Starting Point (30 page)

“You got that important meeting at four,” she reminded me. “Kira just make sure you get there with no rushing.”

I nodded. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. Or Kira, or Sal. I’d be lost without any of you.”

Yumi sat down beside me and smiled. “You remember when you first met us? Me and Sal?”

“Of course. You hadn’t heard from him in a few weeks because he was…” I cleared my throat. “
Preoccupied
…with me, so you came to Kira’s old apartment and I was there.” Then I admitted, “I didn’t think I was ready to be meeting the parents, but you were great.”

She got a faraway look in her eyes and smiled. “I spend years worrying Kira would never settle down. He date a lot of guys.”

I frowned. “Um, I don’t really need to know that.”

She shook her head. “I tell him he’ll find someone and he’ll know. He’ll just know. That’s how it happens. You find the one that is your other half and you know. Kira laughed at me for years, and told me I was dreaming. Said he’d never find someone like that.” She smiled knowingly at me. “But he did.

“When we meet you that first time,” she continued, “we stayed for dinner and you had to go to work, remember? Catch more bad guys, you said.”

“I remember.”

“When you walk out the door, I look at Kira, and I knew.
He
knew. He was smiling like I’ve never seen,” Yumi said. “You know what he say to me?”

I shook my head.

“He said ‘I’ve found him’. Just like that.
I’ve found him
.”

I smiled and my chest tightened.

Yumi patted my knee. “You’re his other half. Like me and Sal. That big lump drives me crazy.” Her eyes widened for effect. “Cray-zee, I tell you. But when I met him, I just knew. Our family not too happy with us, but we not care. We were together from that day on. We drive each other crazy. It’s what we do.”

I smiled warmly at her. “Sal adores you.”

“I know,” she said simply, with absolute confidence. “And Kira adores you.”

“I almost lost him.”

Yumi shook her head. “He never lose faith in you. You lose faith in you.”

“I did,” I said with a nod. “But I still don’t know what I did to deserve him.”

Yumi shook her head. “I just told you. Where you been for this conversation?”

I snorted out a laugh. “Huh?”

“You the one that make his heart whole. He saw you and he knew. You all there is for him. It’s how it is for us Takeo-Francos. Even when you was stupid and undercover, he still love you. You made him crazy like Sal makes me crazy. It’s what we do.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “But Kira doesn’t do anything to make me mad or crazy. He’s kind of perfect.”

“Give him time,” Yumi said with a serious nod. “He’s his father’s son.” She patted me on the knee again. “If he wants to come home at three and check you’re okay then you let him. He do it because he cares. So you let him, and you tell him you’re thankful even though it make you crazy. Because it’s what we do.”

I grinned at her, at her philosophy on life, love and being married for almost thirty years. “You’re pretty amazing, you know that?”

“Yeah, I do. Been trying to tell him that for years,” she said, nodding out to the back yard.

“I think he knows,” I told her.

“He should,” she replied. “I tell him all the time.”

I laughed again, and Yumi told me to go get cleaned up while she made lunch. Still not too steady on my feet, I took my time. By the time Kira came home at three, I was feeling better.

Kira inspected the small cut at my temple. When he looked into my eyes, he was clearly concerned. “Are you okay?”

“I am now.”

He ran his fingers down my hairline to my jaw. “If you’re not feeling up to this meeting, I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“I can’t miss it. It’s too important for the FC,” I told him.

And it was.

* * * *

It was just a lot more low-key than I’d expected. I’d arrived a bit early, not wanting to rush my head. Kira was pretty much by my side the entire time, and Father Michael came in—even Boss wore a button down shirt. I was expecting a business meeting.

What we got was a guy in his fifties, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, an obvious sports fan, who basically chatted about MMA and football, the local kids, demographics and the importance of education. And of course how positive advertising with kids and sport was marketing gold.

He told us the programmes we were trying to implement were great, including the fundraising family fun day, but we just needed some financial backing, which was very true. I suggested the junior MMA tournament and his eyes widened. He then of course stipulated major product endorsement and advertising in return for sponsorship or something similar, and I told him that it sounded great, though it may not be enough to keep the doors open long-term.

