A Life Not My Own Ch. 02

"What is the limit?" Echo asks hesitantly.

"$500,000", I answer. "Remember, I just landed the Harrow account so that put $22million into my checking. If Captain Tay asks you what your war chest is, you now have your number."

"You are going to use his money to fight him," Echo starts to smile for the first time in a while.

"Did you seriously think I was going to rely on your anemic budget to make this work?" I smile weakly. "International monsters like Harrow and Yen aren't going to go down by regular means or one overwhelmed municipality's government. We need to fight them internationally; which means we need to travel and look the part. We may need a Gulfstream of our own and that could mean bringing in a third agent."

"Damn," Lydia sighs, "Dominic, I'm not really assigned to this case."

"So Echo is guarding my back 24/7/52?" I point out. "That doesn't work. If I don't provide for my security, Michael Harrow will. I couldn't take that – I need to sleep in a bed that isn't going to sprout blood stains in my sleep. Tell Tay that we need you and tell FBI girl she can come along too."

"Why do you want to work with Special Agent Saberhagen?" Echo looks at me suspiciously.

"She has an Air Force Academy ring on and her shirt under her jacket says 'Air Force Academy' and that's what she casually wears around the house – her empty house," I relate. "She rubs the place where a wedding band used to be when she's stressing, so someone left her."

"Are you sure you don't profile for a living?" Lydia muses.

"My powers of perception are limited by my experiences," I grin despite the pain to my jaw, "and today you both skunked me when we had lunch. You know so much more about human interaction than I do and your instincts are trained to classify levels of threat that are truly impressive."

"That's the nicest thing you've ever said about the police since I've known you," Echo chastises me.

"No, the nicest thing I've ever done is show up, Echo," I answer. "I trusted you two and then I decided to trust your Captain because I trust you. That doesn't happen often."

"He's got you there," Lydia smirks. "Here we were thinking he'd bolt when he got the bad news on Harrow and he ends up having more Intel than we do; including his real name and blood sample (from my hair) which we need to run by the Captain."

"I'll do it," Echo looked at her card as if she expected it to explode and tear her hand off. "I'll get some stuff too, water the plants and be back." She looked at her new car keys, shook her head and left." The door shut and she started grinning.

"Oh...back undercover," she smiles. "Ever since the birth of my daughter I've missed it. It took all of Echo's juice to get me on the task force but that isn't really 'in the trenches' kind of work I joined the LAPD for."

"Husband, son, daughter," I guess to her. "I need a shower," I attempt and fail to have a pain-free deep breath. "You are going to have to do some washing, if it doesn't make you uncomfortable."

"After the mugging at the door this morning Dom," Lydia laughs, "I know what you've got and the Polish Sausage company wants their flagship salami back."

"Thank goodness," I snort playfully and find an action I can make that doesn't hurt. "I thought you were going to say 'Children-sized Chicken franks' or something like that."

"Well, you need to pump Echo a few hundred times to set her straight," Lydia hesitates. "Between her fiancé and her family, she's had lousy male experiences to date – except for you."

"By the way," Lydia studies me, "she didn't play 'Bad Cop' with you, did she?"

"Yes – a baggy of baking powder she tricked me into touching then she had me drive back here but lost her nerve," I confide in Echo's partner and friend. "I knew when I told Echo that this was the way I first hooked up with my husband; she would emulate it – poorly. Sorry about that."

"Oh, when she began pulling up all that stuff on you and Stephanie, I was worried she had gone all 'stalker' on you," Lydia relates her worries. "Then she shows up with cuff marks on her wrists and a sort of wistful smile; I thought something nice had finally happened to her. So – what did you two do," Lydia prods.

"You will have to ask her," I evade. It is the right thing to do. Lydia knows me but Echo is her friend; maybe her best friend. Lydia's phone rings and she makes a motion for me to be quiet. I quickly figure out that it is her husband. Thirty seconds later, I can tell that Lydia's tone is getting bitter then accusatory and finally furious; there is something about a 'brother-in-law' and the city of Barstow and my conjecture is divorce and custody battle in the offing and Lydia's been blindsided.

I have to finish cleaning up and drying off before I frailly pull a towel around my waste and wait for her to accept my hug. She finally hangs up when the bastard on the other end won't let her talk to her children then storms into my arms.

