Bejewelled

Ch 2

It was late and seeing an unknown motorbike driving through his town, Gabe wanted to just check that there was no trouble brewing. It was not the norm for 2am on a Tuesday night to see anyone passing through. Though many here, owned motorbikes not like this one.

It was very flashy indeed, pulled up alongside it, a very nice Kawasaki Ninja, custom painted by the look of it. It was all black but as the torch light hit it, it had a brilliant red sparkle to it. Very nice. He could tell it was a woman by the curves on her. Looked really nice in those black and red leathers, matched her bike he realised.

This woman, however, did not seem to want to obey him, seemed a bit on the annoyed side that they had pulled her over, likely didn’t think she had done anything wrong to warrant his attention. Which of course she had not. His curiosity had been pricked was all due to the lateness of the hour.

Finally, the rider obeyed his order. He had been starting to think that trouble had come to his hometown, that he was going to have to get out of his car in the rain, but then finally they lifted the black visor of her helmet, which he also noted was black and red, a theme he thought, or just pedantic about how she wanted to look on her bike.

They turned their head slowly, turned their eyes to look right at him.

The brilliant green of her eyes, sparkled like jewels in the torch beam, and his mouth turned into a deeper frown than it had already been in. It had been four whole years since he had seen Cinda. Since she had graced this town with her presence when he was around, and now here she was, though he knew she’d been here when he was not.

Fully enjoying ignoring him at will, this minute, as well it seemed.

Doing what she always did, pissing him off, with that attitude of hers, she just couldn’t seem to help herself, but to go out of her way to be an annoyance, Gabe watched as she sped off down the street.

“You want me to go after her?” His partner Constable Jimmy Dollan asked him.

“No, it's fine.” He muttered. “Let her be.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, she’s one of ours actually, just hasn’t been home in a while.”

“Has nice eyes.” He heard his partner say, could hear the smile in the man’s voice. Clearly liked what he saw, every bloody man did. It irked him to no end.

“Unmistakable.” Gabe nodded, and they were, he’d never forgotten them, had tried many times over the years.

It was only five minutes later when he spotted the bike trailing them, then it was gone. What was that woman up to? He frowned, and had Jimmy drive around town some more, she continued to put herself in view and drive off, or cross a road behind them, likely knew he was watching for her. Sighed.

They pulled up outside the front of the police station, but Gabe stopped Jimmy from turning off the engine as he watched the bike cruise by a block down, all nice and slow. She was watching them, playing with him and not in a good way.

The rain clearly wasn’t bothering her tonight. He motioned for Jimmy to follow and for the next half an hour they played tag and spot the bike. That was until Gabe had run out of patience and had had enough of the games she was playing.

It wasn’t like her, or at least not like the Cinda he used to know. The girl he’d known had always been quiet and kept to herself. Didn’t want to cause any trouble. This was all new to him, she was light and playful, and she was risking being arrested by him and knew it, playing with fire and didn’t seem to care. Nothing at all like the Cinda from years ago.

He pulled out his phone and dialled her number, something he hadn’t done in just over 4 years, had stayed away from her for a long time now, since he’d gotten engaged, in fact. It was usually his parents, Lori and Dan, who kept in contact with her, not him.

She answered as she sat on her bike two blocks ahead of them parked in the middle of a well-lit intersection, completely illegal and she knew it, she was pushing him, why he didn’t know. What had gotten into her he couldn’t say. Their usual word battles had turned into something physical tonight.

Speaking with her didn’t work either. His jaw tightened in anger as she blatantly just sat there disregarding his orders. He was the law and regardless of who she was to him, she needed to respect the law.

Then she was smoking up the street. He could not only see the smoke, he could hear the tire screaming on the tarred road and grit his teeth. Gabe was more than irritated now, he was completely pissed off with her and her new attitude and disrespect for the laws she was so very clearly breaching right before his eyes.

“Go get her Jimmy.” He snapped, flicking the patrol cars' lights on. There was no need to wake everyone up with the sirens blaring, so left them out of this little game of hers, she knew he was after her. He was pretty darn sure it was exactly what she wanted too.

