Later that evening Kashena was once again in the backyard smoking, when Colby walked outside. She glanced over at him as he moved to sit down next to her.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” he said, his tone reflecting his words.
Kashena nodded, “It’s okay to be upset, Colby,” she said, “It’s just not okay to be disrespectful to your mother in the process.”
“I know,” he said, nodding.
“She’s earned your respect, Col,” Kashena said, her tone calm.
He drew his breath in, blowing it out slowly. Living with Kashena had taught him a lot about what it meant to be not only a respectful, but what his responsibilities were as a man. He had a lot of respect for his stepmother, she had always treated him with respect, and all she expected in return was that same consideration. She would actually tolerate some disrespect from him, but would never tolerate him being disrespectful to Sierra. To him it proved how very much she loved his mother, and it was that kind of thing that made Colby love Kashena Marshal. He remembered the time of his father, and how he’d treated his mother. He’d been there when Jason had struck Sierra and had been terrified. It had been Kashena who’d stopped his father from hurting his mother and him, and it had been Kashena who’d made sure that he never hurt them again, by having him arrested.
“Do we really have to move to LA?” He asked then.
“Right now,” Kashena said, “Yes we do. The Attorney General is your mom’s boss and if she says she needs your mom in LA that’s what your mom needs to do.”
“What about you?” Colby asked.
Kashena smiled, “It looks like I’ll be working for the Division of Law Enforcement down there.”
“Like the work you do here?” He asked.
Kashena was part of Midnight Chevalier’s bodyguard detail when she was in Sacramento she was also in charge of security in all of the Attorney General’s offices throughout California.
“No,” Kashena said, “I’d be running a task force down there.”
“What kind of task force?” Colby asked.
“Not totally sure yet,” Kashena responded, “I just have an offer from the Director of DLE, just not all the details yet.”
“What about Baz?” Colby asked, referring to Kashena’s best friend, Sebastian Bach who worked with her in the AG’s security office.
Kashena grinned, appreciating the fact that Colby was worried about her too.
“Actually, she offered Baz a job too, so…” She said, grinning as her voice trailed off.
“So is this that lady you helped a few months ago?” Colby asked.
“Yes,” Kashena said, nodding, “She’s the director of the division.”
“Cool,” Colby said, nodding.
“Look, Col,” Kashena said, looking over at her step-son, “We will do everything we can to make this transition easier on you, but I need you to make this as easy on your mom as you can, okay? She’s under a lot of strain right now, and whether she admits it or not, she’s worried about moving as much as you are, okay?”
Colby drew in a breath, nodding. He knew Kashena was truly asking him to help out, and he appreciated the fact that she treated him like his feelings mattered. He knew that wasn’t always how parents were, and he was glad that he had the parents he did at this point.
Jason Thorn sat in his cell in Folsom prison, it was dark on the block, because lights out had been hours before. He was sharpening the toothbrush he’d bought from the canteen. As he did his eyes narrowed in the dark as he pictured what he planned to do when he got that dyke bitch in his grasp. In his anger his hand slipped and he felt the tip of the sharpened edge go into his hand. The pain was in some perverse way pleasure to him, even the feeling of his own blood dripping from the wound felt good. He imagined it being her blood, she was going to pay for what she’d done, one way or the other.
Natalia Marquez was talking to one of her classmates as she left the lecture hall. She’d just said goodbye to the person she’d been talking to, and didn’t see Julie until she almost ran into her. Pulling up short, she stepped back seeing who was in her path. She immediately looked around her, hoping that there were people around, there weren’t many people and no one was paying any attention to them.
“Why are you here?” She asked Julie.
Julie, a very butch lesbian, and Natalia’s former girlfriend, tried her most winning smile, “You know you want to see me,” she said, winking.
Natalia looked back at Julie, her look far from inviting.
“Are you screwing one of your little groupies now? Is that it?” Julie asked, her tone sharp now.
Natalia stepped back again at the venom in Julie’s tone.
