In a loud voice, Dez said, "I can’t imagine su familia enjoying the sight of you and me dancing."

Crystal frowned. "Well, guess you got me there. But there are a lot of men in my family who’d kill to dance with you."

Dez tightened her grip on Jaylynn in front of her. Looking down her shoulder at her friend she said, "My dance card is now full." This caused Crystal to go off into guffaws of laughter.

Shayna came up behind Crystal, shaking her head. From behind, she wrapped her brown arms around her partner’s middle and rested her chin on her shorter partner’s shoulder. "Is she bothering you two lovebirds?"

Dez pursed her lips to keep from smiling, but before she could say anything, Jaylynn piped up and said, "I think I’d pay money to see the two of you dancing at one of Crystal’s family soirees. In fact, I’d pay to see the two of you dance now." She grinned up at Dez, then shared a conspiratorial look with Shayna.

Both Jaylynn and Shayna let go of their partners. Hands on hips, the two women looked back and forth between Dez and Crystal, who were both blushing and looking everywhere but at each other. The two instigators burst into hysterical laughter and fell all over each other, gasping for air as they cackled, out of control.

Dez and Crystal exchanged sympathetic looks with one another, then Crystal jerked a thumb toward the dance floor. "You ’n’ me, kid," she hollered over the dance track. Without a look back, the two tough cops stomped out to the floor and into the squirming mass of bodies, leaving Shayna and Jaylynn startled.

Shayna draped an arm over the blond’s shoulder and said, "Oooh, guess we hit a nerve on our girls."

Jaylynn smiled up at her. "Doesn’t take much. You could only imagine what it would be like playing ‘Truth or Dare’ with either of them!"

They both laughed, then Shayna said, "Let’s go rescue them from each other. I can see the top of Dez’s head, and they don’t seem to be moving much, so they’re probably standing out there plotting against us." She ushered Jaylynn out to the floor, where they found the two women shifting back and forth from foot to foot as they stood close enough to hear one another. Jaylynn was fairly certain that they had to be discussing work, a thought that was verified when she heard Crystal say something about misdemeanor arrests. She sighed. Just once she’d like to forget about police work for a while.

* * *

Outside the Club Metro Bar, as his FTO watched, Rookie Officer Dwayne Nielsen handcuffed a drunken young man and supported him as he half-dragged, half-pushed him toward the squad car. "Come on!" the officer muttered. "It’s bad enough that you’re drunk as a skunk, but for chrissake! You pissed in someone else’s car. Jesus, what an idiot you are. It’s off to Detox for you, asshole."

Nielsen put a big hand on the top of the man’s head to guide him down and into the squad car, then lifted the drunk’s leg and shoved him into the rear seat. He slammed the door and turned to his FTO, Officer Alvarez. "Art, I gotta take a piss myself. I’ll be right back."

Alvarez nodded and opened the driver’s door as Nielsen strode quickly toward the club. The young cop took the stairs down two at a time and slipped through the open door as another man opened it to leave. The bar ran the length of the far wall, across from the entrance. The left half of the room contained tables and chairs while the right section was a dance floor, currently full of writhing bodies moving to the thump of the canned music.

Nielsen wasn’t familiar with the layout of the bar—and, in fact, had never been in it—so he stood in the dimly lit room, letting his eyes adjust as he scanned for a restroom sign. To his right, he saw two men kissing passionately. His head whipped around, and he inspected the groups of people, men with men, women with women. Geez, this is a goddamn gay bar. Great. Hope it’s safe to pee here with this bunch of perverts! His eyes skimmed along the crowd in front of the bar, then he did a double take, back to a figure a head taller than the gang surrounding her. A familiar woman stood facing the entrance, her lips turned up in a happy, smug half-smile that Nielsen had never seen before. Reilly! he thought. Dez Reilly. For Christ sake, I knew it. I just knew it!

Dez Reilly’s arms were locked around a smaller, laughing figure topped with short white-blonde hair. The shorter person leaned away, but the dark haired woman tightened her grip, leaning down and whispering something that caused the two to suddenly stand still. Then the blonde wrapped her arms around the tall woman’s middle and pressed the side of her cheek against Dez’s chest.

Holy shit! Nielsen grinned with delight. It’s Savage. For chrissake, it’s Savage! This is going to be sweet. Sweet revenge.

The tall woman’s head came up, and Nielsen could swear she caught sight of him. He stepped to the side, behind two men who had just entered the club, and breathed a sigh of relief when the dark haired cop’s eyes swept past him. He skulked over to the side, ducking behind happy patrons and angling toward the men’s room, but not before catching sight of Crystal Lopez, another cop who just so happened to have some woman Nielsen had never seen hanging over her shoulder.

Got ’em dead to rights, he thought gleefully. I’ll teach those bitches a lesson this time.

