by Fiona Price
"Well, were the accusations correct?"
"I like to believe they're not, but I can't tell for sure. She kept all her work things on her work computer, and I don't know the password."
"Do you know where she kept the laptop?"
"In the bottom right drawer of her desk, the last time I saw her put it away."
"We need that computer, Alissa."
"You also need to get into the computer, and I don't know how."
"I think I know someone who will have no problem getting in." Shane finished before they removed the handcuffs attaching Alissa to the chair, still keeping a pair on her wrists.
Shane led Alissa into his office, sitting her down in one of the chairs facing his desk before he stepped out and was talking to his partner about what to do with her. They still saw her as a potential suspect, but Alissa was providing them with useful information and from what she had overheard of their conversation, could use her later in the investigation when neither of them were able to do the job. At the time, it didn't make sense, but it was explained to her not long after. Shane walked back into his office, sitting on the edge of his desk. Matt was standing by the door, leaning against the frame, not amused with what Shane had said just moments before.
"Alissa, I understand that you're still in shock from what happened, but if you're up to it, we can put you on the case. We know that you're a very decorated soldier and former detective, and there's really only one way to get to the person we need to crack open the computer."
"Any way I can help, I will." Alissa responded back, slightly nervous to hear what she had to do. "Are you sure it won't be a conflict of interest?"
"We'll try to prevent any conflicts of interest from occurring. I know a girl, and she's a skilled computer programmer. That means she can hack, too. The only problem is, if you throw her name around on the streets, you get looks from the people around you. She's a vicious underground fighter, and you don't mess with her."
"Shane is trying to sugarcoat it. He wants to throw you in the ring with this girl who tears people apart in seconds so you can ask her if she can get into the computer because Shane said so." Matt said quickly, summarizing what Shane was about to say.
"Dude, I was just about to say that! I was getting to it, and you had to steal my thunder! You make it sound like I'm cold and heartless! It's just going undercover, and if you say you know me, she'll be happy to help us."
"Shane, face it. You can be cold and heartless."
"But not all the time!" He defended. "Anyway. I sent some officers out to go and get the laptop."
"I'm in. Again, if it'll help you catch the guy who did this, I'm game on most anything. Although, I am slightly worried. This girl is the Lord Voldemort of fight clubs, and she'll just do anything for you?"
"Pretty much."
"How did you manage to do that?"
"That's a whole other story." He laughed. "Just have faith in me."
"I'll try, but I also can't feel my fingers. These cuffs are really tight."
"We've cleared your alibi and you've provided us with a useful lead, so we can take the cuffs off." Shane answered.
Alissa stood up, turning her back to him. He took the key and put it in the lock, engaging the cuffs to open. He walked her down the silent hallway, the rest of his team huddled around a whiteboard in the main room. They already had writing on the board since it was an active case, and Alissa was allowed to be there for the process since she would be used as a consultant.
There was a pause before Shane turned to Alissa and spoke.
"Vicki Marx fights tomorrow night, the girl I was telling you about."
"Okay," Alissa answered, waiting for more details.
"In her last string of fights, 13 people haven't been able to finish a single round against her. You don't have to do this, I can get to her myself, but it's more difficult to try and get past the security and-"
"I've gone undercover before, Shane. And I'm no stranger to hand-to-hand combat." Alissa answered.
"I'm just telling you that this is going to be much different than what you're used to."
"You still haven't told me how you two know each other. It could help me get to her."
At that, he sighed and rolled his eyes, smiling while looking down. Alissa knew that there was a story coming, and a good one at that.
"Vicki and I met when I was training at the same gym as she was. I was doing some sparring with one of another member of my team when I saw her totally ripping through the toughest guys there. She saw me looking at her and she challenged me to a fight. After some trash talking, 'I don't want to fight a girl', we got on with it, she kicked my ass to the ground in less than two minutes, every part of my body hurting. All I could do was just keep laughing and laughing, not at her, but at the misery she caused me." He paused, reminiscing at the good times he had.
