Chapter 6: Bargain

*NYPD break room—8 AM*

*Daisy*

Daisy was in the break room, drinking coffee. She was thinking about Marco. She didn’t tell him his name during their encounter. Maybe it was for the best. She forgot briefly that she was talking to a mafia leader. All Daisy saw was that nice guy you would invite for a movie night.

Daisy was wiggling her finger inside the empty coffee cup. The sweet boredom love brings… Wait. what?! No! Daisy would never say such a thing! She just met a guy in a bar, and the two just had nice chemistry. Darn it, why is her brain so mean to her?

All these thoughts were shuffling inside her head when Chief Davis came in.

“Morning, Daisy!” the chief greeted.

“Morning, Chief,” Daisy stuttered.

Chief Davis put his stuff on the table and sat down, removing his cap to fan him.

“Phew, this weather we’re having, eh?” Chief Davis commented.

“Yeah, crazy…” Daisy replied, nervously laughing.

Chief Davis noticed something wrong with the girl. She had a lot going on in her head, but something unusual was the focus.

“Fifteen years!” He shouted.

“What?” Daisy got scared by the shout.

“Fifteen years working for the police made me develop a very spot-on body language detector mechanism! When I glance at you today, all I see are souls screaming in pain.”

“It’s kinda poetic but disturbing. You’re making it sound like I have tapeworms or something.”

“Something is bothering you, Daisy,” Chief Davis completed, kindly. “And, as someone who might become in a higher position than me, I feel like I have the right to be worried about you.”

Daisy laughed, both nervously and genuinely. Chief Davis was a goofball, but also the father she never had.

“Let’s see,” Chief Davis continued, with the sophistication of a doctor but the voice of a grumpy old man. “You have daydreaming eyes, fingers twiddling, and… Do you feel tingles in the stomach?”

Daisy stopped to think for a while. She looked at her right hand. She then lifted her uniform shirt slightly and put her hand on her tummy. She started feeling things moving. She hasn’t had breakfast yet, so it is either the coffee making a thundering war in her stomach or something else…

Daisy formed a small smile.

“Yes, yes I do,” she said, with a calm voice.

“Oh and the voice tone as well,” Chief Davis noticed, with a sassy face. “Daisy, I can see that you’re liking someone...”

Daisy’s body froze. How could Chief Davis make such a bold early conclusion, and why is it correct?! If they call butterflies the sensations you have in your stomach when you are in love, now they metamorphosed into rhinos.

Chief Davis was a persuasive fellow, and he would inquire until you confess, sometimes even what you didn’t do. Daisy built up again that shy smile.

“Well, yes, I have to admit,” Daisy said, with a relaxed voice.

Chief Davis smiled back. He took a lunch box out of his bag and, from the bag, grabbed one of four donuts. He was about to eat it when his phone buzzed.

“It better be important to interrupt a man’s donut eatery…” the chief grumbled.

It was a contact named “Kill Krill”, he sent a message saying “Please, open up for me!”

“How weird, his shift only starts in one hour,” Chief Davis commented while pressing some things on his phone. “And… Open!”

“Aw, come on, he’s the new kid,” Daisy recalled with a smile. “Maybe he just wants to give a good impression, you know, make you like him more.”

“Oh yeah, by the way, about you again, who is the lucky guy?” Chief Davis asked, then realized something. “Oh, or girl? Or girl! I’m not gonna judge you.”

Daisy giggled but then remembered who the lucky guy was. How would she tell that to her chief? Right, the Ricci family and the police were on good terms, but that would be a thing worth freaking out. Daisy was almost going to say something when loud flustered footsteps were heard. They were coming closer and closer until the door was opened! A slender mid-sized teen guy with an e-boy cut, full of acne. That’s Kill Krill.

“Hide me, please hide me!” Kill Krill screamed in panic. “And close the door, sir!”

“What are you doing here, kid?” Chief Davis asked, closing the door. “Your shift only starts in an hour.”

“Well, it’s that, how am I gonna explain… I, uh… Well, I…” Kill Krill started to explain.

“Yes?” Chief Davis asked, patiently.

“I, I, I…”

“Yes, yes, yes?!” Chief Davis is getting gradually more nervous.

“Wait Chief,” Daisy interrupted. “I’ll handle this.”

Chief went back to his chair, mumbling something. Daisy stood up and went to Kill Krill who was sitting, scared, in a corner.

“What happened, buddy?” Daisy asked, genuinely worried. “You were being chased?”

Kill Krill nodded in confirmation. He was apprehensive, but Daisy’s caring eyes were comforting. Daisy saw, numerous times, kids and teens getting involved with gangs in the streets of New York, she would do a lot to put at least one out of this chaotic scenario.

“You were being chased by a gang?” She asked, putting her hands on the teen’s shoulder.

“Well, sort of…” Kill Krill replied.

