Hers to Protect

by Nicole Disney

  “You okay?”

  “Did you know Kendra Wilkes?”

  “Sure, a little. She came to parties but never talked much. Why?”

  “She was killed.”

  Adrienne tightened her grip on Kaia. “Oh, God. I should have listened to you, Kaia. We should have just told the truth. It was self-defense; we wouldn’t have been in trouble. All these people wouldn’t be dying if we had just told the truth.”

  “We can’t know what would have happened. We would have definitely been looking over our shoulders forever. Maybe people wouldn’t have died, but we don’t know that. And who else would’ve gotten killed instead?”

  “But it’s my fault. I should have stepped up and dealt with it. I should just come clean. I can’t stand people dying for something I did.”

  “You can’t do that,” Kaia said. “It’s too late anyway. It wouldn’t bring anyone back and it won’t stop whatever is going on between these gangs. Once these things start they take on a life of their own.”

  “We have to do something.”

  “We have to find Anna.”

  Adrienne saw the quiet question in Kaia’s eyes. She needed help, but she didn’t want to ask. “What do you need?”

  “I just need to know where to look,” Kaia said sheepishly. The light was hitting her blue eyes in a way that made them glow and penetrate to Adrienne’s core. “She knows better than to stay at her own house, but she has to be somewhere. She can’t replace her family or her friends or her drug connects. There has to be something she can’t avoid, somewhere she’s eventually going to have to go.”

  Adrienne nodded. “I want to go with you.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “I don’t know where to find her, Kaia, but I can show you what they did. I can show you where they hung out, where their borders are, where their big deals happen.”

  “And you can write all that down.”

  “I have to be there,” Adrienne said. “I’ll know familiar cars that pass, what their signals mean, I’ll know something out of place when I see it. I’ll just know more. If you’re going to be driving around those streets looking for trouble you need me there.”

  “I’ll have cover.”

  “I can’t possibly teach you every name, face, car, house, corner, sign, route, buyer, and enemy. I just can’t, and I need you safe.”

  “I need you safe.” Kaia reached out and squeezed her hand. “I have a gun and a vest and other officers.”

  “And I have you.” Adrienne knew Kaia didn’t have much of a choice, but she didn’t want to make her feel that way, so she quietly waited for her to decide.

  “All right, fine. We’ll drive around together. But if we see anything we’re waiting for cover, and you are staying in the car the whole time.”

  “Deal.”

  * * *

  Adrienne settled into the passenger seat. Kaia put a pistol in the glove box.

  “That’s there for you,” she said. “If I’m out of the car dealing with someone and shit goes sideways, it’s ready to go. Just pull the trigger.”

  Adrienne nodded. She was used to being around guns and she knew her way around one, but she’d never felt truly comfortable with them.

  “I have two radios.” Kaia held one up. “This one is staying in the car. Hold this down to talk. If something goes wrong and I can’t do it myself, you ask for help on that. Don’t forget to tell them where we are, that’s the most important thing. If you can only get one thing out, it needs to be our location. If you can’t say anything at all, you hit the red button.”

  “You really think this is going to go bad, huh?”

  “No, but I want to know you’ll be okay if it does.”

  Adrienne nodded and kissed her. “We ready?”

  “Where to?”

  Adrienne directed Kaia down the alleys Gianna used to use when she was selling drugs or guns, places so notorious for violence, even Gianna often wouldn’t let Adrienne go. They saw plenty of suspicious activity, but Kaia drove through, single-mindedly looking for Anna.

  “What about them?” Kaia pointed out two guys wearing a lot of blue.

  “They’re members. Probably selling coke.” Adrienne felt herself shrinking into the seat even though she knew Kaia’s windows were dark enough to hide them.

  “Odds they’ll meet up with Anna?”

  “Low.”

  Kaia pointed out several people Adrienne would have missed entirely, even an argument on the verge of becoming a fight. Adrienne felt like she’d been walking through life oblivious. She thought things generally didn’t happen around her, but now she felt like she probably just hadn’t noticed them. Kaia said it took a trained eye, but it made her feel on edge and vulnerable. She obsessively watched the street signs, realizing she also frequently couldn’t say exactly where they were on a dime. She spent the first couple hours on high alert before she finally started relaxing and felt they probably wouldn’t find Anna tonight.

