Marking Time (WeHo Series Book 4)

by Sherryl D. Hancock

  “Did you need something?” Raine asked Julie, her tone conversational.

  “I need to talk to Natalia,” Julie said, stepping toward Raine, her look aggressive.

  “Go right ahead,” Raine responded, putting her arm around Natalia’s shoulders, her way of saying ‘while I’m standing right here’.

  “Could you give us some privacy?” Julie glowered.

  “Not gonna happen,” Raine said, her tone even, her eyes staring directly into Julie’s.

  Julie took a couple of steps toward Raine, who immediately stepped around to completely block her from Natalia, her lips curling in derision.

  “I don’t think you want to do that,” Raine told Julie.

  “I think you don’t know what I want to do!” Julie said, flexing her arms her hands balled into fists.

  “Let me repeat,” Raine said, reaching up to unbutton the single button of her cover shirt and sweep the sides back to reveal her badge and gun, “I don’t think you want to do that.”

  Julie’s eyes went to the gun first, then to the gold star that identified Raine as a Deputy Sherriff for the County of Los Angeles. Raine noted that Julie’s eyes widened when she read the badge, then her eyes went to Raine’s.

  Julie glowered in impotent rage, the thought ‘The bitch is a cop!’ rang in her head.

  Raine reached back, taking Natalia’s hand. Giving Julie one more pointed look to make sure the message had been received, she turned and walked away with Natalia close at her heels.

  In the car, Natalia looked over at Raine.

  “Que era muy caliente…” Natalia said, waving her hand like she was fanning herself, telling Raine ‘that was really hot’.

  “You think so, huh?” Raine asked, grinning.

  “I really like the butch cop thing,” Natalia said, smiling.

  Raine gave her a sidelong glance as she started the car, “Butch cop thing?” she repeated.

  “Mmmhmm,” Natalia murmured, grinning, reaching over she slid her arm around Raine’s hugging her arm close.

  Raine just shook her head.

  When they got back to Natalia’s apartment, Raine was changing to get ready for Natalia’s class, and was just taking her gun out of its holster, when Natalia walked into the room. Raine didn’t notice.

  “Wait!” Natalia said, walking over to where Raine stood by the dresser in the room.

  “What are you doing there?” Natalia asked, pointing at the gun in Raine’s left hand that was pointed at the floor.

  “Securing my weapon…” Raine said, her voice trailing off thinking that was a given, but then she realized that she’d never really done this in front of Natalia before.

  “So,” she said, her voice taking on an instructional tone, “I’m removing the ammunition clip,” she said, showing Natalia where the release button was for the clip, she slid the piece out of the weapon laying it aside on the dresser.

  “There’s still a round in the chamber, and since you’re not familiar with guns, I’m going to take it out too. So to do that, you have to pull back on the slide,” she said this as she did so, “And then drop the round out like so.”

  “What happens to that bullet?” Natalia asked.

  “It goes back into the clip,” Raine said, picking up the clip and levering the bullet into the magazine top.

  Raine then set the gun down next to the clip.

  “So now it’s secure?” Natalia said, her voice stumbling over the unfamiliar word.

  “Yes, now it’s secure.”

  “Okay,” Natalia said, smiling.

  Raine didn’t explain that she had a backup weapon in her gym bag, and that she was basically always carrying a weapon in one form or another, this had been enough for one night.

  Kashena stared back at the man that had been acting as the “lead” for her unit before she’d been assigned.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, her look disbelieving, “Did you say you haven’t been tracking the officer’s hours?”

  “No,” Greg Fulham said, shrugging, “They keep that shit in their diaries.”

  Kashena pressed her lips together, doing everything she could not to roll her eyes, blowing her pent up breath out slowly in an effort to calm herself.

  “You were signing their timesheets, though, right?” she asked then.

  “Yeah,” Greg said, not for the first time in this conversation looking at her like she was nuts for asking.

