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The tall man paced back and forth behind his desk, each time he turned, he cast a glare at the small woman sitting nonchalant in the chair in front of his desk. What really irritated him was that the entire time he had been reaming her; she sat there reading a Spiderman comic. He was at his wits end of what to do with her.
"Deavers!" He yelled to get her attention. "Get your ass out of here and I don't want to see you until the end of the week and you had better have something for me!"
Small crinkles formed beside her green eyes when she grinned at him, she knew if she ignored him, she would get what she wanted. It was one of her talents, to be able to close off the world and disappear into another one. The world she wanted to disappear into now was out on the streets where all the crime was. She had worked for the Winchester Sun newspaper for three years and had not yet gotten the break she wanted. Writing about the Apple Blossom festival was not her idea of excitement. She wanted the dirt on the streets, the stuff that hid in the shadows of the day and roamed the streets at night. The only problem was her boss didn't think she was a seasoned enough reporter for the job. He saw only her small stature, her young innocent looks and stuck her with what she called the 'prissy pieces.' She felt like throwing up every time she had to interview some rich bitch about her flower garden or some blonde bimbo about what she would do after she was crowned queen of the clueless.
Now was her chance, she had been doing some research, actually snooping, on the gang bangers and drug traffickers in the abandoned factory area of Winchester. Stopping off at her desk, she opened the bottom drawer, took out her camera bag and her laptop. With having only one photographer at the paper, she shot all her own pictures and turned them in to be placed in the articles she wrote. Not like taking pictures of a plastic-faced beauty queen was hard. The second one of them saw a camera lens, they did the freeze frame thing complete with having sex with the camera. She swore that if she ever seen another pouty looking face with doe eyes, she'd give the simple bitch something to pout about. She'd had more fun with a bunch of big hairy bikers flashing their tattoos in a tiny little bar than anywhere. That's where the real people were. The everyday people, who worked for a living, lived in trailer parks and drove old beat up cars.
Leaving the building, she went out to her old Datsun station wagon, dropped her bags in the back seat and prayed that it started. It was now three o'clock in the afternoon and things didn't start to get interesting until nine o'clock at night. She had time to go home, eat supper and get some sleep before going out onto the streets to start her snooping.
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Busch rolled down the window in his 1972 Cutlass, it stopped part way and had to be manually lowered, by way of shaking the Hell out of it until it fell into the doorframe. Wiping the sweat from his face, he looked out into the dark alley. "Where the Hell are you?" He had dropped off his partner more than fifteen minutes ago and she had still not made it back to the car. Starting the engine, he pulled across the back street in the factory area and stopped right in front of the alley. "Come on Hyper, what the Hell are you doing?" He flipped on a small flashlight, aimed it down the center of the alleyway and saw a dark figure bending over a still form on the ground. "What the fuck?" He squinted his eyes to try to focus better. The sound of a silenced pistol going off had him jumping from his car and taking cover behind a dumpster.
A deep smoky voice came from the darkness and eased his tripping pulse. "Hey Busch I could use some help here!"
"Jesus Christ Hyper, what are you doing in there?" He slowly walked forward and scanned the alleyway with his flashlight.
"Pissing up a wall, now give me a hand with this pile of shit." Six foot of dark menace rose from the trash covered ground. Her dark clothes blended in with her surroundings with the exception for the long chrome chain hanging down from hip to knee and back up. "Son of a bitch ambushed me." She growled and drop kicked the still body. Bending over, she searched the mans pockets and pulled out a thick wad of bills, small plastic envelopes of cocaine and bundle of tin foil that she assumed carried the crack she had gone in the alley to buy. "Call this in and let's get out of here." She walked past her partner, got into the passenger side of the car and leaned her head against the seat. The car tilted when Busch got in beside her, with one glance, his face went ashen.
"Fuck me!"
"Not in my worst nightmare Busch, take me to my sisters so I can get cleaned up."
"Cleaned up? Is she going to sew your head back on?"
"Yeah, right after she's done with your dick implant." She looked out of the corner of her eye at him. "You look kinda fuzzy and it's hotter than Hell in here." Were her last words before she slumped over into the seat and fell against him.
"Damn you Hyper always gotta be the big bad bitch." He shifted the car in gear and took off down the street.
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Deavers pulled into the spot that the Cutlass had just vacated. Looking around her for trouble, she flipped the handheld spotlight on and shined it down the alley. What she saw there made her wonder if this was a good idea. Pulling her camera off the seat, she checked the number of shots she had left and got out. Using a flash and the spotlight, she took numerous pictures of the dead body in the alleyway. When the roll was finished, she hit the auto rewind and waited until the whirling sound stopped before replacing the roll. From off in the distance, she heard sirens and knew she had to get away from the crime scene before the police got there and took her film. Or worse, arrest her.
Running back to her car, she jumped in and dropped the film in her pocket. Shifting her car into gear, she had just made the corner when two police cruisers stopped at the alley. Slowly she cruised the streets looking for any kind of action she could capture on film and recorder. What she saw was the normal nighttime activities. Kids in their jailing clothes hanging out on the corners, dealers hiding in the doorways peddling their drugs, whore's standing on the corners or in doorways trying to make a few bucks with their bodies and police officers ignoring every thing around them. She had tried to tell her boss that the police were just there as show pieces but never got involved unless someone was dead. What she wanted to do was bring all the dirty little secrets that are covered up everyday to the surface. Without getting killed in the process, which, was going to happen if she didn't move from where she was sitting.
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Busch carried his partner through the side door of the Veterinary hospital and laid her down on the surgical table that her sister used for operating on dogs and cats. He still couldn't figure out why she would never let him take her to a hospital. Making sure she wasn't going to roll off the table, he went in search of her younger sister.
Hazel eyes looked up from a large medical journal and caught the worried and frustrated look on Busch's face. Closing the book the small Vet raised an eyebrow and then shook her head of long blondish curls. "What did she do this time?"
"I don't know but there's blood everywhere." He wrung his hands and shifted from foot to foot.
"Let me take a look, one of these days I'm not going to be able to patch her up." Her small athletic frame jogged down the hallway to the operating room. She was shorter than her six-foot sister, but Mackenzie Crichton-Danes was every bit as fierce. She sighed with one look at her sister's long dark hair matted with blood and blood running down across her sharp angled face. "I swear Hyper; I should lock you in the basement for your own health." Picking up a large basin, she filled it with warm water and took a surgical sponge from the cabinet. "Hey Busch I can use some help back here!" She knew that he was squeamish but maybe if he saw this enough he'd keep her sister out of trouble.
"Do I really have to help you?"
She looked up for a brief second and went back to examining her sister. "Yep, if she wakes up, I want you to scream like a girl and slap her."
"And what will that do?"
"Not a damn thing but it'll amuse me. Here hold this." She handed him the basin and went back over to the storage cabinets for other materials. As soon as he saw the dog clippers in her hand, he covered his eyes.
"She's gonna kill us both! You for shaving her head and me for letting you!"
Her hazel eyes twinkled with revenge, a wicked grin covered her face when she hit the switch and the clippers buzzed to life. "I promise to not make her look too much like a Schnauzer."
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Deavers pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and parked in the very last parking space in the lot. She had complained to the superintendent every month about someone taking the spot that was assigned to her. She had lowered herself to soaping their windshield and taping condoms to their bumper. She still ended up parking at the back of the lot.
"One of these days I'm gonna have your car towed!" She slammed her palm on the hood and ran when the car alarm went off. The neighbors just loved the noise at three o'clock in the morning. Going up the side stairs, she jogged up the four flights and stopped at the top of the landing. Her door was right in front of her, it was the only good thing about where she lived. Easy access to her apartment without having to go inside the building.
Checking her answering machine and seeing that the red light did nothing at all, she went into the kitchen and pulled a piece of cold pizza from inside the microwave. Eating the pizza on the way to her bedroom, she kicked off her hiking boots and heard them land somewhere near the front door. By the time she finished her pizza and fell into bed, she was wearing only a pair of Mickey Mouse glow in the dark boxers. Tossing and turning until she was curled in a fetal position, the sleep of an innocent claimed her.
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"What did you do to me?" Hyper rolled her head to the side and saw both Busch and her sister watching her. "Feel like shit and my heads freezing." She reached up with a long fingered hand to find an ice pack.
"I'd say brain freeze but that's impossible." Mack stood up, stretched, yawned and wiggled her fingers at her sister. "How many do you see?"
"Twenty if you count the ones growing out of your forehead."
"Guess that hard head of yours held up under the wine bottle that hit you."
Hyper sat up slowly and closed her eyes when the room started to spin. Closing her eyes for a minute, she then opened them to see a nervous Busch watching her.
"What is the top of my head missing or something?"
"You could say that yeah." He looked everywhere but at her.
"What did you do to me Mack?" She ran a hand across the top of her head; her eyes grew large then narrowed with the contact of smooth skin. "You shaved me bald!"
"No choice Hyper, I put 70 some sutures in that noggin of yours." She yawned again and blinked her eyes a few times. "I'm outta here; take some Tylenol for your massive headache."
"Thanks Mack, I owe you." She narrowed her eyes. "For everything." Mack stopped beside her and kissed the top of her baldhead.
"Hey, I left the back alone. Wear a hat, it'll grow back quick."
Hyper slid off the table and looked at her reflection in the stainless steel freezer door.
"Ohh my Gods! I look like?" She turned with narrowed eyes to her partner. "You helped her didn't you?"
Busch gulped loudly and ran for the back door.
"God damn I'm a skin head!" She ran her fingers across her baldhead as she walked to the back door. "I have a baby's ass for a head."
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Busch dropped her off at her building across town; she looked up at the old building and sighed. She had lived in the same place for eight years and still could not get used to the sight of the ugly place. The dingy bricks that age and pollution had turned from red to soot color, made the place look abandoned. It worked though; she never had the Jehovah's knocking at her door. Opening the sliding side door of the warehouse, she walked across the concrete floor to the old metal shipping elevator. Sliding the cage like door closed, she hit the handle and heard the motor engage and take her to the top floor. The elevator stopped at a wide-open floor that glowed from the dim light coming from the skylights. Dropping her keys on a small table near the elevator, she striped out of her clothes and dropped them through out her flat on the way to her California King sized waterbed. Rubbing her face into the flannel sheets, she moaned when her head started pounding but surrendered to sleep anyway.
The sound of the phone ringing next to her head sent a sharp pain radiating through the top of her head. Slapping at the offending instrument, she groaned when it clattered to the floor. A tiny voice came up from the floor and kept yelling hello to her.
"What! I'm sleeping!" Searching the floor with one hand, she found the receiver and brought it up to her ear. "I have a big gun and I'll use it!"
"But you shoot blanks so it doesn't count. How's your head this afternoon?"
