Chapter Nine
Charlie was escorting ADA Griffith in his Maserati to speak with Joseph Alvarez. Dani had him at the station to inform him that Alvarez was in the interview room where he had spilled his guts on Martin Burke's little habit of having cocaine and mescal transported up from Mexico for his West Hollywood club. It was considered his private stock, the best mescal and the best quality cocaine for special guests. Now it was ADA Griffiths job along with the US Marshalls to work out a deal with Alvarez which would allow the LAPD to bring in Burke and whoever was involved in the attempt on Constance.
"Charlie, can I asked you a question?" she broke the silence between them.
"Sure. I'm not positive I'll answer to but you can ask it if you want," he said.
"Are you involved with Det. Reese, Charlie?" she asked him.
"Is this the ADA or is this Constance Griffith asking?" he asked her.
"It's me, Charlie," she said. "I see the two of you together, the way you look at each other, and I see that she looks at you like she owns you and you look at her like you own her. I thought you might be involved with her. There seems to be something there."
"Reese is my partner, Connie," he said with a smirk and that was all he was going to say to her about Dani.
She could tell by his tone that was the extent of an answer she was going to get.
"I miss you, Charlie," she said softly. "I know I've made some bad choices recently when it comes to you, Charlie. I'd like another chance."
"We have to live with the choices we make, Connie," he said.
"You still haven't forgiving me for my not supporting you, but, as I told you, Charlie, these men that you want to go after are powerful. I wanted to protect you from them. You know that you don't know when to stop," she said.
"I didn't need your protection, Connie; I needed your support," he said.
"I'm sorry, Charlie," she said.
He kept his eyes on the road. He needed to keep her safe, protect her for what she had done for him, but that was all he needed to do. Everything else, including his love, belonged to Dani.
LIFE
Dani stood in Tidwell's office. She wanted to be waiting for Charlie either in the interview room or at her desk, but he had called her into his office and he was the captain.
"I got a call from someone at IAD. They are interested in Crews again because of what he did to your father," he said.
"My father assaulted Charlie first and didn't intend on stopping until he fought back," she said.
"I'm just giving you a warning, that's all," Tidwell said.
Dani glared at him with her brown eyes taking on the aspect of a laser trying to cut through stone.
"I'm trying to be a friend," he said.
"I'll never fuck you again. You know that, don't you?" she said.
"I'm not trying to get you into bed. I'm trying to be your friend, that's all," he said trying to sound sincere.
"My father was wrong to do what he did. He's lucky he didn't leave Charlie's place feet first," she spat the words out.
"Jesus, detective, you know what Tidwell is thinking," Tidwell said.
"Not very much," she said then turned on her heel and stormed out of his office.
Returning to her desk she started wondering what bothered her more Tidwell's attempts to interfere in her life or the fact Charlie had gone to pick up Constance Griffith. She sat down and glared at the elevator banks waiting for Charlie and ADA Griffith to walk off the damn thing.
Alvarez wanted to talk to her otherwise she would have insisted on picking up Constance Griffith. It wasn't that she didn't trust Charlie because she did; it was Constance she didn't trust. She still treated him like the man who needed her so much in prison, the guy that needed to be rescued before he disappeared into himself and left nothing but the guy willing to do anything to survive. Her Charlie didn't need rescuing, well, at least not that kind of rescuing.
The ding from an arriving elevator caught her attention. Dani looked up to see two men in suits getting off and walking her way. The US Marshalls were here. Now all she needed was Charlie.
LIFE
The highway was just too crowded with traffic travelling at a snail's pace, so Charlie and the black and white following him decided to take surface streets. As they made their way from Venice Beach are to downtown LA, they passed an intersection where suddenly a black SUV roared through the light and hammered the front of his car sending him his car into an uncontrolled spin.
Constance screamed as Charlie tried to gain control of the car. His airbags released becoming more of a problem for him to deal with steering his car then a safety device. Behind him he heard gunfire as another SUV T-boned the black and white and then some men opened fire on the officers. Charlie was glad that his old partner was Bobby Stark hadn't pulled the duty to follow them. His car came to a stop, so he pulled his sidearm and ready for a firefight. He looked over at Connie, who was frightened on the verge of tears.
"Stay in the car. Don't do anything foolish, except stay in the car. Back up with be here soon," he said.
He got out of the car and stayed firing on those he killed the uniformed cops. There were four of them. He immediately took out two of them with headshots since he expected they were wearing body armor. As the other two assailants headed back into the SUV, the SUV that hit them had turned around and now was headed towards them at a good speed.
Charlie had emptied his clip, so he calmly stood there and discharged his clip and reloaded as he took fire from the remaining men, who killed the uniforms, and prepared to deal with the oncoming SUV. He felt a burning his left upper arm, probably from a bullet, which he ignored. Next, he felt the burn from another bullet in his side, but he ignored it, as he turned and began to fire at the windshield of the oncoming SUV. He put six sounds into the driver side until he saw the telltale explosions of red then the SUV served out of control and up onto the sidewalk and into a storefront.