  “Were you looking at the diaries when you did that?” Kashena asked then.

  “No,” Greg said, looking mystified as to why he’d do that.

  “So you took their word for it, that they were giving you the right hours?” Kashena asked briskly.

  “They’re cops,” Greg said, as if Kashena herself wasn’t a cop, and that cops could always been trusted.

  Kashena canted her head at the man, unable to even think of a response that wouldn’t get her written up by the SAC. She’d gotten the distinct impression that the Special Agent in Charge of LA IMPACT wasn’t much more connected than the man she was dealing with a the moment.

  “Ever heard the term, ‘any case worth working is worth working on overtime’?” she asked him.

  “Yeah, that one’s good,” Greg said, nodding with a grin.

  Kashena looked back at him, her face very serious.

  “Okay,” she said, her tone reflecting her exasperation, “I think we’re done here.” She stood to signal the end of the meeting and gestured to the door so he could leave.

  Sitting back down in her chair, Kashena thought to herself, Left a good job in the city… as she sighed mightily. This was not the first extremely frustrating meeting she’d had with Greg Fulham, and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last, except that she fully intended to send him back to the agency from whence he came as soon as she could. In fact she was planning to return more than half of the eight people that worked for the unit. There were three people who seemed to know what they were doing; the rest seemed to be there for the easy paycheck.

  The program’s numbers were in the basement and Jericho wanted something done about them. Kashena knew she couldn’t do it with the people that she had at that point in time. She knew she needed to document the problems and the shortcomings in order to send the officers back to their departments, she also planned to review applications to the unit and do a thorough background check into the people that were asking to come to LA IMPACT, if they weren’t stellar where they were, or have something to bring to the table, she didn’t want them in her unit.

  It was something she discussed with Sierra at length that night as they lay in bed.

  “I know exactly what you mean!” Sierra said, after hearing Kashena’s recap of her day and her meeting with Greg Fulham. “Half of the people in the Division here are just as reticent to use the automated system as the manager that was blocking the whole thing. It’s crazy!”

  “I’m not sure if we should kiss Midnight, or kick her in the ass,” Kashena said, grinning.

  “Maybe a little of both?” Sierra said, grinning.

  Two days later, Kashena finally got her group out on an action to round up some local violent offenders on parole through a raid. The raid targeted individuals who were on parole and were suspected of having weapons in their homes or on their person. Unfortunately many parolees weren’t anxious to go back to prison, as such were happy to do whatever it took to get away. With Kashena’s ill-trained and out of practice group, it was left to her at one point to run down a suspect and tangle with him. It resulted in a few nasty bruises; a couple of which were hard to hide from her wife.

  Kashena was just getting out of the shower when Sierra came in, they’d driven separately that day, since Kashena had no idea how long her raids would go. She’d hoped to be dressed before Sierra got home, of course the bruise on her neck was impossible to hide for long.

  “Oh my God!” Sierra gasped at the almost black bruise on Kashena’s back across one upper section near her shoulder blades. “What happened?�
��

  Kashena turned around and saw Sierra’s eyes go directly to her neck, and then down to her upper thigh.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Kashena said, holding up her hands to forestall the firestorm she could see brewing in her wife’s eyes, “It was a raid, and parolee’s don’t like prison….”

  “Where was your back-up?!” Sierra growled, as her eyes narrowed, “Baz would never have let any of that happen to you…”

  Kashena tilted her head; Sierra was right about that, Sebastian always had her back.

  “I know, babe,” she said, her tone calm in an effort to calm her wife a bit by influence, “But these guys and girls aren’t Baz, and it’s what I’ve got to work with right now.”

  “No,” Sierra said, shaking her head sharply, “That’s not acceptable,” Then she pointed at Kashena, “Do any of them look like this tonight?” she asked her tone sharp.

  Kashena winced not only at the question, but at the tone in her wife’s voice. Stepping over to Sierra, Kashena touched her cheek her blue eyes searching Sierra’s dark eyes.