"You should know, you're the one who shaved it." Rolling over, Hyper swung her legs over the edge and flexed her toes into the thick carpet. "Still hurts like Hell but I'll survive, thanks Mack for taking care of me."
"No problem Sis, I called because I knew you'd be interested about what's on the front page of the newspaper."
"Why's that?"
"Ohh because it's a picture of a stiff with part of a wine bottle in his hand."
"Shit! How the Hell did that get in the paper?" She got out of bed, walked over to the elevator, and took it to the lower floor. "How did the press get there before the cops?"
"No idea Hyper but they did, the head line reads 'Police hide while crime takes over our city?"
Hyper picked up her copy of the newspaper and finished her sister's sentence. "By Corey Deavers." She grunted and flipped the paper over in her hand to continue reading. "Who the Hell is Corey Deavers, I've never heard of her?"
"Someone who got to the scene before the cops. Did Busch use the car radio or his cell phone?"
"I have no idea; I passed out in the car." Dropping the paper on the butcher-block table, she turned the coffee pot on and waited for it to start dripping. "Can I get my head wet?"
"Sure, it's not like there's anything up there to get damaged. Try to stay away from wine bottles for a few days. Later sis."
Pulling a coffee cup down from the wall, Hyper poured milk and sugar into it and waited for the coffee pot to fill. Rubbing her eyes, she let her fingers go over the top of her head. A slight smirk crossed her lips when she thought of all the times she had fought tooth and nail not to have her hair trimmed. Now she was bald except for the hair that hung down her back. Feeling the sides, she felt very short hair that felt prickly to her fingertips.
"Can't take it no more." She went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror, what came before her ice blue eyes sent shivers down her spine. One long gash zigzagged down the center of her head and other smaller gashes peppered each side of it. Mack had shaved the least amount of hair that she possible could and still be able to suture the skin. "Couple weeks and I'll have a dyke hair cut."
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Corey yawned, closed the top of her laptop and left her desk; she had gotten up early and ran into the newspaper so that she could get her story and the pictures to one of the editors. She was shocked when he had smiled at her and said that it would make the front page. It was the first time that she had ever made the front page other than for the prissy articles. She also knew that the phone would be ringing off the hook as soon as the police commissioner saw the paper.
"Deavers I thought I told you I didn't want to see your face until the end of the week?"
"You wouldn't be seeing it now if you weren't in the women's bathroom." She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped a foot. "Do you mind?"
"Right, when you're done doing what ever, I want you in my office." He turned and left her standing there rolling her eyes.
"I really hate men! Egotistical ass wipe, I'll use their bathroom from now on and see how they like it!" Washing her hands and face, she dried off and took the short walk to her boss' office. Doing her usual, she dropped into the seat with an exaggerated sigh and twiddled her thumbs. He gave her a glare and tossed the front page into her lap.
"What in the Hell is that and how did you get it?"
"Let's see?" She pressed a fingertip to her lips, scanned the page and threw it on his desk. "Looks like I got the front page with a murder shot and I'm good."
"Out! Get out before I knock you out!"
She left with a howl of laughter; she loved it when she could crank him up in the morning. Picking up her stuff, she headed for the door and home. She was dead on her feet and needed some sleep before she fell over.
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Dropping down onto her futon, she flipped the TV on and changed it to a news channel. Suffering through the sports and weather, she was disappointed when nothing was said about the dead guy in the alley. "Figures, not a damn word as usual." She flipped the TV off and slumped down so that she was barely on the bottom cushion. Tilting her head to the side, she saw out of the corner of her eye a small dark shape run across the kitchen floor and disappear inside the cabinet beneath the sink. "Damn mouse, must have been foraging in my cereal again." Sliding to the floor, she crawled on her hands and knees to her bedroom.
Falling into bed after her shower, Corey snuggled down into her pillow and watched the sunset from her window. She felt like she was a little kid again when she had to be in bed before dark. Rolling on to her back, she pulled her pillow over her face and yelled at the top of her lungs. Any other time and she would be getting ready to go out bar hopping and trying to find someone to spend the rest of her life with. Now she was going out but looking for trouble to make her self a name. "Sacrifices suck!"
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Five hours later, she was dressing in dark baggy clothes, baseball hat and hiking boots. If she had to get out of her car around the people of the night, she wanted to blend in as much as possible. Looking like a gang banger could save her life out there. Checking her pockets for her wallet, keys, pocketknife and five dollars, she grabbed her thick sweatshirt off the hook by the door and pulled it over her head. She looked in the mirror by the door and rolled her eyes at her reflection. "I look like a little kid." She spun her hat backwards and left her apartment for the second night of snooping.
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Hyper and Busch stood in the police chief's office, he had called them in to find out just what in the Hell they thought they were doing. Busch stuttered and looked to a shrugging Hyper.
"Come off it Crichton, that's the area where you two do all your business. What happened and how in the Hell did the press get there before us?"
"No idea boss, I was getting my hair cut at the time."
He slammed his hands down on his desk and roared at the top of his lungs "BULLSHIT!"
"I'm not lying look." She pulled the baseball hat off and showed him her baldhead. "Smooth as a baby's ass, wanna feel?"
"Jesus Christ Crichton what happened to your head?" He cringed at all the black sutures covering her scalp.
"I got jumped by a wine bottle and?"
"Your pistol came to the rescue and capped that guy."
"Do you have ESP; can you read my mind to?"
"Smartass." He dropped into his chair and looked at both of them. "I want you two to find out who the Hell this Corey Deavers is and keep her out of our business. The last thing we need is her blowing your cover out there."
Busch opened his mouth and then chickened out. "You're such a pussy Harry." Hyper slugged him in the shoulder and snickered when he yelped. "What do we do if we catch her out there?"
"Contain the problem Crichton, I don't care how you do it but just don't shot her. That's all we would need, a dead reporter." He waved his hand at them signaling that the meeting was over.
"You heard him Hyper, contain her, don't shot her."
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Corey strutted down the street behind one of the local gangs; she had discovered that there was to be a huge fight for money in one of the abandoned warehouses. This was something that she couldn't miss; she had her camera hidden beneath the bulky sweatshirt just in case she could sneak a few shots during the fight. As they got closer to where the fight was to be, a dark car went past and stopped to talk to the gang members. Corey eased her way closer and looked at the person in the passenger seat; all she could see was the bottom part of the person's face that showed from under the bill of a baseball hat. A flash of even white teeth and then a long fingered hand slipping one of the gang bangers a small folded up bill caught her eye. The crack was passed smooth as silk at the same time. She would have never saw it if she hadn't been so close. Waiting until the car drove away; she lifted the edge of her sweatshirt and snapped a picture of the rear of the car.
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"What do we have this time?" Busch asked and looked sideways at Hyper.
"Two handcrafted macadamia nuts for a twenty spot." She rolled the small nuts between her fingers before putting then in an evidence bag with the name of the seller on the outside. "I think he spends more time carving nuts than if he was making the real stuff." She put the bag inside a brown paper bag and shoved it under the seat. "Let's follow the crowd and see if we can make some more hits tonight."
"You mean so you can make some more hits."
She snorted and gave him a big grin; she knew that he would never fit in with the gang bangers. He was in his late 40's and very out of shape, not to mention his thinning hair that he wore in a massive comb over and thick glasses. Dressed in a flannel shirt, grey workpants and work boots just didn't fit the image of a drug addict or dealer. Hyper on the other hand looked the part in her baggy clothes, chained wallet and combat boots. After six years of being a sergeant in the narc squad and seeing things that could give the strongest person nightmares, she had become hardened and could close the emotions off behind her icy blue eyes. In all the time that she and Busch had been partners, they had never had anyone get close to blowing their cover like the previous night. Their problem was, that they had no idea how Deavers had come across the scene.
Hyper felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket, pulling it out she answered.
"Yo man, what's your pleasure?"
"You've got a picture of Deavers coming over the fax now, took some time to find it and I'll warn you. It's a couple of years old."
"OK, thanks Pops we appreciate your hard work." She opened the glove compartment and pulled out a small fax machine that was rigged to the laptop and cell phone strapped to the floor under the front seat. In a few seconds, it started printing out a picture of their number one enemy. Corey Deavers. "Pops didn't say that we're looking for a grade school kid." She handed the picture that the desk sergeant had sent them to Busch. It showed a young woman with long blondish hair, green eyes surrounded by dark lashes and a beautiful but innocent smile gracing her fine features.
"This is who almost caught us?" He waved the picture at her. "My daughter is older than her, looks meaner to."
"Maybe we should hang out at the local schoolyard or ice cream place." She shoved the picture under the sun visor. "Fucking great, we have a twelve year old after us."
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Corey snuck around the back of the large warehouse, the crowd of people ranged from gang bangers all the way to men in business suits. She then knew that this had to be a normal occurrence for the area. If they were having illegal fighting matches in the abandoned warehouses and business type men were in there then it had to be big money not to mention drugs and other illegal activities. This could be the start of a weeklong series for her and to Hell with what her boss wanted. Trying to blend in as much as possible, she made her way across the warehouse to a set of metal stairs that went up to a catwalk. Slipping past people until she got to the far end of the catwalk, where there was an open window. Not to mention a good advantage point for pictures of the fighters and who ever came through the door. Sitting down so that her feet dangled over the edge and her arms rested on the center rail, she scanned all of the people waiting around the shoddy fighting circle. She moved one hand and lifted the edge of her sweatshirt so that the camera lens was showing. She would be able to tap the button and pray when she developed the shots that they came out. She had a very expensive camera that did everything but cook and clean. Her eyes grew wide when she recognized on of the areas wealthiest businessmen come through the door with two large rough looking men. Arthur J. Gillingham owned numerous industrial properties in the area as well as being on the board of directors for the city council. His face was always plastered somewhere either in the newspaper of billboards announcing something else that he would be backing for the community. He was the last person she would ever have thought to be seen at an illegal fighting match. Aiming her camera at him, she clicked off pictures repeatedly until he was out of her sight line.
"Son of a bitch! I'm going to get a Pulitzer for this."
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Hyper rolled her eyes at Busch and shoved him in his shoulder. "Come on what can happen in there?" She pointed to the warehouse that had become the main attraction for the area.
"With you in there, no telling. Hell we could be invaded by aliens and it would be your fault!" He hated the idea of her going into the place alone without him at her back.
She pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up over her hat so that her face was hidden in shadows. "Come on Joe, how long have we been doing this?"
"Years and in all those years I've had to take you to your sister to many times to count!" He rubbed his roughened cheek with a hand and gave her one of her own looks that she used on him all the time. "I know that no matter what I say, you'll still go in there. So be careful."
"How do you do that?" She asked as she opened the door and got out.
