Chapter 2 ~ “Pushing buttons and Yanking Chains”

Cullen POV

One-thousand-one…one-thousand-two…one-thousand…

"I'm just saying, this guy is not on the up and up, Edward," Swan finally blurted out, staring over at the building we'd just come from as we drove away from it.

I chuckled.

Damn, she's getting' quick.

"No goddamn shit, Swan…what do I look like, an idiot?"

She cocked her eyebrow at me and being the quick motherfucker that I am, I pointed at her ass before she could get a word out. "Don't answer that."

Like I needed a psychotherapy session of the Bella Swan kind right about then.

I inconspicuously rubbed my jaw a little as she turned her head to look out of the window so I wouldn't see the fucking smug as shit smirk on her face.

Sucker punches.

The Swan's beatin' the shit out of innocent baggage handlers, supposed victims of the fruit of their loins getting kidnapped are hiding shit and I get nothin' but goddamn sucker punches.

I was losing my touch.

Or my fucking…inner dick…one of those.

After about a half hour of her composing herself and the two of us driving in shitty as fuck silent arguing, she cleared her throat and asked me, "So, um…what'd you get with Mendez?"

More than he realizes, that's for fucking sure.

"Not a whole hell of a lot, which is why we're here."

"Did you get a description?" she sang and at that, I reached into my jacket pocket and handed her the piece of paper I'd used to jot down some notes.

"Twenty-two…lean build, dark hair…." She trailed off. "Sounds like a million other girls in the city."

Fuckin' tell me about it.

I nodded.

There was just no tellin' where to start first, to tell ya the truth. Plus, I hadn't quite ruled out the fact that this young woman hadn't taken off of her own goddamn accord.

Know what I mean?

As in, maybe daddy dickhead drove her away, he didn't exactly seem the type to treat members of his family that were of the female persuasion with the utmost tender loving fucking care.

I motioned toward the building and then checked my watch. It was getting late, or…early, depending on how you looked at things but I didn't exactly wanna fucking wait till the following day to do some data collecting.

Or in other words, since we were talking about the DC Metro Police here, data un non d'existence…collecting.

Hey, I can speak the language of love as good as the next guy.

As long as the next guy doesn't speak it very well, that is.

Or is that Italian?

Anyway…

I was probably wasting our time makin' this stop but at least I could cross it off my list of shit that doesn't really need to get done but if I don't do it Emmett'll hound my ass 'till I do anyway.

I threw the Vanquish into park outside of my brother's police precinct and looked up at the old as hell concrete structure that didn't exactly bring me any kinda goddamn happy fucking memories, if ya know what I'm sayin'.

I hadn't made it a habit to come and visit Emmett there since all the shit that had happened the previous winter which may not have made me a candidate for brother of the fucking year or anything but it sure as shit made dealing with certain things a little easier.

What?

I might of learned to live with my old baggage with the whole Jess debacle but that didn't mean I was dealin' with the new bullshit.

I ran through the scenario in my head once again and thought to myself, yeah, Newton was a dick.

A fairly large dick, at that.

Figuratively fucking speaking, that is.

But the fact of the matter was, I'd taken his low, thievin', stealin', back stabbin', isn't worth a goddamn life from him, and I'd been devious about doin' that shit.

I knew it.

Swan knew it.

I looked over at her.

Emmett knew it.

My eyes fell on the building again and I took a nice long deep breath of guilt ridden air.

I was pretty goddamn certain Muldoon knew it, even though there really wasn't anything he could do about it.

I didn't think.

I was pretty sure he was too much of a lazy shit to look into it, regardless of his obsessive hatred for me.

He had other shit on his plate anyway…

Like the ridiculous amount of crime that had been plaguing the city lately and specifically, coming up with a game plan to control it, clearing his name of having the direct link that it seemed to have to the mayor after the bullshit that had gone down previously, and somehow, getting his precinct to come out looking like more than just a unit filled with bad cops.

Anyway, his problem, not mine.

Right?

I'd justified my part in the whole thing by reminding myself that Newton worked for a piece of shit. Namely Aro Volturi and not only that, but he had taken Jess's life.

You know, tit for tat, and eye for an eye and all that bullshit…plus, he'd fucked with Swan.

And that shit just does not fucking fly with me.

