Caged 2 (Caged Series) Read online

  By Destiny Hawkins

  When going undercover sends you back to hell...

  © 2015 Destiny Hawkins

  Dedicated to my mother and father. Thank you both for all of your love and support.

  Table of contents

  Chapter one

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Caged 2

  Chapter one

  Lorena. She looked more beautiful than the last time I saw her seven years ago. It was the way that she smiled that took my breath away. At first she looked surprised, but then her face went back to the calm state I always remembered it to be in. That lovely curve on her pink lips, with that heart melting glimmer in her blue eyes...They were just as I remembered. I knew when I saw her, that after all these years, she was still the same. It was just her appearance that changed a little, but the change was sexy as hell. Her hair no longer had any red, but after years of maturing, I’m sure she grew out of it and decided to just go with her natural blond. It was longer too. She had pushed it to one side of her shoulder and let it hang down to her chest, which was covered by a long black dress that fit amazingly along her curves...

  I splashed into a puddle as I stumbled to get back to the car. I needed to get to the hospital and fast. Holding my hand over my bleeding stomach wasn’t working very well, and I could feel the blood gush out between my fingers. After two years on the force I never actually thought that I would be shot. I guess I just felt like I was invincible, but no. I pushed Lorena out of the way, and the bullet that was meant for her went right through me.

  I stumbled against the car and pulled my keys out, then I fumbled through each one just to get the right key. I probably could have done this faster if my vision weren’t going out, but it was. If I didn’t get to the hospital soon, I might actually die. Another thought that never crossed my mind. Because I’m invincible, right?

  I rested my bloody hand against the window and slid the key into the door, then I finally got it open. Once I got into the car I noticed that the streetlights were shutting off all together, leaving me in the dark, and then they would all come back on at the same time. It threw me off guard, and once I’m all bandaged up, I’ll be sure to let the city know that they need to fix the lights around here.

  I put the key into the ignition and started the car, but had suddenly lost any will to drive. And what the hell was up with these damn lights? I can’t see.

  The lights suddenly came back on when two hands slammed against my window. I turned my head just enough to see Abigale trying to open up the door. I don’t remember locking it, but I guess I did.

  “Rose...” Abigale whispered. I couldn’t understand why it sounded like a whisper, because the look on her face told me she was yelling. She almost looked like she was in a panic.

  “Abs...” I wheezed. I had lost feeling to my arms and couldn’t lift them to unlock the door. I couldn’t even hold my hand over my wound anymore, and I’m sure that the blood was pouring out of me now. At least that’s what it felt like.

  Abigale banged on the window again as if she was trying to wake me up, but my eyes were wide open, and I was looking right at her. I couldn’t really understand why she was crying, or was that just rain on her cheeks?

  “Rose!” Abigale yelled.

  Maybe I wasn’t invincible after all. A cop only acts like that when something is wrong with their partner. I’ve seen it many times. There was a strong bond between partners, and when one died, the other would become devastated, depressed, and lonely. I didn’t want Abigale to ever feel that way, but it looks like it’s out of my control now.

  The street lights went out one last time, followed by a loud shattering noise, but it was so dark that I couldn’t see what had caused it. I didn’t care anyways. All I wanted to do was think about her...

  Lorena. She looked more beautiful than the last time I saw her seven years ago. It was the way that she smiled that took my breath away...

  Two years earlier...

  This was the third time that I had graduated from a place that I had put my heart and soul into, and now it was finally time to go out into the real world. At twenty-two years old I graduated from the police academy with Abigale by my side.

  When I had finally graduated from college, we linked back up as usual, and couldn’t figure out what it was that we wanted to do with our lives. Well, mostly Abgiale. I studied criminal justice for four years, so when I brought up the police force I was already heading in the same direction as when I started. It took Abigale only a few days to realize that she wanted to join the force with me. She said that she thought that being an officer would really suit her, and it did.

  After the graduation ceremony, we celebrated by going out to dinner. It was just me, Abigale, and Cameron. My Aunt Shannon went on about being too old to hang out with us, kissed me goodbye, and headed home. So it was just me and my closest friends, or should I say my best friend, and my boyfriend? We all stayed close after graduating high school, and I’m glad that we did.

  When Cameron came back from college in Miami, I guess that the slight crush that I had on him in high school had flared into a big one. Cameron was no longer the little immature kid he was back then, and he definitely grew on me. He noticed how I was feeling about him and took full advantage of it. With Lorena out of the way, it was finally his chance to fill in her empty spot.

  All three of us laughed at the dinner table and talked about our future cases and what we would be like. I took a sip of my wine, then set the glass back down on the table and watched as the red wine swirled around in the cup. Lorena loved wine.

