The Protectors: Vigilante Justice (Vigilante Cops Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  THE PROTECTORS

  by Bernard Lee DeLeo (Author), RJ Parker (Publicist)

  Copyright 2012 Bernard Lee DeLeo

  Published by RJ Parker Publishing

  This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This

  e-Book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you

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  All rights reserved. No parts of this publication can be

  Reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without

  Prior written authorization from Bernard Lee DeLeo.

  This book is a work of fiction

  Cover by William Cook.

  Chapter 1

  Sea Change

  “Hey, you’re pretty quiet today.”

  Connor Bradwick smiled, glancing over at his partner. Ellie James had been sharing the same squad car with him for nearly three years. She kept her eyes on the road ahead, while steering through East Oakland near International Blvd and 38th Avenue. If Connor kept silent for more than a few minutes, Ellie felt compelled to find out what his problem was.

  “We’ve only been on the road for ten minutes, El.”

  “Do you think I look fat?”

  “You make me answer that and I file a sexual harassment claim on you.” Connor met Ellie’s questioning look with some trepidation.

  “C’mon, Connor, I’m your partner,” Ellie reminded him for the two thousandth time. “I won’t get mad. Tell me the truth.”

  “I plead the fifth.”

  “In other words, you think I’m fat.” Ellie sighed. “Not all of us can eat anything we want and look like Adonis.”

  Connor laughed. They ate together everyday. He ate all the same health nut stuff she insisted on. The fact his weight rarely varied over Connor’s six foot four frame annoyed Ellie to no end. They ran together after work three times a week around Lake Merritt and he worked out with her at the gym whenever she asked. Although she exercised with a passion, Ellie couldn’t attain the dancer type physic she had in high school. At twenty-eight, Ellie looked great to Connor but telling her that never satisfied Ellie. She remained the only woman friend he’d ever had. They bantered back and forth like an old married couple. Connor partnered with Ellie when she first came out of the academy. Connor’s old partner, who had trained him, retired. A six year veteran when he began training Ellie, Connor now deferred to Ellie’s savvy way of handling street and domestic disputes in all but a few of the encounters they had.

  “You look fabulous, El... like Tyra Banks... yeah, you look just like Tyra.”

  “Really?” Ellie glanced over at him, her dark eyes narrowing when Connor kept his eyes straight ahead.

  “Well... maybe her heavier twin sister.”

  “I’ll cut a man for playin’ me like that,” Ellie threatened, reaching over to give Connor a head slap which Connor parlayed into aggravated assault by pretending the force of it propelled his head into the dash board. “Oh quit fakin’, you big baby. I take it back. You don’t look like Adonis. You look more like that pasty faced guy Lurch on the Adam’s Family.”

  “There’s no need to get nasty,” Connor complained, rubbing the back of his head plaintively.

  “Oh boo hoo!”

  The dispatcher’s voice directed them to a dispute at the corner of Penniman Avenue and 35th. Someone had called in saying a big guy wearing a black hooded parka was dragging a young woman along against her will. Connor acknowledged the call.

  “We’re close El so let’s go cold and see if we can get there without alerting the whole town we’re coming.”

  Ellie nodded, pulling her hand back from turning on the siren. She turned right on 35th Avenue and sped up toward Penniman. Minutes later, Connor pointed at a large man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and pants with the waistband at mid thigh pulling a struggling woman in her twenties around the corner at Penniman by her hair. Ellie steered around the corner, parking in front of the man’s path. Connor exited the squad car, hand on the handle of his Ruger .40 caliber automatic, blocking the man on the sidewalk. Ellie quickly fled the driver’s side and moved around the rear of the squad car for a better angle to back Connor’s confrontation.

  “Let the woman go, Sir,” Connor directed. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”

  “What the hell you talkin’ about, Horatio?” The man gestured angrily at Connor while tightening his grip on the sobbing woman’s hair. “This bitch robbed me.”

  “Let her go and we’ll help you file a complaint,” Connor reasoned as Ellie moved closer to the woman.

  “I...I didn’t,” the woman protested. “I was tryin’ to get... my stuff out of his house. He-”

  “Shut the fuck up!” The man pulled on the woman’s hair, dragging her further away from Ellie. “Keep back, Oprah.”

  “Uh oh,” Connor muttered, seeing Ellie’s face light up at the comment.

  “Oh... you did not just call me Oprah!” Ellie, with one lightning fast move, brought her can of Mace up and sprayed the man in the face while grabbing the woman’s hand. Ellie yanked her away as the man let go of the woman’s hair.

  Connor moved over with Ellie and the woman. He avoided the cavorting man who finally tripped over his pants’ cuffs. As he sprawled on the sidewalk, writhing and gagging, Connor quickly went to the squad car trunk. He opened it and pulled a towel out along with a bottled water. Waiting for a few moments until some of the man’s more violent contractions eased, Connor moved over and crouched next to him.

  “Hold your hands away from your face. I’ll wash off your hands and face and then give you a towel. Don’t rub. Get up on your knees.”