  “I know, babe,” she said to Sierra, “I know this is hard… and you’ve never been with me when I was actually doing the cop thing…”

  “The cop thing?” Sierra repeated her tone still sharp, “Is that code for getting the crap beat out of you?”

  Kashena grinned, which only caused her wife’s eyes to narrow more, “Okay, okay, I know, it looks bad, but babe, this is kind of standard for raids sometimes… You get bumped, you get bruised. Bad guys really don’t like to be taken down, and some of them are stupid enough to fight back.” She touched Sierra gently under the chin, “This is the job sometimes.”

  Sierra crossed her arms in front of her chest, her look all lawyer at that moment, “Well, I’m not really fond of the job right now.” She said, her tone petulant.

  Kashena had to press her lips together to keep from smiling at Sierra’s tone. Sierra saw it and even though she maintained a straight face, her eyes danced in amusement.

  “But you still love me…” Kashena said.

  “Sometimes,” Sierra said, turning her head away, as Kashena moved to pulled her closer.

  “You love me…” Kashena said, her tone cajoling.

  “Maybe,” Sierra said, keeping her face turned away.

  “You know you love me…” Kashena said, leaning down to move lips over Sierra’s neck, left exposed because of her head being turned.

  “Stop that…” Sierra said, already sounding weak.

  “Are you sure…” Kashena said, sliding her arms around her wife, her lips moving up to her ear, “Are you really sure you want me to stop?” she asked again, her hands sliding up Sierra’s back caressing.

  “Well, maybe not…” Sierra said, sighing.

  Kashena’s lips claimed hers then and they were done talking for a while. There were a few times when Sierra would touch one of the bruises and Kashena would jump, which would get Sierra wanting to complain again, but Kashena would quickly get her attention again.

  Afterwards they lay together, Sierra gently touched the bruise on Kashena’s neck.

  “I really don’t like this,” she said, her voice soft.

  “I know, honey,” Kashena said, “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice conciliatory, “But you married a cop.”

  “You weren’t this kind of cop when I married you,” Sierra said.

  Kashena looked back at her for a long moment, “If I’d been this kind of cop then, would you still have wanted me?” she asked, her tone calm.

  “I’ve always wanted you, Kash,” Sierra said, “I think this would have scared me more then, though.”

  “Why?” Kashena asked.

  “It’s just so much more violent,” Sierra said, shaking her head.

  “Sweetheart, you were married to a Marine,” Kashena said, “You didn’t think that was violent?”

  “Kash, it was violent, over there,” Sierra said, emphasizing the word ‘there’, and Kashena knew she meant in the Middle East where her ex-husband Jason had been stationed.

  Kashena nodded, it explained why when Jason got violent with her the first time, she’d come running to Kashena. She stared back at Sierra for a long time, not sure what she could say.

  “Babe, I don’t know what I can say here,” Kashena finally said, honestly.

  Sierra shook her head, “I don’t expect you to say anything, Kashena, I love you, it’s just an adjustment I need to make.” She said, her voice sad.

  Kashena stared back at this woman she loved more than life itself, and for the very first time since they’d gotten married, she saw a chink in their armor. It was not a comfortable feeling and she fell asleep that night with a cold hard knot in her stomach.

  Two days later, in her office, Kashena was reading a report over and making corrections on her computer when the visions ripped through her head.

  “Son of a…” she muttered, as she braced her hands on her desk as the pictures flashed in her head. The images were rather appalling and she had to sit taking slow deep breaths until her vision cleared, and then the headache hit. That was right when Sebastian walked in to pick her up for lunch.

  “Uh-oh,” he said, seeing her face, “Vision?” he asked.

  Kashena shook her head, closing her eyes.

  “What did you see?” he asked, pulling out his notepad.

  “Two bloody eagles, a knife blade and…” her voice trailed off.

  “And?” Sebastian queried.

