Kia waited in her car with her hands on the wheel and her heart in her throat. The entire precinct went dark, and her heart leaped into her mouth, threatening to burst out even as it raced like a doped-up horse.
Kia was alone in the parking lot, and in a few minutes, a criminal was going to join her in the darkness. There was nothing stopping him from attacking her rather than getting into the opened booth as instructed.
Rather than get into the booth, he could just as easily blast open her window with his elbow, drag her out like a rag doll, and proceed to pound her face into a soft pulp before hopping into her car and escaping.
Her mind was racing through many terrible scenarios as she waited patiently in her car, her service pistol giving her little comfort. And then suddenly, she heard footsteps echoing through the parking lot, followed by a loud thud of something heavy dropping into her trunk. As soon as she heard the trunk slam shut, she started her car and drove off. There was simply no time to waste, or at the very least, she needed to convince Vajesh that there wasn't.
Twenty minutes later, Kia stopped at a safe house on the outskirts of Bane city. This far from the city Centre, she was exposed and vulnerable. No backup could make it to her in time. But this was the only way her operation could work, the only way to make Vajesh feel comfortable enough to believe she was dirty.
She stood a few feet away from her trunk with her gun aimed and ready before opening the trunk with a button on her car key. Vajesh pushed the lid open and saw her aiming her gun at him.
"Don't try anything stupid."
"Stupid? You just saved my freaking life. Put that down," he said jovially as he stepped out of the booth.
Back in the station, Vajesh was seated, and Kia didn't have an idea of how tall he was. But now, as he stood before her on his two feet, she realized that he was quite tall, almost six feet. He was also more muscular than she initially believed. Despite being armed with a Glock 19, Kia still felt incredibly weak and vulnerable standing in front of him.
"We need to get off the street," he said, looking around frantically. "We don't want any of your colleagues seeing us here."
Kia glanced behind her shoulder and then started walking towards the apartment building with Vajesh in tow. She walked up two flights of stairs before coming to a halt in front of apartment 47. With a key given to her by Jean, she opened the apartment and stepped in, then waited for Vajesh to enter before locking the door.
"Nice place you got here," Vajesh said as he waltzed into the living room and took a seat on the couch. He raised his legs and set his boots on the table with a loud thud.
"It's not my place," Kia said curtly. She pulled out a burner phone and threw it to him. "Call your boss. Now."
"Now pretty thing, that's now how it works."
"That's the deal."
"Tell you what, why don't you come over here and we can talk? There are many opportunities for you in our organization especially with a face like that and your position as a cop. You don't need to talk to the big man. I am all you need."
"We had a deal, Vajesh. Stop screwing around and call Baglor now."
"Nope. Not gonna happen."
Kia was taken aback. She expected treachery at one point or the other, but she didn't expect him to be this confident and casual in his turn-coating.
"We had a…"
"Bitch, quit saying that. We had a deal. You let me out, I get you in. You are in. Congratulations. But I am not going to get you in with the boss. Not gonna happen. Think about it. How do you imagine such a scenario playing out. Hey boss, sorry to disturb your big plans and such, but this tiny little thing here saved me from serving real time. So I brought her to you. Does that sound right to you?"
"Yes."
"Then you are one dumb and naïve little girl. Why are you so particular about Baglor anyway?"
Kia paused but didn't pause long enough to make Vajesh suspicious.
"Because I want to deal with the top brass not middle management. Working for you means being a mere bottom feeder cleaning up messes. I am not going to risk my career simply to become your errand girl. I want in and I want in at the very top. That's the deal and I would not accept anything less."
"Well, ain't you the ambitious little slut," Vajesh said, rising to his feet and walking towards her.
"Stay back," she ordered, putting her hand on the butt of her gun.
"Oh relax. I just need your car keys."
"What?" Kia asked. He took another step forward, and she pulled her gun. "Step back, now."
"What are you going to do? Shoot me?"
"If I have to?"