"Because you used my real first name not Harry." She gave him a small salute and jogged off into the night. Sometimes he agreed with Mack and wanted to help her lock Hyper in a basement somewhere for her and everyone else's safety. He worried about her because she had no fear; she would run right into the middle of a firefight and not care that she could be killed. It was one of the reasons she was the only decorated female police officer, and the most decorated cop in that part of the Virginia.
Hyper took a shortcut around the building and to the side where a fire escape ran up the side to the roof. Climbing up, she ran all the way up and stopped when she came to the window that would put her on the catwalk above the floor. Slipping through the window, she saw a kid sitting on the catwalk and other people leaning over the railing. With a quick glance, she looked down and saw two men standing across from each other. In a few minutes, the place would be in an uproar when the fight started. Walking past all the people, she made her way down to the ground floor and started looking for her marks. She planed on getting at least half a dozen of more buys that night before turning the evidence in and heading home. Seeing one of her dealers, she took on the strut of a street thug.
"Hey man got a little bit for me?" She asked the small black man that didn't even hit the five-foot mark in height.
"Whatcha want Jo, I got smack, crack, pot, and one hit of pure black tar left."
She shoved her hands deep in her pocket and rocked on her heels. "Gonna hit the bars tonight, party some and get me a slice." She moved her hands around in her pockets and twitched a little. "How much for all of it?"
"For you Jo, I'll make ya a deal. Two thou and it's yours."
She knew that it was too much money for what he had on him but she had to keep up the appearance of an addict. Pulling her hands out of her pockets, she rifled through the dirty bills in her hand and slipped him two thousand dollars of the Narcotic Squads money. "It's all there Leon, where's the stuff?"
He waved a tall thick built man over who handed her a Burger King bag. With a peek inside, she gave him a lopsided grin, slap hands with him and walked with an unsteady pace towards the back of the crowded room. Rolling the bag, she shoved it down into one of her cargo pockets and buttoned it closed. "Couple more and I'm outta here." She looked around the place and finally up to the stairs that she had used earlier. A glint came from the far end where the kid was sitting when she came in. Narrowing her eyes, she saw the glint again come from under the kid's sweatshirt. "Fucking great, a kid playing with a damn piece." Was mumbled under her breath. Looking for a break in the yelling crowd, she made her way back over to the steps and looked up in time to see the kid looking down at her. A corner of her lip rose and a low snarling noise came from her throat.
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"Ohh this is not good." Corey said to herself when she saw the gang banger looking at her after she had just shot what she hoped to be a good picture of the person. Looking to her right, she saw the open window and made a run for it. Running across the short space of roof, she took the fire escape stairs and heard feet pounding right behind her. "Fuck me to death!" She jumped down the last six steps and tore off into the night with the other person right on her heels. She couldn't remember how far away her car was but she knew she would have to either get there or hide from who ever was chasing her. Sliding around a corner of another building, she came to an alleyway that she knew would lead her back in the direction she had walked that night. Picking up speed, she hurdled garbage cans, stacks of fruit crates and other garbage. She was winded and knew if she didn't get to her car or hide soon, she wouldn't be able to run anymore. Seeing a small hole in one of the buildings walls, she came to a sliding stop, dropped to her knees and scurried through the hole. Keeping away from the hole, she heard feet hitting the pavement and then heavy breathing.
"God damn it! Fucking stupid kid!" Hyper bent over at the knees and tried to get her breathing under control. Any other time and she would have caught the kid, but with her head aching and still not up to her normal strength, she had lost him in the dark. With one last look around, she turned and walked back down the alleyway and hopefully, Busch would have seen her and followed with the car.
Corey waited a few minutes to make sure the way was clear before she crawled out of the hole and took off down the alley and in the direction of her car. She knew that she had been lucky and if not for finding the hiding spot, she could very well be the front page of the early edition. She wondered what had set the person off that they had chased her. "Of course you stupid shit! They must have seen the damn camera lens." Slowing down, she went back to strutting down the sidewalk so as not to get any unwanted attention.
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Busch pushed the passenger side door open and waited for Hyper to get in. "What the Hell were you doing, trying out for the handicapped Olympics?"
"Damn little kid was in the warehouse with a piece under his sweatshirt." She wiped the sweat from her face on her sleeve and took the bottle of water Busch offered her. "I look up and the little shit has it pointed at me."
"So you do the stupidest thing you can think of and chase him."
"It was either that or have the asshole start a gang war in there. Which I could care less about what happened to those assholes but I was in there." She pulled the Burger King bag out of her pocket and went through the drugs she had bought. "Got this shit from Little Leon for two grand." She held up a small bag in front of Busch's eyes.
"Black tar? That little fuck's been dealing black tar." He took the bag and looked at it closer.
"That ain't nothing, they were having an illegal fight in that building and I saw a whole bunch of suits in there. I think the big guy is branching out from drugs to death matches."
"What better way than to get rid of the gangs but to put them up against each other in a ring. Keeps them from shooting the Hell outta each other and bringing in the bad publicity."
"Which helps Gillingham keep his pockets lined with money and Government officials?" Hyper finished for Busch. "We just need to get that fucker cold."
"Easy to say but we've been at this for a year now and got shit for evidence." He pulled the car out on to the street and headed back to the seedy part of town. They had two more hours before shift was up and in that time they could take more drugs off the street and maybe get some information to help them take down Gillingham.
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Corey pulled the photo paper from the rinse and held it up, what she saw made her shiver. The shot was off center and a little crooked but the camera had caught the person's eyes peering out from under the hats bill. They were the coldest eyes she had ever seen in her life, icy blue and very dangerous. High cheekbones slanted down to a strong jaw and chin below tight lips. She felt like she was looking at death its self and was thankful that she was able to out run this person. "You would have made me a statistic in my own paper." Clipping the picture to the drying line, she finished looking through the negatives for a shot to go with her article on illegal drugs. She was not ready to write anything on Gillingham, she needed more than a picture of him at the fight. He was slick and so far, the police had not been able to bring him up on any charges. The District Attorney called him Teflon because everything that they had on him slid right off. She had a theory that he was being protected by not only the local government but by someone bigger than him. How else could witnesses disappear from the area and not be linked to him? She knew that the gangs knocked each other off but the police usually had the shooter within a week or so. The kids always bragged about what they had done to someone, what it did was make them a huge target for the next guy.
Taking a picture of three guys dealing drugs, she left the darkroom and went back to her desk to type up her story. It would take her maybe an hour at the most and give her plenty of time to make corrections if needed before the deadline would be up.
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Busch and Hyper stood outside the evidence room with their buys for the night. They had done pretty well for it being in the middle of the week but figured that it was because of the fight that more was available on the street. A lot of the dealers wouldn't sell their stuff to a stranger and kept with their regulars. The chance to sell to someone who came for the fight made some of them make stupid mistakes. Like one dealer in particular who was putting his cell phone number on the bags of coke. He would be off the street before noon; they had turned that one over to one of the other squads. They would get partial credit for the bust and wouldn't blow their cover bringing the guy in. Now all they had to do was sign all the drugs into the evidence room and they were done for the night.
Hyper pulled her hat off and scratched the top of her head; the sutured areas were driving her nuts. She felt like she had bugs crawling across her head all night and wanted nothing more than to go home and take a shower.
"Any peach fuzz up there yet?" Busch ran a finger across her baldhead and jumped to avoid being smacked.
"Do I play with your baldhead?"
"No but yours is all nice and shiny and new. I've had mine since I was twenty and it doesn't get peach fuzz on it."
"Go home and play with your wife's hairy legs, damn weirdo."
"That'll have to wait until I drop you off at home, when you going to pull your car out of mothballs?"
"When I can drive it and not worry about a drive-by or some asshole stealing it."
"Guess the thing will fall apart where it sits then. Just like you going home to an empty flat every night, when's that gonna change?"
"When you grow some hair on that bald spot, I like living alone. I can do what I damn well please and no one can tell me any different." She had at one time wished that when she went home, someone would be waiting for her. But with the career she had chosen, she knew that no one in their right mind would want to have a cop as a spouse. The statistics for divorce were astronomical and the death rate was close behind. It was a spouse's nightmare to have another cop come to the door at midnight and say 'I'm sorry.' She herself had done it on occasion and didn't want her spouse to go through what she had seen with her own eyes.
"Don't you miss not having someone to cuddle up to at night or be there to talk to when we have a shitty day?"
She rolled her eyes and gave him a sneer. "How many times have we had this discussion?"
"Ohh at least once a month for the last six years."
"And what do I tell you every single time?"
"You want a sex slave to whip you with leather shoestrings? Ohh wait that's what I want!" He gave her a grin. "No seriously, why don't you date, go out, talk to anyone but cops and sit up in that warehouse on our days off?"
"I have a serious case of the clap, herpes and a steel chastity belt that there's no key to. Now shut up or I'll tell your wife you fantasize about wearing her bra." She grabbed his sideburns and yanked. "And no matchmaking either, I like being alone!"
"Ooohh alright already, just hate seeing you not have anyone to rub your head and make wishes."
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With her article turned in along with the picture of the drug deal, she was guaranteed space in the next edition. The midnight editor was thrilled to have something from her again, the paper sales had gone up a small percentage since her first story that he had put on the front page. The people worked the early morning shifts that bought the papers. And seeing something on the front page that they saw in the wee morning hours caught their attention faster. With the pictures and negatives in hand, she left the newspaper building and went home. She was taking that night off from roaming the streets; she had to get some research done on Gillingham and her mystery car. She had a connection at the DMV and knew if she agreed to a lunch date that she could get the car owners name. The thought of a date of any kind made her squeamish. She was not a people person when it came to the stress of having someone drool over her. She shivered and tried to swallow the bad taste in her mouth.
"I really need a connection in the police department." Grabbing a container of yogurt from the refrigerator and a huge bag of peanut M&M's, she went into her small bare bedroom. With the exception of her twin bed, the only thing in the room was a nightstand and small dresser. She was never big on possessions and it showed in the way she lived. Shedding her clothes into a pile at the side of the bed, she slipped beneath the sheets and ate her yogurt with the M&M's mixed in. While she ate, she thought of the gang member that almost caught her in the alley, she would have to be more careful in the future. The eyes on that one still sent chills through her, she pulled the sheet up to her neck and shivered. Nightmares were a rarity for her, except for this night she knew she would dream of those eyes.
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Arthur J. Gillingham paced in front of his couch, his two body guards stood on either side of the door and one of the gang members that worked for him stood behind the couch watching him.
"How could you be so god damn stupid as to let some reporter take a picture of you doing a drug deal?" He stopped his pacing and glared at the man. "Do you know what will happen to you if I go down? I'll make sure that you're ripped to tiny little pieces and scattered all over the neighborhood!" He pulled the silk tie loose from his neck and let it hang. Throwing a hand in the air, he pointed at the man and spoke in a low voice. "You find that Deavers bitch and you get rid of her! And don't drop her body somewhere that she can be found! I never want to see a report in the damn newspaper saying that her body was found in my warehouse area, is that clear?"
