn’t a whole lot, nothing we could really use as hard evidence on Sonny but it was a start. As Dice stepped around the desk somewhere off in the corner of the room among a bunch of books started to ring like an alarm clock. I knew one thing that could mean and so did Dice. The two of us made a mad dash to the door and ran as far down the hallway we could before the room exploded. Fire and debris following us down the hallway, the skin on my bare back burned for a few moments and then me and Dice were thrown down the hallway from the blast, falling over each other in a heap to the floor.

“What the fuck was that?” Dice pushed me off of him and laid on his back to watch the last bit of flames die down to sporadic fires along the floor and walls.

“Fuck sakes! I think my back is burned.” I got to my hands and knees and tapped Dice on the arm. “Common, we ain’t suppose to be here, remember?”

“Let’s go. I got some burn salve at the house, I’ll get Alanna to patch you up.” Dice helped me up then we got out of the warehouse as quick as we could and back to his place to get me fixed up so Calla wouldn’t worry herself sick about me almost being blown up.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

“You could have died! What if you didn’t get out of there on time Dan?” Calla paced her living room floor in front of me as I took deep drags off my smoke and avoided sitting back on the couch with my burned back.

“But I didn’t and I’m fine. No big deal. It’s kinda the job woman. Cop equals danger.”

“Dan, listen to me. You let yourself fight tonight, then beat up, you went after a mob leader and almost got yourself blown up. Do you understand what I’m saying? What would I have done if something horrible happened?  What would Alanna have done if something happened to Dice? She has that new baby.” Calla got down to her knees in front of me and ran her hands up my thighs. Her eyes pleading me for some kind of assurance that I was going to be safe.

“I can’t change what the job is. This is what I do, I’ve been doing it for years.” I kisses Calla’s forehead as I leaned over her to butt out my cigarette.

“Just try not to get yourself killed.” It was hard not to roll my eyes at Calla. I didn’t have a death wish. I didn’t leave the house every day thinking about ways to kill myself or how to get in trouble. All I could do was nod and shrug it off for another day.

Calla went to get me a bottle of whiskey, her way of keeping me home and not down at Mike’s all night drinking. I sat back on the couch and quickly set myself forwards again when the burn screamed at me in a fiery pain. I was ready for another cigarette when there was a loud boom that came from outside, similar to the one I heard earlier at the warehouse. My instincts kicked in and I ran from the apartment, first checking my own apartment. Nothing. I ran downstairs, secondly think that something had happened at Mike’s, it wouldn’t have been the first that the place had caught on fire or maybe it was a gas leak. I was met though that the bottom of the stairs by flames, my car was on fire, pieces of it scattered all over the road and sidewalk just outside my apartment. My car, a car I had bought when I was 17. My first car, the car I put money and time into. Sure it was old and it had a few tricks to get it started but it was my car and it was totaled.

“Fucking Sonny!” This had now just gotten personal. Not only was I now going to have to deal with calming Calla down again, I was going to have to buy a new car. 13 years of my life was just blown up, the car I got laid in numerous times. Damn! I was never going to find a back seat that had that kind of space in it again.

I heard the sirens off in the distance, fire and ambulance had obviously been called. I’d call work, let them know I was here and they can send a tow for my charred remains for evidence. As I lit a smoke I heard the door open behind me and there stood Calla with her arms crossed over her breasts, tapping her foot as the look on her face read a clear “I told you so.” 

 

Sonny “The Spike” Sugerland/Calla Part 1

It had been a few weeks since the murders and the funerals had just ended. I had driven Ma home with Gramps, he was going to be heading back to Arizona soon. The murders had put a tole on him and he was looking aged. Before the funerals started Gramps had pulled me off to the side to have a little talk away from everyone.

“I need to know.” Gramps sat down in a fancy chair set by the door and leaned forward with the support from his cane. “Dan said you killed the man who did this.”

“I’m Dan. Dice told you I killed the man.” Gramps never had me and Dice straight. He mixed us up constantly.

“You’re Dan? Dice killed the man?” Gramps looked over his glasses at me and squinted.

“I’m Dan, I killed the man. He’s dead Gramps.” Gramps grunted and stood up with the aid of his cane and some of my help. “I’ll find the guy that set this up. You know I will.”

“I don’t doubt that for a minute Danny. You’re too obsessive.” Gramps hadn’t called me Danny since my Dad’s funeral. Before he had left that visit 20 years ago he started calling me Dan. “Don’t let these cases run you. Look at your brothers, Dice has a hot little number on his arm and look at Lee over there. A wife and baby.” Gramps was pointing his finger at one of the officers from the station, not Lee.

“Gramps, Lee is in Vegas.”

“The who the hell is that?” Gramps waved his hand in front of my face and shook his head. “It’s fine, that’s not my point. Are you still living in that shit hold apartment?”

“Yeah.”

“I bet you got a flask or bottle in your pocket. Still drinking everything away?”

“What’s that gotta do with it? You know I–”

“Your tab is close to a thousand at that bar each month, ain’t it?” Gramps was yelling at me by now. Well, what anyone could call yelling with his wheeze.

“Get to your point old Man.” His cane came across my arm hard and I flinched. I wouldn’t dare rub it. I just stood taller and looked ahead.

“Don’t get smart with me. I want you change how you are before it’s too late. You drink away the fear and fight off the stress. You think I don’t know? Look at your Ma and tell me she doesn’t worry about you. You’re going to end up working yourself to the grave if you don’t watch it. I’ve lost both my boys now to this damn job and I’ll be damned if I have to come to more funerals.” Gramps wheezed out a few coughs and sat back down. “It’s my turn next. I’m old, I’ve seen my share of deaths and no man deserves to bury all his children before he passes. Don’t do to your Ma what I’ve had to go through.”

Now back in my apartment, alone, I rubbed my arm where Gramps had hit me with the cane. For an old man he was still strong. I changed and sat down with a bottle of whiskey. Despite what Gramps had said, I needed a drink. I sat down at what me and Dice considered a kitchen table, even though we only used it for cleaning our guns or for looking over cases. Right now I had everything that was in Uncle Artie’s office from home and work on this table. He had names on every sheet of paper, post-it notes with names and addresses. I was trying to get everything down into a chart to see where it all flowed together and things were finally getting down to just a few names. I had been sleeping few hour each night, it was more like passing out over a pile of papers and waking up after the same nightmare of watching my cousins and aunt murdered on that damn tape.

I was expecting a call from an informant soon and I made sure to have some paper and a pen handy for when they did, I wasn’t gonna get a chance like this again. This informant was a find and didn’t work cheap. There was a bang out in the hall then another and before I could go tell Mike, who I assumed it was, that he was making too much noise my phone rang.

“Yeah?” I answered quickly and saved my name.

“You’ll never catch him. He’s too big. Sonny The Spike Sugerland. He put the hit out.”

