Chapter 2

As the two colleagues walked down the street, Maya couldn't help but glance at the phone number on the card over and over again. She couldn't believe that a guy she just met had given her his number, her heart fluttered as she thought about how she was going to text him.

Looking over her shoulder was Cherry, she nudged her playfully, "Looks like you got yourself a date!" she teased, her voice filled with playful excitement.

Maya blushed and shook her head, "No way, it's just a phone number," she said, but she couldn't hide the smile on her face.

"Also he said I didn't make a good enough impression!" Maya reminded her. "Of course you did honey!" "Cherry replied mimicking Jesse's voice as she emphasized the word *honey* letting out a fit of contagious laughter as Maya joined in.

After reaching their workplace, Maya immediately immersed herself in her tasks, attempting to focus on her work. However, her mind couldn't help but wander. With every bite of the cheesecake she had ordered, her thoughts drifted back to the cozy café she had just visited, and inevitably, her attention shifted to the card safely tucked away in her desk drawer. The idea of sending a text becoming more and more pronounced in her mind. Finally deciding to take a shot at it, she pulled out her phone, typed in the number, and started to compose her text.

~Hey it's Maya, I just wanted to say it was nice meeting you today.~

Just as Maya was about to send her message, a voice pierced through her concentration, pulling her back to reality. Looking up, she discovered Anthony leaning into her cubicle, black unkempt hair sticking out, his chin jutting out and a wide, toothy grin plastered across his face. The sound of his voice grated on her nerves as he spoke, "Hey there, Maya. It's been a while since I've seen that beautiful smile of yours."

Maya tried to maintain her composure as she responded, "Can I help you with something?" She already had a sinking feeling about where this conversation was headed.

Anthony, undeterred by Maya's cold response, took the opportunity to invite her to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. He persisted, insisting that Maya was merely playing hard to get. However, Maya had endured enough of Anthony's unwelcome advances and with him ruining her good mood she took the chance to confront him.

"Stop this, Anthony," Maya asserted firmly, regret tinged in her voice as she recalled her role in familiarizing him with the office. "I am not interested, and I never will be. So please, leave me alone."

Anthony's smile vanished, replaced by a simmering frustration. He took a step closer, his face contorting with offense at Maya's rejection. "Come on, Maya. Don't be like that. I just want to get to know you better," he attempted to apologize, but his wording bordered on still being forceful.

Maya had gotten enough of Anthony's behavior and spoke up. "Anthony, I have made myself very clear. I am not interested in you. Your behavior is inappropriate, and it needs to stop. I don't want to have dinner with you, get to know you better, or ever speak to you like this again," she said, her patience running thin.

Anthony's face turned red with anger as he interrupted her. "You think you're too good for me, huh? I know your type, sooner or later you'll be begging me to take you out," he added arrogantly.

Maya was livid she wasn't just giving a hint, she was painting the wall red and Anthony still didn't get what she was saying. "I am not playing hard to get, Anthony. I am simply not interested in you. Your behavior towards me is unacceptable, and if you continue to harass me, I will report you." she repeated, standing up to Anthony's height.

Anthony sneered at her and continued to insult her, saying that she will know her place soon enough. Maya stood her ground and demanded that he leave her cubicle immediately.

Cherry marched into the cubicle standing beside Maya, she crossed her arms and added, "And if you think for a second that your attitude or actions will ever change how Maya feels about herself or anyone else, then you clearly don't understand the meaning of respect."

Anthony feeling outnumbered left the cubicle in a huff. But not before letting out a final barb. "You two will regret this!" he whispered as he fled.

Looking around, a few coworkers were peeping out of their cubicles curious about what was happening, the raised voices attracted attention. Maya was usually pretty quiet so her raising her voice was a rare occurrence. The office rumor mill would be running this story to everyone pretty soon.

"Calm down Maya, I know he's a dumbass but I doubt he'll do anything drastic." Cherry tried to placate her by hugging her shoulders to stop her from shaking.

"I know, but I'm just so angry, who does he think he is?" Maya complained, still furious about the situation. Thinking to herself. 'I have never been disrespected like that before, if anybody did that to me before I usually put them in their place as soon as they said anything'

Maya sat down and took deep breaths. "I'll be fine Cherry, thanks for the support." she forced a smile. "You're welcome honey, I'll also send a report for this. You don't have to worry about anything, I've got your back, Maya." Cherry replied as she headed back to her office.

Cherry faced her computer, letting go of what she had in her hand. She didn't even notice that she had taken hold of one of her scissors. Unconsciously Maya had been prepared to defend herself if Anthony had tried to get physical.

Breathing a sigh of relief that the situation hadn't escalated to that point Cherry went back to her tasks. Cherry knew she had to talk to Human Resources about Anthony's behavior, but for now, she just wanted to focus on work and forget the whole ordeal. She just couldn't help but feel that she somehow forgot something.

-Break-

In the Heavescent Cafe.

Jesse breathed out a sigh of relief as the lunch rush had started to die down. Looking at all the leaving customers and the overflowing register he had, brought a small smile to his face. He wasn't sure about starting a bakery before, but seeing all the happy faces once they tried his pastries had brought a sense of fulfillment to him, one different from the sense of accomplishment he had gotten every time he had finished a job in his previous line of work.

Deciding to take a breather he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and called out to the kitchens in the back. "Hey Jax, I'm gonna take a break, keep an eye on the shop for me would you?"

"Sure boss!" The reply came as a bald man wearing a white shirt and apron came out to man the counter.

Moving out of the way he tucked away his apron underneath the counter and left the shop. Thinking of where to spend his break Jesse walked to the nearby park. Taking a seat on one of the far-off benches under a few trees away from the kids playing near the lake, he lit a cigarette as he took out his phone. He was a little disappointed that there wasn't a message from the girl he had given his number to before but, one of them did catch his attention.

