A New Dawn Ch. 02

"I love you. I'll be back," I said. I turned to Mary Beth and she was crying too, and still shaking. I went to her and held her and kissed her. "Hey," I said. "This is just cop stuff. This is what I do. I'm coming back to you. I love you."

Then I turned and walked out the door.

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Carlos Santos did business in a dingy warehouse near Burbank Airport. They made me strip to my underwear to make sure I had no weapons and wasn't wired, then they let me in.

"You've got some balls, I'll give you that," Carlos said. "Why are you here, cop?"

"Dawn," I said.

Carlos walked a circle around me as he talked. "What the fuck, 'dawn' what?" he said. "Something happening at dawn?" Both of his lieutenants, sitting in chairs on opposite sides of the room, laughed in order to signify that the boss had said something funny.

I said, "You killed my brother. I know what he was and I understand why you did it. He didn't tell the Feds anything and he never would have, but I understand why you did it. But Dawn... she hasn't seen anything and she hasn't heard anything and she hasn't done anything to you. Let it go."

Carlos laughed and said, "A good uncle. It's good to see that the importance of family has not been lost on your generation. I appreciate that. But also... I hate loose ends, you know?"

He stopped circling and stared at me. "Your brother. He screamed like a puta. You know this word, yes? And then he cried like a little girl." I stared back at him.

The lieutenant on my left laughed. "Yeah, man, he thought he had a chance of making it out of there alive right up until you took a sledge hammer to his knee. After that it was all downhill for him."

Carlos closed his eyes and clenched his fists. "All right vato, that's enough. Time to figure out how to best use our new friend here to get what we need." He opened his eyes and looked at me. "You know where she is and how to get around any security that you've given her, yes?"

"Fuck you," I said. When he hit me I saw stars and almost went down. As my vision cleared I saw him rubbing his hand. He was wearing brass knuckles. When had he put those on? I felt blood sliding down off the side of my head and onto my t-shirt.

"Fuck me? No, I think it is you who are fucked here, cop."

I felt a dreadful calm descend onto me. I knew everything I needed to know. These were the men who killed my brother, and these were also men who would never stop trying to kill Dawn.

I reached up to hold my head and lowered myself, bending at the knees, as though I were fighting to stay upright. The lieutenants laughed and Carlos came in closer, probably to deliver another blow. He had no chance. I summoned all the strength I had and kicked Carlos in the throat, shattering his larynx. He went down like a sack of flour, clutching his neck.

I put him out of the equation and focused on the lieutenants, wondering which would draw first. The guy on my left made a move for his shoulder holster and I was on him, intending to use him as a bullet absorbing shield. As I watched, the other guy pulled out a knife. That changed things. I broke my guy's neck and wiggled his head around to make sure, then grabbed his coat and wrapped it around my left hand and squared off with the other guy.

I hate knives. Absolutely hate them. But I also understand them and how to use them. This guy was good with a knife. He didn't flip it between hands or sweep it back and forth sideways like on TV. He held it poised, ready for defense and ready for a perfect offensive opening. I knew that stance.

"Rangers," I said.

"Delta, actually," he said. "Rangers are pussies. Wanna prove it?"

He moved on me and just as I realized that the coat on my hand was actually a liability, slowing my arm and throwing off my weight distribution, he struck. I reacted. We moved away from each other. I had a brand new eighth inch deep gash running across my abdomen. I tossed the coat aside.

"Told you, Bro," he said. "Ain't no Ranger can take me," and he moved on me again.

"I'm not just a Ranger," I said. He lunged and I sidestepped it and hit him in the head. He whirled around and swung the knife towards my throat and I fell under it and captured his arm and bent it and the knife went into his chest. He sank to the ground and stared at me.

"Fuck you, Ranger," he said, spitting up blood.

"Not just a Ranger," I said. "Little extra training on the side." I twisted the knife until I was sure it had sliced into his heart, wiped the handle clean, and I left him to bleed out. I walked over to Carlos, who was beginning to turn purple. He stared up at me.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" I said. "Not being able to breathe. It's amazing the little things we take for granted."

I sat with him until he stopped struggling and his eyes glazed over. I felt for a pulse and there was none.

I looked at my wound. Seeping blood; not too bad. The black shirt should hide it well enough.

I put on my clothes and went home.

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My head hurt and my vision was a little fuzzy. I considered pulling over and resting, but I needed to make it home to be with my women.

As I drove I thought about how I should be feeling a catharsis of some sort. I had just killed the men who murdered my brother and who were after my lover. I was no stranger to killing and they deserved to die so I felt no remorse.

The problem was that all my prior killing had been for my country, and justified by that. This was murder, plain and simple. More than that, I was a cop, a detective. It was my job to prevent murder if I could and to track down and punish those who committed it. It was a conflict I wasn't sure I could resolve.

I pulled onto my street, hit the button for the garage door, and parked the car. By the time I got out of the car, Dawn, Mary Beth, Jen, and Buddy were out of the house to greet me. Dawn got to me first and hugged me so tightly that I couldn't breathe.

Standing up had been a mistake. My vision blurred and I fought to stay upright. Dawn backed away and said, "Johnny?"

Then Mary Beth screamed and the last thing I saw before everything went black was Dawn's white blouse, covered in my blood.

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"... no hospital, no doctors," Jen was saying as I came awake. "I don't know how badly Johnny hurt them, or how hard the department will look for who did it, but Johnny is already a natural suspect and the one thing we can't do is hand him up on a silver platter."

