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I watched as she stirred the pot of sauce as she spoke. “It went well. They found the boy that put those drugs in Falco’s locker. It was another boy that Falco had had a disagreement with earlier in the week. The kid got suspended and has to attend the alternative school for the rest of the year.”
That made me happy. After hearing how much Viddy had liked him, I’d hoped that he wouldn’t turn out to be a little shit head like some teenagers.
“That’s good. How do you cook when you can’t see?” I blurted as she started heading for the pot of boiling noodles with her pot holder covered hands.
I pushed her to the side and emptied the pot into the sink for her, and then poured the strained noodles back into the pot before setting it on the wooden cutting board beside the sink.
She glared in my direction, and then threw her hand out innocently.
Except it hit my bruised chest right where I’d taken a shot gun slug to the chest only an hour earlier. I doubled over, struggling to keep the nausea that threatened to surge up my throat down.
“Trance?” She asked worriedly when she heard me groan in pain.
I straightened half way, trying my best to shrug off the agonizing pain in my chest.
“I’m okay.” I wheezed.
I told her about what had happened over the past hour, and she looked at me in abject horror. “You were shot?” She cried.
I nodded. “Yes. Took a slug to the chest. Knocked me ten feet backwards.”
It wasn’t until I saw the tears rolling down her cheeks that I thought about what I’d just said, and how blasé it made me sound. Which couldn’t have been further from the truth.
“I’m okay, sweetie.” I said as I pulled her into my chest and wrapped my arms around her.
She buried her nose in my chest, and I winced when her chin met the tender spot, but I didn’t let her go.
“You scare the hell out of me. Your job gives me the creeps.” She murmured.
“It gives me the creeps, too. I’ve been in law enforcement for going on eleven years now. I’ve nearly lost my passion for it. I’m thirty three going on sixty in terms of police years.” I said before giving her a kiss on the forehead.
“You got into law enforcement when you were that young?” She asked in surprise.
“I was in the air force for five years. I was in the security force. That’s where I got the K-9 bug. I started training my first dog when I was nineteen. From there I became obsessed. When I got out of the Air Force, I hired on with Las Vegas PD and worked with four other K-9 handlers for five years before I came to Benton.” I explained.
“Did you like Las Vegas? That seems like a place that would be tons of fun.” She said wistfully.
I grimaced. In actuality, I’d hated it there. It was a constant struggle with belligerent drunks, tourists who were there for a ‘good time’ (And FYI, if you fuck up in Vegas, it sure as fuck doesn’t stay in Vegas, no matter how the saying goes.)
Then there were the prostitutes, druggies, and constant crime around the strip.
I’d worked one part of the strip for years, and I’d gotten burned out at the constant search for drugs. The chases. The shootings. The murders over the stupidest shit I’d ever heard of.
It rankled, and I was tired of it.
So I’d come to Benton. The smallest town I could find that was hiring at the time.
It was the best decision of my life.
“It was lots of fun for everyone but the police. It got old really fast. Trust me.” I said, releasing her and heading to the cabinet for plates.
She must’ve heard the underlying tone of sadness and shame in my voice. Viddy was perceptive as hell, and her next question brought me back to the nightmare that ended my time in Las Vegas. Making it come to a screeching halt so fast my head spun.
“Why’d you move here from Las Vegas? Seems like a drastic change.” Viddy said into the darkness.
The plates that were in my hands were set gently on the counter, and I planted my hands on the counter, letting my head hang in defeat. My biggest regret. The one I didn’t save.
“One case got to me, and I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I needed to escape somewhere that didn’t have so much heartache attached to it. Not quite so much drama.”
