Chapter 7: Crashing In And Cashing Out
Geraldine comes into the office, Reggie wasn't with her; she was taking some time off. It's been quite a few weeks since that thing with the back pack, she's been on edge. Paranoid mostly. Reggie said this takes time but that's the thing always worried her, these type of situations would always get messy.
Today is no different than any other day. Same crappy bounty, same crappy pay and same crappy day.
Martinez come's out of his office with a file in his hand, Geraldine twirls her red hair as she prepares for the next crappy assignment. "Alright," Martinez throws a cigarette into a trash can, "this is today's bounty" he opens the file. He pulls out this mugshot of the jumper, a beautiful looking blonde with these sweet and innocent looking blue eyes. The name of the jumper, Riley Brooks, charged with possession of a small gram of marijuana. "Fuck, again" she grumbled "Yeah again, don't start with me" Martinez growled as he pulled out another cigarette "Don't act pissy with me". Geraldine shakes her head, she was tempted to beat her boss with an inch of his miserable life. "She works at a place called 'The Last Ride' on Capital Blvd, bring her here and I'll drop her off at lockup" he ordered, he puts the cigarette between his lips and pulls out a disposable lighter.
Geraldine looks on as he lights the cigarette "So" as Martinez blows smoke in her direction "did you get all that?", she waves the smoke out of her face; how many times has she told herself that she hates this job? "Yeah, I got it" Geraldine responds; just as she turns around, her boss grabs her arm. "Listen up, this is you're last chance, you already burned me twice; so don't fuck this up, got it?" he growled, she yanks her arm away. "Don't fucking sweat me," Geraldine give's him this hardened look "I'll do my job and I'll take care of it", she snatches the cigarette out of his mouth and breaks it two "Don't ever tell me how to do my job, you got me?" Martinez stares at her, he just wanted to fire her and that friend of hers right there and then. She leaves without saying anything else. Geraldine wasn't going to give her dirt bag of a boss any type of satisfaction, she was tired of this job and tired of him.
Geraldine drives the Cavalcade through the streets. Her foot is on the gas, the SUV speeds past traffic like a demon on steroids.
All she wants to do is catch this girl and get this day over with.
Geraldine drives into the parking lot and waits. Several minutes pass by and after a while the jumper finally shows, she's with a couple of other dancers about to start their shifts; in these types of situations it's best to take a more or less subtle approach. Geraldine steps out, she walks towards the girl and takes her by surprise "Bail bonds," she announced "you're coming with me", the dancer was stunned. "What? What are you talking about?" she questioned "I'm bringing you in for that bag of weed that they found on you" Riley starts to laugh. "That's nothing really serious, besides it's just a little bit of weed" she snorted, the other two look on, they whisper to each other "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to work", without hesitation the bounty hunter grabs her by the arm and slams the dancer on the ground "What the hell are you doing?!" she takes out a pair of cuffs and binds her wrists together.
"Hey, what's going on?" a new voice asked, a woman with curly brown hair sprints towards them "This girl's goin' to jail for a drug charge" Geraldine brings her up, Riley tries to resist but Geraldine yanks her away. "Look you can't do this" the woman said as she followed them back to the SUV, "You want her, come to lockup and pick her up" she sneered; the pair reach the SUV, she tries to open the side door but it's locked. She takes the cuffed dancer around the other side, the girl is cursing her over and over, all this for a little bit of weed. Geraldine shoves the dancer in and slams the door shut "Don't worry, we're going to get you out" the woman reassures her.
Half way down the block Geraldine hears nothing but cursing, she just wanted to get this day over with and go home. "You'll be sorry! My boss's girlfriend was in a gang!" she hissed, the bounty hunter scoffed; she wasn't really interested in anymore drama. Riley's eyes notice a figure slowly rising behind the drivers seat, a finger motions her to be silent.
