Happy New Year!
I apologize for the late post. I had a very busy New Years and had to push back some of my projects.
Witness
Chapter Three:
Damian Parez eyed the weapon sitting snugly in his hands, its sharp edges and sleek lines calling to him.
He had heard the news, the thought of his men's incompetence left a sour taste in his mouth as he clutched the weapon tighter in his grasp. The only good to come of it was that they could hurry along their plans. It was pointless to wait until after the shipment of new weapons came in; the cops already knew what Damian was doing in L.A.
They could act now before the next shipment arrived and not risk any more than if they waited.
Damian had thought Ronnie's death would leave enough bread crumbs for the Detective to connect the Parez family to the case and set his entire plan into motion. What he hadn't counted on was Rigg's stumbling on one of his exchanges and taking Ronnie's partner into custody.
The thought of two of his men and just as many buyers being taken out by a single detective, the detective he had so many plans for, no less, made him cringe. He had underestimated the man, that was certain, but Detective Martin Riggs had no idea what Damian had in store for him.
He had wanted to draw out the exchange; play with his prey for a while, but he no longer had the option. If Riggs were to get too close it would risk everything he had built in L.A. He decided that how long it took no longer mattered.
There was no way the detective could get out of this one alive; Damian had sent more than half of his men and still had an ace in the hole.
He let the thought of revenge slush around his mind; as satisfying as scratching an itch. His snarl gave way to a smile as he brought his attention back to the AK-47 in his fingers.
He aimed the weapon at the man standing before him; he wouldn't pull the trigger, but Cornel didn't know that.
"Come on Damian, stop messing around." The comment was carefree but was weighed down with concealed worry.
Damian knew he scared the man. He enjoyed having complete control over the people surrounding him, more often than not that meant pointing a weapon at someone without the certainty that their blood wouldn't spill all over the floor.
His eyes locked onto Cornel's, the entire room filled with uncut tension.
Damian shattered the atmosphere with a laugh and lowered his rifle. He noted the slight loosening of Cornel's tense shoulders as he relaxed and walked towards the desk in the center of the room. He placed the gun on the table.
"The cops have Barry. How long before he talks?" Damian asked, his voice level.
"Doesn't matter, we have guys on the way." Cornel reasoned.
Damian stared at the man for a few moments; the look said what he didn't have to. If he does, you won't die quickly.
Cornel shifted his weight nervously and reconsidered. "I will take care of it."
"Good." Damian liked Cornel; he had known him since they were kids in Texas. Cornel always tried to impress him, and he guessed that's why he enjoyed having him around. Someone always chasing your shadow kept you on your toes. "Go on then!" He prompted.
He watched Cornel turn towards the door and hurry out of the room. He smiled at his friends back, he felt close to the guy, even if the man was weak, but he was glad he didn't have to rely on him for the majority of his family's operation.
He lowered himself into the dark soft leather of his desk chair and brought his attention to the family photo surrounded by a thin golden frame. The faces of his two brothers stared back at him.
"Don't worry; I will get revenge on the bastard that took you from me." He directed towards the youngest. For now, there was nothing he could do for his middle brother but kill the cop that put him away. He smiled at the thought and once again picked up the assault rifle in front of him.
He pictured his plan coming to fruition as his smile deepened. No one would deny him the pleasure of seeing Detective Martin Riggs dead.
Roger sunk further into the dingy couch. A rerun of an old show occupied the TV screen and lit the room in odd sequence.
Mindy had been getting some shut eye for the past few hours as Roger waited patiently for his partner to come back from his ridiculous excursion.
He had spent the first hour fuming at his partner's absence and the second worrying about what was taking him so long.
He had discovered that anger kept the worry at bay and had reverted to his original state of mind when Riggs hadn't returned after three hours.
The sound of footsteps across carpet pulled him from his daydream.
"Hey, any chance of coffee?" Mindy wiped the sleep from her eyes and yawned loudly.
"You are in luck, just brewed a fresh pot." Roger gestured to the black liquid accumulating in the coffee pot.
"Detective Riggs back yet?" Mindy asked as she grabbed a cup and began to fill it.
"No, he's being obnoxious somewhere else. Lucky us!" Roger added with more ice in his tone than intended.
"you're worried about him?" She asked.
Roger took a sip of his coffee. Mindy was perceptive for someone who seemed hopelessly oblivious. He had noticed the resemblance that had his partner off balance; he couldn't blame Riggs for wanting to be elsewhere, considering. Facing his tragic past every time he looked at the person they were assigned to protect couldn't be easy.
