Chapter 33: Spitting out
They left the beach and drove till SWAT HQ. In her car. On his bike. Before leaving this place they kissed, for a long time, playfully. He pushed her slowly against the car, bent over her to kiss her mouth, her nose, her neck. She answered every time because she liked this very much. She felt like the teenager she had never been. Totally carefree and uncertain about her, their future but she didn't care because she could feel in her whole body that as long as Jim and I were together, everything would be great.
She giggled before dropping one last kiss on his lips. "Time to go to work…"
"Miss you already."
"See you in 30 minutes."
"Thirty minutes too long if you want my opinion." She laughed. He was too cute when he acted like this. And he might have been right. Thirty minutes could be very long.
They parked in the SWAT yard. Side by side. They didn't care if they arrived at the same time to be honest. Tan and Luca knew now and they were about to tell the truth to Hondo and Hicks. They walked till the locker room, he wanted so bad to take her hand but he restrained himself, first because he knew she hated big gestures in public and also because they were not official yet.
They changed and put their tactical gears. They were alone in there. But to be honest, it was still very early. Chris sat on the bench, scrolling her phone. Jim took his time to tidy all the stuff he had in his locker.
"Hey." He called her, pointing at a pic he had just added on his door.
She raised her head and smiled. "Are you crazy?"
"Yep, crazy about you. And to be honest I printed it the day we took it in the desert on this machine in the hotel lobby…." He handed her a piece of paper, it was another pic they took on this day. "For you… To hang in your locker if you agree…"
She dropped a kiss on his lip and ran to her locker to hang it up next to the pic of her uncle Sarzo and Auntie Elena. He smiled at her. Never could he have believed Chris Alonso would eventually let down her guard to allow him to be a part of her life.
"Hey kids, what's up? Already here? Have a good weekend?"
Hondo came from nowhere in the locker room. Chris pushed quickly the door of her locker so she kept the pic secret at the moment. Jim soon imitated her.
"Just motivated I think." Chris whispered.
"Perfect because we have a lot of work to do. Just saw Hicks and he's on something."
"Speaking of being on something…" Jim started. "Could I talk with you later?"
"Sure, sure kid. After shift? Nothing serious?"
"No… No in fact it's pretty cool indeed…" He saw Chris let out a faint smile in the background.
"See you in a few minutes, need to talk with Hicks about this teens we put in jail some weeks again. Nichelle could have a solution to rehabilitate them without staying in jail for too long."
Hondo got out of the room. Chris came closer to Jim. "So it's tonight?"
"This was what we agreed on. I mean… Did I understand bad or…"
She loved when he was panicking. She let him spiraling for some more seconds before pressing his hand. "No it's perfect." And she left the room.
The day started by the usual meeting in the control room. Tan was late this morning. He had not heard the alarm clock and arrived in the middle of the briefing. "Sorry" he whispered to Hondo, lowering his head.
"Crazy night?" Jim teased him at low voice.
"Ah ah ah funny. Not even! I had to go to the airport to get Bonnie's grandparents yesterday evening just after I left you. Their plane was late, then I didn't remember when I parked the car so we turned in the airport for like one hour and then I got home, Bonnie was both overjoyed and nervous. She scolded me for being late and she hugged her grandparents. We ate and talked till the middle of the night and finally I felt asleep on the sofa while my phone was in the bedroom… And you know the rest."
Street let out a silent laugh, before focusing again on Hicks's speech. Today, they had to catch a drug trafficker selling drugs to kids after they got out of school. He was operating in downtown LA. A large group who shared the benefits of the selling after. Rhokkers's team was on a jewelry burglary while 60-David Squad was all on a car theft.
"20-David, stay here, need to talk to you. " Hondo called out the team. They all turned to him. "Need you all focus on this. Chris, Tan you take care of listing all the middle and high school in downtown LA, Deac and Street, call the directors to talk to them and get information. Luca, prepare a map of all the places. Meet me here in three hours, let's go people."
They all vanished in the corridors, focusing on their mission. Time was running out and Hondo was waiting for results in less than three hours.
[…]
"So what's up, people?"
"There's 30 middle and high schools in downtown LA, boss." Chris announced. "Each of them is a target of this dealer group."
"We have spoken with all the directors. Most of them are aware of the problem and hired security guards but it doesn't change anything." Street continued.
"Most of them make the dealers flee for some hours and then they see them again at the other corner of the street." Deac added.
"According to the map and the location of the schools, you can see they are rotating during the day so they can sell all day long." Luca completed.
"That means they are there all day, what do you recommend?"
"Frontal move could disperse them and we could lose them. Better take them one by one."
"Good, Deac. Luca, where do we start?"
Luca explained the best way to proceed. Step by step. Dealer after dealer. Street and Deac called the directors again and informed them they were about to intervene in each school. Chris, Luca and Tan went to Black Betty and the armory to prepare the intervention. Hondo took some moments to tell Hicks about his team rolling soon and describing him the details of the mission.