PART FOUR

The dark-haired cop sat at a stop sign on Hoyt Street in an unmarked car with the radar gun aimed out the window at the traffic traveling on Dale. It was cold out, but only her hands felt it. The car’s heater, even on low, was doing an admirable job keeping her warm on this mid-November Wednesday night.

Jaylynn left Monday morning for Pursuit Training, and with her out of town, Dez had been assigned to a speed sting with Reed and Barstow. Right now, her job was to shoot the radar, then radio data about the speeder ahead. The other two units, which were posted five or six blocks ahead, took turns pulling over the surprised offender. When she got tired of the radar role, she’d switch with one of the guys. The speed limit on Dale was only 35. So far, in two hours, they’d nailed six cars in excess of 45 and three in excess of 55. One fool had been careening along at 62. He’d also been legally drunk, so Barstow had been gone for a while to book him at the station. She and Reed carried on.

With Jaylynn off at pursuit training for the past two days, Dez was starting to get crabby. She was glad the rookie would be returning Thursday. The day before, the tall cop had confided in Luella that she was now ruined. Once upon a time, she had been thoroughly self-sufficient. Now after a couple of months of spending nights with the rookie, she didn’t seem to know what to do with herself when Jaylynn wasn’t with her. What had she done before Jaylynn entered her life? She couldn’t quite recall. And to be honest, she was disconcerted to realize how much she had come to rely upon the pleasure of the younger woman’s company.

She zapped a late model Chrysler . . . 47 mph. She radioed ahead to Reed, then returned to her musings, waiting for Reed to call and say he was ready for the next speeder. Jaylynn had called late the night before to report that the first day at Michigan International Speedway had gone well. She bubbled over with excitement about how much fun she was having driving like a maniac. She had also been happy because two of her classmates from the Academy, who had gone to work for other agencies, had also been there. She was having the chance to get caught up with her buddies’ lives. Obviously, Dez thought the rookie wasn’t missing her work partner as much as Dez was missing her.

Today and tomorrow, Jaylynn would be at a different site to learn the elements of more aggressive pursuits. In addition to the art of roadblocks and the use of stop sticks, which punctured tires, she’d be introduced to pursuit intervention techniques - PIT training - which was basically having contact or ramming another vehicle to conclude a pursuit. Dez hoped her young partner wouldn’t take as much delight in that as she had enjoyed speeding around the racetrack. Intentional collisions or even light contact were considered deadly force and not allowed by the department unless the suspect had committed a violent crime against persons or if somebody’s life was in immediate danger. Still, all officers had to learn the techniques, should they ever become necessary. The tall cop had last attended that training the year before - for the seventh time in her career. She was glad she had fast reflexes because the cars could easily go out - of - control, even at low speeds. And she had to admit, spinning and skidding on the safe, flat surface was a lot of fun.

The radio crackled, and Reed reported that he was done with the Chrysler, so she turned her attention to the oncoming traffic. A small car, which looked like a Neon, sped toward her. She hit the trigger on the radar gun and radioed the results right away. "Here’s a good one, Reed. 53 mph. Yellow Neon." She recited the license number and waited for his response. Glancing at her watch, she realized it was going to be a long night. She gave a sigh. This would be a lot more fun with Jaylynn. 48 more hours and she’d see her again.

* * *

Dez arrived at the precinct early on Thursday, and in a good mood. Jaylynn and the rest of the crew would be returning this afternoon from their long drive. She hoped they’d come rolling in before shift started, but she knew she couldn’t count on it. They had a six hour drive ahead of them.

Full of happy expectation, she climbed the stairs, camped out in the roll call room, and sat on alert, awaiting the first sign of the caravan’s return. She was disappointed when the sergeant released them all to their cars, and there was no sign of Jaylynn. She went out to her assigned cruiser and left to patrol her sector.

Many times during the course of the shift she was tempted to call in to Dispatch to ask about the travelers, but she knew they’d have to call her precinct to get information, and she could do that herself. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself, so she just did her job. The first few hours of the afternoon and evening were quiet, almost boring. Around nine p.m. things started to pick up with a noise complaint and then a backup at a repeat domestic dispute. Sorenson answered the initial domestic call, but nobody liked to go into those kinds of inflammatory scenes without a second officer nearby, so she joined him as quickly as she could get there. It was a standard call - drunk man shows up at ex - girlfriend’s house to slap her around and terrorize her.

The tall cop watched from the doorway as Sorenson handled it. Unlike Jaylynn, Sorenson tried to give the intruder every opportunity to get out of the mess. If there was any evidence of assault, Jaylynn just cuffed the abuser immediately and almost always hauled the person in. Sorenson was patient, but the man was scathing and insulting, so the other cop finally arrested him. As he hauled the man out to his squad car, Dez asked the woman if she would be pressing charges.