  They rolled by every house Adrienne could remember ever visiting searching for Anna’s car. She owned an old Toyota Camry, but she stole vehicles the way many criminals shoplifted. It was a minor occurrence in the day for Anna, and there was really no telling what she’d be driving.

  Kaia finally sighed and looked over at Adrienne around one in the morning. “You want to call it a night?”

  Adrienne nodded. “We’ll try again tomorrow.”

  Kaia reached across the car and rested her hand on Adrienne’s leg. Adrienne leaned over and kissed her neck, then leaned back and closed her eyes while Kaia drove home. She had just started dozing when the speed bumps in their parking lot jostled her awake.

  Kaia pulled into her spot and they sleepily gathered their things and got out of the car. They were halfway through the lot when Adrienne heard an engine revving. A van screeched through the parking lot straight at them. The back sliding door was open, and Adrienne saw at least four people with blue masks in the back, another two in the front.

  “Look out!” Adrienne yelled.

  Kaia already had her gun drawn. “Run, Adrienne.”

  Adrienne grabbed the back of Kaia’s shirt, urging her to run too, but she had already taken aim and fired off four rounds. The people in masks jumped out of the open van door and ran straight for them, covered in body armor. Kaia fired again and one went down, but she had to pause to reload.

  “Adrienne, run! Now!”

  “Looking for us?” A female laughed as she ran at Kaia and swung at her. Kaia ducked the punch, grabbed her body, and they both slammed to the ground. Adrienne ran toward Kaia’s car, trying to get back to the gun in the glove box and the radio. She heard feet pounding after her, and she knew she’d be lucky to have time to do one or the other. She had to decide. Shoot or get help on the way?

  She opened the door and reached for the gun. She spun. The person pursuing was only feet away. She fired. The person grunted and grabbed the gun, trying to twist it from her grip. Adrienne struggled to point it back at them. She managed to muscle it back at their body and fire, but they didn’t seem fazed. A second blue mask caught up to them and wrenched one of Adrienne’s arms off the gun. The first person finally pried it from her hand, and she felt the cold hard slap of metal on her face. Her vision went blurry and she felt herself being dragged back to the van. She heard feet scuffing on the ground, grunts, cussing. She knew Kaia was still fighting.

  She shook the blow away, eyes slowly focusing. Each of the people in masks had one of her arms and they were supporting her weight while her feet dragged over the pavement. She dug her feet in and pulled back. She freed one arm and pulled the other as hard as she could. She felt herself slipping through their grip, but the full weight of the first person crushed her to the ground. Her face hit asphalt and she couldn’t breathe.

  She saw Kaia on the ground too with two people on top of her. They had her pinned. When they tried to drag her to the van, she swung and kicked at them, keeping their progress at a standstill, but she couldn�
��t escape.

  The driver jumped out of the van with rope and headed toward Adrienne. She recognized Anna despite her covered face. Anna circled Adrienne’s wrists with the thick rope several times over while the other two held her arms behind her back. Once she was tied, Anna grabbed Adrienne and pulled her to the van by her hair. Adrienne tried to pull away, but Anna spun and punched her in the face. Unable to raise her hands, Adrienne took the full force of the blow. Anna dragged her the rest of the way and flung her into the van. Adrienne’s shins hit the ledge and she fell to the floor of the stripped van face-first. Anna headed back for Kaia.

  Adrienne felt tears rolling down her face as she watched Anna put her knee in Kaia’s back and go to work tying her hands. They dragged her to her feet. Kaia was still fighting, kicking and pulling and giving them a hell of a time. Anna squared up and punched her. She hit her three more times before Kaia became subdued enough to yank to the van. All five of the masked people still standing headed for the van, three of them dragged the sixth, the one Kaia had shot. They all jumped inside and slid the door closed with a loud thud.