  The man groped up onto his knees. He tilted his mucous covered face and hands up for Connor to wash them off. Connor put the towel in the man’s hands. After a moment, Connor directed the man to pull the towel away and repeated the water dousing. By this time, some of the people living on Penniman were peering at the scene from their doorsteps. Connor pulled on a pair of Nitrile gloves. He helped the man to a sitting position.

  “You wrong, man! What you do me like this? Wan’t no need to go Rodney King on my ass,” the man choked out his complaints in between dabs with the wet towel.

  “Why the hell you attack that man?” An observer in his twenties yelled out, stepping off the house doorstep next to the scene.

  Ellie whipped around toward him. “Stay out of this, Urkel, unless you want a dose too!”

  The man hesitated for a moment. He sized Ellie up in an instant and retreated to his doorstep. Connor helped Ellie’s Macing
victim to his feet and handcuffed him, followed by a frisking which turned up a knife. He also found a large plastic bag of multicolored pills. After helping the man into the backseat of his squad car, Connor called for another cruiser and dropped the towel and water into the trunk. He joined Ellie and the woman on the sidewalk.

  “I’ve called for another car to take you in, Ma’am,” Connor explained.

  The woman turned feral in an instant, gearing up for rage until Ellie shook her shoulder.

  “Don’t bother. Now get your hands on the car and spread your feet. Say one word and I’ll cuff you so fast your shoulder blades will pop.”

  The woman did what she was told. Ellie frisked the woman, finding only some change in her jeans’ pocket. “What’d you think we were going to do lady, let you walk off?”

  “I didn’t do nothin’, ‘cept get handled,” the woman mumbled.

  “We’re giving you the benefit of the doubt. That’s why you ain’t in cuffs too. If you stay nice, the officers escorting you in will decide to go along with us and leave you un-cuffed.”

  The backup car arrived shortly after with two smiling police officers spilling out of the squad car with zeal.

  “Well… well… well… what have we here,” the smaller Chicano officer intoned, peeking at the man in the backseat of Connor and Ellie’s squad car. “One of you officers found it necessary to Mace this young hoodlum.”

  “Let me guess,” his partner, a dark skinned man nearly Connor’s height remarked, looking right at Ellie. “This looks like your handiwork, Officer James.”

  “Oh… look, Connor, it…it’s Chris Rock and his sidekick, Ricky Martin.”

  “We found the gentleman in the backseat pulling this lady along by her hair,” Connor said, grinning at his two fellow officers chuckling at Ellie’s remark. “He had this bag of possible drugs on him and he’s within fifty yards of Allendale Elementary. He made a counter claim this lady was robbing his house. We figured it would be best to work out the details downtown. Jas, can you and Luis take this lady with you?”

  “Sure Connor,” Jason agreed, examining the bag Connor held up without touching it. “Reds, Quads, Roofies, and Rippers… yep, I believe Ellie’s victim will have to do some time.”

  “My what?! I saved Connor’s life and this is the thanks I get?” Ellie helped the woman in her care into the other squad car. She pointed warningly at the woman. “You be good for officers Ladd and Arvizo or I’ll hear about it.”

  “My savior and I will follow you,” Connor told the other two officers.

  “And do the paperwork, correct?” Luis Arvizo stated.

  “Yeah, Connor and I got this covered,” Ellie answered for Connor. “You two can go back to sleeping under the overpass afterwards.”

  “You could join us later for a sleepover, El,” Jason quipped.

  “I have Sue on speed dial, Jason.” Ellie pulled out her cell-phone. “Want to repeat that?”

  At the mention of his wife’s name all lightheartedness drained from Officer Ladd instantly. Jason held up his hands in surrendering fashion as both Connor and Luis laughed at the sudden shift in conversation.

  “No call to wave my ‘whipped’ status at me like a flag, El,” Jason complained. “C’mon Luis, let’s get going before she Maces us too.”

  * * *

  “Damn, we’ve been drivin’ the car all day with the windows open and I can still smell Mace.” Ellie made accompanying gagging noises. She was again behind the wheel as they patrolled. When Connor kept quiet, Ellie waved her right hand in his face. “Hey you… you’re not condemning me with silence, are you? I already got that prick Donaldson threatening to write me up over this.”

  “No way Donaldson gets away with writing you up, El. It was a bonanza. Those two ratted each other out on everything since they were in grade school. Donaldson wanted to remind you to be careful when you react.”

  “What about you?”

  “I knew the guy was toast the moment he called you Oprah. I’m just glad you didn’t shoot him.”

  Ellie laughed. She shut up abruptly, pointing fifty yards down the way to where a half naked little boy ran full tilt down the sidewalk. A raggedy bearded man with wild hair bore down on the boy, gaining ground. He carried a sap in his right hand, the strap encircling his wrist. Ellie pulled over three car lengths in front of the running boy.

  “You get the boy, El.” Connor leaped from the squad car as Ellie slowed.

  Ellie ran around the trunk after getting out on her side in time to grab the dirt encrusted boy up in her arms. It was only then the man pursuing the boy saw Connor move out into his path. He stopped so quickly, the man nearly lost his balance and fell to the sidewalk. Connor gestured at him warningly.