“I’m not seeing anyone,” Natalia said, holding her books with crossed arms in front of her chest, like a shield.
“But they’re all panting after you now, aren’t they?” Julie said, her tone snide.
“No one is panting after me,” Natalia said.
“Don’t fuckin’ lie to me!” Julie said, “I saw those cunts after you all the time!”
Julie was referring to the girls in Natalia’s Cardio Dance class. It was true, there were girls in the class that seemed quite dedicated to not only the class, but the beautiful instructor as well, but Natalia had never let any of them think she was interested. It wouldn’t have been appropriate as she’d been dating Julie at the time. It was for that reason that Julie was particularly sensitive about them now. Not that she hadn’t been absolutely fanatical about keeping them away from Natalia prior to their break up seven months before, but it had never been due to Natalia’s own behavior.
“I need to go,” Natalia said, trying to move past Julie.
“You need to stay here and talk to me,” Julie said, grabbing Natalia’s arm roughly.
Natalia winced as Julie’s strong fingers bit into her skin, “You’re hurting me.” She said.
“You’re not listening to me,” Julie said, her tone heated, “If you’d just listen to me…”
“Julie!” Natalia cried as Julie increased the pressure on her arm.
Julie let her go then, stepping back and shaking her head, “See? This is what you make me to do,” she said, her tone accusing. “You make me so crazy, I just want you back, but you won’t listen.”
Natalia stayed silent, knowing that nothing she said to Julie at this point would matter. It had been that way for a long time now, it had been what had finally broken them up; that and Julie’s increasingly violent behavior toward her.
“And what the fuck was up with all those dykes showing up to protect you? Huh? Why’d you do that?”
“I didn’t,” Natalia said, forgetting herself for a moment.
Six months before, some women who came to her class regularly, as well as their butch girlfriends, had shown up at the gym when they’d heard that Julie was harassing her. She hadn’t asked them to do so, in fact she’d been quite surprised by the show of support for her. Surprised and very touched.
“Sure, right,” Julie said, her tone sarcastic, “Course they all probably want to fuck you too, so that’s no surprise.”
“They’re all either married or close to it,” Natalia said, feeling the need to defend her friends even to Julie.
“That don’t mean dick,” Julie said dismissively.
“Julie, I need to get to my next class,” Natalia said, trying to keep her tone even.
“I said we need to talk,” Julie said.
“Okay, but not here, okay?” Natalia said, willing to say anything to get away from Julie at that moment.
“Then when?” Julie asked.
“Soon,” Natalia said.
Julie’s eyes narrowed instantly, “You’re just trying to get rid of me,” she said, her tone dangerously low.
“No,” Natalia said, “I just don’t know what my schedule looks like right now,” she said, trying to think fast.
“I don’t care about your schedule,” Julie said, taking a menacing step toward her again, “Th
is is important.”
“Okay, okay,” Natalia said, holding her hand up, “How about tonight? At Ed’s?”
Julie nodded, “What time?”
“Seven?” Natalia asked.
“Okay, I’ll be there.” Julie said.
“Great, I’ll see you then,” Natalia said, moving to get past Julie again.
Julie reached out and grabbed her again, pulling her in to kiss her roughly. Natalia had to keep herself from pushing Julie away, knowing it would only make her mad. She smiled up at Julie, then turned and hurried to her next class, pausing outside the door to regain her composure.
Raine pulled her sapphire blue Honda Shadow up to the address Cat had given her. Turning the bike off and sitting back to observe the people walking into the gym for a few minutes she noted the clientele was varied. As she sat there she noticed a deep red Dodge Challenger pull in a few cars away. She was surprised when she saw Jericho Tehrani, the Director of the Division of Law Enforcement get out and a blonde woman get out of the passenger’s side. The Director drives a car like that? Raine thought to herself. She’d heard that Jericho Tehrani was a pretty cool person, but she still wouldn’t have expected her to drive that kind of car. This was the first look she’d had at the director.