  Kaia landed in front of Adrienne on the floor. She was bleeding from a cut over her eye and her lip was swollen. She spit blood on the van floor. Adrienne’s eyes watered again. This was all her fault. Kaia’s eyes met hers, and Adrienne felt a contagious calm coming from them. The five WAK members all took off their masks and sat on the milk crates that were serving as seats. Anna was driving, Christina was in the passenger seat. Celeste and two others were in the back, and the body was on the floor by the back door. Adrienne recognized the two with Celeste as Jacob and Sean. They were members Adrienne had dealt to more times than she could count.

  “Well, you’re pretty confident, aren’t you?” Kaia said in response to them removing the masks.

  Adrienne couldn’t believe Kaia would dare provoke them, but she couldn’t help but smile. They looked down at Kaia and smirked.

  “Oh yeah, we’re confident. You two aren’t going anywhere but to a shallow grave.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “You get a call for help out to your buddies?”

  Kaia shrugged. “We’ll see.”

  “Let me show you something, pig.” Jacob reached to a blanket covering something. He pulled back the blanket and exposed a chest nearly spilling over with assault rifles, handguns, and ammunition.

  Sean laughed. “If your friends try to pull us over they’re getting pumped full of lead. And even if they do somehow pin us down, you certainly aren’t coming out alive.”

  Anna was disturbingly quiet in the driver’s seat. Adrienne knew she must be the one who orchestrated all this. She must want this with a fire, yet she had barely looked back. She had almost seemed irritated she was needed to tie them up.

  Adrienne looked Kaia in the eye again. She wanted to say so much, but she didn’t want to talk in front of the Wild AKs. She wanted Kaia to know she hadn’t been able to call help. She wanted to hear Kaia tell her she’d done the right thing choosing to go for the gun, but she didn’t know if that was true. All she’d been able to think at the time was that if she didn’t find a way to fight back and kill these sons of bitches, they would be long gone by the time help got to them. Had she been able to kill them, that would have been true, but in light of her failure to do that she wondered if the radio wasn’t the better choice. Now it would be several hours before anyone even wondered where they were. They could be dead by then.

  “That one dead?” Kaia nodded to the body at the back of the van.

  Adrienne expected a violent reaction, but Celeste just sadly nodded. “Yes.”

  “Who is it?” Kaia asked.

  Celeste leaned over and removed the mask, again surprising Adrienne with her cooperation. It was a member named Cheyenne she’d known and even liked. She had a bullet hole between her wide-open eyes. Something about the way it was placed shook Adrienne up. It brought the reality of guns fresh to her mind, the cold and impersonal way they ate through anything in their path. Adrienne hated that the worst people always seemed to endure while the nicer ones perished. Cheyenne wasn’t a saint, but why couldn’t that bullet have found Anna instead? Would this even still be happening if it had?

  Kaia scanned Cheyenne’s face. Adrienne couldn’t begin to imagine what she was thinking. She felt a surprising lack of hatred from the WAKs toward Kaia over the death. They hated her as a cop, but she had in some strange way earned their respect by killing members, by surviving Gianna’s wrath. Adrienne had no such respect despite sharing meals, parties, secrets, and memories with them. She was nothing to them now. A rat.

  Adrienne heard a siren. It sounded a couple hundred feet away and she couldn’t tell if it was for them. She couldn’t imagine it was. She hadn’t gotten the call out. She hated that Kaia might be thinking she had. She was horrified by the idea of Kaia expecting help that wasn’t coming. But she couldn’t let the WAKs know that they weren’t being pursued.

  Kaia looked to the front of the van. Adrienne followed her gaze. She was watching Anna’s reaction, watching her eyes flash to and from the rearview mirror.

  “It’s for us,” Anna finally said. Kaia smirked and winked at Adrienne. Adrienne’s stomach clenched. The cop trying to stop them didn’t know who they were dealing with; they couldn’t be prepared. Adrienne wanted to feel hope, but all she could muster was fear that another innocent person was going to die.

  “You might want to hold on to something,” Anna said and hit the gas. The WAKs all reached for something to grab, but Kaia and Adrienne were at the mercy of the momentum, sliding across the floor. Kaia slid into Adrienne until the side panel stopped them both. Adrienne seized the opportunity and whispered into her ear.