"Yes sir it's clear."
"Now get out of my face and I want it done by the end of the week!" He nodded his head and one of his bodyguards followed the drug dealer from the house. The man was under orders to follow the dealer and make sure he didn't screw up and even if he didn't he was to be taken care of and blamed for the reporters death.
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Hyper looked into the mirror and snorted at the fine black peach fuzz growing on her head. When she ran her fingers across the fine hairs, it reminded her of when she didn't shave her legs. "Another few days and I'll look like that hedgehog from the Snuggle commercials." Raising an eyebrow at her reflection, she said. "I'm snuggly soft. NOT!" Tossing the bath towel into the hamper, she wandered out to her living room and dropped onto the couch with an exaggerated sigh. It wasn't very often that she was able to just lay around her flat and she planed on making up for it that day. That was until she heard the elevator coming up.
"Now what did I do?" She pulled her Glock off the coffee table and slipped it under a throw pillow. "Go away I'm PMSING!"
"Is that supposed to scare me?" Mack asked as she and her wife Charley stepped into the room. "Damn ya could have said you were naked!"
"I wanted to surprise you." She grinned. "Surprise I'm naked!"
"You're whacked in the head, speaking of your head, let me see it."
Charley stepped up behind her shorter wife and busted out laughing at her sister in-law. Her caramel colored eyes glowed with amusement. "And she wonders why I won't let her cut my hair." She ran her fingers through her wild dark locks. "You're snuggly soft."
"I am NOT soft!" She looked up at her sister. "Mack tell her to stop before I kick her ass."
"She's not soft; she's a dipshit with a baldhead. Now hold still while I look at my handiwork." She examined the sutures, pulled on a few of them and made Hyper flinch. "No hat for the next two days, air needs to get to these or your heads gonna swell bigger than it already is hedgehog."
She sunk back into the couch and glared at them. "So did you two come over here to harass me or is something else on your minds?"
"Funny you should say that?" Charley dropped down on the couch next to Hyper, pulled a wad of papers from her pocket and waved them in front of her. "Here ya go Hyperactive, all the information you need on your little girlfriend."
"Girlfriend, what are you talking about?" She took the papers from her hand.
"You know Corey Deavers; I pulled all her records that we have on file at the county assessors' office. She doesn't have much that's for sure."
Hyper looked at the paper that described what type of vehicles listed under Corey's name. "Do people still drive Datsuns?"
"She does and a station wagon at that, she must be a dork."
Mack leaned over her wife's shoulder and bit the top of her ear. "And who was it that took me to the senior prom in a Hearse?"
"Hey, all the Limos were already hired out. We did make quite an entrance."
"Charley, two women going to the prom together was entrance enough thank you very much." She shuddered when a memory ran through her head. "Still get the creeps about caskets."
Hyper wiggled her dark brows at Charley. "I told you to take the casket out before you jumped her."
"Would have been nice if a dead body wasn't in the damn thing!" Mack growled before smacking Charley
Charley shrugged her shoulders at them. "How was I supposed to know that when I stole it, they hadn't delivered the body yet?Ohhh ohhh." She tried to hide behind a throw pillow.
"You stole the Hearse?" Mack jumped on her lap and pulled the pillow from her face. "After ten years I find out that my wife stole the car we took to the prom? And to make it better, she admits to a crime in front of a cop!"
"I wouldn't exactly say stole, I borrowed it from Uncle Barney. He just didn't know it at the time."
Hyper watched the interaction between her sister and sister in-law and seen what she was missing out on, it was at times like this, that she wished she had someone in her life. Going back to the papers in her hand, she found Corey's address and grinned. She knew where the apartments were and would have Busch drive by there when they went back to work.
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Two days later, Corey was getting ready to go out on the streets. This time she was going back to the area where she had found the dead guy in the alley. She had a gut feeling that the car she had seen leaving the alleyway would be in the area. Not to mention that the person who had chased her would not be in that section of town. Pulling her hair into a ponytail, she stuffed it down inside of her oversized sweatshirt and pulled her baseball hat low over her eyes. If the person was in the area, maybe they wouldn't recognize her. Checking her pockets for her necessities, she also took a can of mace and stuck it in the pouch of her sweatshirt.
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A low riding Chevy Nova circled the parking lot outside of Corey's apartment building. Four men were inside the car looking up at the building numbers as they drove slowly past each one. They had gotten the information from their boss hours before but waited until dark to take action. Now with it black as pitch and only lights over the doors to the apartments on, they would be able to get away undetected when they got a hold of the Deavers woman.
"There it is! That one on the end!" A man from the back seat said and pointed over the drivers shoulder. He pulled the car near the doors and let the others get out before circling the parking lot until they came out.
The three men walked slowly up the three steps and pulled the door open to the building. They stopped and listened for any kind of noise but the place was quiet as a tomb. Taking the stairs up to the fourth floor, they went down the hall, stopped outside of Corey's door and waited.
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Corey went out the side door to her apartment and ran down the four flights of stairs, down along side of the building and out the back to where she had parked her car in the parking lot for the other apartment buildings. She had thought of it that morning, the back of that parking lot was right behind her apartment. She now had her very own front parking space and knew that no one in the other buildings cared if she parked there. Getting into her car, she pulled out and headed for the street.
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"Come on I could have had the door open by now!" One of the men whispered loudly when his friend didn't have her lock picked open yet.
"Man she has good locks on here; it ain't like those cheap things we're used to."
"Get out of the way." He pushed his friend over, produced a small crow bar and pried the door open. They rushed the small apartment and found absolutely nothing. Corey had left the lights on in the living room and the bathroom near her bedroom. From outside it looked like she was home. One of them men went down the small hallway and found the side door.
"Fuck man, this place has another door." He gave it a good kick and put a huge dent in the metal. "She must be out on the streets already, how we gonna find that bitch?"
A picture of her was produced and showed around to other men. "We cruise the street, when we see her, we jump out and grab the bitch." He looked around at her sparsely furnished place. "Rip this place apart first, she's gotta have something we can sell at a pawn shop."
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Busch and Hyper cruised the streets looking for the dealers that they normally used. They were close to being able to get Hyper in with the bigger dealers so that she could work her way through the ranks and finally to the main person. Playing both sides of the gangs at the same time was getting them closer to their goal. The Bloods were the ones that she played addict to, while the Skitzo's knew her as a dealer looking for a larger supplier. That's where they were now, she had ten grand in her pocket to make buys with, that was if they could find the dealer Plower. Their other mission was to locate and contain Deavers, how, they still didn't know. If they did catch her, they could always call in a unit and have them pick her up on some fake charge and let the chief take care of her. It would save their cover and take care of the little snoop. Busch drove past the small neighborhood store that was used as a hook-up point for the dealers. He slowed the car and let her get out; he would make a few laps around the block before going to pick her back up.
Hyper shoved her hands deep into the front pockets of her black military cargo pants and fingered the thick wad of bills they had gotten from their lieutenant that night. The money she used came from the drug busts that they set up on the other dealers. The dealer with his phone number advertised had brought one hundred and fifty thousand dollars into the station along with a huge amount of cut and uncut cocaine. With him off the streets, it made an opening for her to get in to the operation. So far, his mouth was glued shut about his contacts but they had their ways of getting information. She stood alongside the building and waited to be noticed by the large man standing outside the door of the store. He nodded his head and she made her way around to the side door. Knocking twice, waiting and then knocking again, she stepped back when the door was opened to show a neatly dressed man in polo shirt and tan chinos.
"Hey Jo, what kind of take out can I get you tonight?" His bright smile and sparkling eyes made everyone he met feel at ease. It sucked that a college kid would stoop so low as to sell drugs to pay their way through college. What made her mad was this kid was going in to business law. He would be just as illegal then as he is now, a pity and a good reason to not trust lawyers.
"I got five, what can you give me for that?"
He gave her a bright smile and held up a finger. "Let me see what mother has cooking back here." He came back a few minutes later with three Styrofoam take out trays. "We have three orders of white rice with nuts." Sounds good, tell mother thanks. She handed over five thousand and took the containers. Just as she stepped out into the street, Busch pulled up.
"OK, Buschdiver got the shit lets move it."
"OK, Hyperdrive. What did you get this time?"
"According to the kid, we have three orders of coke and three of crack on the side." Opening the trays, she found three baggies of cocaine and three baggies of crack. She examined the crack closely and whistled. "This shit is high grade, no macadamia in this buy." After tagging them, she slid them under the front seat. "Let's hit some of the smaller guys and then get something to eat."
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Corey strutted down the sidewalk towards a small deli that she had seen on her way in. Having walked for an hour, she felt like she had cottonmouth and would kill for a can of Coke or Pepsi. Going into the small store, she went to the back where they had the coolers. Looking at the selection, she added the price differences in her head and grabbed one of the 20 oz bottles of Coke and a pack of Oreo's on her way to the counter. Handing the half-asleep clerk a five-dollar bill, she waited for her change and felt the hair on the back of her neck raise. Above the clerks head was a round mirror, she glanced up with her eyes and saw three gang bangers walk through the door. Taking her change, she shoved it in her pocket and left quickly. There was just something about them that set her on edge, she had been on the streets for days now and this was the first time it had happened. She ran across the street and into a dark alleyway to wait and see what happened. Seconds later the three men came charging out of the store and stopped in front to look around. She could hear their voices yelling at each other about 'where that bitch had gone' Easing further into the alleyway, she turned and walked quickly towards the other end. The sound of pounding feet had her sprinting towards the other end, across the street and down another alley. She slid sideways at the end and hit the ground, rolling to get back to her feet and take off down the sidewalk. The sound of a car peeling around the corner ahead of her had her taking off across the street, up the opposite side and away from them.
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Busch slammed on the brakes and fishtailed the Cutlass in the middle of the street throwing Hyper against the dashboard. "What the fuck! Crazy assholes!" Hyper yelled out the window at the Chevy Nova, and then saw a flash of gold ahead of them. "What the fuck?" She pointed down the sidewalk to the person running with three other's and a car right behind.
"Go around to the other street; see if we can catch them?" She grabbed a hold of the doorframe with one hand and pressed the heel of her other into the dashboard. Busch cut up an alley and swung the car into a right-handed slid and shot up the parallel street. Weaving around parked cars, he hit the intersection and saw the back end of the Nova just as it made its turn.