"Let me know once you're in place." Hondo nodded and joined the team that was waiting for him in Black Betty.
"Boss, we were waiting for you!" Luca turned the engine on as soon as Hondo closed the back door of the vehicle.
He drove from school to school. The team caught each dealer one after the other, helped by the local police. At the middle of the day, only six schools were still to be checked. They talked another time with Hicks to be sure the mission was not in jeopardy and Luca drove them to the next stop. Two other dealers were there. Thirty minutes later, they were at the back of the police car. In the middle of the afternoon, all dealers had been caught and Hondo and Hicks were questioning the head of the traffic while Tan, Chris, Luca, Deac and Street took care of each of the dealer, one by one.
The day finally ended. They were exhausted when they walked back to the locker room to change. Hondo was missing. Still busy with Hicks and Lynch. Deac joined him hours earlier to help and they had not seen him since too.
"All I want is to go home and take a shower and sleep!" Tan announced.
"Think about your alarm clock this time."
"Ah ah ah ah very funny, Street! What have you planned, love birds?"
"Nothing special… Probably a movie and a good night sleep. Except if you have something to propose?"
Chris was surprised to hear Jim talk about their evening in the middle of the locker room. Actually it was fun to finally experience some normality. "And a pizza!"
Street jumped as he heard her, before grinning at her like the man in love he was. "Can be easily solved."
"Have a good night then! Run home and enjoy my single evening, Bonnie is with her grandparents at her parents for the whole night."
"Bye! What about you, Luca? You eat with us? We just have to wait for Hondo for some details and then we get home."
"Don't wait for me tonight. Nora and I train on Venice Beach for the next country cross. Bye kids, have fun." And he left the room.
"So this is just you and me. Not that I'm complaining."
"Me neither… Just need to tell Hondo…You know… About us…."
"And you could celebrate after…" She smiled beamingly, grabbing her back bag.
When Hondo finally entered the locker room, she signed deeply. It was time. She could see that Street was in the same state as she was. Both excited to finally tell the truth and anxious of the consequences. But they also knew it was time to be honest. They had been together for the last nine months and things had proven them, their story was more than just a crush or a sudden impulse. It was real. It was in the making. It was solid.
"Hey Hondo, can we talk?" Street asked shyly.
"Yes, yes. Sorry. It took a little longer with Hicks and Lynch. You know, bureaucracy is a pain in the ass. But I'm all yours now. What is this?"
He noticed Chris was in the background, paying real attention to their talking. She must have already known what it was about, these two said everything to each other anyway.
"I wanted to talk to you about something really important. But it doesn't only involve me, it involves Chris too, this is why she's staying here too." She came closer to the two men.
"Tell me more, I'm intrigued."
"So… It has started some months ago… Just after I came back at SWAT… Chris and I were talking and we fought about…"
He was forced to stop talking when Hicks irrupted all of a sudden in the locker room. "Alonso, glad you're still here. I need to talk to you. Urgently."
He talked in a hurry, she could feel a hint of anxiety in his voice. It didn't feel good. Like really bad. "Yeah, yeah, of course. " She felt numb, stunned.
"Hondo, come with us."
"Come with you too. " Street told quickly. He didn't like Hicks's behavior.
They all gathered in Hicks's office. Quite unusual. Which made Chris feel even more uncomfortable.
"Chris, so sorry to tell you this like this but Lynch and I just hung up with San Bernardino police. And something quite disturbing has come up."
She swallowed hard. She really didn't like the way the events turned. Lynch joined the improvised meeting, which was even worse.
"Chris, San Bernardino police carried out a raid in one of Karlsson's hideout. He was not here but he had left the house only a few hours earlier."
"So he's back in LA? This is why you wanted to talk to me? To put me on my guard?" She could feel the stress growing up inside her.
Hicks made a face, before explaining the situation. "They found an audio recording on the computer Karlsson left there, Chris… He's threatening you, Chris… He considered you as the responsible for the fall of his empire. And for Diego becoming a snitch…. He's coming after you soon…"
She swallowed hard, dealing with the news she had just heard. Karlsson was coming after her. She was the cause of his anger, of his hatred.
"We'll understand if you want to be discharged of this case."
"Thanks Detective Lynch but I stay. This man will not take my job away from me. I'm gonna bring him down." She raised her head as an act of proudness and determination. They all nodded to her.
This morning, they went to SWAT to tell the truth about them, about being in love. They waited for Hondo to be available. But instead, they ended the day with this new information about Karlsson. Not at all what they had planned. She was scared the nightmare started again. That Karlsson hurt or killed someone close to her, someone like Jim who was standing right next to him. So at this moment, she did the only thing that could help her to keep her mind clear and not to lose grip on the reality: she grabbed Jim's hand in hers and pressed it strongly. She didn't care what the others would say…