  “Drop the sap and get on the ground. If I have to chase you, I’ll grind your face right into the sidewalk,” Connor called out as he walked toward the man.

  The man spun and ran in the opposite direction with Connor giving chase immediately. Ellie carried the boy to the car. She put him in the backseat, talking calmingly to him the whole time.

  “We’ve got you, baby. Relax while I catch up with my partner.” By the time Ellie steered out into the road again Connor had overtaken the perp. He kept pace next to the man for a moment before grabbing the man’s hair. With one yank and forward slam Connor busted the man’s face into the sidewalk. “Ouch! That’ll learn ya.”

  Ellie parked next to the take down. Connor handcuffed the man crying out in agony under his knee. When Ellie saw Connor had the man, she leaped out and quickly opened the rear door while watching the area surrounding them, hand on weapon.

  “What’s this all about, sweetie?” Ellie asked the gasping boy, seeing bruises and belt marks all over the boy’s chest and back. “Who is that chasing you?”

  “Fred,” the boy answered, watching Connor roughly lift the bleeding man to his feet with wide disbelieving eyes. “I…I never thought anybody… could do that to Fred.”

  Ellie nodded with a laugh, putting an arm around the boy’s shoulders. “Connor was Army Special Forces. Fred’s lucky he didn’t try to sap Connor. What’s your name, little man?”

  “Billie.”

  “How old are you, Billie?”

  “Eight… I think. Fred’s had me a long time… and… and he don’t do birthdays.”

  A chill ran up Ellie’s spine followed by a dark lightning bolt of murderous rage. She saw the boy look up, terror highlighting his features as he scrambled against the opposite rear car door, cowering there in fear. Ellie stood up and turned, smiling slowly at the man’s pulped face with blood oozing into his beard.

  “This is big, Connor. The child says he’s been with this Fred guy a long time. I don’t think Fred here’s related. Nice facial.”

  “I told him not to run.” Connor looked in at the little boy, trying to reassure the boy. “Don’t be afraid, son.”

  “There… there’re other kids too,” Billie said.

  “Shut your…” Fred screamed as Ellie stomped the man’s instep.

  “Best not say anymore, Fred,” Connor warned, gripping the back of the man’s neck tight enough to pinch off his scream.

  “I can show you,” Billie said, beginning to believe he was safe. “They have a big camper truck. It’s under the overpass… in the bushes. The engine quit. I ran when… when Fred forgot to lock us in.”

  “Who’s they, Billie,” Ellie urged, sitting in next to the boy and taking his hand.

  “A woman they call Bess, and… and another man… Zeke. They’re monsters. I heard ‘em talkin’ about me sayin’ I was too old. They have three other kids there… two little girls and a boy. I knew they… they were going to kill me.”

  “We’ll call for back up and…” Ellie began but Connor waved her to silence.

  “It’ll be too late. When Fred doesn’t show up soon they’ll head for the hills. God only knows what they’ll do with the kids. We’ll drive up nearby and I’ll go get the other kids. Then we’ll call it i
n.”

  “They’ll can your ass for pullin’ a stunt like that - if you don’t get killed. What about Fred here?”

  Connor moved behind Fred, twisting him away from the car. He snapped his neck with cold proficiency. Ellie gasped, standing up next to Connor and grabbing his arm.

  “What the hell… Connor…” Ellie stepped back when Connor turned to her. She could see the lights had gone out. There was nobody home.

  “Get Billie into the front seat.” Connor shielded the boy from Fred’s still twitching body. “You drive.”

  Ellie did as directed, taking Billie into her arms, and shifting him up to the passenger side front seat. While Ellie ran back around to the driver’s side, Connor shoved Fred’s body onto the rear floor and eased in after him. He shut the driver’s side rear door. Ellie unlocked the rear doors as she situated herself behind the steering wheel, making certain Connor could make a quick exit. She drove around the block, approaching the overpass Billie pointed to.

  “Look… you can see the camper roof from here,” Billie told her.

  “This is good, El. Pull over.”

  Ellie stopped and Connor got out. “Damn it, Connor, you don’t have to do this!”

  Connor turned toward her. “Yeah, I do. Drive around the block. I’ll signal you.”

  “And if they kill you, Lurch… what then?” Ellie called out but Connor was already through the foliage.

  * * *

  The tears made tiny lines down the little girl’s dirt encrusted face. She tried to still her trembling lip while squeezing her eyes shut. She had to be brave Billie had told her until he could get help. Crystal didn’t think she could be brave much longer. Zeke was really, really mad, and Bess threw her, Jimmy, and Bonnie on the bed, saying she’d kill them if Billie didn’t come back. Now, Zeke and Bess were screaming at each other… something about how they should have killed Billie a long time ago. Crystal felt Bonnie scoot closer. Without opening her eyes she hugged Bonnie tighter. Jimmy put his arm around Crystal as they huddled in terror on the bed.

  “Wha…what if Billie don’t come back?” Crystal asked Jimmy, finally squinting her eyes open slightly to peer up at her companion’s face. “Do you think they’ll kill us?”