He watched as she spun her bike into a doughnut and sped away through her own smoke. He doubted that they would catch her. She was showing off some pretty good skills. Likely learned them on his old dirt bike, from his own father and had obviously gained some more now with that new bike of hers.

She was also fast and headed towards the residential area, not good if Jimmy couldn’t keep up, too many quick turns and way too many places to stop and douse the lights, which he knew was exactly what she was going to do at some point.

Then 10 minutes later she ducked down an alley too small for the patrol car, pedestrians only, forcing them to go around and by the time they got there she was either gone or had doused the lights.

“Bloody woman,” he muttered.

“What now?” Jimmy asked him.

Gabe thought about it a minute. “Drive by my parent’s house.”

“And where is that?” Jimmy asked.

Gabe looked at him and sighed, he’d forgotten for a moment that the kid was new in town. “Pull over I’ll drive.” He said.

Gabe rolled the patrol car by his parents’ house nice and slow, the spotlight angled at the house, but kept it to the downstairs only, didn’t actually want to wake his parents. They would likely think that something was wrong. There were no lights on, and no bike parked out the front, or in the driveway.

“Why are we here exactly?” Jimmy asked, somewhat confused.

“Because that emerald-eyed biker, is my foster sister, Lucinda,” He commented before finally driving away, heading for the station.

'No', Gabe thought, she wouldn’t come here right away, it would be the first place that he would look for her, and he figured there were only two reasons why Cinda would show up here and play with him like that.

One being that she was planning on visiting for a few days or two she was just passing through. But seeing as he’d pulled her over for no reason, she’d seen fit to toy with him. The first seemed the more likely of the two, so he knew that he would have a chance to rip shreds off of her tomorrow or the day after and he fully intended to do just that. When he caught up with her, that was.

Grey and Manny came on duty at 7am and both of them laughed at Gabe’s account of Cinda’s escapades during the night. He was still mad about it and their laughter only made him more furious, he needed a good venting.

“So, you’re headed out to your folks place then?” Grey asked.

“Mm.” He nodded, he knew tearing shreds off of Cinda was the right thing to do, but in front of his mother, who still doted on the girl, would hinder things greatly.

“So, are we arresting your sister on sight?” Manny asked, grinning up at Grey.

“She’s not my sister.” Gabe snapped, irritated at both of them now. They knew he didn’t like it when people called her his sister, especially when it was one of them.

The two of them laughed heartily at him, then Grey asked, “So arrest or not?”

“Not, for now anyway.” He snapped at the two of them and headed for the door.

It had been a very uneventful and boring night, being a Tuesday and all, that was, of course, until Cinda had turned up and began playing her reckless game and for what? just to annoy him? or tick him off? or was it because she just wanted too? That c***k about him not being able to catch her, that had meant something to her, and he understood that, all too well.

He drove his Jeep Cherokee out to his parents’ place, still no sign of her bike anywhere in town and he did a quick lap around. Gabe frowned and wondered if indeed she had just been passing through, for although he knew his parents still spoke with her on a regular basis, neither one of them had actually laid eyes on her in the past two years.

It had been longer for him, over 4 years now, since he’d actually seen her. Somehow, she had always managed to time her visits when he was away on holidays or drop in on her way through while he was on shift. Gabe put that down to her asking Lori if he was around before she made the decision to come home and of course, his mother wouldn’t think anything of it, and tell her anything she wanted to know.

She’d picked up some great job in the city, with a big company that dabbled in a lot of things, real estate mostly, he thought, right out of Uni. Headhunted, it seemed, he knew she’d been excited about it, Lori had gone on about how exciting the news was. That Cinda was going to be a big asset to the company. Cinda hadn’t come back home much after that, apparently always travelling away on business.

She had not even come home for Christmas in the past 4 years. That had upset his mother a lot. She really did love that girl and missed her. Did he want to upset her today by telling her that Cinda was in town, and then only have her not stop by? This would hurt Lori too.