"At the time, she was an emerging fighter, a fresh face, young blood that could make headlines. She could scare anybody, and she wasn't even 25 yet. I was 27, and we had a full relationship in the course of two weeks, beginning to end, first date to the dramatic, heart wrenching break up. It's not like it didn't last long, I was being deployed right after the two weeks and we didn't think we'd ever see each other again, so we seized the moment. We knew we had serious chemistry when she dislocated my shoulder with bright eyes and a wicked grin. Every time I'm in town, I call her up, we have dinner, fight a bit, catch up, you know."
"This girl is going to kill me..." Alissa spoke to herself. "If she can take you down in minutes, I'm most definitely going to die."
"First thing, cling on to her leg for dear life, she can't do much damage that way, and immediately say that I need a favor, she'll ease up, finish the fight and then ask you if you want to do each other's nails. You'll be fine, but I see you don't believe me."
"No, not really."
"It'll be fine, we'll be there as backup, we won't let anything bad happen to you." The Commander answered, comforting their best lead. He took her back to his office and she settled on his couch, waiting for the next set of instructions.
Alissa sighed, knowing that the next few hours would be long ones for her. She blew a strand of hair out of her face, and she began to count the tiles on the ceiling. At this point, she was trying to keep her mind off of Alex, how she would never get married and spend the rest of her life with her. She thought her head would explode from immense sadness if she thought about it all just a little too long. It was the end of everything she thought she knew, and thought she would have forever.
Tears were streaming down the sides of her face and falling onto her hair, as she realized that there was nothing tying her down to Miami anymore. She should feel liberated, but she has nothing else to do, and she didn't know where to go from there. Things shouldn't be the same, because they weren't. And as much as she'd like to, she couldn't pretend that Alex's death didn't happen. Alissa knew she had to fight, and she had to fight hard. She was out of options.
II
The locker room was cold and gray, a little bit sketchy, and Alissa's stomach was churning. She knew that she was able to fight, but the way Shane made it all sound got into her head. Her head was spinning with all of her thoughts, making her dizzy. She leaned up against a set of lockers, trying to steady herself. Shane walked in and put a warm hand on her shoulder on the skin that was covered in goose bumps. Alissa jumped at his touch and turned to face him, taking in deep breaths.
"Hey, you don't have to do this, again. I can always get to her through her guards-"
"No. I know I can back out, but I'm not going to. Finding my fiancée’s killer is more important than anything, and I'm going to fight for it."
"Okay, then it's settled. You haven't taped your hands yet."
"It's bad luck if you do it yourself." Alissa responded, trying not to sound crazy.
"Really? Is that an actual thing?" Shane asked her.
"Really. And I don't want to do anything to jinx my luck right now, not that
I have any to start with," Alissa chuckled with sadness, knowing she really had nothing left to lose. He reached over and picked up the tape from the bench.
"I guess that's why I always lose." He chuckled.
"Come here." He said, motioning her to take a seat. She walked over and sat down, holding out her hands for him to tape up. Alissa focused on his concentration, and it helped her get out of her head... thinking about something else than what was about to happen to her.
The announcer called out Vicki and the mid-sized crowd began to cheer. Shane walked Alissa out of the locker room and out to the dirty underground venue with a chain link fence around the ring, which was not much more than a blood-stained concrete floor. Alissa saw Vicki enter the ring, and she wasn’t just intimidating, she was gorgeous, too. Alissa noticed her light brown skin, her hazel eyes and her dark, curly hair pulled back into two tight buns. She was striking, and Alissa knew that she wasn’t going to fuck around, either. Matt was standing by the entrance to the locker room and gave Alissa a nod before Shane walked her to the ring. Inside, the look she got from Vicki was venomous and Alissa swallowed hard, her mouth guard secure in her mouth. The bell rang and she lunged at Alissa with no hesitation.
