Not at all wanting to open the second one,Maritzia glanced up at the watching Lieutenant. "Oh yes, that is fromOfficer Moore he looked—furious," she concluded, not without a littletouch of glee to her tone.
Gathering her papers and putting them into hersatchel, Lieutenant Bishops stood up from the desk and outstretched her hand."Thank you for your cooperation Officer DeLeon. Despite the technicalitiesof how it went down, your bravery was noted and appreciated."
Standing, Maritzia shook the woman's hand andgave her a tight smile. Waiting until she left the room, Maritzia hesitantlyturned back to the table with the remaining folded note. Gingerly, she grabbedit and carefully undid its folds.
"Don't even think about running."
Maritzia's stomach dropped. After subduing theman, she never really thought of Cade's response or even her uncle's for thatmatter. Her sergeant had shown up to the scene and told her to go back to thestation while Scanlon and another officer transported the suspect to thehospital and then to the jail. Everything had happened so fast she reallyhadn't had the chance to stop and think. Now she did though. Nearly draggingher feet with dread, she walked out of the office and retrieved her phone fromthe lockbox in the outer office. Stepping cautiously out into the hallway, shelet out a loud sigh of relief at the sight of the empty hall. She could justimagine Cade's tall, muscular figure leaning against the wall with his armscrossed over his chest, waiting to murder her.
Following the hall down to the chief's office,she heard the sounds of talking coming up at the intersection and forcedherself to smile at the group of officers.
"Hey there, Miss Black Belt," one ofthe officers called out in a singsong tone. "Giiirl, you rocked that guy'sass today," he laughed, followed by the other two officers.
"Yeah, seriously that was cool asshit." The female officer gave her an approving smile. "But I bet IIAlit your ass up though, right?"
Maritzia nodded and gave them a solemn stare."I'm surprised you can't see the smoke because Lieutenant Bishops didn'tcome to play games today," she informed them, appreciating their unisonhiss of pain at the sound of the notorious Lieutenant's name.
"Damn girl, do you even still have ajob?"
"Barely," she groaned before pointing athumb towards the chief's office. "We'll see after I go talk to thechief."
They all gave her pitying grimaces before sharinga laugh. "Oh God. Well, good luck with that."
Maritzia just nodded and waved goodbye beforereturning back to her slow march towards imminent doom. She honestly wasn'tsure which was going to be worse, her uncle's reaction or Cade's. Everyone'sreaction to her being called to the chief's office made her feel like adelinquent kid being called to the principal’s office.
The chirp on her phone brought her attention backto reality and she read a message from Scanlon.
"Hey crazy woman, I'm out for the day. Iwould've waited but I figured there was nothing I could do to prevent you fromgetting your ass chewed out by your uncle and your mans. Ok, well. if yousurvive, I'll see you Monday. P.S. In case you haven't figured out, Cade isgoing to either murder you or lock you in a closet."
Maritzia let out a long groan and shoved thephone back into her pocket.
Sadly, the remainder of the walk to the chief'soffice took hardly any time at all. Passing the empty assistant's desk,Maritzia took a deep breath and knocked on her uncle's door.
A gruff voice came from within. "Comein."
Opening the door, she spotted her uncle'srelentless gaze immediately as he sat behind his desk. She was so fucked.Forcing herself to go inside she closed the door behind her and stopped infront of his desk. How many times had she stood in front of this desk now, likea disciplined child? She was starting to lose count.
Behind him, the bright orange shafts of theevening sun streaked across the sky, though despite its beauty the scene didnothing to dampen the edge to her uncle's voice. "Don't think for onesecond Maritzia, that because IIA let you off easy that I will have the sameintentions."
"No, sir, but-"
"But nothing," Andres hissed standingup from his chair. "When I received a call from your commanding Sergeanttelling me you were involved in a knife fight, I thought surely I misheard.Surely, he meant that an assailant had a knife on him when you attempted anarrest. What I never expected to see was mynieceignoring allprocedures and actually fighting a man carrying a twelve-inch bowieknife!" he shouted and Maritzia flinched.
"I-" she tried again.
Andres simply raised a finger instantly hushingher. "You will not only take the recommended tactics course from IIA, butyou will take these eight other tactics," he said, sliding a pamphletacross his desk towards her. "And policy courses to refresh you on how beinga trained officer of the NYPD works in real life." Each word slammed downon her like strikes of a hammer.
Nine courses! It would be like being in theacademy all over again. Hell, shewouldbe in the academy since that'swhere she would no doubt be taking the classes.
Seeing her outrage, Andres smiled evilly."You can thank Cade for helping me pick out the classes, too."
Her head snapped up at that and she looked at heruncle in shock. "He what?!"
"I've never actually seen the boy so angry. Heaged ten years right in front of me just from that three-minute video. What didyou think would happen, Maritzia?"
"I thought I used my best judgment for thesituation, sir," she said testily.
"I understand your thinking, Ritz,"Andres's tone softened a little as he came around his desk and leaned back onthe edge. "But your safety is key. The department needs to know that allthe money and time they invested into each of their officers is going to payoff in the long run. Not for them to dash into knife fights and get themselveskilled. And as your uncle, I need to know when I send you out there," hepointed to the windows behind his desk. "That I'm going to get the littlegirl that is like a daughter to me back safe and sound."