In the background he heard police sirens. Checking the other SUV, it backed up and took off, so he turned his attention to the SUV buried in the storefront. He started walking towards it with his weapon raised. As he got closer three men got out of the SUV. One of them turned to fire on Charlie but he took him down with four shots. His second clip was getting close to being empty as he fired on the other two men. He kneecapped one of them finally emptying his clip, just as the last guy turned on him.
This guy had dropped his weapon and was bleeding from the head. He saw that Charlie was bleeding from several wounds so he decided to rush him, as Charlie reached for his final clip. Charlie saw the man coming. He had pulled a knifed, so Charlie reached into his pocket and took out his folding knife and extended the blade. As the guy got to Charlie, he put on a mask of coldness and vengeance.
Connie watched from the car as Charlie fought. She wasn't sure if he was an avenging angel or something far worse, but she couldn't take her eyes off of him as he dispensed violence on those who tried to hurt them. A cold chill went down her spine, as she realized that this was the man, who survived prison, this was the man who many cons learned to fear during his time in Pelican Bay. Tears started to fall as she realized just how much damaged had been done to Charlie Crews.
As the police sirens got closer, Charlie and the man got into a knife fight. It was pleasant or well mannered, but the battle of two men who had spent time behind bars. Unfortunately for Charlie's opponent, he had spent less time than Charlie and fought far fewer battles in prison. Charlie ignored pain, blood loss, and commonsense as he let the man stab him in his side, so he could get close enough to stick his knife under the man's body armor under his right arm. The guy reacted by dropping his blade, which was a mistake. Charlie was about to finish him off not caring if it was now cold blooded murder, when he heard Bobby Stark's voice and felt his hand on his shoulder.
"Let go, Charlie, we'll take it from here," said Bobby.
At first he didn't react. He stared into the man's eyes and contemplated cutting his throat, but then slowly sanity started to creep back. This wasn't prison yard justice; this was outside the prison. And he was a cop. He couldn't kill the man in cold blood now.
"Hey, Bobby," he said, "do me a favor?"
"Sure, Charlie," said Bobby.
"Call Dani and tell her I'm going to be in the hospital for a couple of days," he said.
It was right then and there that he allowed reality back in his life and collapsed as the darkness that had wanted to claim him before; he allowed it to embrace him now. Bobby caught his old partner and yelled for an ambulance.
LIFE
Charlie woke up in a hospital room, which surprised him. He expected to wake up in a prison infirmary just so many times in the past. He looked around and saw a dozing Dani sitting in a chair in the corner. She looked rumpled and irritated and beautiful. As he stared at her, she cracked open and eye and saw that he was awake. For a few moments they merely stared at each other than Dani broke the silence.
"What the hell where you thinking, Crews?" she growled at him. "You almost got yourself killed."
"Hi, honey," he said.
"Don't call me, honey," she spate. "You have three bullet wounds and a stab wounds. Do you know how lucky you were that they all turned out to be…"
"Kiss me, Dani," he said interrupting her.
He knew the condition of his body even better than her. He'd spent too much time being sewn up, patched up, and plastered together in prison not to know that he was going to be fine. His thigh had been grazed; the bullet wound in his side was a clean through and through; the one that hit him in the upper arm did little muscle damage; and the stab wound missed anything vital.
Dani stood up and walked over the side of the bed then took his face in her small hands and kissed him. He thought that this was the best medicine anyone could give him: the love of Dani Reese.
"Don't ever scare me like that again, Charlie. I just got you; I don't want to think of a life without you," she said.
"I know, honey," he smiled.
"Don't call me honey," she said in a soft purring voice that sent good chills up and down his spine.
"Okay, honey," he replied softly and she kissed him again.
This time the kiss was long and passionate. Soon their tongues were wrestling for dominance until they heard someone clearing their throat. Dani stood up to see Tidwell standing in the door with Bobby Stark. Charlie noticed that Tidwell looked pissed, while his good buddy Bobby had a big amused smile on his face.
"You never stop do you, Charlie?" said Bobby.
"Why don't you wait outside, officer, while I talk to my detectives?" said Tidwell.
"Sure," said Bobby, who then looked over at Charlie. "I'll check you on later, Charlie."
"See you, Bobby," said Charlie.
Bobby Stark left and Tidwell shut the door. He looked at them barely hiding his annoyance.
"Well, you no longer have to worry about IAD for a while," said Tidwell. "You are a big hero right now. TV news even has footage of you fighting the bad guys, real John Wayne stuff."
"How is Connie?" Charlie asked.
"Fine. Not a scratch. She, the Marshalls, and Alvarez are working out a deal," he said then his face took on a look of amusement. "Oh, please try and not use a knife in a gunfight. It's against regs."
"We know who those guys were?" asked Charlie.
"Hired guns. Don't know who hired them yet," said Tidwell.
"Reese, when can I get out of here?" Charlie asked Dani.
"In a day or two, Charlie," she said.
"Tell the doctor that I'm good to go now," he said.
"Charlie, you will listen to the doctors and not leave one moment earlier than you are allowed," Dani said.
Tidwell looked at Dani. Just the caring in her eyes told him that he had lost her forever.
"I'll only listen to you, Dani," he smiled.
"Don't worry, I'll take you home soon," she smiled.