Alissa took a dive for the floor as Shane had suggested for her to do, Vicki losing her footing, tripping over where Alissa would have been. On the floor, she yanked at Vicki's ankle, pulling her to the ground. Alissa stood up and backed up a foot or two, not wanting to get too close to her. She shot straight back up, coming at Alissa, and she ran against the chain link fence, getting a good footing before launching herself onto Vicki, knocking her back. Just a little too close to the fence, she kicked Alissa in the abdomen, causing her to double over in pain leaving her with no air in her lungs.
Vicki took advantage of the opportunity, yanked Alissa back up by her hair, punching her in the face, repeatedly. Even though their styles were different, Alissa was still a Lieutenant trained in the best techniques for hand to hand combat, and she wouldn't go down without holding her own. She took her chance between punches and caught Vicki in a headlock, pushing her down to the ground. She eventually pried Alissa's arm off of her, but Alissa just came back at her with another headlock, only this time, she used her leg.
"Please don't kill me," Alissa begged, which seemed a little backwards at the time.
"Why shouldn't I do that?!" She choked out in between breaths.
"Because Shane McAndrews needs a favor."
"Shane?!"
"Shane! He said you could help?!"
"Anything for Shane!"
"Oh God, thank you-"
"I'm finishing the fight, you know that. But I won't kill you." She said sweetly before throwing Alissa over her shoulder and dropping her onto the concrete. Vicki kicked her as she was down, and she was facing Shane. He yelled over the noise,
"Don’t get up! She said she would help us. Stay down, don’t take this further than it has to! Now just-”
"I’m not giving up!" Alissa yelled back as she got up off the ground, wiped the blood from her face and roundhouse kicked her in the chest. Vicki caught her foot and dragged Alissa back down, the foot she had on the ground staying stable while the rest of her leg twisted along with the rest of her body.
As she had Alissa on the ground face first, she twisted her arm back, causing Alissa's shoulder to grind before she dislocated the joint. Through all of that, Alissa flipped over and got her on the ground, pressing her elbow into the fleshy space right below the end of her ribcage. Unable to breathe, she tapped out, and Alissa was the first fighter to win against Vicki in 13 fights. She got up and congratulated Alissa, standing in the middle of the ring, holding her hand up high, on the hand with the arm that wasn't dislocated. Alissa let out a tired smile, everyone who bet on her to win pissed off that they lost their money, and it all went to Matt, who was the only one who bet on Alissa to win.
Vicki walked Alissa out of the ring, through the crowd that wasn't leaving. Shane and Matt knew that Alissa was hurt, and she didn't make it far before they had to stop, the two detectives running over to Alissa. Before she could say anything, Vicki called out to Shane energetically.
After the first word out of her mouth, she leaned up and kissed him on the lips unexpectedly. Shane went with it, too. That's when Alissa knew there was more to them than he had told her. She got the summary of their relationship, but she had a feeling that she was about to find out a lot more. Vicki continued speaking after they pulled away.
"It's been too long! I barely recognized you with your clothes on!"
With that, Matt and Alissa looked at Shane with raised eyebrows and Shane was annoyed at the look on their faces. He changed the subject instead of diving into an explanation to Vicki's comment.
"It's good to see you again, Vicki. You look good, like, really good." He stuttered.
She smiled and put a hand on his cheek, covered in scruff. After the moment of affection, she didn’t hesitate in telling Shane what was on her mind and calling him out.
"It is the twenty first century, would it kill you to call every once in a while? You promised me dinner the last time we met, and I'm hungry! You need to keep up your end of the deal and take me out, Shane."
"I'm sorry, I was deployed. I didn't forget about dinner, though, what time works for you?"
"Shane, you can make a date later, Alissa is going to faint." Matt mentioned as he was holding the girl up. She accidentally spit blood on his white dress shirt. Her breathing was shallow, and the floor began to seem more and more appealing.
"Let me carry her." Shane said to Matt, reaching out to Alissa.