"Hold on Hyper!" He yelled and hit the gas pedal that engaged the supercharger on the engine. They had gained on the car but he took another right hand turn and jumped back on to the street further down and in front of the pursuing car. He slid the car sideways and Hyper jumped out and started running towards the gang bangers. Taking an alleyway, she came out at the other end and waited for them to pass. When the first one got right in front of her, she jumped out, pushed him to the ground and started after the small person who was in front. The long blonde hair trailing out behind alerted her that she was chasing a young girl. Looking up ahead of her, she saw where Busch had stopped the car. All she had to do was grab the little one and throw her in the car and they'd take off. Or so she thought until she heard gunfire from behind her and the squealing of tires.
Busch saw the Nova fly around the corner and head straight for his partner, punching the gas pedal; he shot forward for a head on collision with the Nova. He prayed that the driver went chicken and swerved to miss him. His speedometer read 60 mph and a collision at the speed was going to hurt. A lot.
Hyper put on a burst of speed, caught up with the small woman, threw her body on top of her and took them to the ground. She rolled them over so that they ended up lying in the gutter in front of a parked car. Pinning the small body beneath her, she pulled her Glock and returned fire. When bullets whizzed over her head and hit the car, she dropped her head and tried to protect the woman as much as possible. Taking her Glock in her left hand, she opened fire and heard a yelp of pain. Getting to one knee, she shot off a few more rounds before pulling the smaller woman to her feet and taking her across the street and down another alley. They ran side by side until they came to another street and Hyper grabbed her sleeve and pulled her with her.
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Busch watched as the Nova turned at the last second and T-boned a park car. He could care less if they were dead, what was important was his partner. Pulling a 360, he went in the direction that he had seen Hyper running in. Cutting up an alley, he slowed down and waited.
"Come on Hyper, where the hell are you?" The sound of gunfire sent him down the street and to the right. He knew that wherever there was gunfire, he'd find Hyper.
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Bullets ricochet over their heads as they ran close to the buildings. Hyper was running out of places to go and knew that where they were running came to a dead end of abandoned buildings. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw two men chasing them. Stopping and taking aim, she shot off one shot and watched one of them hit the ground. Now she had to catch up with the still running woman. Swearing under her breath, she sprinted off and then saw Busch swinging across the street in front of them. Waving her hand at him, she watched him swing the car sideways and the back door fly open. They were within four foot of the car; she wrapped one arm around the small woman and threw her body sideways through the air and into the back of the car. Before they had hit the seat, they were being thrown to the floor as Busch took off down the road. For the next few minutes, they were rolled all over the back of the car. Finally, fifteen minutes later Busch stopped the car in an IHOP restaurant parking lot.
Hyper groaned from where she lay on the floor with the hump in her lower back. She still felt her heart slamming in her chest and it was hard to breathe. Opening her eyes, she saw what part of the problem was. A small body still wrapped around her own and not willing to let go of the strangle hold she had on her neck.
"Buschman am I dead?"
He looked over the front seat and down into her sweat covered face. "Give me a second and I'll shoot you, if you scream, then no, you're not dead." He turned the car off, got out and opened the back door. "Is she dead or what?" He pointed to the small woman.
"Don't know but she won't let go of my neck." She reached out a hand and Busch pulled them both upward. As soon as she was in a sitting position, she felt the pressure on her neck ease up and the small body fall away from her. She reached out to catch her and gasped when she was punched in the throat. In a flash Busch hit the ground hard when his knee was kicked and the small blonde was off and running again. Barely being able to see from the tears in her eyes, Hyper took a coughing breath and took off after her. The sound of horns blaring and the screech of tires sent her into an all out sprint. Lunging forward, she felt the small body collide with hers. Then a hardness hit her side and they were thrown in the air. Hitting the ground, they rolled down an embankment and stopped in a tangled mess of arms and legs. Hyper lay on top of the small woman, her head pounding, lungs burning and every other part of her body screaming for murder. She felt a wetness running down her face but didn't know if it was sweat or more of her precious blood. She didn't know how much more blood she could loose that week before she dropped over. Hearing a low moan come from the small woman, she watched her eyes start to flutter open. When they opened all the way, the fear she saw there shot right to her soul. With everything they had been through, the little thing still had some fight in her. She took a wild swing at Hyper's face and found her wrist locked in a vise grip hold. She let out a low keening sound and struggled against Hyper's body.
"Damn it!" Hyper croaked out. Reaching into a cargo pocket, she pulled out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed one small wrist to her own. "I can't?run?no more." She forced out before falling on her side and gasping for air.
"Hyper you alright?" Busch called from above. He looked down at the unmoving bodies and became worried. Limping down the embankment, he dropped beside Hyper and put as hand on her chest. He sighed when he felt her chest rise and a rapid heartbeat below. Jumping back when he heard a low growl, he held up his hands. "I won't hurt you, honest." He shook Hyper until she slapped away his hand. "Come on Hyper, we have to get you guys out of this ditch before?I don't know what."
"You're going to have to carry me." She said with a deep raspy voice.
"Ohh no I'm not! I did that the other night."
She gave him a slight grin and sat up with a low groan; she looked sideways and bared a canine at the smaller woman. "If she fights me, shot her!" She slowly got to her feet and then pulled the smaller woman up. The three of them hobbled up the embankment with difficulty, Busch because of his knee and the other two because someone was not cooperating at all.
"Let me go! You can't do this!"
"Wanna bet?" Each time Hyper tried to talk, her throat burned and tears came to her eyes. She rubbed at her throat and glared into green eyes. "Bitch!"
"Asshole!"
"Troll."
"All right you two, sounds like me and my wife." Stopping and rubbing his sore knee, Busch gave the small blonde a dirty look. "You act like her! Damn low blows, next it'll be my nuts huh?"
"Come closer and see." She lifted her cuffed hand and wiggled her fingers. "Why don't you two just let me go and I'll not report my kidnapping to the police?"
Hyper looked down at her and laughed. "I don't even think so! Come on we'll use the bathroom in the IHOP."
"What! We can't go in there; I'm handcuffed to what ever the Hell you are." Hyper ran her hand over the top of her dew rag and mumbled under her breath.
"Give me your gun Busch."
"Nope, orders are not to shot her." He stood shaking his head at his partner.
"I was gonna shot myself!" She yanked on the handcuffs and dragged a fighting blonde behind her.
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At the bathroom door, Corey threw on the brakes and refused to budge. There was no way she was going in the bathroom with a thug of any kind. It was bad enough that people had seen them handcuffed together.
"I'm not going in there with you! Besides, it's the women's bathroom and you're a man!" She wasn't expecting icy blue eyes to get so close to her that she went cross-eyed.
Hyper grabbed her hand and pressed it into her breast . "Now shut up. You go where I go, got it?"
Yanking her hand away with embarrassment, Corey got a very good look at the filthy, bruised and bloody face. She had seen it somewhere but couldn't remember where. When it hit her, she tried to break away and fight Hyper. "It's you! You chased me!"
"NO SHIT! I chased you all over fucking Winchester tonight, now shut up and get in here." Hyper was glad that the only people in the IHOP were drunks coming from the local bars; she had no worries that they would call the police. Once under the bright lights of the bathroom, Hyper was able to see more than the dirty faced woman. It was her eyes that held her. Even with the flames dancing in them, she knew those eyes.
Her voice deep and gravely she said. "Son of a bitch!" She rubbed a hand across her face and saw that it came away covered in blood. "Son of a bitch I'm bleeding! Again!" She pulled Corey up against her chest. "This is all your fault Deavers!" She tapped her forehead.
"My fault?" Her face went a deep red and spittle flew from her lips as she yelled. "You were chasing me, so it's your fault!"
"I wasn't chasing you! I was chasing?you." She dropped her head and let out a deep breath. "Can we get cleaned up and talk about this at the table, I really need a cup of coffee and to sit down."
"Who are you and why were you chasing me the other night is what I meant? I know it was you."
"Ohh shit, you were the kid at the warehouse fight." Shaking her head at her blindness. "Give me a break here will ya, it's been a long night." She looked with pleading eyes. "You won't run if I take the cuffs off will you?"
"That depends on?"
"I'll give you inside information on your stories but you can't print without my say so."
Her green eyes grew double in size. "You're a cop? Ohh for Christ sakes am I in trouble!"
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Hyper unlocked the handcuffs and dropped them into her cargo pocket. With one look in the mirror, she knew that she could scare with one look. Her face was bruised, battered and looked like Tyson's heavy bag. Pulling her dew rag off, she moaned when she saw that she had torn some of the sutures loose. Dropping her head down close to the sink, she poured water from her hands over her head and sucked in a breath.
"What happened to you, my Gods your head looks like a roadmap."
"Your brain, your brain on drugs."
"That makes a whole lot of sense." Corey said as she washed the dirt and blood from her face.
"You should know you shot pictures of the asshole." She looked under her arm and watched as Corey's movements froze.
"You shot him? I thought it was a bad drug deal."
"It wouldn't have been if he hadn't hit me with a wine bottle." She wiped her face with some paper towels and leaned against the sink. "You done? I don't know how much longer I can stand up."
Corey looked into the pain filled blue eyes and knew that the tall woman wasn't exaggerating. "Yeah, and then I want everything understand?"
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Busch took one look at his partner and cringed, she looked bad before but now with her face somewhat clean, she looked down right beaten.
"Damn Hyper you look bad, your eye is swelling closed." He leaned over the table and looked right into her left eye. "Can you see me alright?"
"Yeah and your still ugly." She picked up the coffee cup in front of her and sipped it slowly. A deep moan rumbled in her chest when the coffee warmed her sore throat. "SGT. Joe Busch meet Corey Deavers." She snorted when his eyes blinked a couple times at her before looking to Corey.
"We've been looking for you, ahh man!" He slapped the table. "Who were those guys chasing you?"
"No idea, I was in a deli and when I left, they started chasing me." Shrugging her shoulders, she looked over at Hyper. "You're a cop, can't you find out who you shot?"
"It's not that easy." Busch replied. "If he's still alive, his buddies will take him someplace other than a hospital. Then again, we have one body to identify. The guy driving the car couldn't have survived the accident."
"That's a start isn't it? Now I have a question." She turned in the booth and looked directly at Hyper. "What's your name?"
Hyper closed her eyes and sighed. "I really hate this part." She put her head on the table and mumbled. "Joe give her my wallet." Joe pulled her wallet from inside his pocket and handed it to Corey. Corey opened it, looked at the police badge, identification, and snickered.
"Was your mom and dad playing scrabble when they picked your name? SGT. Hypermnestra J. Crichton?"
"No, but I would have been better off if they had." She leaned back in the bench seat and sucked in a breath between clenched teeth. "Gods I hurt."
"You should after getting hit by a car and rolling down an embankment." Joe waved to the waitress for the check. "I'm surprised you're still alive."
"So am I, let's take Corey home first and then you can take me to the morgue."
"Sure, you want the real morgue or the one you live in, Hyperactive."