So I was willing to push it all down and tuck it away into a place I like to call my very own personal seventh dimension of hell, but sometimes, that shit snuck back up on me and got in my face like a bull on the streets of Mexico chasing idiots who for some reason like to mock big strong horn having motherfuckers while drunk off their asses.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, this was one of those times.

I steadied my breathing as Bella asked me, "You okay?" putting her hand on my arm, waiting for me to lose my shit or…laugh hysterically…one or the other…and that's when I opened the driver's door told her, "Yeah…let's go."

"Cullen," she called after me as we got out of the Vanquish and I stopped, closed my eyes tight and counted to fucking ten.

Because I knew all too goddamn well what was coming next, that's why.

I turned and smiled at her, asking, "Yeah?" while simultaneously noticing some bullsht that was goin' on behind her, up the side walk a bit and I scowled at the tingly feeling I was getting' in the back of my neck.

You know, the one when you know somethins goin' down in about a half a minute short of too soon?

Yeah.

The area between my eyebrows became inadvertently closer together.

Not fucking now...come on.

Swan's eyes narrowed…a little, then she asked, nodding at me, "You sure you don't wanna talk about it?"

Seriously.

Did she not know the answer to that question by now?

I leaned an arm on the top of the Vanquish and curled my eyebrows at the psycho-analyzing-sexy as fuck nut-case that was asking me about my fucking feelings and told her, "I wanna talk about it almost as much as I believe Mendez single handedly headed up the woman's rights movement march over at the Mall a couple of weekends ago, Swan. Can we go now?"

She stood her ground and I averted eye contact, glancing down the sidewalk again, taking note of the small framed woman getting out of her car.

Alone.

That was about when Bella decided that a little interrogating of her own was in order.

"Why'd you let him get away with all of that…" her lips curled down, threw her hands in the air a little and she did her Mendez impersonation. "Woommahn…crap then?"

Not bad.

I laughed at her ass, she was fucking adorable when she was pissed.

Sorry.

Clarification, when she was pissed at someone other than me.

"I'm trying to practice that…you know…what'd you call it?" I mocked her. "Due diligence bullshit?"

She huffed.

Huffing and the Swan was never a good combo.

Oh and FYI, the annoying fucking commotion that kept distracting me appeared to be a dick twat giving that loner woman a hard time and I squinted a little, trying to get a read on just exactly what in the hell he was trying to accomplish.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't call it bullshit, Edward…and you choose the day some ass jerk off needs to get beat down to practice due diligence?"

I scowled at her. "You still mad at the business card thing?"

Eye rolling.

Nice.

That shit's worse than huffing.

The asshat up the street made his move and it became clear what was goin' on.

Purse thieves…

We're in the epi-fucking-center of the goddamn police precinct for Washington DC and I'm dealing with purse thieves.

"No, I'm just…" She licked her lips a little. "Annoyed."

"Uh huh…With?" I asked absentmindedly, trying to figure out which way the dick head was gonna run.

Swan started to walk around to my side of the car then.

"You just…" she started and with that, flailed the hands at me.

Huffing, eye rolling, hand flailing.

Noooooo, she's not on her fucking period at all.

"I what?" I pushed, getting myself into a stance as the idiot actually ran toward the police head quarters.

Unbelievable.

I wished I had video on my goddamn iPhone 3G so I could turn this shit into that show, "Crooks are Stupid" or something.

"You…could….look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you for one thing…" she started again and that consti-fucking-tuted a goddamn eyebrow raising on my end.

She got the hint, breathed out and then calmed down just as the fuck twat purse thief approached us and I put my arm out, clothes lining the guy.

That fuckery takes some seriously excellent timing, my friends.

I had to laugh at just how goddamn perfect mine was.

Swan jumped a little as the sucks ass at thieving purses, purse thief's feet swung out from under him, giving him nowhere to go but down, landing him directly on his back and I heard the crack of his skull against the concrete.

I plucked the stolen purse out of the air when it flew from his grip after his collision with the wall of steel I like to call my fucking forearm

Then I bent over him, sucked in a breath of air through my teeth and said, "That's uh…probably gonna leave a mark…" I pointed at his head. "But, hey…" I whispered to him. "I bet you could sue the District of Columbia for failure to give safe passage while fleeing the scene of a crime."

I winked and stood back up right just as the petite blonde walked up…

No.

She fucking sauntered.