  Kashena looked back at him, her face a somber, “The Ojibwa symbol for death.” She said.

  Sebastian felt his heart stop for a moment, he moved to sit down in the chair closest to him. He stared at Kashena open mouthed for a full minute. Then he closed his mouth, shaking his head.

  “No, that’s not what it means,” he said, still shaking his head.

  He knew what she thought it meant, that she was going to die, he would not accept that, not her.

  Kashena looked back at him her look pained, knowing that what she’d just told him had hurt him to his core. She wanted it to be wrong, she really did.

  Not now… she thought, sending the message to her ancestors I’m not ready… but she knew her visions told the story and that she couldn’t change her visions even if she didn’t like what she saw in them.

  Almost a week after her encounter with Julie, Raine found herself in a fairly violent altercation. She’d gone to a bike shop after work one evening, wanting to do some tuning on her bike but needing a few things. When she’d left the shop someone had been leaning on the wall near her bike.

  As she stepped closer she saw that what looked like a man was actually a very butch woman. The woman was taller than Raine by a good four inches, and wider by at least twice Raine’s body width and none of it looked like fat.

  Raine took stock quickly. There was about five feet between them. Her gun was locked in her saddle back, but she had a snub nosed revolver in and ankle holster. Her badge was in her pocket, but she was fairly certain from the way the woman was looking at her, that she already knew she was a cop and didn’t care. That wasn’t a good thing.

  “You need something?” Raine asked, her tone calm as she chewed the gum in her mouth.

  “Yeah I’m Jake, and you’re fucking with one of my friends,” the woman said, “And I don’t like it.”

  “We all have things we don’t like,” Raine said simply.

  “Yeah, well, I’m gonna do somethin’ about that,” the woman said, pushing off the wall suddenly and striding toward Raine.

  Raine stood her ground, the last thing she was going to do was let this woman think she was intimidated by her. She lifted her chin slightly, her body tensing. Jake came in swinging. Raine dodged the first punch, but got caught by an uppercut, that had her head snapping back, she stammered backwards, but didn’t’ go down, and surprised Jake, by stepping into the next punch, dodging it as it went past her face. She grabbed that arm and using the momentum Jake already had behind the punch, flipped
the bigger woman over her shoulder. Jake landed with a thud, but scrambled to her feet quickly. Raine had just enough time to side step a kick that would have taken her legs out from under. Fortunately being a dancer meant that she was able leap high enough to avoid that kick, and manage a spin kick that caught an unsuspecting Jake in the face. She was down for the count.

  Reaching up to touch the blood on her lip, she knew she wasn’t going to be making an appearance at Natalia’s class tonight. Putting a booted foot on Jake’s motionless body, she reached down and pulled out her revolver, and then pulled out her phone. She called the sheriff’s office and had them send out a car.

  By the time she filled out the report and got Jake booked for assaulting a peace officer, she was exhausted. She ended up texting Natalia mid-way through telling her that something came up and that she’d see her “later”, since she had no idea how long it would take to get done at the station.

  As it turned out, she got to Natalia’s apartment two hours after Natalia had already gotten home. She knocked on Natalia’s door, she could feel her face aching a bit. She’d taken a lot of ribbing at the jail for the bruise on her mouth, until the other officer had brought Jake in and then the guys in the jail were nodding their heads. It amused her no end that they assumed because she wasn’t the classic tough looking body shape that she couldn’t handle herself.

  Natalia opened her door ready to be angry about Raine being so late, but then she saw the bruise. Immediately she put her hand to Raine’s face, her look aghast.

  “Raine what happened?” she exclaimed, her dark eyes scanning Raine’s person for any more bruises.

  “It’s just the one,” Raine said, grinning, “Can we go inside please?” she asked as she glanced at the guy coming down the hallway.

  “Of course,” Natalia said, moving back so Raine could come inside the apartment.

  “What happened?” Natalia asked immediately.