"Towel," I whisper, "You need to hold up my towel or this will move way past awkward."

Lydia sobs and giggles which is a really odd sound but she keeps my towel up. She doesn't unload on me and that's fine because she hardly knows me. Flirting is fine in her book but trust is something else. The intercom goes off but it isn't Echo, it is Snow White. Lydia gives Echo a quick call to update her.

"Hello, Mr. Umstead," she speaks in an even tone, "I brought a peace offering from Mr. Harrow. He wants you to know there are no hard feelings over the stunt you played." Yes, right – it was my entire fault but he is big enough a man to forgive me for having a common sense and a spine.

Lydia secures my towel snuggly then draws her service weapon and holds it behind her back. I walk up to the door but before I open it, I ask one thing.

"How did you feel about the risk you took answering the question?" I inquire.

"I was confident," she replies. "The clue was so obvious I knew I was right." I open the door and Blondie looks at me for permission to come in. I nod and she strides over to the kitchen counter to put down a food basket.

"He didn't figure it out," I give her a lop-sided grin.

"You enraged him – the gambit was well played," she grins really for the first time and the muscles on her face show it. Someone taught this girl to be happily unhappy. "So is your friend going to shoot me with that gun, or what?"

"Or she is waiting for back-up," Echo comes through the door Snow left open.

"My name is Eloise," she addresses the room.

"Come in and take a load off. I think some introductions are in order," I say then wince. Breathing still hurts. Echo is torn; she wants to keep Eloise surrounded but I'm clearly in pain.

"My girlfriend, Echo, you have already met; her friend and mine is Lydia, Echo's half-sister, and on the rare occasion, bed buddy," I make the introductions. "This is, hopefully for all time, Eloise, who saved my life today." This takes my two cop buddies off-guard.

"That's okay, you saved my life first," Eloise nods then sits. "You went through a great deal of pain and anger for your friends," she adds, looking my way.

"What did our buddy do?" Lydia sees in a far more dangerous voice than I am used to hearing from her.

"He made me leave a room when discussions turned to more 'privileged' nature; knowledge I was not allowed to be privy to," she gives a tip of the 'hat' to me.

"Also... (long pause)...he was fucking hilarious before he and Mr. Harrow dueled in the parking garage," she now tries smiling again. It is not as agonizing to watch this time around. "Did you really grow up poor?" she ambushes me.

"Dad was a drunk and then a dead drunk pretty early in my life. Mom was borderline mentally handicapped so all she could do were the easiest manual choirs. I had problems in Kindergarten and then in the first grade a fourth grade teacher caught me reading his text books," I think back. "He figured out my problem right away. On his own dime, he took me to the closest college with a Psychology department; they tested me and I blew them off the charts. He and one of the professors shopped around for a private boarding school to take me in. They gave me some choices and that was that – I am the man you see before you today."

"Was it easy?" she questions.

"Hardly; my intellect was as much a curse as a blessing because it made kids hate me," I mutter. "I was small and weak with no money whatsoever save the small allowance the school gave me. I had no social standing in or out of the school so my word was worthless and I took the blame for anything tossed my way; the so called 'Honor Code' was simply another hammer to be used against me."

"My first year there were four scholarship cases; the rich snobs broke down two of them and they went home. The third actually stole and broke the Honor Code so he got what was coming. He stole $2.50 to call home and talk to his sister so he was expelled forever. Two weeks later the kid of a State Senator stole a $300 guitar and was forced to recite the school song for one whole lunch period ~ 45 minutes.

45 minutes of minor humiliation compared to expulsion to East St. Louis. That seemed fair,"

"Fuck," mutters Lydia. She's starting to understand me and how much of what I said about me not being invested in this fight is true.

"How did you strike back?" Eloise leans forward from her seat.

"I didn't Eloise; I got out," I correct her. "I got out – I went to Stanford and earned three bachelors and one Master's degree in seven years. I graduated two years ago and I've made a total in stock, salary and other benefits in excess of $5million. I don't give a crap about them because if I hated them I'd still be that hurt little kid crying in his bed. They had their chance to ruin my life and they failed. Now they have ceased to matter to me."

"Why did you help me then; when you weren't making me look stupid in front of Mr. Harrow, that is?" Eloise is trying to figure out.

"Mr. Harrow means nothing to me in any positive way; if I have a choice I wouldn't deal with him at all. He is a bully and disrespectful of who I am and what I do. He has nothing that interests me," I point out.