I lifted an eyebrow and could literally feel the pissed offness radiating off of Swan when I did it.

The hand going to the hip also did not escape my motherfucking attention.

Or Eddy Jr's.

I held the purse out.

"This your's?" I asked the blonde and when she took it, she smiled up at me, completely ignoring Swan and I knew that shit was not gonna go over well.

"My hero," she said all….fucking sultry and shit.

Eddy Jr. didn't respond, just so ya know. He's got one reaction to one woman and that's it. Plus, he didn't wanna be fucking castrated any more than I did.

Blondy took the purse back and opened it.

"Surely I have to pay you for your selflessness," she purred and I just had to smile at the way she wasn't fucking phased at all over the situation.

"No, really," I told her, holding a hand up. "That's not necessary but if you wanna press charges…" I kinda eyeballed the precinct that was just about a hundred feet away.

"Oh," she laughed and closed the purse back up, batting her obviously fake ass eyelashes at me. "No, I'm just glad I didn't lose it." She leaned in a little, patting the leather bound accessory with the big ass 'D.B.' on the front of it. "Precious cargo, you know."

Swan snorted.

"Uh…yeah, okay well…" I looked over at my partner who was now standing there, a) glaring, b) hand on hip and c) scowling with the hard to find but never missed mouth hanging open just a tad.

So I closed it for her.

"We should…" I tilted my head a little and she snapped out of it, licking her lips. "Right."

"Well, thanks again, sorry for your trouble…Mr…" she trailed off and I told her, against my better judgment, "Cullen, Edward Cullen and…"

Because I just couldn't fucking help myself, I added, "I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble," all Sam Spade like from The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey playin' the man.

Hey, it was highly appropriate considering the fact that suddenly felt like I was in one of those old black and white movie all of a goddamn sudden.

The blonde giggled and smirked and did a seriously ridiculous hair flippy thing that woulda put Raquel goddamn Welch to shame…then she cat walked her way back toward her car and I watched in awe.

Not because it was hot or anything but more like, I didn't think people actually fucking did shit like that in real life.

A disgusted sound came from the direction of my very level headed live in lover slash temperamental motherfucker as she pushed passed me, stalking up the stairs of the precinct.

Hell yeah, I followed her, what the fuck else was I gonna do?

As we entered the building, I told the guy behind the desk there, "Purse snatcher, outside, he's got a…" I pointed at my head and kept walkin' as he ran around the desk to go out and check it out.

In the elevator that I nearly missed because Swan pushed the close door button on my ass, I leaned against the back wall and waited.

I wondered if Emmett was around.

I hadn't called ahead of time but I was fairly certain he'd still be there.

Rose had called bitchin' to Bella about his hours enough for me to know he was pulling a lot of doubles lately to start making some extra cash for the bambino addition to their happy little freak show.

Ironically, this also meant he wouldn't be seeing much of said bambino OR Rose in between the crazy ass shifts he was pulling and the sleep he ended up having to catch up on while not on those shifts.

Fucking life.

You really just can't win, especially if your last name starts with "C" and ends with "Ullen."

When I started hearin' a mumble here and a huff there I finally said, "If you have something to fuckin' say, Swan, just say it."

She turned to me, narrowed eyes galore and asked, all per-fucking-snickety and what not, "What was that, anyway?"

"What?"

"I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble," she said and it was hard not to fucking laugh at her ass.

What?

I didn't, I swallowed that shit down.

I'm just sayin'…

Now mind you, she didn't just say that shit, she did that man voice that women like to do when they're impersonating us but it doesn't really fucking sound like us, it just highlights exactly how pissed off they are with us.

The problem was, I was having a really hard goddamn time figuring out what Swan was pissed at.

"It was funny," I told her, smiling.

"It was…stupid…and flirty…and…" she waved a hand at me as the doors opened and smacked the innocent bystander waiting to get on right in the face.

I nodded at him. "Hey Em."

"Hey guys," he said rubbing the side of his face, grinning his stupid fucking Emmett grin at us.

He saw my face, then Swans and said, "Business as usual, huh?"

"I'm so sorry, Emmett," Bella told him all…sweet and what not and I frowned at her ass as he told her, "No worries Bells," chuckling as though it was a big joke that she would think she could possibly hurt his face of steal or somethin'.

Whatever.

"I need your computer terminal," I told Em.