Jericho Tehrani was fairly tall at five foot ten inches. She had very tan skin, with long black hair that she had in a ponytail. She wore jeans, cowboy boots and a black polo shirt with the DLE logo on it. The girl with her was smaller and dressed in gym clothes, baby blue capri leggings and a white tank top with white tennis shoes. Jericho’s arm was around the girls’ shoulders and they were talking as they walked into the gym. Raine watched them go in, unable to take her eyes off of them. It seemed like she was seeing a lot of lesbian couples lately.
Getting off her bike, she hooked her helmet to the clips on the side of the bike, locking it on. As she did, she saw a blue Nissan 370Z pull into the lot, which she recognized as Catalina’s car. She waited for Cat to get out of the car, and noted that Jovina was with her.
“You made it,” Cat said, smiling.
“Yep,” Raine said, smiling, then nodded at Jovina, “Ma’am,” she said respectfully.
“Please call me Jovina, or Jo,” Jovina said.
“Another person that doesn’t like ‘ma’am’,” Raine said, grinning.
“I’m too young,” Jovina replied, grinning too.
“Got it,” Raine said, nodding.
Inside they signed Raine in and then Cat showed Raine where she could change and also where the dance room was. Raine nodded, setting her backpack down on a bench in the changing room. She emerged ten minutes later wearing black capri leggings as well as a black tank that conformed to her slim dancers body. On her feet she wore black Nike’s with purple and lime green accents; it was the only color to her outfit. It was very different from the other women that attended the class who wore riots of color usually in an effort to outdo each other.
Raine walked toward the dance room, seeing Cat and Jovina waiting for her. They were standing with Jericho Tehrani and her girlfriend. As she walked up, Raine inclined her head respectfully to Jericho.
“Ma’am,” she said.
Jericho grinned immediately glancing at Cat.
“Raine, this is Jericho, and call her that if you don’t want to hear the same kind of crap you’ve been getting from me for the last two weeks,” she said with a wink, then she gestured to the blonde “And this is Zoey Cabott.”
Raine extended her hand to Zoey, smiling.
“Zoey, Jericho, this is Deputy Raine Mason, she’s on my task force.”
Jericho nodded, “You were injured recently,” she said, having read the report, “How are you doing?”
Raine was surprised that the Director knew about her injury, “I’m good, ma’am, I mean Jericho.” She said correcting herself with a grin.
“I told her about Natalia’s class,” Cat said, “She’s still working on the medical release.”
Jericho nodded, “Natalia will whip pretty much anyone into shape.” She said with a grin.
Then she nodded toward the door as Natalia came into the gym, “Speaking of the devil…” She said grinning.
Natalia was dressed in black capri leggings with bright green around the lower quarter of the legs, with a matching bright green top, over which she wore a black and bright green accented long sleeved zip up jacket, and black and green shoes that matched. As always, she wore eyeshadow that matched the color, as well as black liner around her chocolate brown eyes. She also had her long black hair back in a ponytail. Her smile was radiant as always.
Raine noted that Cat and Jericho exchanged an odd look before they greeted the woman.
“Raine,” Cat said, putting her hand to the woman’s back, “This is Natalia. Natalia, this is Raine, she’s a member of my unit.”
“It’s great to meet you,” Natalia said, smiling as her eyes took in Raine, holding the look for an extra few moments, which had Raine feeling flustered suddenly.
“I, you too,” Raine stammered as she nodded, not understanding why she was tongue tied at that moment.
“I better get in there,” Natalia said, “Don’t be late,” she chided Cat and Jovina, and winked at Raine, “You either.”
A few minutes later, Cat guided Raine into the class. Raine took up a position in the back, since she had no idea what she was in for, she didn’t want to get in anyone’s way. As the class filled up, Raine noticed that Jericho had been joined by a few other women at the side of the room, they were all watching the class. Cat and Jovina had been joined by Zoey, two other blonde women and another woman with black hair with purple streaks. They all stood on the same line together. Raine guessed from the way they talked that they knew each other.