“Where can I—-” The phone went dead before I could find out everything else I wanted to know and there was another bang on my wall.

I didn’t need this right now. I was so close to getting this guy and Mike was in moving shit up and down the stairs from the bar. I flung open my door ready to throw Mike himself down the long flight of steps.

“What the fuck are you—” It wasn’t Mike there at all. It was a small girl. Maybe early twenties, long dark hair and big brown eyes. She was carrying boxes into the apartment next to mine. One that had been empty for years.

“Umm Hi.” The woman actually sized me up. Of course I was just in a pair of sweat pants and I towered of this girl.

“Sorry, I thought you was Mike.”

“I didn’t mean to make so much noise.”

“You need help?” She was cute, for once Mike had listened when I said he needed to put something fuckable in one of his apartments.

“No. Thanks.” She held her hand out to me and smiled. “I’m Calla.”

“Dan.” I took her hand and shook it gently. Her hand was tiny inside mine. “If you need any help, just shout. I’ll hear, the walls are thin enough.”

“Thanks. Well, nice meeting you.” Calla turned and walked into her apartment, closing the door behind her.

I got right back to work and right back to drinking. I had bigger things on my mind than fucking my new neighbor.

I had avoided Calla for sometime so I could focus on work and finding this Sonny Sugerland guy. I had guys out looking everywhere and I was sleeping more in my car each night outside of house that I had a lead on. Myself and Dice had shut down a few drug houses and let a few of the guys that we were interrogating  go. The more word we could get out that we were looking for this Sonny the better. We wanted him to come after us so we had more to go after him with. I personally just wanted to be face to face with man who set a hit on my Uncle and his whole family.

After a day spent in my car and the night spent in a boxing ring, I came home not just tired but blood as hell. I wanted the fight I was in to last, I was pissed off and frustrated and wanted to hit that out on someone. I was climbing the steps slowly, half from being beat up and half from drinking far too much when I heard a gasp and feet come rushing down the stairs to me.

“What happened to you? You’re hurt.” It was Calla, her little arms were around me and she was helping me up the stairs.

“I’m fine. I did this on purpose. I don’t need your help.”

“Why would you do this? Let me clean you up.” Calla looked quite concerned so to amuse her I followed her into her apartment.

“I’m fine. I just need some ice and shower.” I sat on her couch where she showed me to and watched her hurry around to get ice and a first aid kit.

“You’re not fine and…just let me do this.” Calla sat in front of me and started to clean up the cuts, bandage areas on my face and chest and got me to hold ice on other parts. I didn’t bother talking to her cause every time I did she shushed me and kept working. She was quick and careful and I barely noticed when she used alcohol on the cuts. “There. That’s better.” She sat back on her stool in front of me and admired her work. “Are you going to tell me how this happened?”

“I was in a fight.”

“Did you call the police?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Cause I am a cop.”

“Then you should know not to fight.”

“I need the money.” She didn’t argue back so I handed her back the ice and stood up. “Thanks woman, I gotta go though now.”

“Wait!” She jumped up just as quickly and grabbed my arm. “You don’t have to go. Are you hungry? I have some leftovers I can heat you up.”

I couldn’t tell if Calla wanted me there because I was just hurt or she wanted something else but I looked down at her fingers wrapped over my forearm and I went with what I knew best. I was quick and smooth and had her pinned against the wall before she could object, my lips found hers and I started to kiss her. I was rough, needy, I concurred her mouth like it belonged to me, my tongue caressing against hers. Her body relaxed and she brought her hands up my chest slowly, she moaned softly and I pressed into her more, arching her body to mine until she gave a small push with her hands.

“Stop. Please.” She was breathless and her lips red but I respected a woman saying stop so stood back up straight. “I don’t just, I can’t do this.”

“Virgin?” I looked down, her hands still on my chest.

“No!” Calla’s cheeks reddened. “I don’t sleep around.”

“I wasn’t asking you to. I gave you a kiss, you thought sex.”

“Mike warned me about how much you like women.”

“I bet he did.” I stepped back and walked to the door. “A date then, tomorrow night. Just downstairs.”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll be here at 6. Just dinner a few drinks.” I walked out of her apartment and over to mine, not knowing that it would be the first date of many.

Christmas had come around and things were going good between myself and Calla. I was staying at her place more and we had even spent the holiday together, my best gift to her was the bulldog puppy I got her and we named Bear. My case was going strong against Sonny Sugerland and myself and Dice were getting closer to him. We almost had enough on him to take him and his whole operation down.

I was sitting in Calla’s apartment when she came walking in with a present in hand and she set it on the table. Bear was wiggling under her feet with excitement that she home and I was looking forwards to her making some dinner.

“Who do you think it’s from? It’s addressed to both of us.” Calla pulled the card off and handed it to me to read. As she started to opening the wrappings the box slowly started to expand like a balloon.

“Fuck sakes! Get down!” I rushed over to Calla to tackle her and get her as far away from the box possible and it exploded. Bright red paint splattered all over the room. Covering the walls and furniture. Myself, Calla and Bear were covered head to toe in paint. I could honestly say when I saw the box expand I was glad it was only paint.

“Who? Why? Dan, why would someone…” Calla was wiping paint from her face as he picked up Bear who was wiggling around to try to get the paint off him.

“I don’t know woman.” I picked up the paint soaked card I had dropped on the floor and read the inside of it.

“Happy Holidays! Next time we’ll celebrate with a bang! -Sonny”

“I’m going to clean Bear and put him in your place until I get this place clean.” Calla took Bear to the bathroom and I could hear the water start running as I sat, seething with anger on the floor.

My phone rang and I pulled it from my pocket, unable to see the number on the phone since my hand smeared paint over the screen. “What?”

“What the fuck Dan! Alanna is covered in head to toe paint. She got some card from Sonny. Some present. She’s spent the whole day cleaning. She can’t be doing that, she’s pregnant! Fuck!” Dice was screaming on the other end of the phone. Alanna was due to have a baby girl soon and Dice sure was stepping into the protective role of fatherhood.

“I know we got one too. I’m covered in paint myself.”

“You got the same note as me? He might be planning a bomb for us. He took out Uncle Artie, he might be planning to get us next.” Dice was talking quieter so I was guessing that Alanna must have been close by.

“He might be. Hell, he…Shit! Ma! I’ll call.” I hung up the phone with Dice and quickly called Ma. If that asshole even sent a card to my Ma I was gonna hunt him down and kill him slowly.

“Hello?” Ma’s voice was calm and sweet as usual.

“Ma? Ma! You get box? A package left at your door? Like a gift? Don’t fucking open it! Leave it as is and I’ll come by and pick it up.”

“Oh Daniel, what are you going on about? I had a lovely package at the door and there were flowers inside of it. Who is Sonny dear?” Ma was sounding very cheerful about the gift.