  It was suddenly quiet, and I was about to look up to see what was going on when Cameron gently touched my chin and turned my head to face him. He was close, and leaned in for a kiss. I immediately forgotten about Lorena and only had Cameron on my mind. It was like he could notice when I would get lost in my thoughts about her, and would do everything that he could to get me to forget. We haven’t spoken about her, but he knew how she invaded my thoughts every other day.

  When Lorena left for Europe, I was pretty depressed for a while. It wasn’t like any of the other times that I felt depressed, so I recovered from it quicker than usual, but it still hurt. I knew the reason that she left was because everything here reminded her of all the pain that she went through, and I guess me being the only positive thing around wasn’t enough.

  Cameron pulled away and looked into my eyes with a twinkle in his, “Congratulations baby. I’m proud of you.”

  I blushed and bit my bottom lip. I loved Cameron. I loved everything about him. His light brown eyes, his smooth caramel skin, his tight muscles that were a lot thicker that what they used to be, and his soft touch. To me, his hands were the softest part of his body, and he knew I loved i
t when he would touch me. He was the first man to ever be gentle with me besides my father.

  I wondered if my parents were proud of the woman that I had become. Especially after all that I had been through. I was kidnapped and forced into fighting when I was a kid. Then when I got older I had a freak out and ended up taking someone’s life. I felt nothing but loneliness up until I met Lorena. She taught me how to love people the way that I do now, and that’s why I’m able to give myself over to Cameron. I could only hope that my parents were proud of me, and if they weren’t then my aunt definitely was. She had a front row seat to my suffering, and now she was watching me grow into the woman she always hoped that I would be. A strong, confident, hardworking, and open minded woman.

  “Thank you,” I said, smiling back at him.

  “What about me?” Abigale raised her hands while leaning back in her chair. “You’re not proud of me man?” she asked as she ran her hand through her short blond hair. “That’s not right, I thought we were besties.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at that, and then I laughed harder when she fell back in her chair. Cameron stood up while laughing to make sure that she was okay, and then the rest of the restaurant turned over to us. I looked over the table to see Abigale cracking up on the floor in embarrassment.

  “Abigale, get up,” I laughed, “You’ve had way too much to drink.”

  Cameron walked around the table and helped her back to her feet, and then he turned back to me with a gorgeous look on his face. It was about that time to go home.

  ***

  All three of us walked down the apartment hallway together and stopped at our doors. Abigale’s apartment was right across from ours and we said our goodbyes to end the night. Well, at least her night was ending.

  When I got inside, I went to my bedroom to go and take my clothes off. I couldn’t wait to hop in the shower and jump into my soft king sized bed.

  Before I made it halfway into my room I heard a rattling noise, and my mind automatically went back to Arnold’s basement. I tensed up until Cameron rested his hands on my shoulders. “It’s okay. Look,” he said.

  The rattling noise sounded again and I saw that there was a puppy locked up in its cage in the corner of the room. I couldn’t help but smile when Cameron opened the cage for the little Shih Tsu to come running over to me.

  “Do you like her?” Cameron asked.

  “Yes,” I reached down to pick her up. She was full of energy.

  “Her name’s Leona.”

  At first I frowned because her name was so close to Lorena’s, but then I sighed and smiled again. Leona was a perfect name for this brown haired cutie.

  “Here, I’m going to hop in the shower,” I said, handing Leona back over to him. “Thank you,” I leaned in and kissed his cheek, then went into the bathroom.

  Once I got my clothes off, I jumped into the shower and started washing today off of my skin. Every time I took a shower I would think back to how I watched Lorena take hers. Even though the shower door made it hard to see, I could still trace her Colombian curves.

  When I heard the shower door slide open, I smiled. I knew that my night wasn’t going to end yet. Not that I wanted it to.

  Cameron stepped in close and wrapped his arms around me from behind, then he moved my curly hair out of the way and kissed the side of my neck. “I really am proud of you,” he said into my ear.

  I reached my hand back to touch his cheek, and then turned around to face him. He definitely wasn’t the little boy from high school, and I wasn’t the shy anti-social tomboy anymore. We had grown into adults. Two adults that fell in love with each other. I never thought that my first love would be the reason we broke up...

  ***

  “This is your fault Rose!” Arnold yelled. I cried out again when the whip lashed across my back. “You did this!”

  “I’m sorry,” I cried, “I’m sorry...”

  My cell phone’s loud ring pulled me out of my sleep and I opened my eyes todarkness. The only light was the one coming from my phone on the night stand. I grabbed the phone, grateful that it woke me up or else I would have soaked the bed in sweat again, and looked at the unfamiliar number.

  I wasn’t going to answer at first, but then I sighed and hit the green talk button. “Hello?” I answered tiredly.

  Cameron rolled over to face the other side while still deep in sleep.

  “Hello?” I asked again.

