City Traffic

By Iesha Renee

Chloe Fields is a former detective for the Houston Texas Police Department. In one critical moment, she made a fatal mistake, ending her career. She was shamed by her peers and left to struggle in the streets alone. Without a job in sight and living out of her car. She believed stripping was her only chance of survival. After her career change, she finds more trouble and maybe love when one of her dancer colleagues turns up dead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: Apr 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781649693228

Book preview

Chapter 1

I’m no expert but maybe I shouldn’t have let myself fall in love so hard or fast. Especially with someone who I loved so much I’d feel sick without him. Loving him is my only instability. He made me feel safe and whole when I should have been in pieces. Sadly, it’s become a pattern. He isn’t the first person I stupidly gave my heart to. Although I could never regret it, it was unwise.

When I lost him, the emptiness wasn’t immediate, there was a lingering numbness. It’s the numbness that shielded me from the shame of my decisions. I was able to think outside of myself and eventually became a different person. But the emptiness persisted. The hauntings persisted. New me same past. When you are suffering its human nature to want to understand why. We pray for relief, or we search for answers. My question was clear. Simply, why? The answers are still reveling themselves in staggering ways. I used to be a cop. Well, a detective. A damn good one too; just to keep it real. I had a great field reputation and my community respected me. I can’t take all the credit. I’d be lost without my partner, Ashton Edwards. He was pretty much the center of my world for a time. When it came to work, we had the most convictions in any district in Houston. We arrested perps for breakfast and attended arraignments for lunch. We lived for our careers. We enjoyed being up late going through case files just to be together. We both entered the force right out of college, and we were both ranked as sergeants by the age of twenty-five. When we were first placed together, there really wasn’t any sexual tension. We were very professional. It was out of the blue that he started being playful. It was the playfulness that allowed the sexual tension to creep into our partnership. It started out with small races from here to there, but we played lots of little games to pass the time. He’d say things like, I bet I could beat you to the car. One day he wanted to race me to the hotdog cart. I thought he was random but cute. I soon found out that it wasn’t always a game to him. He was seriously competitive as hell. He wanted to win at everything, even as we were on the same team. It made us work harder and smarter. Our captain once said that teaming us up would be a greater legacy than his own two sons. The only thing we loved more than being cops was spending time together with each other. Although neither of us dared to admit it to the other. Soon we started secretly crushing on each other. After work we’d always stay together to eat, watch movies, or play video games at his place. We had a lot in common we also enjoyed doing the same things so, we got very close. Our friend and partnerships meant a lot to the both of us. It was a few years before we acted on the sexual tension. One night we were dinking and playing poker at his place. Not an unusual Friday night for us. Until we got drunk then accidently slept together. The next morning, we woke up naked and confused. Neither of us remembered it happening or who initiated it. We were both embarrassed yet satisfied. After vaguely talking about it, we decided we wouldn't put a label on what we were doing but we were going to keep doing it. 

 Being in a relationship and working close together worked out well for a while. We could pretend nothing was happening by compartmentalizing work away from our romance. We’re not allowed to date our partners at the precinct. If we switched partners, we would have to spend hours swimming in HR paperwork to date a co-worker. I didn't think our careers could withstand the changes of dating openly and switching partners. Although we worked well as partners, we were also super competitive. That’s mostly the reason we got so many arrests. One of us was always trying to outdo the other. That made us precinct heroes at work, but it was all extra drama outside of work. Eventually living our privet lives in secret; among other things, took its toll on the relationship. The competitiveness would seep into our arguments adding an element of toxicity which I wasn’t comfortable with. That plus the other bullshit we both carried, we would breed dysfunction faster than rabbits. After a year of trying to make it secretly work; we decided the extreme attraction and comfortability would just have to be enough if we were going to keep working together.

On the worst day of my life, we happen to both be hungry for a real breakfast. We were working on a battered wife with a missing child case. We stopped to eat at a diner across the street from a gas station. I remember thinking how perfect because we also needed gas. I grabbed the case files and took them inside the diner. We were so wrapped up in conversation about the case we forgot to order something to eat; although the server came to the table several times to refill our coffee. About two hours go by and we work out the entire case. We were certain the grandmother abducted the child and was possibly keeping her at an estate owned by her family. Just as we were ready to jump into the charger in pursuit of the child; we were finally defeated by our hunger. Simultaneously we were being reminded to get a search warrant. After we put in the call for the warrant Ashton started strolling on his phone. Order me a short stack and three eggs. I’ll be right back. I told him. I went to the restroom then checked my messages.