“Flowers? Ma, save the package and card and everything. I need it for evidence.” Calla came back from taking Bear to my place and started to clean up.

“Evidence? Daniel honey, who is Sonny?”

“He’s the man who set out the hit on Uncle Artie and his family.”

There was a gasp on the other end of the phone and I knew right then and there that me and Dice had to get a move on if we wanted to catch Sonny Sugerland before he killed anyone else in our family.

 

Uncle Artie and Family

It had been a few months since the raid, Dice was back to work and spending most of his nights over at Alanna’s place. His side was fine unless he was looking for a little extra TLC from Alanna, then he suddenly had some cramps. I just had my second cast taken off, the first one having been removed by me when curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see if it had healed. Alanna made me go back to the hospital and get a new one on when she saw it. She had good reason too, I had no feeling from the wrist down and I couldn’t move my middle and ring finger. The cast was off, I could move my fingers but I still had no feeling. Due to that, Dice having doctors orders for light labor and the fact that we disobeyed the Captain, we were still doing paperwork and stuck going to physiotherapy an hour each day.

The fact that we had killed Raymond left us starting from scratch to find out who was the head of the drug scene now. We had brought in a snitch a few days ago and when Dice and myself questioned him we got the name Sonny Sugerland. Since myself and Dice couldn’t go out there we had other officers out gathering what they could about this Sonny guy. The most news they had was he went by The Spike and he never stuck to a schedule. It was something to go on though.

Today was no different from any other, I was already at my desk eating the last sugar doughnut from the box and drinking a coffee as I talked with the other guys around me, we made jokes and the guys from the night shift told stories about the hookers and druggies they brought in last night before leaving to get home. Dice still wasn’t in yet but he normally walked in 5 minutes after he was supposed to be there. I shot my hand up to wave to Uncle Artie as he walked in and went straight to his office, no one was late until he walked back out and gave the jobs for the day. If you were late, you got street patrol and no one wanted street patrol.

I checked the time and guessed that Dice had 10 minutes before he would be in shit for being late but a man caught my eye. It wasn’t unusual for a civilian to walk though our floor, people came here to check on missing persons or stolen goods but this one seemed different. He didn’t look like he was lost or trying to find someone, he was making his way over to Uncle Artie’s office.

Most of the men that went into his office were older men and this one I pegged to be close to 27 and that was being nice, his face looked younger than that. He wasn’t overly big but looked like he belonged on the streets, I was starting to think he was one of Uncle Artie’s snitches. He walked right onto Uncle Artie’s office without knocking, strike against him. No one, not even me or Dice did that. Hell, Aunt Sofia knocked before going inside. Joey started telling me something he thought was exciting and kept nudging my arm, I was keeping my eyes on the fogged glass that filled Uncle Artie’s office door.

I didn’t hear Uncle Artie yell at anyone so I was starting to assume that whoever that man was he was friends with him. I was just starting to relax when I saw a quick flash of light and two second later the man left the office and walked right back out of the station. He never even stopped to talk to anyone. I was out of my seat before I even thought about what I was doing going to Uncle Artie’s office, I wanted to know who the hell that man was.

I knocked and opened the door to the office and stuck my head in first, the sight of the wall behind Uncle Artie made me want to puke. Chunks of brain and skull splatter the wall behind him, this head was tilted back over the chair, his mouth was hanging wide open and there was a clean bullet hole from a close range shot though the middle of his forehead. That man had just walked right in here and shot my Uncle.

Before I could go through regular protocol I started to run out of our floor to the stairwell, the man had headed out this way instead of the elevators. I knew time had passed but I doubt enough had that the man had gotten out of the building and away yet. I started jumping over the stair rails to get  down them faster, 4 steps then jump, four steps then jump.

“White man, dark hair, black coat. Did he come though here?” I ran though the main floor towards the doors yelling at the receptionist. She nodded her head and pointed out the doors.

“Just went though there Dan.”

I had my gun out from the holster and the safety off before I burst though the front doors of the station and did a quick eye scan of the area. The receptionist was right, he was only 20 feet away and walking quickly down the sidewalk.

“FREEZE ASSHOLE!” I had my gun up and aimed at the guys back as I started to follow him. “I SAID FREEZE!” The man turned and looked at me, confirming I had the right guy. People reacted after the second time I shouted, they ducked and ran to the sides when they saw my gun out and gave me a good clear shot to the man. I had to fight with myself to not pull the trigger, just for spite but I wanted to know why.

A car pulled up in front of the man and I knew he was about to get in and I couldn’t let that happen. Not taking the chance. I fired two shots, a quick POP POP. The car sped off in the other direction as soon as the man’s body hit the sidewalk. I raised my gun to fire a shot at the cars tires but there was no clear shot that didn’t danger the people walking around downtown Detroit.

I holstered my gun and ran to the man on the ground, hoping he was still alive enough for me to ask him questions. I grabbed his side and rolled him over, felt for a pulse and came up with nothing. He was dead. Other officers came over and I could hear an ambulance siren in the distance from the hospital a few blocks away and I stood up, looked around and lit a smoke.

“Hey shit for brains. We got a perp break free?” Dice walked over with coffee in his hand and checked out the scene. He had obviously just arrived and had no idea what was going on.

“Uncle Artie’s dead. This guy killed him.” Saying it actually made it seem more real. Before it had been such a rush I hadn’t had time to think it though.

“What? When? Here? At the station?” Dice looked up the building like he was trying to see if our Uncle was in a window.

“Yeah, here. Walked in, shot and left. I chased him down and killed him.” I was furious. Who was this guy? Why did he kill my Uncle, my family. My uncle never did anything wrong. “And where the fuck were you? Why the hell weren’t you here? Why do I gotta deal with the shit all the fucking time while you go get coffee?” I slapped the cup out of Dice’s hand and it splattered all over the wall of the station.

“I was on my way here! I didn’t know this-”

“Dan, you got a call. Some girl in hysterics is asking for you and she won’t talk to anyone else.” Joey had interrupted Dice and was out of breath from the run down here.

“Of course I got a fucking call.” I jabbed my finger into Dice chest. “You deal with this shit. I have more shit to handle.” I stormed past Dice and Joey and made my way into the station. I wasn’t even going to get any time to mourn my Uncle and I was getting calls. I had to talk to Aunt Sofia and tell her what happened. Tell her how I had let her and her children down.

“You can take it here Dan.” The receptionist that had told me the guy had been though held a phone out to me and I could already hear the frantic sobbing of some girl over the phone as I took the receiver.

“Greggs here.”

“Dan? Lizzie’s cousin Dan?” The voice was crying hysterically and I was growing more frustrated. I had better things to do.

“Yes, who’s this?”

“I came to get Lizzie for school and they’re all dead! Oh God it’s…Help me! There’s blood everywhere!” There was a pause on the line and I heard the girl dry heave.

