Ballistic

Ballistic

Copyright © 2014 K.S. ADKINS

Published by K.S. Adkins

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

Published: K.S. Adkins 2014

If you’ve made it this far you don’t totally hate my writing and for that, I thank you.
As you follow this story remember that the beginning of each chapter is a memory of some kind. Most of the past, but a few are current times as well. Though I loved each of the couples that starred in Detroit After Dark, Lina and Tony were super special to me for about a thousand reasons. Mainly because like Lina, I believe the truth is powerful. Venessa, Macy, Jules and Lina are all small pieces of me and my girlfriends’ own adventures together. I hope that you, the reader, are blessed with girlfriends that will turn the world on its fucking ear to protect you, knowing you would do the same. I don’t know where I’d be without mine (probably committed). This love story is as over the top as the others, so if you’re ready, flip the damn page and learn the truth.

Because it’s out there
. Hell, it might even be in your own backyard.

Detroit is
that
place. That place where no matter what destruction, what chaos and what bullshit happens here it refuses to break. Outsiders don’t get it. Suburbanites don’t get it and the god damn media sure as fuck don’t get it but, its residents do. Four girls that have been dealt nothing but tragedy, do. Then men that love them do.

Like Detroit
, they refuse to break.

Instead
, they will band together to put a stop to the chaos, end the destruction and halt the bullshit. Four girls, now women, will do what others before them failed to do. What too many are afraid to do.

They
fight back.

And if it takes
a little blood and sacrifice to make it happen, that’s okay too.

Each woman has known loss
, and they’ve each suffered long enough. When the war comes to their doorstep, they refuse to lose anything more. They’ll rain hell onto anyone that tries to take from them again.

Especially
, Lina.

For the first time in her fucked up life, she has something to lose.

Let it be known: Lina Tomek
does not
like to lose.

Halina Tomek’s Valedictorian Speech
, Class of 2003

“Good afternoon,

I would like to congratulate each of you on making it through your senior year.  It was here, in this place, that you peaked. It was here you reached your full potential. From this point forth, your high school years will be the best of your life and that, fellow graduates, is your reality. It’s true that truth can hurt, but it can also set you free if, you’re brave enough to look for it. Sadly, for most of you, that isn’t the case. Sadly, for most of you, this is as good as it gets.

On average it is proven a human lies anywhere from ten to two hundred times per day. What I find most interesting is the fact that many of you find it easier to live a life of deceit instead of seeking the truth. By choosing deceit you have, in fact, destroyed yourselves. You have allowed yourselves to be led down a path few can come back from. Because you choose to tell lies and believe them, you’ve changed the course of your lives. Deceit is your ruler now because you refuse to see the truth.

Welcome to the real world grads
; the truth is most of you won’t survive it.”

The crowd was stunned into
absolute silence. As Lina exited the platform wearing a false smile, the only sounds to be heard were that of her three best friends screaming and cheering for her from their own seats within the graduating class. Lina left that day only caring about the lives of her cheerleaders and she’s stayed that way ever since.

Lina Tomek didn’t need anything else.

Except the truth.

For Lina
, words spoke louder than actions and in her quest to find someone, anyone that could prove to her good people do exist, she chose a career that would slowly steal her sanity. Because of this she will be forced to face her own truths. She was destined to meet the one man who lost his way while seeking revenge, and would lie to anyone to get what he wanted.

Well, almost anyone.

I’m obsessed with her.

Her body, what her voice would sound like before she came
, and if her tits were as heavy as they looked. What I wasn’t obsessed with was her ability which, in the beginning, I told myself was all I cared about. This was supposed to be about what she could do for me. Now it’s about what I want her to do to me while she’s naked, underneath me, screaming my name.

She was supposed to be the game changer
. Now, though, it’s not so much about winning as it is claiming. When it came to her, I was in dangerous territory.

Case in point, t
oday she wore skinny jeans. I’m silently thanking whoever invented them and so is every other male within gawking distance. My mind wanders trying to visualize how she squeezed them on. Did she lie on the floor? Start at her ankles and work her way up? I may not know her personally yet, but she doesn’t do anything for attention and that includes her clothing. It’s just her, that body, my God, that ass. When she puts her sun glasses on top of her head that fragile look that she has working for her disappears. When you look at her eyes... Jesus Christ those eyes are haunted. She wears heavy black liner when she’s in the field, which makes her look even more devastating. You find yourself so focused on her eyes you don’t realize she’s assessing you until it’s too late.

