Hollywood Tough

Chapter 19

"I can't believe we get to live here," Chooch exclaimed. Shane and Alexa had set down their overnight bags, and were now following Chooch through the beautiful house, going door to door down the long hall, admiring the expensive artwork and plush-pile-carpeted rooms full of antiques and French twill fabrics.

Shane couldn't believe it either.

Alexa was moving slowly, walking behind them. She had a troubled look on her face. They went into the master bedroom, which had a large mirror on the ceiling over a king-size bed.

"At last, I'll be able to see what I'm doing," Shane quipped as Alexa dug him in the ribs with her elbow.

Wearing their undies, the three of them plunged into the ten-meter pool for a swim. Shane and Chooch got into a water fight in the shallow end, and Alexa sat on the steps a few feet away, laughing at them.

She needed to laugh. The tension of the past few days had been wearing on her, and the laughter finally erased the stress lines from her face. But while they were in the pool her pager went off. She climbed out, dripping water from her soaked bra and panties, found the telephone inside the living room door and dialed the number on her beeper LED screen. A few minutes later she came back outside.

"I've gotta go."

"Oh, come on… Really?" Shane moaned.

"We've got three more. This time it's Emes. A massacre at one of those unincorporated nightclubs in the Las Lomas Hills."

At the mention of The Hills, Chooch waded to the shallow end. "Was it… is it him?"

"I don't know, honey. I just got the call. The Blues who caught the squeal said the three victims were all shotgunned."

"I wanna go with you," Chooch said.

"Not gonna happen," Shane said.

"What if it's Amac? What if it's him? I mean, wouldn't he be the number-one target?"

"It's not him, Chooch," Shane said. "He's way too careful to be hanging around in some dirt-floor nightclub in Las Lomas."

"Dad, please let me go…"

"I think he should," Alexa agreed.

Without waiting for further rebuttal, Chooch bounded out of the pool and ran inside to get his clothes.

"You can't take him to a murder scene," Shane said.

"Why not?" she shot back. "Since he's still obviously flirting with this, I think maybe he needs to see what a gang war is really all about."

"I don't want him to see it. I won't allow it."

"What about what I think, or have you forgotten I'm his adopted mother? I'll cut you some slack and put that aside because none of us are thinking too clearly right now, but I think this is exactly the right thing for us to do."

"You wanna take him to a triple shotgun murder."

"Yeah."

Shane climbed out of the pool and faced her. "Look, Alexa, I don't want him exposed to this, okay?"

"Shane, I talk to him about things he doesn't want to tell you. He's… he's not out of this. He's still a part of that world."

"La Eme?" Shane was stunned. "I got him out of that two years ago. Amac wouldn't take him back. He wouldn't do that to him."

"He's not an Erne. He's not in the gang, but he's still emotionally tied to it. They're his old clica."

Shane tried to absorb this.

"I think he needs a little shock therapy," Alexa continued. "Maybe this shooting in The Hills is just what we need to show him it isn't some romantic game they're playing."

Shane was stunned to learn Chooch had confided in Alexa and not him. Worse still was the idea that his son still regarded gang life as romantic. Shane thought they'd seen the end of that. "I'll go with you," he blurted.

"No, that would change it. It would force him to react differently. Let me do this."

"He can react with me there."

"Shane, he knows what you expect of him. He loves you and he wants to please you, but this is about his ethnic blood. Can't you see that? Let me take him. I'll look out for him. I won't let him out of my sight."

After a long moment, Shane concluded that, as usual, she was probably right. "How long will you be gone?"

She looked at her watch. "I'll try to be back before midnight."

"Okay," he finally relented.

They left ten minutes later. Shane was suddenly alone in the huge house with Carol's marmalade cat. Franco came over and sat right in front of him, deep hurt etched on his face. Or was Shane just projecting his own hurt into those huge yellow eyes? Then Franco started to yowl; his cries as plaintive and sad as Shane's own dark thoughts.

"Don't start up with me, man," he said. "I've got problems of my own."

Shane was asleep in the drug dealer's bed when he heard Alexa's department-issue Crown Victoria pull in. He looked at his watch: eleven-fifty. The front door opened, then he heard Alexa and Chooch talking softly. Soon she came down the hall into the bedroom.

"How'd it go?" Shane asked from his side of the king-size bed.

"I don't know. It was messy. He threw up. It wasn't Amac, of course. Three teenage kids… all wearing gang tatts and colors. Chooch has been very quiet since he saw the bodies."

"You think it shocked some sense into him?"

"I hope."

She undressed and climbed into bed.

They made love. It was the first time they'd had sex in three or four days. They were both tired and worried, so to be perfectly truthful, it wasn't their best effort, but afterward, they lay in each other's arms and a sweet softness descended.

"It's weird," she said.

"You mean with Chooch?"

"No," she said, and kissed him on the tip of his nose. "Screwing you in a drug dealer's bed. You've always been a unique date."

"Eat me."

"You first." Then they both started laughing softly and he took her into his arms, relishing the heat of her body and the strength of her mind.

Wrapped in the warm protection of these qualities, snuggling in her embrace, he felt the edges of his day softened, and he soon drifted into a deep sleep.