  “I couldn’t get the call off. It’s not for us.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said. Adrienne didn’t see an ounce of anything she’d feared, no disappointment, fear, or anger. “They’ll be airing it citywide now anyway.”

  “As what, a stolen car? Will they even care?”

  “Oh yeah, they care. Or maybe a kidnapping if anyone saw us. It’s going to be nothing but problems for these guys now.”

  “Shut up down there,” Sean yelled, but he was distracted, looking out the window at the cop pursuing them.

  Kaia pulled her knees to her chest and started maneuvering her tied hands under her feet until she had them in front of her. Adrienne felt paralyzed. She wanted to tell Kaia to stop, but she knew she couldn’t draw attention to them. She watched the three members in back. All were staring out the windows watching the pursuing officer. Kaia was eyeing the gun in Sean’s hand. Kaia met Adrienne’s eyes and seemed to stop time for one agonizing second, then tore away and lunged for the gun.

  Her hands locked on the gun and wrenched it away. Sean tackled her to the ground. Kaia twisted the gun and fired out the window. The glass shattered and the square pieces rained down on Adrienne. Adrienne swung her hands under her feet too, struggling more than she thought she would to do so. With her hands in front, she staggered to her feet. Jacob rushed her, but she quickly put her hands out the window, waving wildly in signal to the officer.

  The van careened around a corner and Adrienne fell back to the floor of the van. She heard a gunshot and spun from side to side trying to place if anyone had been hit. Anna hit the brakes hard, then hit the gas again, intentionally tossing them all around the van. The sirens screamed after them. Kaia was still wrestling with Sean for the gun. They both had hands on it, working with all their strength to control the direction of the barrel. Kaia twisted her body and elbowed him in the face. He didn’t lose his grip entirely, but she was able to pull it and point it at the front seat. Four more shots sounded through the van. Anna ducked. The windshield spider webbed.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Anna screamed. “Get her under control!”

  Jacob let go of Adrienne and helped Sean wrench the gun away from Kaia. They finally ripped it away and Sean punched Kaia in the face.

  The
van veered again and Adrienne and Kaia both slid across the floor and hit hard against the opposite panel. Adrienne grunted. Kaia’s cheek was bleeding. Her eyes spoke a silent apology. Adrienne surprised her with a quick kiss.

  “You’re amazing,” she whispered.

  The van whined and shook, struggling with Anna’s demands for speed. “This thing doesn’t have it in her,” Anna said. “You’re going to have to get him to drop off.”

  Sean, Jacob, and Celeste each reached for the rifles. “Hold on.” Jacob sneered at Kaia and Adrienne, then opened the back door. The wind of the highway rushed through the vehicle, and Adrienne tried to find a ledge for her foot to keep herself from sliding. The cop was in an SUV, following closely. Two more cars were behind him, trying to catch up. The cop hit the brakes hard when he saw the doors open, but the front of the SUV was quickly riddled with bullets as all three Wild AKs fired. He veered off and crashed into the concrete barrier. Traffic around him panicked and tried to avoid him, but only managed to sideswipe one another, spin out of control, and block the way for the two police cars behind them.

  “Yeah!” Jacob yelled. “What now, pig!” Jacob and Sean reached for the doors and struggled to pull them closed, then finally got them to latch. Adrienne watched for as long as possible, hoping to see the cops catching up again, but the police lights were fading farther into the distance and the van was screaming away. Adrienne searched Kaia’s face but found nothing.

  The van pulled off the highway and slowed. Everyone fell quiet, collectively holding their breaths. Adrienne strained to hear sirens; the others were no doubt straining to hear silence.

  “Not far now,” Anna said, glancing over her shoulder at Adrienne and Kaia for the first time. “Not your city anymore, cop, so you can let go of that idea.”

  “My city isn’t the only one looking after that.”

  “They’re just going to get more of what he did if they find us.”

  “Maybe, but you keep shooting at cops, one of you is going to get some more of what she got.” Kaia nodded at Cheyenne’s dead body.