  It was silent on the other line, and I was just about to hang up when I heard an angel speak. My heart fluttered uncontrollably and I sat up.

  “Rose?” Her voice was as soft as usual. It had been a while since I’d heard anything from her, so I was excited at first, but then I realized how sad she sounded.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked softly. I could tell that she was upset on the other line. “What’s wrong? Where are you?”

  “I’m okay. I just wanted say congratulations...”

  “Oh. Thanks. How’d you know?”

  “I saw it on twitter,” she laughed softly. “Abigale posts everything you know...”

  I stayed quiet for a moment. I was happy that she called, and all my feelings for her came rushing back, but something was wrong. I looked back at Cameron who was sound asleep, then turned back around.

  “Rose-”

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  Lorena giggled, “Always trying to come to my rescue, huh?”

  I couldn’t help but smile at the sound of her laugh. “You know I have to,” I said.

  It was quiet again, then I could hear someone speaking on the other end. A male someone. My heart sank to the floor when I realized that the soft French man’s voice was her boyfriends. I didn’t know what he was saying, but it was soft, and sweet, and no normal guy speaks that way with you unless you’re sleeping with him.

  “Lorena, who...” I cut myself off. It wasn’t any of my business, and I didn’t want to hear her answer. No, I couldn’t hear that she was with someone else.

  “I have to go Rose, but...congratulations again.”

  “Yeah...”

  “Goodbye.”

  Before I could say it back, she hung up. I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked down at it. I hoped that she would call me right back, but she didn’t, and when I tried to call again a few days later the number was no longer in service.

  Chapter 2

  Once Abigale and I were officially on the force, we became partners. It was really nice having my best friend work with me every day. She was the only person that couldn’t seem to get on my nerves no matter what she did.

  Back in high school, Abigale was the only person that didn’t push me to the edge, and she comforted me from a distance. She knew when it was time to leave me alone, and when it was okay to try and talk to me. I had a lot of issues to deal with, and I’m glad that I had her as a friend at the time. Now we get to work together while doing what we love. Helping people...

  Pop! Pop!

  I fired my gun from behind my open car door, then ducked when shots were fired back. Abigale ran from around the back of the car and crouched down behind me. She had sweat running down the sides of her face and I couldn’t tell if it was because of the heat, or if she was just nervous. She usually broke into terrible sweats when she was either nervous or scared. I mean I could understand why she would be a little rattled. We never had to shoot at people the few months that we were on the force, and people had never shot at us.

  Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

  More shots were fired from the multiple cops around us. We were firing at a huge gang that thought it was okay to pull out their guns and fire at us when we came on a call about there being a huge gang fight. Those fuckers learned how to get along fast when they saw all of us pulling up, and almost in sync they whipped out their guns and just started shooting.

  Abigale ducked her head in fear, and it upset me to see her like that. She was scared, and it was understandable. If the other cops didn’t agree then screw them.

>   “Stay down,” I was unusually calm and took a deep breath. I didn’t sweat it like she did, because I knew that I wasn’t going to be shot. Since Arnold died, fear was no longer something that I felt anymore. There was no one else that could hurt me like he did.

  Abigale nodded and stayed down. I nodded back and turned around to start firing through the opening of my window again. I had a mean shot and wasn’t going to miss any of my targets.

  Most of these cops here were shooting to kill, but I didn’t join the force to kill anyone. I joined to protect them, even if it were from themselves. All those kids out there were lost, just like I was before, and I’d be damned if I took away their second chances at life.

  Pop! Pop!

  I aimed for the legs, shoulders, and arms. The last two shots went into a kid’s leg, and then I moved onto the next. It sounds wrong, but I actually started to see this as a game. I mean, most of the cops here were missing anyway, and I couldn’t tell if it were on purpose, or if they just had really bad aim.

  I took another kid down and was about to fire again when I heard someone scream from the car next to me.

  “I’m hit! Fuck!” One of the cops fell to his side while holding the side of his neck.

  “Shoot,” I ducked behind the door and heard a few clinks on the other side. I was glad a bullet didn’t rip through and hit either of us.

  Abigale looked up at me with tearing eyes. She was freaking out inside, but did her best to keep calm.

  I took a deep breath and looked over at the cop that was bleeding out. “Abigale, listen to me. I need you to watch my back,” I said.

  Abigale clenched her teeth, and took a deep breath, then ran her fingers through her wet hair. When it came to me, she was willing to do anything, and I would for her.

  “Ready?” I said with a tired smile. I felt more of a rush than anything. “I’m going to go and help that cop over there. You just make sure that no one fires at me.”

  Abigale nodded and held her gun with both hands now. She was back in the game.

  I looked around the door to see who was left shooting. There were only a few teens that were actually shooting back. Most of them were either holding a wound, running away, or dead.