Not So Safe
"I thought that you were supposed to stay on the phone with the dispatcher once you call."
"Yes but there are things that I wanted to talk about before Officers get here."
Turning her attention away from Nick and toward Kylie, her eyes hardened "You said something about the others, who are the others?"
Kylie frowned and looked to Nick "Why is she here?"
"Don't try to change the subject. I don't even get why you would come to me in the in the first place. Did you really think that I would help you?"
"...No I didn't, but we're low on friends and I still needed to try."
"And look at where that got you."
"If the world is only going to see a Fox as shifty and untrustworthy, then there's no point in trying to be anything else." The words he told Judy in the gondola resurfaced to the forefront of her mind. Did he still see trying as a bad thing? No he can't, he was currently trying to better himself. For Serendipity's sake, he was planning on attending the ZPA. Except.. he doesn't believe that he would be accepted. He-
'No, I can't think like that. He is trying! It's just new to him, he'll get the hang of it.'
"I know you already got out of the cuffs, so I suggest you put your paws where we can see them. Slowly."
She shouldn't have been surprised to see the Opossum place his paws on the floor in front of him, the pawcuffs hanging off of only one of his wrists.
'I guess this is where he learned how to get out of cuffs.'
"Now answer her question."
"*sigh* Kris is with Owen, Clive, Mary,-" the sharp inhale from the todd grabbed Judy's attention "-and Mandy."
*Grrk!*
The sudden choking and coughing startled Judy but Kylie seemed to expect it.
"Who's Mandy?" She wasn't listed as an associate of Gorge and his crew but the strong reaction left no doubt that she was involved somehow.
"She's Nick's girlfriend." That tidbit was enough for Judy to momentarily freeze up and panic.
"SHE IS NOT!" The growl was savage but was ineffective, the constricted pupils were either unnoticed or ignored.
"You two had enough time to cool down and now it's time for you two to make up. When she learned that I was coming here to see you she was so excited, you shoulda seen her."
"So that gives her a pass?!"
Okay, that calmed Judy down somewhat. But hearing that his Ex wanted to rekindle their relationship didn't sit well with her. She didn't notice that she was grinding her teeth together.
"Why does the Bunny look like she's going to murder me?"
"When you talk about hooking a female's Mate up with someone else, that tends to happen."
"Mate? Oh Nick."
"Don't you 'oh Nick' me!"
"She's going to be devastated."
"She. Left. Me! I was devastated, I was depressed, none of you get to do this to me! I was not in the wrong and I'm still not! I have the right to be happy!"
Despite the spat they just had, Nick still said she made him happy. Outwardly, she didn't change. Internally, she is gushing rainbows and sprinkles. The canids sensitive nose flared for the briefest of moments, catching the spike in the aroma of Judy's attraction when he said what he did.
Turning toward her Mate, she asked "You know where the safe house is, right?"
He nodded his confirmation "I believe so."
Judy once again addressed the detainee "Here's what's going to happen. Either one: you help the ZPD with our investigation into Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. Depending on how helpful you are could influence the court to give you some leniency on your past crimes. Or two: you don't help us, you go to prison, and we still go to the safe house to find out if the others are in a more cooperative mood. So what's it going to be?"
Having the marsupial around longer than necessary leaves him more agitated than he is comfortable admitting but if it's unavoidable then it's best if they can get something out of it.
Despite it being the inappropriate situation that it is, Nick found himself extremely attracted to and drawn in by her assertiveness and moxie. The season exerting it's influence over the todd was not appreciated at that moment but it wasn't exactly unwelcome.
But now is not the time.
Kylie watched as Nick fixed his posture. He was sad to see how Nick looked the Bunny in front of him. He could tell that Nick adored her, and that dashed his hopes of bringing Nick and Mandy back together. When Mandy found out that Nick might be showing up, she had immediately began to clean herself up. Bathing, brushing, dressing up, and putting on make up, she had a little bounce in her step, and although it was obvious that she was nervous she had hope for their reunion. Now she was in for a big disappointment and worse yet, Nick is going to show up with his Mate.
"I don't really have a choice now do I?"
The question was meant to be rhetorical but Nick answered it anyway "You do have a choice, you can either do what I say or you can refuse and then we can wipe our paws clean from everything that has to do you and your group. Between you and me, I honestly hope that you refuse."