"You have a computer terminal."

Smart ass.

"Okay, let me re-phrase then, I need your access to secret police files computer terminal."

He stared at me for a second, checked the hallway, then shrugged. "Alright, but you need to make it quick, Muldoon's on a rampage."

"What the fuck else is new?" I asked him as we made our way to his newly appointed, hoity toity office.

…

"I don't know, Edward, I'm not seein' anything come up for this guy…is it at all possible he's tellin' you the truth?"

HA!

Emmett was banging on the keyboard to his tiny ass computer as fast as his straight laced, by the book cop fingers could type to try and find some dirt on Mendez, but apparently was coming up with nada.

Not that I was surprised by that tid bit of information.

"There's gotta be somethin'," I told him, not buying the results spewed out from the piece of shit law enforcement server's information highway.

At all.

"I gotta bad feelin' about this."

Swan's eyes moved, but only her eyes. They locked with mine and I felt like she could either snap back into reality at that point or lose her shit all together and go hog wild on my ass.

Em keyed in a few more things and then leaned back, crossing his arms.

"That's weird."

"What?" I walked up behind him to see what the fuck he was talkin' about while Swan gnawed on a piece of what looked like day old donut droppings.

Fucking disgusting.

And adorable.

"There's nothin' on this guy."

"Yeah, Em…you fucking said that already."

What's he got Alzheimer's already or some shit?

"No, I mean…like, nothing…usually these airlines have somethin' that we've had to go see them about, you know, like, minor violations, theft, disturbances…this guy is disturbingly squeaky clean."

I breathed out because, shit, let's face it, it had only been a matter of goddamn time.

Right?

"I smell Aro all over this case."

I wasn't gonna go there, I swear, but I just had to dod it and Swan looked…confused.

"Why? Just because it's a kidnapping, that's not really his M.O, is it?"

"Why the fuck not? They took Seth, why not take a girl?"

I got looks.

Two of them.

One from Swan, silently requesting I not go there, the other from Emmett, telling me Swan wasn't exactly gonna like what I was thinkin'.

Like I didn't know that.

And not that it mattered, because as nauseous as the next part made me feel in the deep pits of the abyss I like to call my mind, it had to be said, someone needed to make this fuckery real.

"Maybe he's some sick and twisted fuck who sells little girls to other sick and twisted fucks that like cute young slave wives to make their green eggs and goddamn ham every morning after practically fucking raping them for the evening in their domination dens or something."

Emmett gave me the deer in the headlights look and Swan, well…her face morphed into one of her infamous I can't believe you just said that shit looks.

What?

I've seen my share of screwed up ass twats in my life.

Aro certainly hadn't been crossed off of that list just because he was incog-fucking-nito for the past ten months.

I pulled my phone out and started dialing.

Because I fucking knew someone who could pull shit up on this guy.

Regardless of what the goddamn DC PD thinks they know.

"Who are you…?" Em started to ask but I held a finger up as the line was answered on the other end.

"Yo."

"Jazz, it's Cullen."

Silence.

"Okay you knew that…but look, I need you to pull somethin' up for me."

Swan giggling…lots and lots of Swan giggling.

I eyeballed her while I waited for Jazz to get downstairs to his den of technology.

"Edward…" Emmett started again, but again, I put a finger up, curling the edges of my mouth down at his ass.

"Okay, watcha need?"

"Titus Airlines…Baltimore, CEO is Eleazer Mendez."

I spelled the name for him and watched Emmett closely, who was getting goddamn jittery and I tried not to laugh at his ass.

"I don't know what you think…" he said and I cut his ass off by inter-fucking-acting with my partner in this whole…whatever the fuck we were getting ourselves into this time.

"Swan, can you grab me a pen and paper off of Lieutenant I think the world revolves around the Metro Police Department's desk?"

She hid the smile and moved passed Emmett, grabbing the two items off of it and handing them to me.

"Okaaaaaaaay," Jazzman started. "Looks like the guy does a lot of middle man type shipping..."

"Mmm Hmmm." I wrote as he talked.

"Lock down on his internal order numbers…hold on…"

Emmett's arms crossed and Swan just waited. She knew as well as I did by then, if anyone was gonna get the goods on this guy, it was Jasper.

A few keystrokes on the Jazz man's end and he finally said, "He's got a crypted code on the contents, but…" he hesitated.