I answered a few texts and checked my email before heading back to the dining area. I was still looking down at my phone when I walked back to the table. When I looked up, I didn’t see Ashton there. I scanned the room looking for him. Instead, I saw everyone in the diner holding up their phones, recording out the window. I looked over to see Ashton across the street at the gas station with his gun drawn. I immediately dashed across the street and pulled my weapon out as well. I was ready to back him up in whatever crazy mess that was happening over there. Before I got to the other side, I heard a gunshot. I stopped in my tracts for a split second. Standing in the street. I felt like my heart and my stomach were twisting into a knot. I saw Ashton fall to the ground and I ran to him. We have gunshots and an officer down lock onto my location and send a med-team I need back up now. I repeat officer down. I shouted into the radio app on my watch. The dispatcher calmly replied, We have your location and we’re sending help right now. 

I was still holding my gun when I kneeled to tend to Ashton. Seeing him like that ripped me up. I put his head in my lap and held him in my arms. Blood was pouring from his mouth I looked down to see he was hit in the stomach. He looked up at me and I could see anger in his eyes just before that was overtaken by fear. It seemed like he knew he was dying. You’re going to be ok just hang in there. I already called for help. I spoke. He put his hand on top of mine and tried to grip but he was too weak. Ash, you better not fucking give up on me. You fight, fight you son of a—. I stopped short of my insult. Terror was welling up inside of me and I chocked on my words. I couldn’t’t get them out. Chloe he said with labor. l love you. Those words were not only the most meaningful and most beautiful thing he’s ever said to me, but they were also a betrayal. No, Ash this isn't over! I told you to fight! I was yelling at him but all I really wanted to say was I love you too. It was impossible not to love him. Everyone in his world adored him. I regretted waiting so long and never saying those words to him. I was so stupid to end things. I ignored my feelings because I was afraid of the way he challenged me. I could hear the sirens in the distance, and I prayed that they were coming from an ambulance not the beat cars. I looked down and he was choking on his blood. Ashton please stay with me. I was crying. I love you too. I spoke. 

With that, I seemed to have taken away his fight because at that moment he stopped trying to hold my hand. When his hand dropped to the ground; I knew that I’d lost him, and nothing could console me. I looked around to see who did this. My gaze fell on a young white male in a grey hoodie. When his eyes met mine, I could see he was scared and holding a black sack. He took off running and I jumped up with my gun and ran after him. I pursued him for a block before I was close enough to stop him. Freeze I shouted to get his attention. I chased him another block or so and yelled again. Stop right there! I shouted. He didn't stop and I was getting tired of sprinting. 

I was afraid that if I didn't stop him, he would get away and never answer for what he’s done. I just needed him to stop for a few seconds so that I could catch up. I released my pistol to fire a warning shot at the ground. Without the chance to rethink my decision I fired a shot and it hit him in the back. He dropped like a sack of potatoes. I ran over to him and checked for a pulse on his wrist. Once I knew he was alive I grabbed the black backpack that he was holding. I expected to see weapons and cash since he'd just finished robbing a gas station. Instead, I found a couple high school textbooks. He was just a kid. I reached over and checked his pulse again. It was a bit faint but at least there was a chance I could still save him. I took out my phone to call a chopper and sent in my new location. I could still hear the sirens around the corner, but they were much closer. It took all my will power to stay there with the kid instead of going to Ash. As much as I loved him, he was gone. This kid was still fighting because of a mistake I made. I took off my blazer and balled it up. I pressed it on the wound applying pressure trying to stop the blood flow. I kept thinking ‘Oh God, what have I done?’ the blood was quickly soaking my blazer.

My head was spinning with a flurry of thoughts and emotions. Why the fuck was he running if he wasn't the robber, why did he not stop if he had nothing to hide? I dumped his bag certain I’d find weapons or cash somewhere. I checked every zipper and came up empty. The bag still had a bit of weight to it. I felt around a little more and found a hidden Velcro pouch inside the bottom of the bag. I opened it up to find about an ounce of marijuana. Not necessarily the sort of stash a dealer would carry. Judging by the size of the stash and the age of the kid he was a stoner but still just a kid, a student. Because the scene down the street was swarming with cops it didn't take long for a few of them to make it over to me and