“Who’s dead?” I couldn’t process though my mind that there had been more murders. It just didn’t make any sense. “What’s your name girl?”

“Amy. I’m Lizzie’s friend.” More sobbing. “She’s dead, they all are.”

“Are you at her house?” The receptionist looked at me, obviously over hearing the conversation and gave me a sad look.

“Y-Yes. I came to pick her up for school…”

“I’ll be right there.” I handed the phone back to the receptionist and checked my pockets for my keys as I ran outside to get Dice.

“Who was it?” Dice was keeping some people back from the scene as forensics came in.

“A friend of Liz. We gotta go there. Now.” I already started to walk to the parking lot where the officers left their cars.

“I’m a little busy here Dan. You take that one.”

“They’re dead Dice!” I yelled and turned around to see if Dice would follow me.

“I’m coming.”

Dice and myself drove in silence to Uncle Artie and Aunt Sofia’s house. They lived in a ritzy part of town where lawyers and doctor’s homes could be found. We pulled up to the house and a girl, I assumed to be Amy came running down to meet us. She gave us a double look as noticed we were twins and pointed back to the house.

“The door was open and I didn’t want to miss first bell so I went inside to get Lizzie. That’s when-” Amy sighed and held herself together a little better. “That’s when I found her mom and well, the rest of them. I was so scared I called the station to talk to her dad and they said he was busy so I asked for you. Matt always talked about Dan so I asked for you.” She pointed to Dice. “Or you. I don’t know who’s who.”

“I’m Dice.” He raised his hand before pulling out his gun and slowly walking in the house. “You should stay out here.”

“Don’t leave, just stay outside.” I mirrored Dice and drew my gun out, following behind him and leaving Amy standing outside.

“You don’t think it was a hit, do you?” Dice checked the living room. A room Aunt Sophia was so proud of and spent hours making perfect for parties.

“Maybe. I’m gonna go to the office. Check his security tapes. You clear the house.” I scanned Uncle Artie’s home office and holstered my gun.

A few years back, after Matt kept seeing some guy wandering suspiciously up and down the street for a few nights, Uncle Artie had set up a security system that would make a bank jealous. There were two screens on the book shelf and a control panel on the desk, I rewound the recordings 3 hours back. I figured that would be a good time. I hit the volume button so I would get some sound and watched on the outside camera as the same man who came to the station knocked on the door, his hand behind his back. Aunt Sofia answered the door and he pointed the gun at her. “Where is he?!” Aunt Sofia stepped back then ran for the kitchen. The man fired a shot and all you could see was her feet sticking out the kitchen door way. The man had a gun on his silencer and I scanned over the little screens to Matt getting dressed. He would have been on his way to the academy. He was following the rest of us, would have graduated in two more months and joined us at the station. No wonder he hadn’t run to his mom’s side, he hadn’t heard the shot. His door kicked open and there was two flashes of shots from the end of the gun before Matt fell back to the floor, his tie only half done and the gun man moved on. I saw in the screens that Liz was packing her school bag, her back to the door, it was like watching a bad movie. I wanted to yell for her to turn around but seconds later I saw two more flashes and Liz fell forwards on her bed. She never even heard him come into her room. The last was Kennedy, my favorite of all my cousins. Me and her used to go places, she would make me go shopping for clothes when mine had too many holes and try to set me up with her friends. She was putting something away in her room and she caught sight of the man, letting out a loud scream as she tried to run but realized she had nowhere to go. There were two more flashes of light and she crumbled to the floor.

“They’re all dead. I already called it in.” Dice stood in the doorway and put his gun away.

“I know. I saw it. Same guy that came to the station.” I stopped the recording on the man leaving and taking off in the same car that had sped off earlier.

“Can you believe this? One guy killed them all.” Dice looked exhausted and pale.

“Yeah, but he’s dead now.” I straightened and started to walk out of the room. “Now I wanna know why.”

 

I lit another smoke when I had stepped outside, Aunt Sofia didn’t like smoking in the house and hated it even more when had cigars in the office. The Calvary was on its way, I could see the flashing lights in the distance and hear the sirens. I started to wonder what it was that we did that seemed to kill off our family so young. The oldest Greggs member was my Gramps and he was living out his retirement in Arizona. He had a heart attack a few weeks after Dad was killed and I could only imagine what would happen when he found out about his last son and his family.

I knew I’d be the one to make the call, first Ma so she could make arrangements than Lee and last Gramps. I didn’t want to call him without some answers. If anyone deserved some answers it was the man who was out living his sons and half his grandchildren.

 

 

 

The Raid

For 3 months Dice and myself had been working on a drug case, sitting outside what we believed to be the main headquarters for the whole operation. We had just about everything we needed for a take down, right now we had a younger guy new to the force, Joey, inside. It was planned that he would go in, buy a kilo of cocaine and get out. It was the last bit of evidence we would need before we could go in and take the whole place down.

The building was a 3 story house, run down with no yard. Dirt surrounded the run down house that should be condemned and there was a constant stream of cars coming and going from the house. We had pictures of everyone that came and went though the front door, most of them young kids barely out of high school. Some were big time dealers, buying enough cocaine and pot to last them for a month of sales. We knew who was inside, who lived there and who just worked there. We had a drug tree that showed who was at the top and who funneled down from there. Our main objective was to get the leader, a man named Raymond and find out who he worked for. If we managed to pull that off we’d be taking down more than we planned.

We saw Joey exit the house and he had a brow paper bag in his arm. That was it, he had it.

“This is it. Finally a little action around here.” Dice was already checking his gun. We weren’t supposed to charge in, we had to meet up with the rest of the SWAT team before we went in. They were parked a few blocks away from us. Joey would go there and we’d have a quick briefing before going in.

“Hold your roll. We need gear first. One thing we don’t know is the fire power they go in there.” We assumed, since more did, these guys were packing some heat. They would have weapons no doubt, just to keep junkies and gangs from taking their shit.

We drove to the SWAT van after giving Joey some time to get away and got out of the unmarked car. Uncle Artie was already giving the guys that were in gear a run down of how things we going to happen. We had a floor plan laid out over one wall of the van and he was pointing out who would go where and when.

Dice and myself listened as we geared up in vests and helmets. As always, checking each others gear and guns. It was something we always did to make sure neither of us missed anything.

“I don’t want you boys going in. Last heat, got it?” Uncle Artie clipped his helmet in place as he walked over.

“What the fuck do you mean?” Clearly outraged, Dice stepped closer to him.

“I told your Ma I wouldn’t send you in unless you needed to go. She got wind of this operation and called me. I told her I would.”

“Fuck that! Our case! We’re going in.” Dice hated this, we knew Ma worried but this was our case and we both silently loved the glory that came with a huge take down like this one.