"Shane, I don't need to be carried, I'm fine." She denied. Immediately, he responded
"You're not fine. We're not leaving you here, and you can't walk yourself out of here, so you've really only got one option to work with."
"Okay." Alissa accepted, putting her good arm around his neck as he carried her to the locker rooms. Matt helped Vicki into the locker rooms as well, since she didn't come out of that fight exactly scratchless either. Alissa had done some damage.
Shane put Alissa down on the bench against the wall, sitting up, which was a mistake. She slowly slid down the wall, her dislocated arm covering her bruised ribs. When Shane came back, he came back with a hospital. He wrapped a bag of ice on Alissa's shoulder, wrapped her ribs with a bandage and propped her up again. Matt and Vicki were bent over the red laptop they had brought from Alissa's house to the fight venue, Vicki was typing rapidly away at it. As she did so, she started up a conversation.
"So, Alissa. I've never heard of you before. Tell me how you know Shane, how you can beat me in a fight, tell me everything."
"I'm trained in combat, and I'm trying to help solve the death of my fiancée, Alex." She explained softly, having a hard time breathing through her physical and emotional pain.
"And I was just recently suspect to my fiancée's murder, Shane was the cop who arrested me. We need you to crack the laptop open to find out what my fiancée was involved in so they can work another lead."
"Well, the laptop is encrypted, it'll take some time, but it has firewalls I can get through when I'm really focused on it. Can I take this?"
"Matt will take you back to headquarters so you can crack it open, after you get cleaned up. sound good?"
"Of course, Shane." She smiled at him. He nodded, carried Alissa outside to his car, where he drove her to the emergency room to get checked out. It wasn't too long after they arrived, and he filled out the paperwork that the nurses came out and got Alissa into a room. It was either the condition she was in, or it was a quiet night in the hospital.
He picked Alissa up from the chair she was sitting in, using him to prop herself up, and carried her to the room they prepared. He set her down, the nurses giving her a hospital gown to wear. Shane picked it up, held it out towards her so she could just step into it, shut his eyes and turned his head away. Alissa couldn't help but laugh, and managed to get the gown on.
He fell asleep in the chair after Alissa told him he could, that he didn't have to stay up all night with her, waiting for X-rays to come back and test results. She should have known that he wouldn't ever let his guard down too much. It looked like a convincing sleep, but she knew he could be awake at any second, and he was.
It was around two in the morning when the doctor came back in and put her various X-rays on the board; one of her chest, another of her shoulder, and the third of her left knee. Shane's eyes were open, pretending like he was awake the whole time.
"You strained your left ACL, your shoulder was hyperextended, and your ribs are certainly bruised. I'm going to prescribe medication for the pain. Rest, relax, ice your shoulder, your knee, anything that hurts. We'll set you up with a consultation with orthopedics and discuss the plan from there. Hopefully you'll be on your way tomorrow."
The doctor left, and it was undeniable that Shane was awake. There was no faking sleep for him, Alissa was smarter than that, and she took the opportunity to ask him the question that had been bugging her all along.
"Commander, do you still think I'm guilty?" Alissa asked.
"I'd really like to believe you're innocent." He answered.
"What more do you need to get your answer? My alibi checks out, I saw the shooter, and I arrived home to see my fiancée dead on the ground. I'd like to solve this more than anybody, since the love of my life is gone."
"I just need the evidence that fully exonerates you. Vicki is working on it now and then I'll know for sure it wasn't you. I know you'd do anything to bring her back, believe me, I've been in your situation. I've lost a lot of people I've loved, and it's unfair to watch them get ripped away from you before it was right for them to go. I understand. But, unlike my partner, I can't live on gut feelings alone." The commander answered Alissa. She nodded, understanding his answer.
Alissa knew that solving Alex's case wouldn't bring her back, but it would sure as hell make her feel better about living without her. Alex deserved justice, and Alissa tried not to care about the fact that there were people that believed she was guilty. Alissa would do everything in her power to do right by Alex, even if she had to risk it all.