A sharp object appears in sight; a hand slowly moves to the exposed area of the neck. "Don't move" a female voice ordered, "Shit!" she gasped. "Don't try anything funny, this thing is right at your jugular; tiniest little prick and you're going to bleed really fast" the voice threatened, Riley just looked on. "Pull over" the voice demanded, the SUV pulls to the side, the point of the knife is still on the vein "Now take those cuffs off" at first Geraldine considered grabbing the knife and apprehending the would-be attacker but reconsidered because she didn't want to take that a chance; Riley turns around and the bounty hunter carefully unlocks the cuff. "Thanks" she quickly complemented "If you see Roberta, tell her it was all a misunderstanding and that this lady was polite enough too cut you some slack" the woman said, the dancer runs back to the direction of the club; Geraldine tried to remain as possible, she manages to slightly adjust the rear view mirror and gets a look at her captor.
The woman was Asian, her hair was short with the sides slightly trimmed, she appeared to be in her mid 20's, she looked rather thin. The one thing that Geraldine notices are some tattoos that are covering her left arm and lower right forearm, she manages catch a slight glimpse of a larger tattoo that seemed too cover her whole back. The woman's eyes meet's hers "Like what you see?" the coldness in her eyes made her heart leap out of her chest "Listen, just let me-" "Keep your mouth shut and drive" she ordered, Geraldine drove back onto the street "We're going to talk too your boss, you and me" the woman's eyes just focused on Geraldine. They drive, one's calm while the other one tries not to act nervous.
...
The tension makes her want to grab a cigarette, her captor makes it impossible though.
"What do I call you?" Geraldine asked as she drives with the tip of the blade too her jugular "You're going to call me Sunny" she keeps the knife as close as possible too that same spot, the bounty hunter breathes steadily and remains calm as much as possible. "Why were you going after Riley?" the woman called Sunny wondered "I was bringing her in for a drug charge, that's all, I swear" Geraldine reiterated "Bullshit," Sunny hissed "she paid that thing weeks ago", Geraldine takes a quick breath "Judging by the way you operate, my guess is...bail bonds fraud, if that's a really thing" she figured; the bounty hunter scoffs, fraud really? "Man, get real! My boss told me all of this shit, I'm just doing this from the info he gave me".
Sunny didn't know whether to laugh or just to get everything over with "So who's the guy that gave you the slip?" "A motherfucker named Martinez" Geraldine says as she could feel the tip of the blade on her neck, "This guy seem honest too you?" Sunny questioned "Look man, I'm just doin' my job, okay? I'm just tryin' to get by like everyone else" Geraldine quipped "I like a person whose honest, who knows, maybe one day I can show you how the real world works" she looked into the rear mirror "Beside's, I hear that bounty hunters don't make shit, isn't that right?" she questioned; Geraldine never gave it any thought, this woman talked like she may have been in and around a certain circle of people. "Here we are" she said at they stop around the edge of the corner.
"Alright...you're going to drive right through the window" she demanded, Geraldine looked into the mirror wondering if she was joking "Man, you're here alright? Just let me go" she pleaded, Sunny poked the knife and twisted it slightly, Geraldine winces in pain "You got really nice looking ear rings," she complemented "be a shame if I were to cut them off" she sounded threatening again "Shit" the bounty hunter groaned, with a free hand Sunny grabs a handful of her red hair "If you want to see tomorrow, you're gonna drive right through that window, unless you want to start smoking cigarettes with a cut around your throat?" her eyes look into her's. "Now what's it going to be? This job of yours or you getting to see tomorrow?". She let go of her hair. "Man, fuck my life" Geraldine complained as she hit's the gas pedal, the SUV speeds through the middle of the road and into the parking lot.
The Cavalcade breaks through the front part of the office. "Shit!".
Martinez runs out of his office; he borders on hysterical, angry, confusion and craziness.
There lies the remains of his office, along with an SUV that crashed right the front part of his office. He see's Geraldine and some Asian woman step out of the vehicle, his blood starts to boil "Geraldine! What the-What the fuck did you do?!" he hysterically yelled, "Martinez, look, it ain't what it looks like" Geraldine tries not to freak out, Sunny pulls out a wad of cash and hands it to her "Here you go, sorry for putting you through that" she quickly apologized, "You may want to leave, things are about to get crazy" Geraldine takes her money and disappears from the now ruined office.