“If Davis’ wife had called in would you keep him back too? Maybe I should give her call and tell her what her husband is walking into and let her have the choice.” I saw Davis pop his head up from deep in the van when he heard his name.

“Come on! You know this isn’t fair Uncle Artie!” Dice was losing his temper quickly and I wondered if we would have a shoot out right here.

“That’s Captain out here! I call the shots! You two better listen to them!” Our Uncle had us by the vests and was right in our faces. “I told your Ma I would keep an eye on you two and I won’t let her go though losing her sons! She’s lost enough!” He let us go with such force we both staggered back a step.

“Fine.” Dice placed his hand on my chest when I took a step forwards. He knew I was ready to hit the man and it would get us nowhere.

I stood, seething mad as Uncle Artie walked back over to the guys and Dice pulled out the block ski masks that half the SWAT team had on. He had a plan, I could tell. I unclipped my helmet and pulled the mask on so only our eyes showed, no one would notice us in all the commotion of a raid. We got in the back of the truck and grabbed one of the shot guns that was issued to each officer and we took a seat, keeping quite.

“Alright men, let’s have this go off without a hitch! Team A you take the back! I want you out there as soon as we stop.  Team B, you funnel out and take the front! I want all exits covered!” Uncle Artie yelled out the final instructions as we all rocked back and forth in the van that was driving quickly to the house. “Know who’s around you! I don’t want to have to do a head count when this is over!” The van started to slow down and Uncle Artie had his hand on the door, ready to pull it up and let us out. My heart was thumping and my mouth was dry, I wanted out of this van bad, I wanted to find Raymond. “TEAM A GO!” Uncle Artie flung open the back door of the van and Dice gave me a nudge to go with Team A. We filed out in the middle of the guys and ran to the front of the line as we could hear Uncle Artie sending in the next team.

Dice was the one to kick in the back door and there nothing but chaos then. The B team was coming in the front and we were coming in the back, perfect timing. The fire power the perps had been more than we expected, tables and couches got knocked over to provide shields and shots started. Our guys got down and opened fire, round after round going though the air, windows breaking, stuffing from the sofa flying up in the air.

I saw our target and he was making a crawl over to a door, if I was seeing it right it would take him out the side of the house and to where the cars were parked. I rolled to one side and got down in a sniper pose, sending a shot to his thigh. We wanted this guy alive so we could question him. He saw me right away as he howled in pain and fired two rounds in my direction. My next shot was more of a blind one since I was rolling back behind the couch. I knew it hit him somewhere when I heard him yell again and when I looked back around the couch he was slowly down.

I thought he must be a heavy bleeder since he raised his gun up and it wavered in his hand, I wasn’t completely hidden but he was aiming 2 feet above me. I looked back to see Dice standing up. The gun fire had almost ceased and he was standing to d a scan. I looked back to Raymond and mentally lined up the shot in my head, he was aimed right at Dice and Dice was standing to his side and didn’t him.

Everything ran in slow motion, it was something like a movie, my gun dropped from my hands and hung at my side as I got to my knees, the loud bang from Raymond’s gun, Dice starting to turn but it was too slow, I had to catch that bullet, I was wearing a vest and I could get it in the chest and be fine. Dice’s sides like all of ours weren’t covered, the padding didn’t wrap all the way around. I swear I could see the bullet coming, my eyes were set on Raymond when suddenly it was like someone hit fast forward. There was a flash of pain in my left hand and Dice spun and dropped at the same time I fell to the floor from mid jump. I pulled my gun back into my hands and stood up to fire a shot into Raymond’s head for shooting at my brother.

“Dice!” I turned around quickly and tossed my gun off the shoulder strap it was attached to and scrambled to Dice’s side. “DICE!” I heard nothing but the echoing shots of the lasts gun fire. I grabbed onto the shoulders of Dice’s vest and dragged his still body out the back door. “Wake up asshole! Wake up!” I didn’t even notice the searing pain that was my left hand as I got Dice out of the house. I could hear the men inside shouting “CLEAR”. There was no more gun fire but I was outside, Dice was on the ground and he wasn’t moving. I dragged him further around to the front of the house, sweat was pouring down my face and I was feeling dizzy.

“I NEED A MEDIC! SOMEONE GET ME A MEDIC!” I could hear someone rush over and I dropped to my knees with Dice’s lifeless upper body resting on my thighs.

“We got a GSW here! Two of them!” There was more talk from the medics, one of them trying to talk me into letting go. I was still trying to figure out what they meant by two? Dice was shot once, I saw it hit his ribs. I saw him drop.

Dice was being set on a gurney and they were already wheeling him to the ambulance. Two medics were in front of me, getting off my helmet and mask. One was concerned with my hand, I had my eyes still set on Dice. “What hospital is he going to? I gotta ride with him! I NEED to go with him!” I pushed though the medics and heard the shouts behind me.

“We got one in shock!”

“He needs to be sedated!”

Someone tackled me from behind and I hit the ground hard, fighting my way up from the ground to get to that ambulance. My left hand seemed to be useless and I couldn’t even push up to get to my feet and something pinched in my neck. I didn’t know how many people were holding me down but it felt like there were hands all over me and everything started to go black, as much as I fought it, it closed in on me and I was left to my mind replaying the shooting over and over again in my head.

When I woke up there a steady beeping sound somewhere rear by and my head was fuzzy. I went to sit up and found myself hooked up to an IV and my left arm was heavy. When I turned to look at what it was attached to I saw it suspended from a system of pulley’s and wires and in a thick cast up to my elbow.

“Hey there. Looks like I came in to check on you at the right time.” A nurse said from somewhere past head level.

“Where’s Dice?” My throat felt like sandpaper and  my mouth was dry. Before I could even say anything there was a cup with a straw in front of me, held by slender hands.

“I’m not sure where your dice are but I’m sure your Uncle has them. I’ll send him in, I couldn’t until you woke up.” The water moved away and I laid my head back down. How could this nurse not know where Dice was. He did come here with me, right?

I heard her footsteps walk away and I tried to wipe away the fuzziness in my head so I could think properly. I tried to think about what I did to my hand for it to be in a cast, I remembered the raid and Dice. All I could think about was that shot to Dice’s side.

“This is why I told you two not to go in. Who’s bright idea was it? You or Dice?” Uncle Artie was storming into my room and standing at the foot of my bed, I wasn’t even listening to what he was saying.

“Where’s Dice?” My throat still burned when I talked.

“Thanks to you two he’s in the ICU. He just got out of surgery an hour ago.”

“ICU?” I sat you and started to unplug everything off my wrist and body then started on getting my arm out of the suspended contraption.

“Lay down Dan. He’s ok for now.The bullet missed his lung by half an inch but it did some damage.” Uncle Artie pushed me back to the bed and dared me to move with his stare. “Your Ma is going to tear a strip off me for this. She’s on her way now and she didn’t sound happy. Why the hell did you listen to me?”