"He gives me no incentive to hang out with him or work for him; he has nothing I need or want and to pre-empt the next argument, there is nothing left in this world that would make me bow down to that man's wishes," I insist. "No possession and no person. I'm not built that way."

"We all know our relationship with Dominic will end someday," Echo shrugs. "So be it."

"If that jackass that Echo and Dom met last night ends this sooner than later, there will be repercussions," Lydia tries, and in my estimations succeeds, to sound 'street'.

"Their bullets fly in the same trajectory as everyone else's," I get ahead of Eloise's snobbery. She was floored by Echo after all.

"Dominic, why do you hang around with women from the lower strata of life?" Eloise still gets around to the pimp-slap. Echo takes two steps forward and Lydia's gun is now in plain sight. The intercom buzzes.

"Dominic, I just heard you were hurt," Stephanie sounds truly concerned. "Can I come in?"

I judge my place too small for anything more than an intimate gathering with a few close friends and I've never had one of those.

"Would you please," I ask Echo.

"One cheating whore coming up," Echo gives her snarky response. She opens the door and Stephanie's look flashes from concern, to confusion, to anger and when she finally looks past my bevy of beauties, concern over me once more.

"Who are all these women?" Stephanie inquires of me as she works her way through the living room/entry area.

"The woman next to you is Aisha Bashir, but she goes by her nickname Echo. The woman closest to me is her half-sister Lydia Bashir, or it will be when her divorce is finalized, and the woman on the sofa is Eloise Harrow, who you should also recognize from last night. Pierce and Pierce are still in negotiations with the Harrow Group," I finish up.

Stephanie welcomes them but Eloise makes her social and business naiveté clear.

"Actually, Dominic you have accepted the Harrow's Group contract," Eloise corrects.

"And you don't talk about that until the deal is finalized with people outside the perspective business," I take Eloise to school. She might as well have tattooed 'Hi, I'm a leg-breaker' to her forehead.

"You threw the man down some stairs last night," Stephanie stammers to me.

"Yes he did," Echo jumps in, "and while some of – you – were mocking him, some of the people he is having a relationship with came to his defense."

"It is the matter of 'our' relationship that brought me here tonight," Stephanie growls at Echo.

I am wondering how bad Stephanie's eyesight is because Echo has all the advantages in this showdown.

"Oh, suddenly he makes $22million and you're interested," Eloise grumbles then Lydia starts chuckling. This is not even Eloise's fight so where is this coming from?

"Huh – what - $22million...Dominic," Stephanie turns on me and nearly shouts, "you were lead on the Harrow account and you didn't tell me?"

"Because it was business Steph and I don't discuss confidential business outside the workplace," I remind her. "By the way, why are you here if it wasn't because I beat Mr. Harrow black and blue until he cried like a little tranny whore begging for a tip?"

"What?" Stephanie and Eloise exclaim.

"You are good Eloise, you almost looked human there for a second," Echo snarls. "Get your food basket and leave."

"Wait – what – what is going on here?" Stephanie begins to babble.

"It isn't what you think," Eloise stands and waves her hands defensively toward Echo and myself.

"Eloise, I am not angry but with you the job is 24/7 and combined with the business ethics of the Ebola virus," I shrug, which hurts. "I don't doubt you had your sincere moments but as a whole you are too fucked up to ever be trusted again.

Go back to him, congratulate him on the plan, admit your failure and he will give you what he thinks you deserve. Good-bye." I hold up my hand for silence before pointing to the food basket, then Lydia and finally to the food chute. She nods and does as I directed. I then point to Eloise.

"Dominic," Eloise pleads, "you don't understand." She takes a half-step toward me and Echo and Lydia take half-steps toward her.

"Hold on everybody," I raise one pained hand. "Stephanie who told you what happened to me?"

"Nancy Rydal in Billing," Stephanie informs me. I called Nancy and, surprise – surprise; she hadn't been into work on a Saturday.

"Stephanie, I was in a fight with Mr. Harrow today – he kicked my ass – an now he was checking up on the people in my life to see if I had talked about my work with anyone close as well as trying to determine which people I was emotionally attached to. He sent Eloise here to spy on me. I saved her life at the meeting and she pulled Mr. Harrow off of me once I was essentially helpless," I relate.