His hesitations were about the equivalent of getting a pink slip from the government. We're really fucking grateful to have had you working for us all these years, but…

You know what I'm sayin'?

"But…"

"You're not gonna like who his top shipments are for."

I fucking knew it.

"Is it…?"

"Yep…"

Mother of…

"How often?"

"At least…" I heard him typing on the other end about a million miles a minute and then he said, "twice a quarter…and…"

More hesitating.

"Oh boy."

I eyeballed Swan, who was chewing on her lip.

Down, Jr.

I adjusted myself and prodded my good friend on the other end of the line, who seemed to be hesitant to fucking tell me something. "Annnnnd….?"

"He's got some kinda free pass on inspections through customs."

Mother of shit pounding farm hands.

Sometimes I really fucking hate being right all the goddamn time.

I breathed out. "Okay, anything else? Is James…"

"He's not on the employee roster, but that doesn't mean anything, gimmee a while, I'll keep diggin'."

"Thanks man."

"Later."

"Fucking piece of….Lying goddamn…"

"What?" Swan asked and all I could do was look at her and seethe.

"Edward?"

Muldoon walked in then, giving Swan another reason to jump for the day as Emmett turned his monitor off. The Lieutenant threw her one of his chipped tooth, bad breath smelling smiles but for me? Nothin'.

There was no way in fucking hell I was about to shared privileged goddamn information with my least favorite fucking asshole in the whole of the police profession.

There was always later to fill Emmett in.

"What are you doing here, Cullen, we don't have you on any cases right now."

I smiled my best fake as a motherfucker smile at the guy and asked, "What's goin' down, Muldoon?"

He scowled at me.

"I mean, besides all your lackies on your kiddie sized mc dick, that is."

I looked over at Emmett who was now throwing his police jacket on but somehow also managed to glare at my ass at the same time.

"No offense."

He just shook his head as his eyes closed.

"Fuck you, Cullen."

I shook my head at him. "I don't fucking swing that way, Muldoon" I said, winking at him. "Besides…I'm a one woman man these days."

I nodded toward Swan and she couldn't pretend not to smile at my ass.

"You didn't answer my question, Cullen," Muldoon spat at me as we started to leave all evidence of illegal computer hacking behind us.

Sort of anyway, it wasn't exactly illegal because Emmett was doing the hacking, and it was his goddamn computer so…

"Just, visiting my brother, no law against that."

That I fucking know of.

"But…" I said slowly, because I had decided to get some non-answers from the non-on top of shit asswipe while I was there.

Who knew when I'd actually be in Muldoon's presence on a semi-not-exactly-trying-to-kill-each-other basis again.

"Can ya tell me why the hell the good old Metro PD didn't think a certain kidnapping case was worthy of their finest…? I mean, since you're here and all."

"Huh?"

It was Emmett. Muldoon just stared blankly like the hasn't gotta clue inspector of nothing in par-fucking-ticular guy that he was.

"The Mendez case."

Still nothin'.

Hmm.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Cullen, but…"

"CEO of Titus Arilines? Missing daughter? He hired us a week or so ago…said you boys weren't cuttin' it, it's why he called us."

Emmett and Muldoon exchanged complete confusion and then Emmett told me, "Edward, we haven't had any cases come through here for missing persons, much less for a missing person belonging to an airline guru."

My left eyebrow inched up.

It was about as telling as Swan's hip handling.

"Bullshit, he said…" I started but then, realization kicked in and I figured, of fucking course he lied…why would he not lie? I mean, shit, every fucking client I've gotten lately had been lying, why not this guy?

Right?

"Mother of…"

"Setttle down, Cullen, we're not surprised by this right? We knew something was up," Swan said quietly and all…woman's fucking intuitiony and shit.

Up my ass.

As in, the smoke this guy was blowing in a not so very covert kinda way.

"Well he probably didn't call us because he's got something to hide, which explains why he'd call you."

Muldoon said it nonchalantly but I knew what the hell he was sayin' in his I'm not really sayin' anything at all kinda way.

It stopped me cold.

Fucking.

Ass.

HOLE.

"You got somethin' to fuckin' say, Lieutenant?" I asked him, daring the dick hole to push me a little more.

Swan was hovering.

Emmett was just…waiting.

"How about, you're wasting my department's time and money on this shit right now, Cullen?"