“You know damn well we wouldn’t sit out.” I didn’t care that Ma was on her way or what she said about all this, I wanted to see for myself that Dice was alright. “Let me up so I can see him.” I sat up once he moved back and the nurse came back in. I kind of hoped that I was looking ok since she was pretty hot.

“Now he’s more awake.” She moved around the bed so she could get my arm out of the suspension sling. “You and your brother really are identical. At least from a distance.” She smiled and looked me over and I didn’t know if she was complimenting me or not. I went to check out her tits and caught her name tag instead. Alanna. Different name, didn’t care. I was looking for some personal TLC later, especially if I was stuck here.

“I wanna see Dice. You can let me go or call security and I’ll sneak down there.” I swung my legs off the bed and held my still dizzy head for a moment. I knew I’d have more courage if I was in more than one of those opened back hospital gowns.

“I’m not sure where your Dice are but I made a deal with your doctor to let me wheel you down to see your brother.” Alanna brought a wheel chair over  and helped me sit down in it. I even laughed a little when Uncle Artie explained that my brother’s name was Dice.

My arm started to throb as Alanna wheeled me down the halls to the ICU and I wondered how bad my hand was.

“What happened to my hand?” I lifted it a little and cringed, I couldn’t really feel my fingers, just pain.

“The bullet that almost killed your brother went through your hand. Clean through, broke two bones but we fixed those and had you all closed up. Your hand saved your brother’s life. If that bullet would have hit him dead on it would have gone into his lung.” I thought to myself that I could have done better if I have jumped sooner.

“He’s gonna make it?” We turned another corner into the ICU and she was walking me always the way down to the end of the row of beds.

“He’ll be fine. It’s just going to take him awhile to get better.” Alanna stopped my chair next to Dice and she walked around to check on everything. I could tell by the way she looked at him and checked everything so carefully she had picked which twin she liked more.

Dice looked like shit, pale, hooked up to a bunch of machines, the worst being the tube down his throat to help him breathe. I sat forwards and rested my good arm on the bed.

“You dumb shit. Wake up.” I looked behind me to make sure Alanna was out of ear shot. “You and your stupid idea to go in there. This is your fault. When Ma gets here I’m gonna tell her you made me do it and she can blame this on you. You better wake up now and get ready for it. You don’t wanna wake up to that stare she’s got.”I watched Dice’s face for sign that he would wake up and got nothing. “For fuck sakes Dice, wake up!”

I jumped when someone touched my shoulder and without having to look around I could tell it was Ma. She always was gentle with us, one would think that being raised by only our mother would have made us softer but it did the opposite. She always said I took too much on my shoulders when Dad died and she repaid each of us by always being there. Always listening and never over reacting.

“He needs his rest Daniel.” Ma, the only one who I let call me anything but Dan, gave my shoulder a squeeze.

“I’m sorry Ma. If I woulda jumped a little sooner I could have caught this. I should have killed the bastard with my first shot instead of crippled him.” I still couldn’t turn around to look at her. I knew each time either of us were hurt or in the hospital it killed her a  little.

“The doctor said he will be fine after a lot of rest honey. Don’t beat yourself up over it. That nice nurse told me your hand saved his life. I think you did just fine.” Ma walked around to the other side of the bed and I could tell she had been crying. “How is your hand? A little sore?” Ma took Dice’s hand and kissed his forehead as she ran her other hand over his short hair.

“I’m fine Ma.” She gave me that look that she always had when she knew one of us was lying. “It hurts like a bitch.”

“Language Daniel.” Ma hated when we swore and I worst mouth for it.

“Sorry Ma. It hurts a lot.”

“Better. I’ll tell that nurse that you need to be hooked back up to the IV and given something for the pain.” Ma looked very devious as she stared me down. “Why didn’t you listen to Arthur? I had told him I didn’t want you two going in there. Why didn’t you listen to him? You would have listened to me if I was there.”

“No we wouldn’t have. That was our case Ma. There was no way in hell I was gonna let some shit like Davis take all the credit.” I sat up, slower than I wanted to from the chair, my legs feeling like jello.

“Daniel, sit back down and lose that tone.” I sat, knowing that the way Ma had lowered her voice I better do what she said. “You boys are going to do what you want, I can’t stop you and I don’t always ask you too but when I have a gut instinct I want you to listen.” Ma sighed heavily and turned her watery eyes to me. My gut sank, if there was anything I couldn’t stand it was a woman crying, especially my own Ma. “I never got to tell your father I had a bad feeling that day. I never second guess my gut anymore Daniel and neither should you.”

“Alright Ma. It won’t happen again.” I sat back down in the chair and looked for any changes in Dice.

“I have to take you back to room now.” I turned around to see Alanna keeping back so me and Ma could talk. “I’ll get you some shorts too. Just so that you’re covered if you decided to stand up again. Although some of the nurses and patients might be upset with me for it.” Alanna giggled and looked at a younger girl 3 beds down from Dice who was blushing deeply. I wasn’t thinking about my ass hanging out of the open-backed gown when I stood up so I winked at the girl to let her know I wasn’t embarrassed.

“When you get him back there can you make sure he has something for his hand? His pain is pretty bad.” Ma said to Alanna since she knew I wouldn’t say anything.

“I can and when Dice wakes up I’ll make sure he gets put in the same room.” Alanna seemed proud she knew Dice’s nick name.

Alanna took me back to my room and got me all settled in with a pair of make shift boxer shorts and a new IV. She handed me the remote for the TV and put some water next to my bed.

“He should be up soon and I’ll have him here as soon as I can.” Alanna gave my shaggy hair a ruffle then left me alone to battle the morphine high.

 

The next time I woke up Dice was propped up in bed and talking with Alanna. She was sitting on the side of the bed and feeding him dinner, I could tell by the blush on her cheeks that Dice was smooth talking her. He could do it to any woman and he was famous among the girls at the casino for talking his way into anything. Especially panties. His color was back and he looked better without all the tubes attached to him.

“Hey asshole. How long you been in here?” I rubbed my eyes with my good hand and sat up slowly. I was really hating the after taste of the morphine.

“Hey man, why didn’t you wake me up when you saw how hot our nurse was?” Alanna have Dice’s arm a playful swat and he cringed a little, only making her tend to him a little more and blush a little deeper.

“I tried. You mumbled something about only liking the cock now. I thought I could get her to myself then.” I laughed and reached for my cup of water, eyeing over the cold, bland dinner beside it. “What time is it?”

“It’s…” Alanna checked her watch and gasped. “Oh my god! It’s almost 11:30! I have to be back here in the morning.” She got up and started to rush off out the door but turned back and gave Dice a quick, shy, kiss on the cheek before taking off again.

“You pick them up anywhere now?” I poked at the food on the tray and grabbed the slice of bread to eat.