Roger had given his partner a pass when he had left to hunt down Parez; he couldn't bear to see Riggs struggle for much longer and permitting him some space was sure to allow him the time he needed to regroup. Time, he had been denied since they had met Mindy.
"I have to do the worrying for the both of us. He refuses to do his share." Roger offered a half smile and glanced at the clock.
"Does he run off solo often?" Mindy asked from behind her large mug of coffee.
"Only on occasion. Don't worry; he'll be back soon." Roger answered uneasily.
There was a knock at the door. Roger drew his gun as he stalked towards it gesturing for Mindy to take cover in one of the bedrooms.
He peered through the peephole and was greeted with a set of dark eyes and mussed hair only slightly visible by the porch light. He opened the door and holstered his gun.
Riggs walked through the door in a much better mood than he had been when he left, a large bag of IN-AN-OUT in his arms.
"Hey, Rog. Guess what?" Riggs asked with slight excitement as he stepped into the family room, placed the food on the kitchen counter, and made himself comfortable on the couch. He threw his boots onto the old coffee table and cupped his hands behind his head.
"You've been reassigned?"
"what? no!"
"A man can dream," Roger mumbled.
"Aww, Rog, you're just hungry. I brought food." Riggs pointed to the bag he had placed unceremoniously on the counter. "Damian Parez is now an illegal arms dealer; that's what. And we caught one of the men working for him."
"You did?" Mindy asked in shock. "did you find Damian too?"
"No sign of Damian Unfortunately, just four lackeys and a snitch. One got away and the other three, well, let's just say they won't be talking anytime soon…or ever." He added as he pulled a luke-warm burger from his pocket. The perplexed stares prompted him to pause before taking a bite. "What? it was cold." he shrugged.
"Where is the man you caught? Can't he tell us where Damian is?" Mindy asked overenthusiastically, ignoring Riggs' unconventional behavior.
"He ain't talkin. We might be able to get something outta him, but for now, nada." Riggs offered as he devoured his dinner.
Roger assumed Mindy was just as eager to be done with the safe house and her babysitters as they were to wrap up the case.
The sound of screeching tires and slammed doors outside the minuscule accommodations shot a silent bout of anticipation through the room.
Both Riggs and himself pulled their weapons. As he secured Mindy and led her to the hallway, his partner made his way to the window.
Riggs peered through the opening and was greeted by a barrage of unfriendly fire. He took cover away from the broken glass, his back to the wall and crouched low laughing for some reason.
"Hey, Rog! There are bad guys outside!" He called across the room.
"Thanks, Riggs. I hadn't noticed!" Roger called back sarcastically as he moved Mindy into one of the bedrooms on the first floor.
Riggs fired a few shots at the intruders as they began to surround the outside of the house. The oncoming bombardment of bullets could only have come from an AK-47, The very same model he had been dismantling for comfort hours before.
The little cover the wall had offered had whittled down to almost nothing; he stayed low making his way to Roger and Mindy.
"How the Hell did they find us?! Were you followed?" Roger asked in frustration.
"I would have recognized a tail, Rog. Especially two giant SUV's filled with bad guys!" Riggs shoot back.
"Well then, smart ass, what now?" Roger asked as Mindy clung desperately to the back of his shirt, letting out a small yelp with the sound of each gun fire.
"Now, I create a distraction and lure them to the front of the house, while you get Mindy to safety through the bathroom window." Riggs made to leave.
"Wait a minute! We should stick together." Roger yelled.
"Or, now hear me out this time, we…" Riggs turned on his heal and shot out of the room. A smile lining his lips at the stunned expression he was sure he had left on Roger's face.
He rushed to the door and fired two shots at the men entering the room; he aimed one more to his left before the assailants at the entrance collapsed to the ground. He made his way to the door leaving the three dead intruders to the family room.
With only one point of entry and no alternative exits except for the bathroom window, Riggs made his way out of the house through the front door, stopping short of the doorframe and peering outside.
Two bullets skimmed the wood next to his head forcing him to pull back inside the room. He checked his clip and crouched down once again. He let loose another round from the lower position taking the assailant by surprise.
The sound of the man's cry as the bullet shattered his kneecap was silenced by another to his head.
Riggs sprinted across the front of the house and past the two men standing in front of the sleek black SUV's, their headlights cutting through the night and lighting his way. They fired in Riggs' general direction as he dove behind the short brick fence lining the concrete pathway to the house's entrance.