OH, it was on.

This ass wipe needed someone to give him a goddamn enema of the oh so fucking painful kind.

But before I could get a word out, he added, "If he's this drug shipper's daughter is missing, I say tough shit, maybe he shouldn't be in the goddamn drug shipping business."

I tilted my head at him a little. "Why would you say that?"

"What?"

"That he's a drug dealer? Em said…" and then I stopped myself because fuck if Em wasn't supposed to be showin' us shit in the system.

But Muldoon knew somethin', which meant that now I knew somethin' he didn't know I knew.

Which meant he was goin' on my list.

"Emmett said what?" he asked and I could feel my brother freaking the fuck out so I just told Muldon, "ya know what, forget it, you're on top of it, why should I worry about my petty bullshit when you're taking care of the City, right?"

I smiled.

Swan looked sick.

And Emmett just stared blankly.

"See ya," I said walking out and I just had to trust that my co-horts were following.

In the elevator, we three kings were quiet until Emmett finally asked me, "How'd…?"

"Friends in low places dude," I told him, cutting him off. No need for incriminating words being over heard by our good friend Lieutenant fuck head.

Emmett's face questioned me so I added, "Very…low places."

"I don't even wanna know, bro."

"Fucking tell me about it," I said, letting my head fall back to rest against the wall of the tiny box the rest of the way down to the lobby.

"What are you thinking?" Swan asked as we exited.

"I think we owe our little friend the munchkin man another goddamn visit, that's what I think."

"Cullen, you said…"

I held a finger up to her, telling her to wait as I inquired with the secretary type poh poh at the front of the lobby, "You get the purse snatcher?"

He shook his head. "Nobody was out there, chief, looked up and down the street, but he was gone."

Weird.

"What about the victim? She shoulda still been out there."

"Nope, sorry chief."

"Okay first off, stop fucking calling me chief, if I wanted to be chief I'd join the fucking DC METRO goddamn PD and get Muldoon booted within my first month…secondly, are you sure?'

He kinda did this huffy, smirky, don't I wish kinda thing and said, "Yeah, I'm sure…no one's out there really this time of night, anyway, I'd a seen one of them."

Huh.

I kept walking at that point and continued the conversation I was having with Swan.

"I said you needed to stop choking the asshat, Swan, and I stand by that shit, we aren't gonna solve anything for find any fuckheads when one of us is in jail for fucking manslaughter…"

She eyed me.

"Or…murder one in your case."

As we walked out of the precinct and began saying our goodbyes to Em, I turned and pushed the unlock button on the Vanquish from the steps.

And a bomb went off.

The three of us and about a nickels worth of other innocent goddamn bystanders were thrown backwards from the explosion and I was pretty sure I heard something crack as I landed against the steps leading up to the front door of the place.

"Holy,"

"Shit," Emmett finished for me and I sat up to make sure everything still worked.

"Bella, you okay?" I asked her as she pushed herself up off of the concrete.

"Yeah," she choked and I breathed a little easier as she did because shit, at least she was moving but then somewhere in my subconscious I had a fucking flashback of her being not so goddamn conscious and I just got even more pissed off.

Then I saw what exploded.

"Mother of…"

"Oh, man…Eddy…" Emmett said and shit if he didn't actually sound a little tiny goddamn sympa-fucking-thetic.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

I just sat there, watching my baby burn like we were at some kinda goddamn bon fire and all I could think of was shit, I still had ten payments to go on that motherfucker.

"Edward, you okay dude?"

"My…fucking CAR…is…"

"It's okay, Edward, it's just a car, be glad we weren't in it."

"She's…" Dead.

It was just lucky fucking coincidence that there wasn't a whole lotta traffic on the road at the time.

Or maybe not.

As I stood there watching her disintegrate, listening to Em call it in to the fire department, it wasn't exactly giving me a good goddamn feeling about anything surrounding this bullshit that some might call a case we'd taken on.

However, at least I was gathering data.

Because, ladies and gentlement, what that firey ball of flames that used to be my goddamn mode of transportation did, was tell me two things.

One, someone out there wasn't exactly fucking happy that I was on this case.

James.

And two, they clearly had a death wish, because aside from fucking with my family, blowing up my car was just about the best goddamn way to get your fucking ass kicked.

Or a bullet in your head.

Either, or.