"Either one will do hairybusch."
Corey shook her head at them. "Sure am glad that my names normal."
"Come on Beaver, time to roll." Hyper pulled her up from the bench and flinched. "OK, maybe you two can roll and I'll just crawl or lay down and die right here."
"That's it, when I get you home I'm calling your sister."
"Ohh nooo not that! Geez she'll kill me." Hyper whined and moved faster towards the door.
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They stopped in front of Corey's apartment building and she got out of the backseat with a little difficulty. She could feel the aches and pains and knew that in the morning she would feel like a truck hit her. Leaning in through the window, she offered her hand to Joe. "Thanks for the ride."
"No problem, just glad you're alright."
"She pulled back a little and did the same to Hyper. "Nice being chased all over hell and getting hit by a car with you. You must be Hell on wheels when it comes to dates." Two sets of eyes swung to a laughing Joe.
"Sorry Hyperwhatever, I'll shut up now." He gave her a grin and faced forward.
"Not so fast Beaver, I'm going in with you. Those guys were after you for a reason."
"They don't know who I am so that means that they don't know where I live."
"Humor me will ya."
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They slowly and painfully climbed the four flights of stairs to Corey's floor; she pulled her keys from her pocket and had them taken from her hand.
"Stay right here." Hyper pulled her Glock from its holster and opened the door. The second she walked into the small apartment her gut twisted. After searching the place and finding the front doorjamb mangled, she called Corey in.
"Who the fuck tore up my apartment?" She looked around at what was once her futon. The cushions had been sliced and stuffing thrown all over the floor, after she had looked all through her apartment, she dropped down onto the floor and cried.
Hyper pulled her cell phone out, called the station, ordered a team out to investigate a B&E, and made sure that it was a top priority and involved her case. Easing down onto the floor next to Corey, she did something she had never done before; she pulled the small woman into her arms and held her. If anyone saw her like this, she would have the first appointment with the department head shrinker.
"Let's get out of here, I'll call and see if they found anything later." Getting up from the floor, she offered her hand to Corey and pulled her to her feet. The walk back down the stairs was more painful to Corey, she felt violated.
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Corey looked up at the warehouse building that Hyper lived in; she would never have thought that anyone lived in the place. It looked abandoned and neglected.
"You really live here?"
"Yep, come on I hear the shower calling me."
Corey looked around and took in wide the open area. The soft light coming in from the skylights casting shadows across the polished hardwood floors of the living room, pale blue couch and recliner sitting around blonde colored coffee and ends tables.
"It's beautiful." She whispered under her breath.
"It's just home." Hyper shocked herself by saying 'home' she always thought of the place as somewhere to sleep for a few hours. "Come on, you can use the shower first while I make some calls." She limped towards the other end of the loft to where she had one section blocked off with four-foot walls of glass bricks. Taking a clean towel and washcloth from a built in shelf, she handed them to Corey. "I'll find something for you to wear." She limped away towards where her bed and wardrobe sat on the opposite side, after finding a shirt and boxers, she returned to where Corey was still staring at the large enclosed shower with its dual showerheads. To one side was a large dark rose marbled Jacuzzi with padded sides and benches below. The other side was a matching toilet with a brass stand over the top of it with black and rose colored silk flowers on the shelves.
"Something wrong?" Hyper asked from where she stood behind her.
"No, it's just that?" She waved her hand at the bathroom.
"I know it's not me, my sister in-law was a construction worker. She did all the work for me."
Corey turned to look up into tired blue eyes. "Construction worker, what's your brother do for a living?"
"A small smile came to Hyper's face. "My sister is a veterinarian. Here's some clothes, they'll be big but they're clean."
Shock registered on her face for a split second then turned into a smile. "Ohh?thanks." She looked nervously at the shower and then back to Hyper.
"Don't worry I can't see you in there." She limped away to the kitchen area to give Corey some privacy. She never thought about what other people would think of how she lived. The only ones ever in her place were Mack, Charley and Joe, and they all knew that she had no modesty. She pulled her hooded sweatshirt over her head with a loud groan, then pulled off her T-shirt and sat down in a chair to wait. Hearing the shower turn on, she laid her head on the table and closed her eyes.
Corey sighed when the hot water beat on her sore muscles; she hurt all over and had bruises on top of bruises. She could only imagine how Hyper felt; a small smile came to her lips when she thought of the tall women's name. She remembered the myth behind the name and recited it to herself.
Hypermnestra was the only one of the fifty daughters of Danaus that did not kill her husband, and this is how it happened: Danaus and his fifty daughters fled in fear of his twin brother Aegyptus. The fifty sons of Aegyptus followed them, and forced Danaus to make his daughters marry them. Danaus, since he hated his brother, gave each of his daughters a pin to murder their husbands on their wedding night. Hypermnestra was the only one who spared her husband, Lynceus. She did this because she fell in love with him and didn't want to kill him. Because of this, Lynceus made her the ancestress of the kings of Argives. She was also rewarded by being sent straight to Elysium when she died. Elysium is the land of Orchards, a wonderful, heavenly place.
"Wonder if she has a heart under all that armor she wears?" She mumbled to herself. After feeling that she couldn't possible get any cleaner or relaxed, she dried off and dressed in the clothes Hyper had given her. Pulling the collar of the shirt up to her nose, she caught the soft scent of musk and sandalwood. With a towel over her head, she dried her long hair while walking from behind the glass wall. Looking around the large area, she spotted Hyper at the butcher-block table with her head resting on her arms. Walking slowly up to her, she placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a small shake.
"Hyper showers free." No response came from her so Corey tried again. "Hey, you can take a shower now." She watched as Hyper's head rolled on her arms and she looked up with a bloodshot eye. "Joe was right, you look bad."
"Gee thanks, you don't look so good either ya know."
"At least I don't stink." She wrinkled her nose and waved a hand in front of her face.
"Who says I'm taking a shower?" She offered Corey a wicked grin. "Maybe I like to stink?" She took a whiff of herself and shivered. "On second thought." She tried to get up from the chair and slumped back down. "Maybe I'll just use the sprayer from the sink?" Corey looked down at the large bruise that covered Hyper's shoulder and back then down her ribcage to see an even worse color.
"Can you breathe OK?"
"Between my ribs and my throat, not to good."
"I'm sorry I punched you in the throat, I was only thinking of getting away and it was instinct."
"It's OK; I was a little rough with you and deserved a good punch." She eased herself up out of the chair and stood still for a few minutes before limping to the shower. Corey stood and watched her and wondered how she was able to move at all. While Hyper was in the shower, Corey looked through her refrigerator and found absolutely nothing. The thing was bare with the exception of bottled water, juice, milk and some unknown creature in a take-out container. Checking the cabinets and pantry, she found two boxes of cereal, one of fruit loops and the other Count Chocula. "She eats kiddy stuff." Searching deeper, she found two boxes of macaroni and cheese and Vienna sausages. Twenty minutes later, she had two bowls of what she called macaroni surprise. It was something she made at home but with hot dogs in it. The shower went off just as she placed the bowls on the table with the glasses of milk. Looking up from the table, her breath caught in her chest when Hyper limped towards her. She hardly recognized her with her face clean, even with the bruises and cuts; Hyper was a stunningly beautiful woman. The short-cropped hair at the sides made her cheekbones standout and emphasize the blue of her eyes.
"Hope you don't mind, I made us something to eat." She pointed to the bowls. "Do you have any pain killers or Tylenol?"
"In the bathroom cabinet, help yourself." She eased down into a chair and started eating like it was the first meal she had eaten in ages. She looked up when a small hand held out two Cyclobenzaprines. "I don't need those, you take them."
"Bullshit, now take them or I'll throw them down your throat."
"Geez you're as bad as Mack and I just met you." She popped the pills in her mouth and washed them down with milk. "Any more of what ever this is?"
"On the stove, just save me some."
When they were finished eating, Corey placed everything in the sink and filled them with water. When she was finished, she saw that Hyper could barely keep her eyes open. She wasn't much better but she had no idea what to do. "Where can I sleep?"
"Your choice, in the bed with me or the couch."
"In bed with you?"
"It's a California King, I'll never know your there." Getting up from the table, she pointed to both the huge waterbed and the couch. "That's a waterbed and that's a torture toy."
Hearing the word waterbed made up her mind up real fast, she had never slept in one. "You don't mind sharing?"
"If I did, I wouldn't have offered." She tried to stretch and groaned instead. "I'm going to bed before I fall down."
Corey watched how slowly she limped to the bed and felt guilty. It was her fault that Hyper was so beaten up, if she hadn't been out on the streets. "I'd be dead right now." Tears filled her eyes when the whole picture came together. "Someone wanted her dead and if it wasn't for Hyper and Joe, she would have met the Gods that night no matter where she had been. Wiping her eyes, she followed Hyper.
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Hyper heard Mack and Charley's voices in the elevator, opening one eye, she gazed down at the blonde head resting on her shoulder and felt the warmth of an arm wrapped around her waist. Lying completely still, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of a warm body lying so close to her. Even when she had sexual partners, which wasn't often or in her own home, she never stayed long enough to feel this. Another part of her sisters life falling on top of her and making her realize what she was missing.
"Hyper you're still in bed its three o?Ohhhh!" Mack grinned down at her sister and the small blonde lying across her.
Charley stood beside her wife and looked at her sister in-law. "Are you sure that's Hyper?"
"Yep, I'd recognize that baldhead anywhere."
"Cute Sis, love you to." She croaked out. "Don't tell me, Joe called you."
"Her Psychotic abilities are as sharp as ever." She sat down on the edge of the bed and ran a finger across Hyper's swollen left eye and then the bruise on her throat. "If he hadn't told me what happened, I'd have thought you had a sucker bite."
"More like a sucker punch." She eased out from under Corey and let her sister help her out of bed. "He tell you I got hit by a car?"
"Yep, and I asked why you weren't in the hospital." She handed Hyper one of the three shopping bags she and Charley had brought with them and went into the kitchen. "Of course I already knew the answer." She shot twinkling hazel eyes over the bag. "So that's Corey Deavers in your bed?"
"It's not what it looked like."
"Hell I know that, you're to damn chivalrous for anything else. All you need is some shiny armor, sword and you're all set." She pointed to a chair and raised an eyebrow when Hyper shook her head no. "Sit or else, and take your shirt off."
"How come you always wanna see me naked and in pain?"
"Cheap thrills Sis now strip."
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Corey searched the bed with a hand and grabbed onto a bulky warm arm, running her fingers up it, her eyebrows drew down over her nose as she felt the long hair. Peeking open one eye, she yelped and jumped away when a pair of golden eyes looked at her.
"Morning, ya hungry?" Charley heard Mack yell at her to behave and she wiggled her eyebrows at Corey. "Damn she caught me!" She gave Corey a big toothy grin and held out her hand. "I'm Charley, Hyperhedgehog's sister in-law."