"Drop that thing, girl. You shoot me here and you would be cleaning blood all night. Or worse still, getting rid of a body. Your other option is to allow your colleagues find my body. Then you would have to explain how I got here in the first place. Either way you cut it, it isn't wise for you to fire your weapon. So just give me the key and I would leave. If I need your help with anything, I would get in touch with you. We, the bagaratti's are very grateful and know how to show appreciation to our allies."
"I also heard that you guys kept your word. We had a deal, Vajesh. Fucking keep it."
"All that honour shit is only for Baglor and his boys. As for me, I'm just a criminal trying to survive. And right now, surviving means getting your car and driving off to the sunset. You will get it back, I promise. But I can't stay here."
"No. Walk back to the chair, take a seat and call your boss. I don't mind cleaning your blood off the floor. Trust me."
Vajesh rolled his eyes. "Why most you be so difficult," he said as he turned. Kia slightly relaxed. But that turned out to be a terrible mistake. He wheeled on her, closing the distance in one lunge and slapping her across the face. Her body went flying from the force and slammed into the door.
She couldn't understand how someone could be so strong. Yes, he was huge and muscular, but this wasn't the first time she was getting in a row with a big guy. But the force of a slap sending her flying, something was wrong, darkly and terribly wrong, almost as wrong as the night that changed her life and tagged her a rape victim.
She turned around to face him. Her right eye was shut, and her head was throbbing with pain. She looked up to see him fast approaching. He had a wicked smile on his face, and his teeth seemed to twinkle in the darkness. It felt like one of her many nightmares. But she knew she wasn't dreaming. This was real.
She pulled out her gun and fired as quickly as possible. Despite the speed of her draw, the throbbing of her head, and aiming through just her left eye, her training was still intact. The bullet slammed into Vajesh's shoulder, stopping him without putting his life in danger.
However, rather than fall back to the ground, clutching his arm, he only staggered backward, grunted like an animal, and pounced on her. The next two shots she fired at him had even less effect. She felt his hand around her neck, and then the pounding started. The first punch was enough to knock her out. His fist connected with her face and slammed the back of her head against the floor.
Her vision went dark as his blows pummeled her face. Her lips bled, her eyes bulged and shot, and her nose was turned into a twisted mulch. When he got off her, she was barely breathing. He searched her pants, got out the key, and dragged her out of the way.
The jiggle of her keys getting slammed into the keyhole sparked up a tiny bit of her consciousness. She opened her left eye slightly. It was all she could do. She couldn't move her head. It was too heavy and in pain for her neck to carry. All she could see were his feet at the door. For some reason, he was struggling with her bunch of keys, trying key after key.
She needed to stop him. Failure wasn't an option. If he made his way through that door, it was over. Her mission, her career, and probably her life. For what was she if she wasn't a cop. Nothing.
Her gun was gone. It had clattered off somewhere in the apartment. But she lacked the strength to look for it. She couldn't even look away. That left only one option. Her Stun gun.
But what would that do against a man who three shots couldn't drop? A taser gun might do nothing more than irritate him and earn her another round of face-pounding. Maybe this time, he would use his feet rather than his booths. Or pick up her gun, wherever it might have clattered to, and finish the job.
However, she couldn't just let him go, not after what he had done to her. There was too much at stake, and she hated the idea of losing to him. She hated the idea of being so weak that she failed so quickly. She pulled out her taser gun, aimed as high as she could, and pulled the trigger.
The bolt struck him, sunk deep into his skin, and sent hundreds of volts into his body. His reaction was shocking. He began to vibrate violently as the volts coursed through his body. Kia kept squeezing the trigger, ensuring that the current kept flowing through the wires even as his jerking got more violent. He fell to the floor with a loud bang and continued jerking, writhing, and twisting in pain until her taser ran out of juice. He lay there, unmoving and unconscious.
Kia stared at Vajesh's unconscious body for a few seconds before allowing her mind to go dark. As soon as she stopped being conscious, her subconscious leaped into action and dragged her into the realm of dreams for another round of torture.