I heard both of my girls sobbing so I opened my eyes and opened my arms out to them and they rushed to me and laid down on either side of me and kissed me and held me gently.

"Water," I croaked, and Jen went off to get some. I looked down at my wound. It had been taped up nicely. I recognized the technique. "Thanks, Buddy," I said.

"No problemo, Bro," he said. "It's not bad at all. You've had a lot worse. It'll heal up without stitches. Just keep the sex gentle for a while, no rough stuff, and you'll be fine. And Jen is right, ladies, this dude needs to keep as low a profile as he can for as long as he can."

Jen came back and I sat up and took the water and smiled my thanks.

"How long was I out, Jen?" I said.

"Couple of hours. What the fuck hit your head, Johnny?"

I finished gulping down the water. "Brass knuckles," I said. "Sucker punch."

Meyer walked through the bedroom door. "Your garage door was open," he said. "Security sucks around here." He looked me over. "You've looked better, Johnny."

"Felt better, too," I said.

"Tell me everything," Meyer said.

So I did.

Meyer was thoughtfully silent for several minutes, then said, "Is there anything in that warehouse that could incriminate you?"

"Not that I know of," I said. "There was nobody else there. I left nothing there, including no prints. Maybe a little blood."

Meyer said, "There are two ways to go with this, Johnny. One way is to march into Division and tell all. It was self defense, at least at the beginning. There's no doubt in my mind that they would have tortured you to get everything they could to get at Dawn and then killed you.

"The other way is to lay low and play the innocent citizen."

Meyer paused.

"I recommend door number 2," he said. "I don't think there's a detective or a beat cop or even a commander who would go after you for this. But there's no telling what I.A. might do."

I.A. is Internal Affairs. The cops who police the cops. We hate them with a passion and they hate us right back. Meyer was right; I could see I.A. biting into this like a dog with a bone and never letting go.

Meyer gently examined the side of my head. "You got a concussion?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the wound is just a scratch, luckily. Scalps bleed like a son of a bitch but once you wash off this blood your hair will cover it. Just keep your shirt on and you'll look normal. Well, as normal as you ever look."

"Thanks, Meyer. For everything."

"Bah," he said. "I'll be damned if I'm going to break in a new partner again at my age." He looked at Jen and Buddy. "You kids okay with this?"

Jen said, "More than okay. He was here with us the whole day."

Meyer looked at Buddy. Buddy said, "Are you kidding, man? I wanted to be at the warehouse with him."

Meyer nodded and walked towards the door. He paused.

"By the way, Johnny, they had a video surveillance system running at the warehouse. I was the first detective on the scene so I found it. Unfortunately, when they got the tape to the station house and played it, it was blank."

He looked at my girls. "Are you ladies interested in action flicks? I've got this new one of some little Asian dude in his skivvies, kicking serious ass."

He turned and walked away.

"I think he likes you, Johnny," Mary Beth said.

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Jen did come over for dinner but as it turned out, she had decided to make a run at Buddy Magellas instead of me. They clicked big time and quickly wound up married, and the five of us all became fast friends. As she told me later, she figured it was only fair since I already had two smoking hot women and Buddy had nobody. And, she'd said, there was just something about him.

"Yes, there is," I'd said. "He's a lucky son of a bitch." I'd hugged her and whispered in her ear my prayer that they'd always be happy together.

The 'living with the girlfriend and providing a place to stay for the niece' thing worked like a charm for us. Instead of losing my job, I made the promotion list and then Detective II. I told Meyer that I was gunning for his job now. He said if I was stupid enough to want it, I could have it.

It's been a year now since my brother was killed. Dawn and Mary Beth and I started off a little wild, often playing the game of seducing one or more women into our beds. But over time, without discussing it, we did that less and less often. Our infatuation turned into a deep love for one another and we became more comfortable and happier just sharing sex with each other.

Dawn inherited an obscene amount of money from her father. She wasn't sure what to do with it because it came from drugs – not directly, but from managing and laundering the money that came from drugs. She asked my advice. I checked into it and when I was done I told her to keep it or give it all away, her choice. The IRS wasn't interested because apparently my brother had paid taxes on it. The cartel wasn't interested because every week they spilled more money than she had inherited.

Dawn decided to keep the money. In a show of faith and love that still amazes me, she split the money and gave a third each to me and Mary Beth. She said she did it because she didn't want to be the "sugar momma" in the marriage. That's when Mary Beth and I found out just how much money there was. All three of us were set for life if we chose to live off of it. The girls tried to get me to quit the LAPD.

"Being a detective isn't just what I do," I'd told them. "It's what I am." And they'd accepted that.

I've only really done two things with my money so far. First, Mary Beth and I sold our neighboring duplex homes and the three of us paid cash for a home in Malibu. It was sad saying goodbye to the place that had brought Mary Beth and I together, but the new home was much nicer and a better size for the three of us. And we all love the beach.

The other thing I did was buy a brand new Cadillac for Meyer and a new Corvette for Buddy and Jen.

Dawn got accepted at UCLA and she's working on her general ed courses, major as yet undeclared.

My lesbian girlfriend wants a baby.

Me? I detect by day and at night I come home and cook for my girls and do whatever I can to show them both my love, and I have more sex, more often than I ever would have thought possible. Far from calming down, our physical craving for each other is still growing.

I'm more than just a lucky bastard. I'm blessed.