-Hey J, are you working again? It's been a while, hit me up when you come by New York City. Anyway, It took a while but I gathered the information we have on the guy you asked about, a bit of a dirty cop right there, bribes, drugs, and even a few instances of human trafficking and prostitution. Just check the files I sent you. Take Care, K-

Sending a quick thank you, Jesse opened the attached file and began to look at Detective George McKinley's file. It had every public record of George from where he studied in elementary to cases of police brutality, multiple counts of extortion, intimidation, and even a racism accusation by a former colleague who had to be reassigned to *keep the peace* in the police station. Jesse was both surprised and angry at how he was still in the force.

George was a piece of work, even in the force he was known to be a dirty cop, the higher-ups just didn't do anything about it as they were sure to be in on it, or they weren't in a position to do something, besides, someone had to take the heat in the station and who was better than the outright racist, sexist and disgusting pig they had in the bullpen.

Swiping through the files he finally found the disgusting parts. George was deep in the drug business, taking out loans from different groups, and then paying his debts with more than a few unlucky girls he had kidnapped, leading to his human trafficking involvement, the extortion of a few businesses, and the bribes he had to do and take to keep everything quiet.

As he kept reading a fire had lit up inside Jesse's stomach, anger at what George had done, pity for the girls, and disgust at everyone else involved. Taking a deep pull from his cigarette, Jesse reminisced of how he served as a soldier before, why he stopped, why he moved onto the easier-to-stomach side of the business, and why he was now here and working on his Cafe.

Looking around, the peace he was in was worth everything he had to suffer through before. Jesse was thankful for the short bout of quiet he had but if he wanted it to continue he had to get involved in the business again.

Jesse had already decided to get involved when he sent that inquiry to K.

He had already decided to get involved when George had come by last week demanding that he pay a tribute to the people who kept the peace.

He had already decided to get involved when he saw how George treated a homeless woman who just happened to be sitting on a sidewalk when he walked by.

Jesse had already decided to get involved once he saw how disgusting of a person George was.

He had already decided to get involved, it's just that he wasn't looking forward to drawing blood again.

Putting out his cigarette, Jesse stood up and flicked it to the steel bin set around the park. Checking his watch it was still only 12:20 pm. He still had more than half an hour to kill, before he had to return to the Cafe.

-Break-

It had been a fine day for George, the blonde fat man was wearing his favorite blue suit, the *lucky* suit he dubbed as he always had a good day when he wore it. He made an early run through the stores under his protection and collected more than a few thousand. After that, he had done a few lines of coke at the lounge he owned to celebrate before beating an unlucky druggy who had tried to suck up to him to score a line. He had eaten lunch in his favorite diner paid for by the owner of course. Picked up his free coffee by the newspaper stand he owned thanks to a few generous locals and was now on his way to spend the rest of his day in his favorite massage parlour in town.

Getting into his black SUV George began the drive towards his destination. He took a few illegal turns flashing his red and blue to keep the local traffic at bay.

"Suckers." George laughed as he took liberties with his power. Taking a left turn he entered into an alley, a shortcut he often used to get through the city faster.

George chuckled as he imagined what service he was going to avail in the massage parlour. He was a regular and knew most of the girls they had available, he couldn't help but smack his lips in anticipation as he remembered that they should have a few new additions this time around.

"Stop the Car." a voice rang out behind him.

George froze as he felt the barrel of a gun pressed into his side.

"Stop the Car, put it in park or I'll put a hole in your side." the voice repeated.

"Okay! Slow down, I'll pull over." George answered, stopping the car, and slowly reached for his piece by the door.

"Who the fuck are you!?" George roared, pulling out a Glock26, and turning to face the voice. But was stopped as a hand held onto his head and slammed his face into the driving wheel of the car eliciting a sharp crack.

"Fuck!" he screamed clutching his bleeding nose.

"Drop the gun, put your hands up or I'll put two through you before you can even take the safety off." the deep voice rang out.

"Fuck! Okay okay. What do you want?" George raised his hands letting his nose drip blood over his suit. "Fuck!" he repeated seething with anger as his suit was ruined.

"Give me the names of everyone involved in your business." the voice answered. "Everyone above, below, at the same level, and others you deal with outside of your organization." the voice added.

"Are you crazy?! They'll kill me!" George screamed but the gun pressed deeper into his side. Looking down it was a silenced barrel. "Fuck. You." George answered recognizing the situation he was in.

Looking into the rearview mirror George saw his captor, red hair, brown eyes, sharp jaw. George's eyes widened as he recognized him.

"You-You're the Cafe owner! You Fucker, you won't get away with this." George threatened. "Who the fuck sent you? You with the Czechians?"

"Who in their right mind would get revenge for a pig like you?" Jesse laughed. "Now how about those names?" he added coolly.

"Just kill me already, or is it that you can-" George tried to rile him up but was cut off as two pops rang out.

"FUCK!" George screamed as two bullets were shot into his side.

"You better start shooting out names or I'm gonna keep shooting bullets into you," Jesse added as he hopped into the front seat.

"You Bitch! I ain't a snitch." George countered growling as Jesse was pointing his Beretta M9A3 at him.

Jesse pointed at his knees and pulled the trigger two more times.

"Anything else?" Jesse asked, but George only grits his teeth through the pain and growled at him. Pointing at his thighs Jesse let out two more shots, George was cursing him even more but seeing as he wasn't getting anywhere. Jesse pointed the gun at George's chest and pulled the trigger twice before pointing it at George's head and shooting once more.

Sighing, Jesse rummaged through George's belongings, taking his phone, an extra phone hidden in the car. A laptop from the trunk and a notebook. At least with this haul of items he was sure he could get a few more names to work with to clean up the town.