"You dirty bitch!" the fat boss takes a swing and misses "You're going to pay for this!", he keeps on swinging and she keeps on dodging. Sunny punches him in the face and gut, another punch too the face; he takes several more hits and she finally knees him in the stomach. He's was winded and beaten up, Sunny shoves him against the car and knees him a couple more times "So you're the asshole responsible for trying to take in Riley?" she pondered "Fuck you! She had a drug charge!" he screamed, he takes another punch to the face "So you send some lowlife bounty hunter to come after her?!" she slams his head against the car door, he falls to the ground. Sunny puts him in a head lock and drags him to a desk, he pathetically tries to punch her one more time; she grabs his arm and forces him to the ground. "What are you doing?!" he looks up and she bends his arm, something cracks.
"Aah! Oh god!" he cries as his arm is bent in another direction. Sunny places her foot on his chest "Riley may have some problems, but you're nothing but a piece of shit" she looks at the fat retch of a boss "Don't ever let me catch you around the club or those girls," she warned "don't make me come back here again" with that the fat boss passes out.
Sunny calmly walks out. She takes a back way out, her phone vibrates, it's a text from Roberta 'Riley told me everything; is everything settled with the bonds office?' the text read 'We had a...chat, it's all been taken care of, just a misunderstanding that's all' Sunny texted back. She walks down the end of the alley her phone starts to ring, Kenny's name appears on screen "Why now?" she grumbles.
"Yeah?" she answered "Hey, did you talk to Park?" he asked, Sunny is careful in her wording her answer. "About that...this is what he said" "Yeah...?" he trailed on "He said no" she responded, a moment of silence is there for several seconds "What do you mean no?!" he yelled, "The honest truth is he called you a dope head, scumbag, dirty miscreant and that he doesn't trust you" she said unenthusiastically "Are you kidding me!?" he fired through the line; "Were you even trying to vouch for me?" Kenny asked, Sunny's mood quickly changed "What the hell is that supposed too mean?" "Did you even try reasoning with him?" he questioned, she breathes a hard sigh "Look," she gripped her phone "his mind is made up, I can't change it, so sorry" Kenny started to shout obscenities at her; she quickly hangs up, well that went smoothly she thought.
...
"Fired? How the fuck we get fired?" Reggie questioned "It was because of that bullshit you pulled with the bike, and probably 'cause some crazy ass Asian lady made me crash through the front of the office" Geraldine said as she crossed the street, she heard Reggie laughing "Man you a crazy motherfucker in this partnership, spend them while you got'em" she quipped "If you say so".
Geraldine nears her house, her phone starts to ring. "Hello?" "You red haired bitch!" her boss roared "Hey come on! The bitch had a knife to my neck!" she fired back "My office is ruined! You know what?! You got you're wish and you got to leave but guess what? You and Reggie are fired!" Martinez screamed, Geraldine's heart started to race from the adrenaline pumping through her veins "You know what Martinez? Fuck you! You can't fire me 'cause I quit! I hope you don't make another penny in that raggedy motherfucker!" she hollered and hung up.
She's finally at her doorstep, Geraldine breathes a lot easier now; she and her friend got fired, they have no jobs and barely any money to spend. So much for hanging in there.
Something brushes up against her leg. She looks down and see's a tabby cat, it meows and purrs at her. "Let me guess? You're hungry as hell, right?" she questioned, the cat just looks up at her.
Geraldine and the cat enter her home.
She goes to the refrigerator too find some food. A small can of tuna is lying in the corner, she quickly grabs it and brings to the starving cat. Grabbing a can opener, Geraldine places it on the floor. "Here you go, enjoy" she sarcastically said, the cat seems to enjoy itself. Geraldine goes to her room and lays her head against her pillow.
She starts to ponder her options: go freelance and try to make it on her own or does she find that woman and ask her for a job? Geraldine remembered their conversation, she seemed to know her way around things and seemed to know a lot of things about money. After what happened, maybe she should do that. The cat slinks it's way to her bed and nestles next too her.
That woman was probably her way out of this place and maybe, even, to a better life.
She could see it now, a new beginning for her and Reggie; money, fast cars, parties, big houses and her investigation firm going into business. Looks like she can achieve that dream of her's after all.
Tomorrow will be different but better.
Geraldine falls asleep, the cat purrs and eventually fall's asleep as well. Just two ghetto cats resting.
Chapter 8 is coming soon. Rate and Review.