He got out and let himself inside the house. The front door was already open to let the morning breeze in. Both his parents were early risers and his mother believed in keeping the house open to the fresh air, as much as possible, before the heat of the day set in.

Gabe’s stomach rumbled at the smell of breakfast cooking, he was hungry, though he usually only ate a light snack before going to bed after a night shift. But if she was cooking, he’d have a full breakfast, loved his mother’s cooking. Gabe called out as he headed for the kitchen.

“This is a nice surprise.” His mother Lori smiled up at him, but it only lasted a second, before her smile faltered and he saw her eyes look to his clothing, and Gabe realised that he was still in uniform, and she thought maybe he was here on business.

“Just finished my shift and thought I’d drop in, say hello.” He said with a smile to ease her concern. “Where’s dad?”

“Showering,” she answered him, sounding relieved.

“What are we having?” Gabe asked, sitting at the island bench.

His mother laughed “Can’t you see from there?”

“Mm. I can.” He said, taking off his police hat and placing it on the bench. It was going to be a full breakfast; bacon and eggs with hash browns and grilled tomatoes and mushrooms.

“Morning son,” his father Dan clapped him on the back, “what brings you by?”

“Breakfast. I could smell it all the way across town.” He smiled up at the man.

His father laughed, “Son, you’re a poor liar, what’s up?”

Gabe looked from one to the other. His father did know him well, there was no point dragging this out longer than necessary, so he took a deep breath and said, “Lucinda is in town.”

He saw his mother turn to look right at him, saw her blue eyes, just like his, light right up instantly, and a big smile touched her face. “You saw her then?” she asked. Excitement filled her voice and expression.

“Yes.” He nodded “I saw her,” then he was frowning as he recalled the night's events. “In fact the woman played tag with me last night, breaking the law several times.”

His mother’s smile was gone in an instant and she was frowning at him now. “No, Cinda would never do that.” she shook her head as if he was the one lying. That girl could just do no wrong in his mother’s eyes.

“She did.” He said firmly in his most no-non-sense tone of voice. So, she would understand exactly that the girl was not precious and as perfect as Lori thought she was.

“Why would she?” his father asked, a frown on his face and a little disappointment in his voice and his eyes. They had raised her better than that.

“I don’t know but she seems different to me. Playful and chatty too.”

“Perhaps she’s just happy to be home.” His mother offered up.

Gabe didn’t believe that for a second. “Obviously she’s not here.”

“Obviously.” His mother nodded. “So where is my baby girl then?”

Gabe hated it when she called Cinda that, the woman was no baby and she certainly hadn’t been a girl for a very long time now. “I’m not sure we lost her.”

“How did you manage that?” His father frowned at him, but there was also a smile in his eyes.

“I wasn’t driving,” He said by way of explanation. Not that he really thought it would have helped much; she knew this town as well as he did.

“Do you think that she will stop by?” Lori asked hopefully, the question aimed at Dan, his father, not him.

“Of course, she will.” He smiled at her reassuringly.

They all ate in relative silence. Gabe worried about what Cinda was here for. Up to? He knew that his mother was hoping that Cinda would turn up and it was likely from the marred expression on his father’s face that the man himself was hoping their foster daughter wouldn’t disappoint his wife.

Gabe stayed only a short while, he’d not been planning on eating breakfast with them, had only turned up to see if Cinda was here. He was tired from a long boring night. He drove himself home, just a few blocks away and got out of his car at his place locked the truck up. Then he turned at the sound of a motorbike coming down the street. He watched it go by, not her. She’d been riding a Black Ninja, and this was a Red Suzuki.

Sighed just knew he was going to be distracted by every damned motorbike he heard, until he either caught up with her, or one of his friends did. Or he had found out she had actually passed through the town and left that was.

He’d get some sleep, for he knew that Grey and Manny would call if they found her, that neither would be stupid enough to be the one to tear shreds off of her, not when he wanted to do it, and they both knew that he did.