Elaine thought how ridiculous she must look cowering under her hands in her car. If someone wanted to hurt her they would have done it already. As that thought cross her mind, she heard another rap on her window. She slowly uncovered her head and peeked up. Standing outside her window was a furious Jose waiting expectantly for her. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and she glanced over at the warehouse parking lot to find Nick and his men were gone. Elaine cautiously opened her car door and stepped out to face Jose. The chilly winter air that snuck into the folds of her wooly jacket couldn’t compare to the fiery gaze of Jose’s hazel eyes.

“Elaine what do you think you’re doing?” He demanded.

“I was just checking up on a lead.” She stammered.

“A lead? I thought you were going to stay at home and wait until we could figure something out. Instead I get a call from the officer on duty letting me know that you were here and that I should probably come by and see what you were up to.” Crap, Elaine thought, she forgot about being supervised.

Elaine placed her hands on her hips and squared off with Jose. “Look, no offense, but I can’t wait around for you guys to do something. I need answers now because I know how these things work. A couple weeks from now I won’t be the priority anymore. Things will have quieted down and there will be another emergency to deal with. I need to watch out for myself. It’s not like I haven’t been able to handle things on my own before.”

Jose’s stance softened. He looked pleadingly at Elaine as he ran a hand through his closely shaven dark hair. “I know it’s frustrating just waiting but right now that’s what we need you to do. What would you have done if it was Nick or one of his men were standing here instead of me? You just made it easy for them. They could claim you were trespassing and I wouldn’t be able to do anything to help.” Elaine’s gaze faltered a bit but instead of conceding she stared down at her boots, fuming at his insight.

“I can’t just sit around and do nothing.” She sighed.

Jose touched her arm so that she would look into his sincere face as he stated “I promised I wouldn’t let anything happen to you and I won’t. Come on let’s get something to eat. I have some ideas on what we can do to find out what Nick’s up to…together.” He smiled, flashing his dimple and Elaine couldn’t help but nod her head in agreement. Jose helped her into her car and jogged off to his.

Elaine watched him go in her rearview mirror. She caught her reflection, her cheeks flushed and a small smile playing across her pink lips. She shook her head, her wavy hair bouncing as she tried to wipe the goofy look off her face. As she adjusted her position in her seat and looked forward she saw a familiar white van ahead of her. As soon as the realization crossed her face the van sped forward straight toward her. Elaine quickly shifted her car into reverse and sped off backwards, craning her neck to see where she was going. She ducked as shots fired and punctured her car. She couldn’t see where she was going and soon her momentum was suddenly interrupted as her car crashed to a halt and her head snapped forward onto the steering wheel causing the world to go black.

To Be Continued…