As the class started, Raine concentrated on watching Natalia’s steps. She quickly picked up on the steps as well as the rhythm of the class. She found out that she really did like the class, Natalia was definitely a good dancer, her moves were almost hypnotic. Raine also noted that Natalia’s musicality was uncanny, her ability to match moves to the changes in music was incredible. It was far from the type of experience she’d expected to have in a gym class. Before long she was fully involved in the class. She didn’t notice the looks she was getting as she was able to execute moves that everyone in the class had a hard time with, and she did so with the grace of the dancer that she was. She also didn’t notice the conversation going on at the side of the room.
Jericho had been joined by Quinn Kavanaugh and Skyler Boche′.
“Holy shit,” Jericho said, seeing the way Raine moved.
“Got that right,” Quinn agreed, “She’s picking it up damned fast, didn’t you say this was her first class?”
“That’s what Cat said,” Jericho said.
“No one picks it up that fast; Nat’s moves are way too complicated for regular people…” Skyler, who’d observed the class the longest out of all of them commented.
“And the other girls are noticing…” Quinn said, as she saw yet another long time attendee of the class throw a dirty look in Raine’s direction.
“Trouble brewing there…” Skyler said.
Julie was right about the “groupies” in Natalia’s class. Many of the girls were simply so dedicated to Natalia that they got jealous of anyone new. There were a couple of girls in the class that did have romantic designs on Natalia as well, but for the most part it was more of a territorial thing for the girls. They definitely didn’t like this new girl coming in and showing them all up, because it was also obvious that Natalia was noticing this new girl too.
Natalia had indeed noticed Raine, and not just because of her dancing, she’d been struck by the girls beautiful light blue eyes, as well as the rich red hair. Before the class had begun, Natalia had noticed the way that Raine was stretching, using ballet foot positioning to stretch her calves and leg muscles. When the class started, Natalia had also watched as this girl picked up the steps extremely quickly. In Raine, N
atalia recognized a fellow dancer, that was the only explanation for her being such a quick study. It also explained the slim and well-toned body the girl had.
Midway through the class, Cat noticed that Raine was breathing heavily. During a water break, she moved over to the girl.
“Take it easy,” Cat told her, “You’re pushing too hard.”
Raine nodded as she wiped her face with a towel, “I really like the class,” she said, her tone out of breath.
Natalia called everyone back to the floor again and the class began again. The next few songs were what the class deemed ‘killer’, which meant they were particularly strenuous.
At the side of the room, Jericho noted that Raine was breathing heavily and her face was also getting flushed. She knew the injuries that the girl had sustained in the explosion of the lab, so she knew that her lungs weren’t likely to be completely healed.
“Not good…” Jericho muttered.
“What?” Quinn asked.
Jericho nodded toward Raine, “She was injured in an explosion six months ago, she’s not full strength yet and she’s pushing it.”
Quinn nodded, watching the girl as she moved. Her protective instincts, which would measure off the charts if anyone had bothered to measure them, kicked in. She started to move closer to the dance floor, keeping her eye on the girl. She noted that Raine missed a couple of steps, something she hadn’t done previously. That had Quinn stepping up to the edge of the floor, she caught Cat’s glance back at Raine, and as Quinn turned her head back to Raine, the girl started to fall. Lunging forward, Quinn caught her, lifting her easily to carry her over to a bench nearby. Raine was unconscious. Everyone in the class stopped.
Cat ran over to where Quinn had lay Raine down, noting that Quinn was checking her pulse. Quinn looked up at Cat as she ran up.
“Her pulse is racing, but it’s already calming down,” Quinn told Cat.
“Damnit, I knew she was overdoing it, I told her not to push it…” Cat said, shaking her head.
“She okay?” Jericho asked from beside Quinn.
“Yeah,” Quinn said, nodding.
The other women in the class were crowding around to see what had happened which was quickly raising the temperature in that area. Cat turned around, gesturing for everyone to back up.
Marking Time (WeHo Series Book 4) Page 2