“She’s pretty hot. Sexy fucking voice.” Dice turned his head towards me. He did look a ton better. If he was moving more I’d say he was his old self. “Ma left about an hour ago. She told me to tell you to relax and she would bring by food in the morning. Oh, and she said I had to thank you.” He paused and ran his hand over his side. “I owe you one. Even the doctor said I’d be dead if your hand wasn’t hit first. Guess we should have listened to Uncle Artie.”

“Don’t worry bout it. Call it even, I should have jumped faster and took it in the chest. We would have both been fine then.” I picked up the slice of chicken off the tray and looked it over before eating. Any food was good right now, I was starved.

“No man, I was careless and should have stayed down. I should have never taken us in there.”

“I said don’t worry about it! Fuck sakes Dice!” I knew if I had killed Raymond with my first shot this would have been all avoided. Neither of us would have a scratch.

“You saved my life today Dan. I won’t forget that so you can go fuck yourself.” Dice had gotten the remote at some point and changed the channel. Jabbing his finger down on the buttons.

“If I would have killed him on the first shot we would both be fine! So…You go fuck yourself.” I pushed away the tray of food and it clattered to the floor, bringing a very large and very crabby nurse into the room.

“What is going on in here?” She saw the mess and stood between the beds with her hands on her hips. “Who did this?”

At the same time me and Dice pointed to each other and shouted, “He did it!” the nurse threw her hands in the air and picked up the mess as the two of us broke out in laughter.

We would heal, Dice would continue to see Alanna and we would listen to Ma’s gut from here on in. Dice and myself had survived yet another one of our crazy adventures.

 

 

Chloe

I ain’t too sure where to start bout my Chloe. I guess it would have started after another failed attempted relationship. But it never even started with her. It started with Jordyn.

I had just left the house of a one night stand and was driving home when I decided to stop at a bar to get a drink. Jordyn was hot, no doubt about that. When she walked into the bar I think every guy looked at her but she stood next to me. I let her use my phone to call for a tow truck to get her broken down car and after proving I was a cop and not crazy she came back to my place to sleep since her car wouldn’t have been ready for a few days.

Being the guy I was, which was a complete horn dog, I took advantage to Jordyn staying at my place. It was nice having a woman back in the house after the last one (who I bought the house for) had left me. Jordyn was fun, relaxing and amazing in bed. It was an short lived romance for after a week she left. She had her own new place in Detroit to move into and my idea of starting a relationship with Jordyn was null and void. After all, she was staying i my home and I was still bed jumping with other women.

I hadn’t expected a call from Jordyn a month later and to be honest, any time a woman called a month later it was never good news. I did my best to try and keep calm while I thought back to any unprotected sex we might of had and I was pretty sure we had been careful but to my surprise, she wasn’t pregnant at all. She was just scared.

I vaguely knew about her ex Travis but I knew he scared her and he seemed to be back to get her. I had gone over to her place to go see what all had happened and to help her with this if she needed protection. That was when I met Chloe. Jordyn had called her to come visit when the shit with Travis started and she was staying with her. I won’t lie, my first thought was try and get both these women in bed with me but after Jordyn and Chloe filled me in as to what Travis had done I was afraid to leave them alone. I told them to come and stay with me until I could get this Travis fellow in jail and they agreed.

I’ve always been one to mix business with pleasure so yes, I did share my bed with them and between the two of them I didn’t have time to jump in any other woman’s bed. I would have said I was a one woman man, I had two and it was awesome.

When Travis kidnapped Jordyn the day she decided to move her stuff into my house I thought the worst and realized just how much I cared for both Jordyn and Chloe. Travis had taken her to a room where he had been staying and I wasn’t sure if his plan was to take her away or kill her, he was crazy enough to do either. It was a relief to know he was put away in the state pen for the next 20 years but sadly, it had already effected Jordyn and she moved back home to New York to be close to her family.

 

I didn’t know where I stood with Chloe then, with Jordyn gone it was just another failed attempt at my trying to settle down but Chloe stayed. We had already told each other how we felt and I couldn’t think of losing her as well as Jordyn. I was more than pleased when Chloe agreed to stay and that was the start of us.

Chloe and myself basically started up where we left off, dates, sex, living together. Everything was great until I had a little run in with man called Mr.Willis. Mr.Willis was using me to win set boxing fights for him, he framed me into working for him and when I denied him the win or loss he wanted he began threatening my Chloe. As much as I tried to keep her out of knowing what was going on, she still knew me well enough to know something was up and she was right. After not playing into Mr.Willis’ plans he kidnapped her to make me fight how he wanted. If it wasn’t for Dice helping me he probably would have killed her then me. We were able to save Chloe and I killed that bastard Willis just for taking her.

Things are calm now, me and Chloe are happy. So happy I did something I had never done before, I asked her to marry me. Well, not so much asked as I told her to marry me. There was no way I was going to let her go, she’s my woman now and forever.

 

 

My On Going Case

I was 10 when my dad died, well he didn’t die, he was murdered on the job. He was working a drug deal case with his brother Arthur when it happened. I remembered the day, me and my identical twin brother Dice (At the time we called by his actual name, Damien then) were in the middle of trying to talk our younger brother, Lee into letting us push him down a hill in his wagon.

It was nothing unusual for Uncle Artie to come home with Dad. All three of us came running around the house when he heard the car pull into the driveway, Dad would wait next to the car while we tackled him but today it was just Uncle Artie. I knew something was wrong, Dice knew something was wrong, Lee jumped up into our Uncles arms but came back to us when Uncle Artie set him down and told him to stay outside while he talked to our Ma.

Ma never cried. I’m sure she did but she never did in front of us. She even managed to tell us Dad was dead without even getting watery eyed. She held Lee until he fell asleep that night, he was young enough to know what Dad being dead meant but not old enough to understand the why. Dice and myself talked out our own frustrations outside, Dice cried I yelled. I wanted to find out why, who. I wanted to find the person that killed my Dad and beat him myself. There was no time to be sad, Dad wouldn’t have wasted time to be sad, he would have gone after the guy.

I walked the 6 blocks to where my Uncle lived with his family, my Aunt Sofie and their young kids, Matt, Kennedy and Liz. I needed answers and I knew my Ma, she wouldn’t give me details. I argued with my Aunt to let me speak to Uncle Artie, despite the fact that she said he had been drinking. I pushed her aside and walked though the house to the office I knew my Uncle would be in, I barged though that door too and slammed it behind me.

“Who did it! I wanna know who killed my Dad!” I screamed it so loud I was sure I woke my cousins.

“Go home Dan, when you’re older we’ll talk.” His words were a little slurred from the drink and he couldn’t even look me in the eye. I think that’s what really hurt.

“I want to know now! I have a right to know! He was my Dad!”