Days, hours, weeks mean nothing. Time means nothing. It revolves around her.
Where she goes—I follow desperate to see what she’ll do next. What will she choose for lunch? Which hotel will she stay at tonight? If something made her smile today, what would it be? Who will be the recipient of her carry out box today? The man by the riverfront camped out on card board or the woman that sits out front of the Coney Island desperate to eat?

All of these thoughts are at war in my head. They shouldn’t be. My sole focus should be getting answers
, but it isn’t. After hours upon hours of research on her, what I found said little but told me enough. Lina is not an outgoing woman when she’s in the field. Venessa insists she’s loyal and funny, but I’ve yet to see this either. What I do see is a very closed off woman who seems difficult to like and I’d bet she prefers it that way.

She stopped giving interviews several years ago when the media portrayed her as a savior of the city. One interviewer in particular said that when she read about what he wrote
on her, she demanded it be retracted or she would castrate him. She went on record as saying that “I am no one’s savior. You want to be saved? Go to church. I hear they give you bread and water.”

After that
, she never spoke to the media again.

Leaving everyone behind to
fend for themselves while I search for this woman, this truth-seeking profiler was the most important thing I’ve ever done. I’ve never felt led to do something with this kind of force before, not even avenge my parents. As if nothing on earth can keep me from it. As if not doing this would have catastrophic repercussions for both of us. Simply put, finding her was a compulsion I could no longer ignore. When Venessa would tell me stories about her friends, it was Lina’s I focused on. It was Lina who commanded my attention. It’s true she was an anomaly, that she could ‘feel’ the truth when it was spoken. She had a gift no one else possessed and that made her crucial to the cause. Getting her on board with the rest of her friends and putting an end to the chaos here was a job only she could handle. It was clear none of the girls wanted Lina involved, these women were extremely protective of her and made it clear she was to be left alone. I refused to ignore an opportunity to win when I see it so even though Max needed me, I left. Whether they agreed or not, this had to happen. Despite each of our efforts we haven’t found the truth, but she can and she will. It took longer than expected to track her down because the little minx doesn’t stay in one spot for long. But in time I found her, caught on to her routine and from a distance, I would watch her. It took me a while to make my presence known because once I saw her in person, she threw me off balance. The day I allowed myself to be seen changed me and I haven’t been the same since.

When it happened
I wasn’t even close to being ready for it and if I read it right, neither was she. When her kohl lined eyes narrowed, you could almost feel a barrier being built around her. Keeping people out was a skill she’s perfected. She’s dedicated her life to it. This woman was not going to welcome me easily. Oh fuck that, she wasn’t going to welcome me at all.

I’m terrified to speak to her
, which is silly considering she’s the size of a child. As I watched her though, she became larger than life itself. If I’ve learned anything being around Venessa, Macy and Jules, it’s that you cannot judge a woman on her measurements. Size is fucking deceiving. All of the stories which I had thought might have been exaggerated to fuck with me weren’t exaggerated at all. Actually, Venessa didn’t do the woman I’m watching justice. Since her, my own dormant body has come to life. It needs her, demands her, and its pissing me off that I don’t know what to do about it. I sought her out for one reason—to help me end this war and give all of us some fucking peace. Admitting to myself that I’m full of shit isn’t easy. I wasn’t raised to be led around by my dick. Watching her over these last few weeks, the only truth I can offer myself is “fuck peace. I want her.”

But if there is one thing this little stick of dynamite isn’t, it’s peaceful.
Especially if the middle finger she gave me after tracking her down again was anything to go by. She’s about as tame as the wind. When Venessa would speak of her, she did it in such a way that this woman seemed like a dark and twisted fairy tale. According to Venessa, Lina has never had a happy ending, white knight or any of the other fairy tale shit. She is temperamental, talks to herself, and doesn’t seem to care much for anyone.

Except
for her three girlfriends. Her loyalty to them was my trump card.

Venessa
said she doesn’t date, loves to drink, chain smokes and freestyles to rap music on street corners. We aren’t so dissimilar; I don’t date, I enjoy a good drink, I took up smoking after watching her do it, and like it a lot more than I should. I fucking hate rap music, though.

A lot.

Maybe they don’t see it, but she looks lonely to me. She has to be. Moving from hotel room to hotel room, eating meals out, working around the clock, has to be taking its toll. I don’t get her, why she does it when she has friends that love and adore her. Why does she isolate herself like she does? Why does it fucking bother me that it does?

I didn’t know but
I intend to find out.

I put eve
rything on the line when I left and did it because I knew we needed her to win. I was counting on her to see reason and I’m going to look into those eyes when I lay it all out there too. She would help whether she liked it or not, I couldn’t afford to give her a choice.

Just as soon as I got the balls to talk to her.