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"Stop moving or I'll give you a lobotomy. Not like anyone would notice the difference in you." Mack clipped the sutures and pulled them out one by one. "You need sutures in your eyebrow, thigh and knee. Plus six months in a cage where you can't get hurt."
"And just me sitting there torturing her with pictures of nekkid women's!" Charley stepped behind Hyper and ran her fingers through her spiky hair. "Sooo snuggly soft!"
"Charley do you want to be handcuffed to a wall again?"
"Only if I'm naked and you have a whip."
Corey stood at a distance away and listened to the three women talking, it was like being in the land of perverts. "This is going to be so much fun." She said to herself and approached the trio. Sitting down at the table across from Hyper, she blushed when she looked into her icy blue eyes. She had a distinct feeling that she had ended up lying on top of the tall dark woman while they slept. Not that it bothered her at all; she was just worried about what Hyper thought.
"Morning Corey, I see you met my insane wife Charley." Mack looked up from what she was doing to capture green eyes with twinkling hazel. "She's harmless unless tempted with pornographic materials." She gave an innocent looking Charley a raised eyebrow. "She's liable to drool all over you."
"Only a little." Charley grinned and then gave Mack a sloppy kiss on her cheek. "Ya'll hungry, I'll make lunch?"
Hyper twitched at the pull of a suture being removed. "Starving and none of that health food shit you two eat."
"Would I do that to you Hedgehog? I got us huge steaks and enough grease to lube your car." Charley waved a thick steak in front of Hyper and smacked her pawing hand. "You may eat raw meat when you're alone but not when I'm here, damn animal."
Mack looked to where Corey was looking at her black medical bag. "Could you pull a couple suture kits out of that for me, Hedgehog needs some stitches." She looked to see the dark bruises peppering Corey's face and arms. "How are you feeling, any nasty cuts that you want me to look at?"
"Nope, I'm OK, just a lot of bruises and a few scrapes." She looked down at her right thigh and inspected a long gash.
Mack nodded her head at her. "Uhhh huh, you're next."
Hyper chuckled at the shocked expression on Corey's face; she wiggled her fingers at her and said. "Can't escape Mack, she has lots of practice assessing injuries because of me."
"That's right now hold still so I can put your eyebrow back on."
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Corey watched Hyper eat her steak by picking it up with her hands and gnawing on it, it was like watching a starving animal at the zoo. Worse was Charley doing the same thing right next to her.
"Aren't they sick bitches?" Mack asked as she cut her steak into pieces. "You should see them at a restaurant; it's like having two-year-olds." She put her knife down and studied Corey for a few seconds. "Joe told me about your apartment, you know that anyone can get your address if they want it bad enough. Charley pulled all your information at the county assessor's office."
"I thought Joe knew where I worked because he's a cop." She looked down at her plate then back up at Mack. "So that means that those guys could have gotten the information just as easy. What I don't know is why they're after me; I don't know who they are or anything."
"Did you submit any new stories or pictures?"
Corey looked over to see Hyper talking around the steak hanging out of her mouth.
"You're an animal and yes I submitted a new story with a picture of?Corey you fucking...!" She slapped her forehead. "Three guys doing a drug deal. It's got to be them; I mean who else would be pissed about it?"
Charley swung her head and smacked Hyper with the steak hanging out of her mouth. "Like ta see that." She mumbled.
"It's in the paper already." Corey said softly and wondered why Mack threw a carrot slice at Charley.
"I swear you have a one track mind Charley, it's not a picture of Corey you idiot." Mack hit her with another carrot.
"Damn, I wanted ta see...!"
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Corey and Hyper were sitting in the living room after Mack and Charley had left, Hyper had so much Vet wrap on her she could hardly move and Corey was inspecting the neat stitches in her thigh.
"So what am I supposed to do about my apartment?" She looked up into one blue eye.
Hyper leaned back against the arm of the couch and watched Corey fidget with the hem of her T-shirt. "You can't go back there until we get the assholes that broke in; they'll be watching the place and waiting for you to show up. We need to find out if they did this on their own or someone sent them."
"Guess I could stay at a motel until it's resolved but I'll need to go there and get some clothes and stuff."
"Nope, no can do." She shook her head and groaned. "If they see you, they'll follow you."
"What else am I supposed to do hide for ever?" Her temper was flaring and ready to explode, she hated not being able to do what she wanted. Getting to her feet, she limped back and forth in front of an amused Hyper. Throwing her hands in the air, she stopped, folded her arms over her chest and glared at Hyper. "You're a cop, what am I supposed to do?"
"Well?you could stay here with me and?"
"Watch you eat like an animal?"
"I only do that with Charley, I do have some redeeming qualities. I always put the cap on the toothpaste, put the toilet seat down and shower at least once a month whether I need it or not."
"Gods a dream come true, a women who puts the toilet seat down." She dropped onto the couch and starred at a smirking Hyper. "What about work, this is the biggest story I've ever had and I'm not going to loose the chance of getting my big shot at a Pulitzer."
"That plaque will look real good sitting on your tombstone."
"Point taken." She dropped her head into her hands and felt tears fill her eyes. "This really sucks ya know?" She wiped a tear with her thumb, glanced over at Hyper and gave her a watery smile. "Now what, do I just sit around here until you guys get them or what?"
"Well, you could ride with us if you want. Only thing is?if you're seen, we'll all be in deep shit." She looked over Corey with an intense blue eye and stopped at her long blonde hair. Corey picked up what she was thinking and shook her head.
"Ooohh nooo, I am not cutting my hair so just forget it."
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She sat on the edge of the waterbed running her hands through her short dark layered hair and sighed. "I can't believe I let you cut off all my hair and dye it brown." She looked over her shoulder at Hyper who was stretched out across the bed. "I've never had short hair before and it feels weird."
"Just think how I felt when I woke up with a baldhead." She leaned up onto one elbow and ran her fingers through Corey's hair. "You look more mature this way, not like the twelve year-old I thought you were." Corey lay down onto her side and looked at the peach fuzz growing on Hyper's head.
"You do look kinda like a hedgehog." She ran her fingers across the top of Hyper's head and then where the sides were cut short. The light that sparked behind a blue eye brought a smile to her face. "Does your eye hurt?" She brushed a fingertip across a swollen eyebrow.
"A little bit, still don't know when it happened. Then again the night was a blur." She lay down, closed her good eye and moaned when her body relaxed. "Hope I put a big dent in that assholes hood." She mumbled and then started to snore lightly.
"I hope you did too hedgehog." Corey moved up in the bed and lay watching Hyper sleep until she too surrender to its arms.
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Corey opened her eyes to the bright sunlight shinning down on her from above, yawning; she stretched and felt a cold air hit the backs of her thighs. Moving back to where she was, she noticed that it felt like she was wrapped in an electric blanket. Slowly, she moved a hand behind her and felt a leg pressed up against her, leaning back she felt soft breasts press into her and a warm breath tickle the back of her neck. Searching for the arm she knew had to be close by; she found it, brought it around her body and held the large hand against her breast.
Hyper snuggled her face against the soft hair that came to Corey's collar, she had been awake for a while but hated the thought of moving. Finding herself wrapped around Corey when she woke, she didn't want to move and wake her, fearing another morning of embarrassment from the small woman.
"I know you're awake Hypersensitive." Corey rolled over, looked into a half-lidded eye and grinned. "You breathe different when you sleep."
"Busted huh? Sorry about?you know laying all over you." Her face turned a light red and she looked away.
Corey gave her a wide grin and moved before she spoke. "It's OK, you're snuggly soft." She went into the bathroom before Hyper could do anything about her comment. Shedding her clothes, she crawled into the shower and yelped when the cold water hit her chest.
"Helps if you let the water heat up first." Corey heard Hyper's voice near the shower and spun to put her back to her. "I promise not to flush!" She yelled over the sound of the shower and heard Corey yell 'what?' back. She looked up to see a pair of huge green eyes watching her from where she sat on the toilet. "Never mind." She finished and left Corey standing there like a deer in the headlights. "After a week with me nothing will faze you." Hyper chuckled to herself.
Fixing western omelets for them along with bacon, toast and pancakes, Hyper waited for Corey to come from the bathroom. When she saw her, she swore she was a little kid. Corey had put on her terry cloth robe after her shower and was holding the front of it off the floor so she wouldn't trip.
"Damn tall people." She sniffed the air and smiled. "You can cook?"
"Of course I can cook, I just don't like shopping. Mack does it for me."
"The three of you are really close, closer than most I mean."
"Gets that way when you spend most of your life with someone." She saw the quizzical look on Corey's face. "I dated Charley first."
"Oh, I didn't know. I mean how could I know I just met you guys and I never thought you were?"
"A great big dyke?" She laughed when Corey's mouth worked a few times and a light blush worked its way up her face.
"I mean I should have known from some of the things Charley said last night." Leaning forward to rest her chin on her hand, she connected with blue eyes. "If you dated Charley, how did she end up with Mack?"
"We make better friends than anything else and Mack drooling and whimpering every time Charley came over to the house helped me make a decision?to handcuff Charley to her bed one night." She got up from the table, wiggled her brows at Corey and went towards the bathroom. "As soon as I get out of the shower, we'll go into the station house and see about getting your clothes and stuff."
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Corey's clothes were beyond help, they were so torn that she had thrown them out. So searching through Hyper's dresser, she borrowed some of her clothes. They were big, baggy, comfortable and carried Hyper's scent. While waiting for Hyper to finish her shower she dozed on her bed and opened her eyes when a wet towel landed on her face. "Just what I wan?by the Gods." She pulled the towel back over her face when she saw Hyper standing next to the bed with nothing on but a grin.
"Guess I have to go in naked since you're wearing my clothes."
The towel came off and two wide green eyes looked at her and then drifted downward.
"If we both go in naked I bet we could get free coffee and donuts!" Hyper grinned at her before she searched for some clothes. "Hell the things are always stale and my boss hates when I flash him, so I guess I'll put clothes on."
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Corey walked around the blue Dodge Viper and whistled she could see Hyper riding a Harley but not driving a car like this.
"It's a beautiful car hedgehog, being a cop must pay pretty well."
"Nope, the pay sucks. I bought this at the police auction; it was confiscated during a drug bust. Most of the stuff I have comes from the auctions, the stuff is dirt cheap." She hit the small box on her key chain and heard the alarm beep. Opening the door for Corey, she closed it after she was in and went around to the driver's side. She shook her head when the door opened before her. "Never had that happen before." She said while sliding into the leather seat.
"Well you opened my door so I did the same." She raised an eyebrow at Hyper. "What?"
"Nothing." She grinned back, started her car and hit the garage door opener. "Hold on, it's been years since I drove."