"Please let me explain," Eloise tries again.

"No." I am adamant. "I don't care if he really is your father; he is holding your mother, baby sister, baby or best friend hostage. That's not my problem. You are dying of a disease and he has the only cure; not my problem. I gave you an out and you chose to stay with him and do his will."

"An out?!" she screams, "What out did you give me?"

"I may be small and pathetic, but I fought him," I weave my deception; I need Eloise distracted for a few more seconds. "Sure I lost, but I think you know there are worse things than death he can put you through. You are so clearly dead no matter what you do; it is almost as if he has a stable of young ladies out there just like you. In fact, that makes sense but for reasons I don't need to get into now."

"You lost and he would have killed you if I hadn't held him back," Eloise insists.

"That is what he wanted to look like; I was supposed to see you save me and he wanted to see how far you would go to save me. It was a win-win for you," I grind out through the pain. I barely track the food going the apartment's organic waste chute but that is what I've been waiting for.

"Stephanie, did Ms. Rydal call you, or did you call her?" I inquire. I have to sit down and thankfully Echo comes over and supports me. Stephanie comes in and shuts the door which leaves her uncomfortably, for me, close to Eloise. Eloise is half way to the door when she stops, her fists curled in frustration.

"She called me," Stephanie relates with some confusion.

"Take a deep breath," I tell Eloise. "You have about a minute before your tracking gets wonky."

"Wha-what?" Eloise turns on me.

"Your boss is a paranoid egomaniac, so we can assume you are not bugged – he doesn't want to bug himself, but his peace offering was," I inform her. "I only wanted you to know I'm not giving up on you but if he knows that he'll use you against me. It isn't pity; it is your ability to see through the bullshit and keep thinking clear when others don't."

"Oh," she blinks in surprise, "you were leading me on – because Michael was listening in?"

"I doubt Michael is listening in, but someone you know he is close to will check up on it at some time," I correct her. "Him giving anyone an ounce of sympathy to anyone is laughable." Eloise nods her head. "Take off and we'll talk later."

"How?" Eloise looks at me.

"How do you feel about girls?" I smile, which reminds me how much my lip and cheek hurt – which is a lot.

"Oh," she makes that little 'o' with her lips, cans the three other women and smiles. "I'm okay with that," she finishes up before turning and leaving.

"I won't sleep with that woman," Stephanie announces. Lydia raises a hand and checks out where Eloise was sitting then makes sure the door is shut and locked before giving me a 'thumbs up'.

"You'll do it Stephanie if you don't want to end up dead in some criminal haunted alleyway, victim of an unintentional drug overdose," Echo explains to my former girlfriend.

"I don't do drugs you gutter-trash," Stephanie struggles back. Echo hits her then returns with the back-hand, both a great deal softer than anything I received so far today.

"Listen carefully," Echo squeezes Stephanie's face into a fish-shape. "Dominic is trying to keep your skanky ass alive. Before you go whining about this being his entire fault, this is your rich buddy Harrow's fault and Dominic's just trying to keep us alive."

"Steph, this isn't about him doing something stupid like going to the cops and you end up dead," Lydia jumps in. "This is something bad happens to you if his weekly numbers are bad. I take you back to how happy you were a moment ago when you heard he had the Harrow account – now how do you feel about the fact he has been forced – I say 'forced' – to work with such fine people?"

"They are drug dealers?" Stephanie whispers.

"Don't know and don't care because my sister and I are in the same boat," Echo says. "Dominic was a fun time after someone ripped out his heart. Now we are stuck with him too. You will get an obituary; my sister and I won't even get a police report," Lydia sits on the arm of my chair.

"That's because you are little people," Stephanie rubs her cheeks and glares at Echo. "I...ripped your heart out?" Stephanie suddenly rediscovers her compassion for me. "But why did you have to turn to these whores? You could have come over and begged me to take you back."

"That's it," Echo growls to Lydia. "Get a drop cloth. I'm popping a cap in her ass and feeding her down the garbage disposal!" Lydia jumps up and rushes Stephanie out the door, not giving into laughter until Stephanie is truly gone.

"Pop a cap in her ass?" Lydia chuckles to Echo, who grins evilly.

"With a personality like that, I have to guess she's home several nights a week watching bad TV cops shows," Echo shrugs. It hurts too much for me to laugh but I am amused.