He wanted us to get back to him with a proposal of how we felt the donation or sponsorship allocation would be best spent. He went around the gym floor with Boss on more time, even watched some of the kids in my class go through their routines with Cody, then he shook hands with us all and left.

And just like that, things fell into place. It would seem we’d just found key financial backing for the FC. The doors would be open for another twelve months at least and for these guys, for me, that was everything.

It was as though life was finally back on track.

Until we walked out onto the sidewalk and ran right into Darius and James McInnes. Darius laughed, surprised, like he couldn’t believe his luck, then he reached his arm behind his back and pulled out a gun.

My world went completely silent, except the blood thumping in my head. Each heartbeat was slow and pounded in my chest. It was a Glock 17, standard issue, a dime a dozen handgun, and it was pointed straight at Kira.

I moved without thinking. And while the world around me erupted, my mind shut down.

Kira.

Not again. No, no, no.

Chapter Fifteen

It had taken all of three seconds from start to finish, and I still wasn’t sure what the hell had just happened. I’d seen Darius and James walking towards us. In that split second, in my mind, I’d been torn between wanting to punch the shit out of both of them, and beg them to know where Ruby was.

But I hadn’t got the chance to do either.

After all my years of police training, when all my instincts were rewired to run towards danger instead of from it, this time was different.

Without thinking, without a conscious thought, my body had moved away from danger, to protect Kira and Claude.

A team of cops, uniformed and not, had their guns drawn and Darius and James were pinned face first on the sidewalk.

There was loud yelling of, “Police! Police! Stay down on the ground! Stay down!” Then the next thing I knew, I’d scooped Claude up like a ragdoll and pinned her to Kira’s chest. I pushed them back through the gym—from the loud chaos, into the abrupt silence of the FC. Everyone inside was turned to face us, wondering what the fuck just happened.

My heart hammered and I was frozen. Like my mind had splintered, I still wasn’t exactly sure what the hell had just gone down, but I knew they were safe.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, over and over. I was pressing them against the wall inside the door, still keeping myself in between us and the threat of whatever was happening outside. “I’m sorry.”

Arizona was suddenly beside us, looking from me to the swarm of police we could see through the glass doors. “What the fuck? Man, are you okay?” he asked, pulling me back, giving Kira and Claude some room. “What the hell just happened?”

Kira gently put Claude down so she stood beside us, keeping his hand on her shoulder, but he didn’t take his eyes off me. “Claude, you okay?” he asked.

The little girl nodded, wide eyed and confused. “I think so,” she said.

“Jesus,” Kira whispered, shaking his head. He was pale, and clearly shocked, but just like always, his concern was for me. “Matt, you okay?”

I finally took a deep breath and my head spun. I rubbed my forehead to try to stem the spinning, and when my fingers touched the small cut from my fall earlier today, I blinked slowly as a familiar vertigo headache set in. “I’m fine,” I whispered.

Boss was there now, looking out of the front doors at the swarm of police. “Jesus, Elliott. What the hell did you do now?”

“We just walked outside, right smack in the middle of a take-down,” I said.

Whether Boss had meant for it to sound accusing or not, when he took one look at me, he could see it wasn’t intentional. I could feel the blood had drained from my face, and I was taking long, deliberate breaths trying to keep my head on straight.

Kira put his hand on the side of my face. “Matt?”

“Just dizzy, that’s all,” I said. Then I looked right into his eyes. “He had a gun, Kira,” I said—I wondered if I’d said that out loud.

“We’re all okay,” Kira said. “No one was hurt.” He was trying to placate me.

I looked at Claude then, and she looked more scared than hurt. “You okay, Claude?” I asked her again.

She nodded again, but stayed close to us, almost still in between us.

Then Kira barked out a laugh, more through relief than humour and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m still not sure what the hell just happened.”

I leaned against the wall, resting my hands on my knees. My head was spinning and thumping, and nausea burned my throat. Kira held onto my shoulder and Boss and Arizona were on the other side of me when the front doors opened and a uniformed officer walked in. I didn’t recognise him. “Everyone in here okay?” he asked. He looked directly at me, and took a few steps closer. “Sir? Are you hurt?”