"What! Ohh Gods I'm gonna die!" Corey sunk down into the seat as the car lurched and hiccupped forward.
"Just kidding." Hyper hit the gas pedal and peeled rubber out of the warehouse.
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Busch was sitting at their connecting desks when Hyper and Corey came into the squad room. His mouth dropped open when he saw her dressed in faded Levis and a black sleeveless T-shirt. It had been years since he had seen her in anything but baggy jailing clothes. It was Corey's appearance that brought a smile to his face, she reminded him of a street urchin.
"What are you two doing here; I thought you would be taking it easy after the other night?"
"We need to get some stuff from Corey's apartment so I'm going to send over some uniforms to do it. That way it looks like they were collecting evidence." She held her office chair out for Corey and motioned for her to sit. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
Busch leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the edge of his desk. "So how was your time at Hyperactives, she didn't run around naked the whole time did she?" He laughed at the blush running up Corey's face. "She's a good person, strange at times but." He raised his hands at her. "Wait a minute here, you look different."
"Hyper cut and dyed my hair; she said that way those guys who were after me won't recognize me."
"The hedgehog did that? Gods she has more skills than I thought."
"I have many skills you don't know about." She wiggled her tongue at Busch. "Many you'll never see."
"Sometimes I wonder how I ever survive around you."
"Just wait, you'll be stuck with 'us' as soon as I can move without feeling like a half dozen knives jabbing me in my side."
"Us as in who else?"
"Just me." Corey said. "I need a body guard or so someone seems to think." She looked up at Hyper.
"Haa! You need a body guard to guard you against her and the other two deviants!"
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"Just look at these pictures and tell me if any of them look familiar?"
"Hyper I have pictures of the guys that chased me." She closed the mug shot book and grinned. "I also have a couple shots of you."
"Why didn't you say something?" She took the book and put it back on the shelf next to her desk.
"Why didn't you ask? I have copies at my nicely redecorated apartment and at work."
"I think work is a better bet, can we go in through the basement?"
"Sure, I've got other film that I have to develop, maybe there's some shots in it that you can use."
"Any naked pictures of women I can give to Charley?"
"What? Do I look like someone who would take pictures of naked women?"
Hyper rubbed her chin and shook her head. "Nope, can I use your camera to take pictures of naked women?"
Corey dropped her forehead onto Hyper's desk and whimpered she knew she was in for a wild ride.
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Hyper looked at the picture of her self from the fight at the warehouse and sneered. "This is an awful shot, I look?"
"Like a thug? Come on it's not that bad, this ones worse." She handed her one where she was buying drugs from a gang member. "You know I thought you were an addict."
"What can I say; I'm good at undercover things."
"You really need to get out more you know that?" Corey took the picture from her and smacked her in the shoulder. "I'm hungry; let's go get something to eat and you're buying."
"Me, why do I have to buy?" She whined.
"Because my little hedgehog." She grabbed a hold of Hyper's ear and pulled her down so that she could speak into her ear. "You owe me for having my car towed to the impound lot."
"That's not fair, how was I supposed to know that the guy driving the flatbed didn't work for the department?"
"He stole my car Hyper! My Datsun! You know they don't make them anymore."
"Yeah thank Gods." She mumbled.
"What was that Hypermoron?"
"Ohh nothing, lets go eat." She jumped when she felt a hand go into her rear pocket. "Hey!"
Corey wiggled the keys in front of her. "You're driving sucks."
"Aaahh maaan." She dragged her feet and followed Corey from the darkroom.
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Two days later with Hyper back in her baggy clothes, Corey in the back seat of the Cutlass and Busch wishing he was anywhere but stuck in a car with them. Busch swore that before the end of shift, his ears would fall off from all the questions Corey was asking. It was like having a three-year-old with the over used word 'Why?'
"But why do you have to keep buying drugs from the same dealers, can't you do like the cops on TV and get the stuff and bust them?"
Busch whimpered and banged his head on the steering wheel. Hyper turned in her seat and went nose to nose with Corey; a snarl came to her lips before she spoke.
"We need to gain their trust so that I can move up in the food chain and get the bad guy."
"But you already know that's Gillingham."
Hyper's eyes grew huge with what Corey said. "How do you know that?"
"Gods Hyper, I'm a reporter it's what I do, I get information."
Hyper turned and dropped back in her seat. "Ohh." She looked over at an amused Busch. "Ohh shut-up Joe." She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. Corey leaned up over the front seat and whispered into Hyper's ear.
"Now, can't it wait?"
"Hyper, please."
"Just a little bit longer our man should be here soon." She scanned the street across from them for the dealer. Busch looked back at Corey and then to his partner. "What's the problem?"
"She needs a bathroom."
"Ohhh, well our man should be here any minute now."
Corey was calling them both names in her mind, she felt like she was about to bust. "Listen you two, I need to go NOW!" She yelled right into Hyper's ear.
"Do what Hyper does." He handed her an empty Coke bottle. Corey looked at it with a raised eyebrow then between the two cops.
"And what does she do with this?" She smacked him in the head with it.
"She whips it out and then pisses in the bottle." He looked over to see Hyper covering her mouth and trying not to laugh.
"I've seen her naked and unless she grows something for the occasion, it's impossible. Now let me out before I piss on your seat! Better yet I'll sit on your lap HEDGEHOG!"
"Not in my car you won't, I've had this since High School!"
"I know! Your date's underwear are still back here!" She flung a pair of dirty jockey shorts at him and started bouncing in the seat. She was ready to kick a window out if she had to. Busch started to panic; he looked around the car and pulled out a female version of a hospital urinal. "Here!" He handed it to her and had to duck as it came flying back at him.
Hyper pulled on the door handle and fell out on to the ground laughing, she reached up and opened the back door for Corey and covered her head as two feet jumped out and ran for the alleyway.
"Hyper get over here!" Corey whispered harshly and danced from foot to foot.
"Ohh now what?" She whined, got to her feet and walked over to a dancing Corey.
"Turn around." She grabbed Hyper's hips and spun her so that she was facing the car. "I don't want anyone to see me and I can't believe I'm doing this!" She yanked her pants down, grabbed a hold of Hyper's hips and squatted. Hyper's head fell back in disbelief; she closed her eyes and groaned. A low moan came from Corey; she laid her forehead against Hyper's lower back and moaned some more. Hyper was ready to sink to her knees with all the low moaning coming from behind her, those sounds were doing things to her that she knew would make the next few hours rather uncomfortable.
"Corey are we gonna have to put up flood warnings?" Her answer was another deep moan. "Gods woman, that's it no more super big gulps for you." A snort came from Corey and another moan that sent tingles through Hyper's body. She felt arms encircle her from behind and Corey's head resting against her back.
"It hurts Hyper." She whimpered into the strong back. "And I can't bend over to get, you know my pants."
"What hurts?" She turned around and let Corey lean into her.
"My bladder, I think it's like four times its normal size and it doesn't know what to do."
"OK, hold on a minute." She reached down and pulled Corey's pants up, zipped and buttoned them. She wrapped an arm around Corey's shoulders and helped her stumble to the car. "No more super big gulps." She surprised herself by kissing Corey's temple before she released her from a small hug. A low deep moan went right to her center when Corey fell over on the back seat.
"Is she alright back there?" Busch asked Hyper when she got into the car.
"Yeah, she'll make it. There's our guy, pull up there and lets get this over with."
They pulled up where the dealer was standing next to a paper box; Hyper leaned out the window so he could see her. "Hey man, I need some stuff." He walked over to the car, leaned against the side and looked into the back seat.
"Who's that back there, I ain't selling to no strangers."
"Come on man, you know me and that's my woman back there." Hyper reached over the front seat and ran her hand up the inside of a moaning Corey's thigh. "She needs a fix bad, stomach cramping on her."
"Alright what you need tonight?" He asked and watched Corey the entire time.
"Got any smack on you?"
Corey cracked an eye open and watched the long fingered hand run up and down her inner thigh. A deep moan escaped her lips when the hand traveled up further and stopped. What Hyper was doing was driving her to insanity; she laid a hand over Hyper's and lay still. When fingers started caressing her thigh again, she moaned and rolled her head on the seat. Then it was over and they were driving away.
"That's five hundred bucks worth of useless shit." Hyper held up the baggie of drugs. "Wanna see what we got?" She leaned over the front seat and looked into a pair of hungry green eyes.
"Ohh I got something for you alright." Corey held up a fist and smacked it into her palm. Hyper's dark brows shot upward and she slunk back down into the seat to the sound of Busch laughing.
"I think your woman is pissed at you."
"Oohh yeah and I'm going to Hell." She mumbled to herself. Surprise Hyperidiot your gaydar needs realigned!
"In a hand basket Hypergrabhands, in a great big hand basket." Corey whispered in her ear.
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Once they had gotten back to Hyper's, Corey went into the living room to use Hyper's laptop to do research and an outline for her story. She had to get everything down before she forgot small details that could either make or break her. Every once in a while she would look towards the bed to watch Hyper sleep. She kept thinking of what happened in the car and didn't know why it had made her mad. It wasn't as if she were a virgin, she was far from it in her eyes. One of the reasons she was estranged from her small family was because of her sexual preferences. No one at her job knew about her and she had kept her social life on the back burner. Dropping her head into her hands, she took a deep breath before looking up at what she had typed so far. Hitting the save and then closing the program, she went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. Letting the hot water beat the tired muscles into putty, she turned off the water, wrapped up in Hyper's robe and headed to the bed. Sitting softly down on the edge, she let her eyes travel from Hyper's closed eyes down to where the sheet was draped across her muscular thighs. Taking the sheet, she drew it up to Hyper's waist and went around to the other side. Laying the robe across the foot of the bed, she slipped beneath the covers and rolled onto her side away from Hyper. She lay there listening to the deep even breathing of the tall woman and replayed everything over in her head again. The feel of her lips against her temple, the strong fingers caressing her thigh and the deep smoky voice claiming possession. It was those words 'My woman' that had brought up the flame of anger as quick then as it did now. She was no one's 'woman' and never would be. Partner yes, friend, lover and equal were the only things she ever wanted to hear come from a lovers lips.
She had seen her own family torn apart because her father was the type that said women were only there for one thing and that was to serve and obey men. After watching how her mother put up with the bullshit, she vowed that no one would ever treat her like a doormat. And that included friends, which she truly hoped Hyper was becoming. Snuggling down into her pillow, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep only to be haunted by the arousal she had felt stirred by long fingers. Pulling the pillow over her head, she took a deep breath and held it until her lungs burned. She was about to get up and watch TV when an extremely warm body snuggled up to her back. The soft press of moist lips at the nape of her neck, murmured words and then the deep even sound of breathing pulled her into the land of dreams.
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Continued In Part 2