Footsteps were heard. They came to one of the doors of the break room. The one coming had slow footsteps as if it wanted to make its presence known. Chief Davis went to the door and looked out of the peephole. He was scared, trying not to make any sound. He used sign language to tell Daisy who it was. Daisy got the message.

“What did you do…?!” She whispered, furious, at Kill Krill.

“I didn’t notice, I was drunk!” Kill Krill whispered back.

Daisy rolled her eyes and almost groaned like a lion, but she calmed herself down. The footsteps were getting closer, and there were more heard from the other door! Daisy went to the peephole and told “There’s more” to the chief, in sign language. She was scared. She looked around and saw a cabinet. Daisy looked at Kill Krill, he seemed thin enough. She looked at herself and shrank her stomach. Maybe…

Daisy grabbed Kill Krill by his hand and took him to the cabinet which, thankfully, was empty. She entered the cabinet and pulled Kill Krill in, carefully closing the door. Chief Davis saw the action and got a little time to hide Daisy and Kill Krill’s stuff. Nothing was left on the scene, only a lunch box with four lovely donuts.

The footsteps came closer and closer until they stopped by the door.

“Hello,” Chief Davis called. “Marco?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Marco answered from behind the door.

“Who came with you?” The chief tried to keep calm.

“Kyle the Missile.”

“Oh Kylie, my man! He finished college?”

“Yeah, he did, impressive, huh?”

“Indeed,” Chief Davis said with laughter.

“May we come in?” Kyle shouted from the other door. “We need to talk.”

“Okay, in a jiffy!” Chief Davis said, reaching for the keys.

Allowing them to come in wouldn’t raise suspicions, the chief knew that. Meanwhile, in the cabinet, Daisy and Kill Krill weren’t exactly comfortable: Daisy was all writhing, and Kill Krill got pressed upon her. He knew that Daisy didn’t like his face touching her breasts.

“Will this take long?” Kill Krill’s muffled voice whispered.

“Not long, hopefully,” Daisy responded. “Now, come again, what did you do?”

*

“Listing everything,” Marco said, from outside. “Drank a lot, without paying; got excellent services from the waitress without paying a tip, that’s very rude; spanked the waitress’ *ss; climbed up the chandelier and ran away by the roof, breaking the chandelier in the process.”

“Well, is there anything he can do now?” Chief Davis asked, stretching his head.

*

“What do you mean you can’t pay?!” Daisy yelled in a whisper, from inside the cabinet.

“I’m broke, this is literally my first job!” Kill Krill whispered back, trying to ignore Daisy’s increasingly faster heartbeat.

“But you know how much you owe?” Daisy asked.

*

“Forty thousand dollars,” Kyle answered, from outside.

“Forty thousand?!” Chief Davis freaked out. “That’s almost a year of work to pay!”

“If he can spend it in one day, he sure can pay in one day, huh?” Marco replied.

“He’s just a kid, he doesn’t know any better,” Chief Davis tried to get through Marco’s heart.

“Well, someone’s gotta pay,” Kyle said.

From inside the cabinet, Daisy had a realization. She hardly reached for her phone and messaged Chief Davis, who picked up and saw that Daisy sent a message saying “Leave with them for five minutes, I got an idea.”

“Well,” Chief Davis said after clearing his throat. “His shift starts later, but if you wish we can look for him by the station.”

The chief left with the mobsters. One minute later, with the silence, Daisy and Kill Krill left the cabinet.

“Thanks for covering me,” Kill Krill said.

“I’m only saving you because if there is one person that will have the pleasure to kill you, that one is me,” Daisy snarled.

Kill Krill gulped hard. Daisy was already deciding if she was just going to give Kill Krill to Marco or if she would go on with her idea. As a police officer, she decided on the most sensible thing.

“Leave by this other door and go away, before I regret it!” Daisy ordered.

Kill Krill quickly grabbed his stuff and ran away.

Daisy got her phone and messaged some things to Chief Davis. Ten minutes later, Chief Davis returned with Marco, Kyle left and went to wait in the car. Marco took a glance at Daisy. She was awfully familiar: the hair color, the facial features… Yes, that was her! Marco was so excited to see her again!

“So, I agreed with the chief that you could work for me for a while to pay for the little pr*ick’s debt,” Marco commented, cordially.

“Mr. Ricci,” Daisy said, greeting him, also trying her hardest to not make the same voice tone and accent from when she met Marco. “I’ll gladly do so if it means repaying a debt.”

“Glad to meet you too, Miss Daisy,” Marco said, analyzing the officer better. “Say, haven’t we met before?”

“I believe that no, sir,” Daisy cordially replied.

“Well then, this is it?“ Chief Davis asked.

After thinking better and analyzing Daisy better, Marco fixed his posture and confirmed:

“This is it.”

“This is it…” Daisy confirmed, with shame and fascination in her eyes.