💯 Story Challenge
An Old Fox Chasing Hawks
№17 — He had a broken heart in more ways than one, but he’d set his mind on a course of action that he wouldn’t stop until something stopped him. Bum ticker or a bullet. He didn’t care.
Banning slouched in his car, hid from the guards of the Vittone crime family.
He’d nearly messed this whole thing up trying to scout the perimeter. They’d seen nothing or they’d have come running, but they were still a little spooked.
He held Loud Betty to his chest in the darkness, his old ticker thumping in his chest. Banning fumbled in his pockets for the little yellow pills the doc gave him and took a double dose.
A cold sweat beaded on his forehead, but the thumping died down.
“What am I doing here, kid?”
“Catching bad guys, old man,” answered Sal, standing in the precinct bullpen.
All smiles and leather jacket collar popped. He’d told her not to dress like the sexy version of a cop. It wasn’t Halloween.
“It’s just how I make the job look good. Don’t be a perve.”
He’d glared at her so hard she laughed until her sides hurt.
“You never listened to me.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” she grinned.
Banning glanced at the passenger seat, but it was empty. He remembered when she first brought it up around the station. How she pestered him to partner up.
“You’re all alone, old man. Who’s gonna be there to help you up the stairs?”
“I could still kick your ass three ways from Sunday.”
“You wanna try?”
“I’m a gentlemen.”
“Come on, we can be like Butch and Sundance. I got the moves, you got the moods. It’ll be fun.”
“You ain’t seen how that one ends. I have. I don’t have a partner.”
Too many had died on me, Banning thought, his breathing slow and steady now. He eyed the guards making their rounds. He knew their pattern now. Sloppy.
“How was I supposed to know that one time was different, kid?”
His mind drifted to the last time he saw her. Sal was so certain, so determined.
“Come on, Banning, I’ve got good intel on who this bastard is.”
“Not enough for a judge, or we’d be a team going in.”
That wasn’t what he said, though. He remembered the words. The last ones he’d said to her.
“You’re not my partner, Sally.”
He’d said it out of habit, an old joke, the words out before he’d thought about them. He didn’t know why he’d added the name she hated. But Banning remembered the hurt flicker across her face, steeled by determination, like thunder following lightning.
She’d left without a word.
The next time he’d seen her, she was nailed to a wall, and opened like a frog in a biology class. The pain started his heart again.
He’d loved her like the daughter he didn’t speak to any more. Never had the courage to tell her, though.
“I just wanted to keep you safe,” said Banning. “Couldn’t have you following me into dumb shit like this.”
He crept from his car in the hours before dawn, a shadow among shadows, death come amongst killers. An old fox chasing hawks.
Loud Betty would scream tonight.
Final Chapter:
💯 Story Challenge (17/100)
A simple challenge to kick-start a new year; 100 stories in 100 days, at least a 100 words long using Unsplash Instant as my muse.
This Serial Fiction use prompts from February Theme: Love/Hate
Chapter List:1: Loud Betty is Silent Tonight2: In Search of Sal’s Redemption (prompted by The Beast)3: Wringing Out The Truth (prompted by The Beauty)4: An Old Fox Chasing Hawks (this story prompted by The Betrayal)5: Loud Betty Screams One Last Time (prompted by The End)