With the relatively adequate cover, he responded with two rounds in kind hitting one low in the abdomen and the other in the chest.
He made his way around the building to clear the way for his partner and could just make out the forms of Roger and Mindy making their way outside through the moderately sized bathroom window.
He brushed the hair from his face as he checked the area and began the short trek over the grass to reach them.
The crack of gunfire filled the air from behind him; Riggs dove to the ground reflexively and spun from where he lay on the grass to face the sound. Apparently, a shot to the intestines hadn't been enough to render one of the bad guys unconscious.
Riggs returned the round and watched the man drop, this time for good. He got to his feet and ran over to his partner, making sure no one was hurt.
The sound of another vehicle screeching into the street forced them across the yard and into a neighboring building.
"we need a car!" Roger yelled through the commotion.
"There!" Riggs pointed to a cobalt blue mustang sitting in the driveway.
"That will do," Roger replied as he gave Riggs a nod. His eyes widened as he brought them to his partner. A look of horror across his face. "You're hit!" Roger stated as his face paled.
Riggs had been wondering what the tight pulling in his back had been. He figured maybe he just needed to start stretching before gunfights. The wetness of his shirt should have been the next sign that something was off, but he hadn't had a chance to put the pieces together. However, once the awareness of the injury kicked in he found it hard to ignore.
"I don't think this one's a scratch." He jested as he brought his hand over the exit wound to the left of his abdomen. Red saturated his fingers and gleamed in the light of the streetlamps as he steadied himself on Roger's shoulder.
His next step was a stumble and his words a blur as he fought off unconsciousness. When he refocused his eyes, he was being piled into a car. He tried to help maneuver himself into the vehicle, but his battle with cognizance was consuming most of his strength.
He felt the Mustang peel out as someone applied pressure to his back and the side of his stomach, the gun in his fingers becoming harder to hold amongst the blood and sweat now lining his hands.
Suburban streets collided with the highway as they attempted to lose their tail. Roger cut haphazardly between the cars on the road in an attempt to create distance.
"Shit! We won't make it to a station before they catch us. What the hell happened to our patrol?! We should never have been caught unawares!" Roger's agitated and panicked tone rolled through the car.
"I know a place we can go!" Mindy yelled forcefully over the roar of the engine.
"What?!" Roger turned to the backseat for as long as the situation would allow. His eyes darting to the blood saturating Riggs' shirt before returning to the road.
"I know somewhere we can hide out and call for help; I used to inspect old warehouses for repurposing at my old job. We just need to lose these guys. Can you do that?"
"I can do that!" Rogers tone was full of confidence as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
"I can help," Riggs grunted as he clumsily reloaded his weapon, a motion performed more by muscle memory than conscious thought.
The shift in weight to position himself partly out of the window was almost his undoing as the edges of his vision blackened. He took a deep breath and aimed his Barreta at the vehicle pursuing them firing a few well-aimed shots at the driver.
The SUV swerved into oncoming traffic before realigning itself unsteadily behind them, the driver shifting to see the road through the shattered windshield.
Mindy attempted to keep pressure on Riggs' contorted torso as he continued to hang halfway out the moving car.
"Get your ass back in here, Riggs!" Roger yelled as Riggs took one more shot, this one landing directly in the chest of the driver.
The black SUV turned abruptly to one side, its headlights slicing diagonally through the night before tumbling over themselves. The vehicle landed in a heap piling up the cars behind it.
Riggs saw its cousin making headway in the distance.
"Put your foot on it, Rog!" He yelled as he shifted inelegantly back into his seat.
"Get off the highway here!" Mindy ordered.
They exited the main road and joined with that of a much quieter one. Riggs attempted to keep track of the many turns as they put distance between the bad guys and themselves. A harsh throb making itself known in his side with each breath.
He drifted in and out of Consciousness with the bumps in the road before they pulled into a large empty lot. An enormous concrete building, much longer than it was tall occupied the space in the center of the property.
Whether they had been driving for minutes or hours, Riggs didn't know. His battle with consciousness finally lost as he felt warm hands pull his limp body from the car.
I'm evil, I know. I gave you guys a shorter chapter and a cliff hanger.
I want this story to be fuller than my last so you can expect more chapters. They may be shorter than my usual due to the pacing and action of each scene, but the content of the story will be more extensive.
If you can guess where the story is going PM me and get the chance to name a character in this fic.
Thanks for the faves/follows and, of course, reviews.