Uncle Artie stood up so quick his chair fell backwards and his drink spilled. “He was my brother!” I didn’t even shrink back I like normally would from any adult that yelled to a kid. Instead I did the opposite, I charged at my uncle and started to hit him over and over. Punching out my frustrations with him, my pent-up anger. I hit him until we were wrestling on the floor and my arms burned from the constant swinging.

“Why didn’t you help him? Where were you? Why him and not you!” I hit my uncle hard in the face and I felt his nose break under my knuckles, stopping the punches when I saw the blood. Breathless and panting heavily I got off my uncles chest and he sat up, patting his nose with his sleeve.

“If I could trade places I would. Dan, I didn’t even see the man. I heard the shot and by the time I got out to him the guy was gone and your Dad was dead.” Uncle Artie seemed calmer then. He was answering my questions and crying at the loss of his brother.

The man who killed my Dad and ruined my life was on the loose. There was a seething anger in the pit of my stomach and I still had yet to shed a tear. I was too busy to cry or mourn. As far as my young mind was concerned, I had work to do. It was up to me to find the asshole that did this.

  

20 years past, the case was unsolved. Dice and myself had a one room apartment together, two rooms if you count the bathroom. It was run down, small and even a little dirty but it was home. We lived above our favorite bar and Lee even had an apartment across the street. He was rarely there though, he worked for the city of Detroit so his winter months were spent in Vegas where he could gamble a living. Dice and myself were Detectives now, good ones if I say so myself. We had worked our way up the ranks as did our Uncle, who we had to call Captain now at work, or at least around the other officers.

Even though me and Dice were identical, it was easy to tell us apart. Even easier if we didn’t have clothes on. Dice (and this is how he got his nick name Dice) was very clean-cut. Metro-sexual is what they call it. I think. He usually kept his hair short all the way around, had nice suits, expensive jewelry and one tattoo that ran from his left thumb to his elbow. He was always calm and relaxed, snotty as some would call him. His gambling let him live a rich life and if you didn’t know him, you would assume by the way he looked and acted he was some kind of business man. He lived at the casinos once he turned 21 and he had a horse shoe up his ass. There was no point in betting against him, you’d always lose.

Myself, I had become addicted to getting tattoos young and my whole body from the waist up was covered with crudely drawn art here and there. I wore t-shirts and jeans and boots so old they would fall apart before I’d get new ones. I shaved when I had to so I almost always had a beard or few day old stubble on my face and I hated going to get hair cut. What was the point, I always wore a hat. I had money like Dice but most of mine went to whiskey instead of fancy clothes or cars like Dice. It was no secret, I was an alcoholic and if it didn’t have whiskey in it, I didn’t drink it.

When we were young me and Dice found a way to make better money than what the force was paying us. With my talent to box/fight and Dice’s talent for making bets with people with deep pockets, we got involved with underground fighting. I would fight and Dice would place the bet, we always set each fight up so I knew when to take the other down so our winnings would pay off double. I used fighting as a release, it was the only place I could let out all my aggression. I had a few battle scars from the whole ordeal, I had been broken and bloody some nights so bad that Dice had no choice but to take me to a hospital. Every new scar meant a new tattoo.

The rest of mine and Dice’s free time was spent with women. Dice never had a problem fighting off the ladies, neither of us did. Dice was the good-looking charming twin and I was the “A typical bad boy”. We would have several women a week and would always work out a system to who went where with who. Dice would take them to our apartment so he didn’t waste any time, I never took them home. Bathrooms stalls, back seats, ally ways and their places worked for me. No commitment, no sleepover, no awkward mornings. I couldn’t involve myself with a relationship, I was an irrational drunk that got off on power and control. “A short fuse” is what Uncle Artie called me.

For the past 10 years folders and reports from the night my Dad died laid on mine and Dice’s “dinner table”, we never ate there so it served as a perfect work station. We weren’t supposed to work on the case unless we had nothing going on. It seemed though that the case we were on was similar to the one my Dad and Uncle were on when he had died. The best part was that the coffee shop the cops of Detroit were regular to seemed to be the center of it all. The owner, Joey, was also in mine and Dice’s debt from a previous bet some years back and he was a bit of a snitch for us at times. You always could get news sitting around at a coffee shop.

We were looking into who was selling large amount of pot to the kids in Detroit and the case got much more interesting when an undercover agent was shot and killed the same way my Dad had been. Looking at the evidence photos side by same just proved it had been the same killer. My Dad and the other man both had been behind the wheel of their cars, parked in an ally by Joey’s Doughnuts and both men shot in the side of the head. Entry at the temple, brains and bits of skull splattered all over the passenger seat. Myself and Dice knew the photos so well they were engraved in our heads. I knew every word on every report for the case on my Dad, finding the killer had been my goal of being a cop. Every bad guy I put away was just getting me closer to finding the one that I wanted.

Joey however, was not working with us. He was using the news we had for him to benefit himself. It wasn’t until the night we went to confront him and put him away for trafficking part of the grow up that we found out what he was really guilty of. Me and Dice had Joey pinned to the ally wall near the shops back entrance and we were giving him his chance to come clean, tell us who he worked for and what they planned. Joey was a whole new person, he was cursing us and carrying on like we had done him wrong. When he pulled the gun on Dice I almost all but lost it. Chance is if I shot Joey, he would still get a shot off and he was closer to Dice than I was to him. By luck, one of the employees opened the ally door to toss out some trash, the door hit Joey and sent him to the hard pavement without even letting the employee know he hit someone with a door.

Dice rushed over to Joey and kicked his gun away and pulled his own out. We both stood above Joey, our guns with the safety off and pointed down at his head. There was no way we were going to let him just go to jail unharmed after holding a gun on one of us.

“I should have killed your dad years sooner. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about you two shit having been born!” Joey tilted his head up and spit at my foot. I wasn’t sure I even heard what he said correctly.

“You shot him? You’re the asshole we’re after?” I felt my body start shaking. My blood was pounding in my ears so loud I thought there was a marching band behind me.

“Yes, I shot him! Didn’t you hear me? It was easy too. He thought I was bringing him a coffee. I shot your dad and I would have gotten your uncle too if he was there.” Joey smirked, like what he did was some big accomplishment.

“You fucking asshole.” Dice kicked Joey across the face and teeth, tossed from his mouth clattered across the cement.

“I need to know why. I need to know why you thought it was ok to kill him! You knew us as kids! You were at the funeral! I want to know why!!” I hadn’t realized I was screaming and Dice was pulling me back. With each word I was kicking in his ribs, Dice had heard them snapping.

“Because he was getting too close and I couldn’t get him to work for me.” Joey wheezes the last part as I got free from Dice’s grip.

“He was an honest man. Too good to work for a shit like you. You ruined everything.” Me and Dice stood over Joey. We could tell he was dying already. His ribs had punctured his lungs and he was drowning in blood. We aimed our guns at his eyes and each fired one shot, killing the man who had made us who we were today but murdering our father.