I stood up straight and put up my hand. “I’m fine.”

And then Mitch came in, followed closely by Tony and Kurt. Mitch was smiling, until he saw me. He rushed over and lifted my chin, turning his head to inspect the small cut on the side of my head. “What happened? You okay? You hurt?”

I shook my head a little. “I’m okay.”

“Man, you have the worst timing,” Kurt said. “We were just about to bust them, and then you walked out.”

I exhaled slowly and I knew Kira could tell I was still struggling. “How about we go sit down? We can all talk in here,” he suggested, taking my arm and leading me towards my office. He waited for me to sit down. “Do you feel sick?” he asked.

I nodded. “A little.”

Kira pulled over the wastepaper bin and sat it at my feet, then looked at Mitch, who looked confused, and explained, “He had a bad bout of vertigo this morning.”

“Oh,” he said quietly. The three of my old cop partners stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

“I’m okay,” I said again. I didn’t want them to look at me with pity. “Just wasn’t expecting that. The asshole had a gun,” I said, looking at Kira then. “You and Claude…” I exhaled loudly unable to finish that sentence. “Fuck. Never again.”

“Hey,” he said, still crouching in front of me. “Me and Claude are just fine.”

Claude, who was now standing on the other side of me, said, “I didn’t see anything. I was just walkin’ along then you swooped me up. I was all smooshed in between ya’s. I didn’t see nothin’. Just yellin’ then we was back inside.”

I gave her a smile. “Didn’t mean to scare ya, squirt. Just didn’t want you near them bad guys, that’s all.” Then I patted her on the arm. “Can you do me a favour, Claude? Can you go check on Boss for me? I need to talk to these guys.”

She nodded and gave the policemen a wide, wary berth as she walked out.

Mitch leaned against a table. “Matt, man, you haven’t lost your edge. Your reflexes! You were quicker than us!”

I leant back in the chair, and with a deep breath, shook my head slowly, still trying to get my head around what had just happened. “Was it coincidence that had gone down at the front door of this place? Because you know I don’t believe in coincidences.”

Mitch grinned. “We’d been tailing him for a while. He was a nasty piece of work, but just a small fish in a big pond. There were six separate busts last night, took down a huge racket. Picked up the few loose ends today—Darius McInnes being one of them.”

I nodded, as though it all made perfect sense. “Connections?”

Kurt answered, “Darius McInnes and Tyler James were just one team of many who recruited street kids to mule. Kids do the dirty work and they collect the cash. They got cocky, made some mistakes and we got ’em.”

“Well, I’m glad they’re gone,” I said. Then I realised someone was missing. Mitch’s new partner, the guy who had replaced me in the Fab Four. “Where’s Ricky? Sick of your shit jokes already?”

Mitch’s smile faded. “He was just getting some intel for us.” Then his brow furrowed and he frowned. “I asked him to stay behind and get some information…for you, actually. I got your message earlier today, Matt. I wanted to be sure.”

“About what?” Kira asked. I didn’t need to. I could tell from the look on his face.

Mitch looked at Kira and spoke softly, “We found a body.”

Kira looked at me. “Who?”

I took his hand. “I asked Mitch to keep an eye out for Ruby.” I could feel my eyes burn and my head spin. I swallowed down the urge to vomit. I looked back at Mitch. “You sure?”

Mitch looked at me for a long moment, and finally he nodded. “The kid you introduced me to once here at the FC. But I wanted to be sure. Ricky was trying to find out what he could.”

I swallowed thickly. I didn’t dare look at Kira. I just squeezed his hand instead. “It was definitely the kid you met here?”

Mitch nodded. “I recognised him,” he said, almost in a whisper. “But you know procedure. Did he have any distinct features that you were aware of? It might help in ID’ing him.”

I shook my head. “No birthmarks, no scars. Not that I saw anyway.” Then I thought of something. “Was he wearing shoes?”

Mitch tilted his head. “What?”

“His shoes?” I clarified. “Was he wearing any?”

Mitch nodded. He understood where I was going with this, which to me, confirmed what we both already knew. “Yeah, he was.”

“Bright green hightops?” I asked.