The following moments of silence were tense for Kylie. He saw that Nick genuinely loathed them. Nick just watched for any sleight of paw that Kyle might try to pull, and that little stunt of his earlier just served to remind Nick and Judy to be vigilant while watching over him. The sound of heavy pawsteps and the jingling of metal echoed through the hallway, alerting the occupants of the approaching mammals.
"I hope you think about it."
Judy handed him off to the Officers with a warning to watch him closely. And once their paws were free, it was time to head to the safe house.
"So where is the safe house?"
"It's in Happytown. It actually used to be our home before we were able to move someplace better."
"Where's Happytown?"
"It's the neighborhood near Precinct Nine."
Precinct Nine... in the academy it has the reputation of where cops go when they piss the wrong mammal off. And the ones who did the worst in class and barely managed to pass.
"I've never been but I heard stories."
"I would say don't go."
"What can you tell me?"
"It's run by three major crews, one for guns, one for drugs, and one for females. Their colors are red, black, and purple. The gun runners follow a Porcupine named Jackson, and they are the easiest to deal with, they don't care what others do if you don't look at them. The dealers seem friendly but they'll be quick to stick a knife in you, their boss is a Mink named Carter. The pimps are led by a Hare named Pete and they're by far the worst, if you were by yourself then they would try to snatch you."
The further they go, the more rundown the area gets. It starts off with the road getting more worn and cracked, then the graffiti starts to take over wall space, more fences and even some barbed wire. Even the resident species start to change, whereas before there was a healthy mix of different species now shifts into a higher concentration of predators with a few exceptions. Most of whom were smaller sizes with a few medium here and there.
Foxes, Coyotes, Weasels, Raccoons, Bobcats, Hyenas, Bears, Skunks, other small predators, and Rabbits surprisingly enough.
"How are they getting away with all of that?"
The amount of homeless are starting to skyrocket, their tents line the sidewalks and crowds underneath the bridges. Some don't even have that, some just sleep on the bench or on a dirty and torn mattress if they were lucky.
"Because the precinct is a joke, and they have ties to the gangs in other parts of the city and even some outside in different parts of the country."
The residential area was no different. The houses had bars over the windows and the yards of dead or dying grass and dirt were surrounded by chainlink. The only park Judy saw had a swing set that had no swings and the grass hasn't been cut in who knows how long.
This has been the easiest time that she's ever had trying to read him, she could almost see the memories play. His eyes lingers at the park for awhile, they flick momentarily to some houses, they sadden when they see an empty building, he sneered at a certain house.
The car eventually stopped in front of a home no different than the others.
"This is the place."
Judy uses her phone to call the station and asked Ben to send some backup to the address. Nick doesn't wait before he gets moving. Before he gets out of the car, he reaches over toward the glove compartment and grabs a small case.
"Nick!" She whisper/yells "wait for backup!"
He ignores her and keeps going. Judy follows close behind him, holding the phone close to her, remembering to put it on silent.
"I can't wait backup to get here Ben, I'm entering the premises." She whispered into the phone.
She watched as he deftly opened the case and got to work unlocking the front door with what revealed to be a lock pick set, it was opened in seconds. She watched as he didn't immediately open the door, instead opening it less than in inch and he ran his fingers along the top before stopping near the corner and fiddling with something. When he was done he opened the door slowly before opening it and looked around.
Once he was satisfied, he walked in normally.
She walked through the door looking up so that she could see what he did. The only thing there was a screw eye. Immediately her head snapped to the opposite corner and her eyes widened when she saw a shotgun pointed at her, below it there is a pulley system that connected to the trigger.
"The front door is trapped, unclear if there are more." She kept her eyes open for anything that might be noteworthy for anyone that is sent over to help.
"Nick!" The voice of an unknown female squealed from the direction that she'd seen Nick go.
An ugly possessive urge flooded her head. She foregone any training that was drilled into her and she headed straight toward the origin.
Judy found herself standing in the living room looking at a Skunk who was trying to hug Nick, Owen Skip was climbing out of a trap door and she heard others still in the unknown below.
"Get off!" Nick tried to push the doe away.
After Owen, another older Skunk doe climbs out followed by a Warthog boar, Lion, Hyena bitch, and another Hyena but he was very different than most. What was different about him was that he had a Lion's mane.
End Note
I'm writing multiple chapters at the same time since the next few will no longer in chronological order for the time being. That's why it's taking a bit longer than normal to post but the good news is that the next chapter is going to be posted really soon to make up for that.