"You bet, Officer!" She pushed her long blonde hair away from her face and pointed at her bleeding lip defiantly. "That’s the last time he’s ever gonna do this to me again. Next time, I’ll have a gun waiting for him."

Dez winced. "You know, you’d do better to spend the money on a peephole for your front door."

"What?"

"He came to the door - you opened it."

"Oh, so this is my fault?" Now she focused her anger on the dark-haired cop, her pretty blue eyes sparkling with rage.

"No, ma’am. Not at all. He made the choice to assault you. He’s in the wrong. But look-" She pointed at the front door and the wall next to it. "You can’t tell who’s out there without opening the door, right?"

"Um, no."

"That’s the problem. If you had a peephole, you could see when it was him and just call 911. We’d come and haul him away, and that’s that. Saves you a lot of money, too - guns aren’t cheap, you know. And it would also prevent a criminal charge of manslaughter or murder. You rent here?"

The woman nodded as she reached for a tissue and dabbed at her cut lip.

"Here..." Dez pulled a card out of her pocket. "Call me there at the station and leave your landlord’s name and phone number on the voicemail. I’ll call him or her and see if I can get them to install something in the front door. Maybe if you purchase it - and they’re pretty cheap - the landlord will put it in. Okay?"

The woman looked surprised. She nodded. "Thank you. Thanks for your understanding."

"No problem. Now lock up good." She turned and with a wave of her hand, went out the door and headed to her car. She was constantly amazed at how little foresight some people had. This was a repeat performance by the assaultive ex-boyfriend. You’d think the ex-girlfriend would catch a clue and do something to avoid the scene. She hoped that the woman would leave her the landlord’s information. She didn’t mind calling and trying to help, but so many times people didn’t listen.

The rest of the evening dragged by, and finally, she arrived back at the station, turned the car in, signed out, and went down to her locker. There was a note taped to the blue door. "Call me before you leave" was all it said. Jaylynn hadn’t signed it, but she knew the blonde’s scribble.

With a light heart, she changed clothes and went upstairs to use a phone. "Hey! You’re back."

The blonde’s warm voice came over the line. "I am."

"You sound tired."

"I am."

"Is that all you can say - ‘I am’?"

"No. Mostly I just wanted to check and see if you’d still want to come over-"

"Sure," interrupted Dez.

"-but there’s a catch."

Dez waited, puzzled.

"Do you mind sleeping against the wall?"

"What?"

"I sort of hurt my left shoulder a little bit, and - well, I - I guess I need to sleep on the outside so I don’t bump it."

Dez’s blood ran cold. "You’re hurt?"

"Um, well, sort of."

"Badly?"

"Well - not exactly."

"What do you mean, ‘Not exactly’? What happened?"

Jaylynn hesitated. "Come over, okay? It’s easier to explain in person."

Dez didn’t bother to say anything further. She hung up the phone and took off, out toward the parking lot. She didn’t stop for pleasantries in the doorway when she ran into some officers who said hello to her. She leapt into her truck and zoomed down Dale Avenue, glad that there was no speed sting there tonight.

She passed the string of darkened homes, everyone hunkered down for the night, until she got to Jaylynn’s house, from which light spilled out of every window, both upstairs and down. A chill wind blew from the north, cutting through her leather jacket, making her shiver as she walked toward the brightly lit two - story house.

Before she could even knock, the rookie opened the door and let her in, and they stood for just a moment, both uncertain. Dez glanced at the navy blue, heavy - duty sling the blonde wore on her left arm. She looked across the room to see that Sara and Bill were sitting next to one another on the couch, eating a bowl of popcorn, and watching a video.

"Dez," Sara called out. "We just started this. It’s Pitch Black. Want to join us?"

Without taking her eyes off Jaylynn’s face, Dez said, "Not right now. Maybe later." She gave a jerk of her head and gestured to the stairs.

With a miserable look on her face, Jaylynn turned and mounted the steps. Dez followed her up to the peach - colored bedroom, where she found Jaylynn’s bags and gear strewn haphazardly across the bed and couch. The room was much more disorganized than usual, and the smaller woman leaned down slowly to pick up a suitcase and slide it aside. Dez stepped in the room and shut the door behind her. She leaned back against the door and crossed her arms.

"Sorry," the rookie said. "I haven’t even unpacked." She stood in the middle of the room and looked back apologetically. Dez wanted to go to her, wrap her in her arms, but first she wanted to know the extent of Jaylynn’s injury.

"What happened?" It came out in a flat voice, almost accusatory.

"I broke - or kinda like cracked - my collarbone." Jaylynn sighed, then moved her black duffel with her good hand off the couch and onto the floor. She clambered onto the soft orange sofa and squeezed back in the corner, her feet up under her as she cradled her left arm.