Page 4 of Captive

I blow a subdued raspberry from my lips. "Clooney's assmaybe."

Maddox turns the radio back on and squelches my protest by promising not to sing. He thinks it's because his singing annoys me. If only that were thecase.

He starts drumming a beat on the steering wheel. Unlike his singing, it's annoying. "So how is what's his name?" he askscasually.

I know exactly who he's asking about, but I wait to see if he comes up with the name, knowing full well, the forgetful moment is an act. He drums faster and then stops. "What's his name again? Bryce? Fluffy name. Sounds like something you'd name a petrabbit."

"Then I guess Brodie is lucky that his name is not Bryce. And Brodie is fine. We're going out to dinner and a movie tonight. If this damn stakeout everends."

"He's kind of a dick, if you ask me." Maddox continues his steering wheel melody but it's far lessintense.

"Didn't ask you," I saycurtly.

The car wiggles side to side as Maddox reaches across to the glove box. We'd been just a front seat console away from each other for five hours, but the second he passes into my personal space, my heart races ahead. He unexpectedly turns his head while still leaning in front of me. He's close enough that I can count the freckles on his face. Three. But I already knew that stupid, meaningless fact. I also know exactly where the thin scar he got from crashing his bike through a sliding glass door at the age of ten dissects his righteyebrow.

Maddox smiles faintly at me and holds up a stick of gum. I shake my head. He backs out of my personal space, but I can still feel the heat of him in the air around me. I can still smell the faint fragrance of his shampoo, even through the stink in thecar.

He sits back hard enough to make the entire car shudder. He unwraps the stick of gum but pauses before pushing it into his mouth. "Ten," he says tentatively as if he's not sure where his sentence is going. He looks at me and his jade green eyes pierce right through me. "There's something I've been meaning to tellyou."

A black Escalade with darkly tinted windows zips past our car, spraying it with fine grit from theasphalt.

I sit up straight. "It's gonna have to wait. Looks like shit's about to godown."

The black SUV pulls up in front of the liquor store. A slim, short guy with an oversized gray hooded sweatshirt hops down from the driver's seat and leaves the car running. He glances around just enough to let us know we've got the rightguy.

"That's him, that's Vinny," Maddoxsays.

Our suspect hurries on his bright blue, unlaced high-tops into the liquorstore.

"Car's still running," I note. Maddox is already out thedoor.

I watch for a few seconds as my partner strolls across the street, coolly, calmly in his faded jeans and black steel toed boots. His bicep thickens, stretching the tattoo on his arm, as he rakes his fingers through his dark hair. His long strides make quick work of the space between us and the idlingSUV.

From the corner of my eye, I catch a movement. A gangly guy, maybe nineteen or twenty, wearing a Mortal Kombat t-shirt and backwards baseball cap, rolls toward the SUV on hisskateboard.

I slip out of the car and stick my hands in my pockets as the guy looks my direction. He seems to easily convince himself that the woman walking across the street is just heading to the liquor store. Maddox has already pulled the keys from the Escalade. He leans casually against the side of the car, out of view of the sidewalk and tosses the keys on his palm as he waits for thetransaction.

The driver steps out of the liquor store carrying a brown bag. He spots the kid on the skateboard and tilts his head toward the adjacent alley. I stop in front of the shoe store on the opposite side of the alley and pretend to browse the sandals, but I can see right through the window pane and out the shop window on the alley side. Vinny, a drug-pushing middleman has been selling tainted heroin and people are dying from it. He is in a lot of trouble, but he's just a stepping stone. We need Vinny to get to the source of the lethaldrugs.

I cough once, the signal for Maddox that the transaction has taken place. He steps out from behind the Escalade. "Now just what are you two boysdoing?"

"Fuck." Vinny shoots out of the alley and grabs the passenger door handle. He rockets into the Escalade and bolts over the console to the driver'sseat.

The skater takes off, but isn't going to get far in analley.

Maddox walks to the driver's window and taps on it. "Guess you need thekeys."

I'm entertained enough by the scene that my attention is diverted from my suspect. It takes a second before the sound of skateboard wheels grinding over cement pulls my attentionback.

The junkie shoves me hard in the chest as he skates past. I stumble back several steps before taking off after him. "Wait, I'm just trying to save your life, you stupid dumbass!" I yell. My feet slap the pavement hard. I'm fast and his skateboard is slowed by the cracks in the citysidewalk.

I close in on him. His hat flies off as he hits a rut and the board is airborne. He lands hard and makes the split second decision to kick the board back toward the lady cop chasing after him. I don't have time to react or slow my sprint. The board is flying straight at me. At the last second, before I can jump out of the way, the fast moving board hits a crack and flies into myshin.

"Fuck!" I push off the ground to avoid falling face first onto the cement. Just like the board seconds before, I'm airborne. My subconscious shouts at me to tuck and roll. I somersault and manage somehow to land on my side. Thudding pain shoots through my entire body. I roll twice before stopping against a newspaperstand.

"You all right,Ten?"

I wait for a second to see if anything feels broken. Just bruised. I push to sitting and look in the direction of Maddox's voice. Somehow, in the midst of my tumbling act, my partner managed to catch the skateboarder. He's holding the jerk by the back of his shirt. The guy is comically flailing his tight fists through the air never making contact with anything. The whole scene has pulled a group of boys out from the local comic book store. They have a good laugh at the angry guy punching at theair.

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