Detective Brenner grabbed his coffee out of its cupholder and slammed the door to his car. Something told him that being called in on his day off was not a good sign. Though he didn't have the kids for the weekend, he still would have loved to sleep in.

He pushed his way through the clear glass doors and nodded at the officer scheduled for desk duty and thanked God again that he had graduated to detective a couple of months ago.

His desk sat in the middle of the Narcotics division, piled high with cases and statements. Sometimes it was chaotic, but he didn't mind. Detectives flew around the precinct, answering calls on tip lines, interviewing witnesses, detaining suspects. There was always a lot going on and it just came with being on the job.

"About damn time, Brenner. Let's go. 10-54 in Compton," his partner Det. Landry relayed.

"Why did you need to call me in for a possible dead body? And shouldn't Compton be handling that? This is LA," he sighed. The city was big enough as is. They didn't have the money or the resources to be worrying about other cities.

He really wished he could have been in his bed.

"I'on wanna hea' allat complaining, Dingo. Where I'm from we don't do alladat, you just handle yo' business. They're calling us in because it's connected to one of our other cases." Landry's southern accent was like an itch in his ear, but he was beginning to get used to it. Looking past how her voice sounded, he started to realize what her words meant. She could only be talking about the case that kept him up at night and all his weekends busy.

The case against Braxton Wright.

Unfortunately, traffic ate up most of their time. All Brenner wanted to do was hurry up and get to the crime scene. It was making him anxious that they may have found a lead.

"Looks like you finna shit yourself. Calm down, Fido." She cackled at her own joke.

"Why do you keep calling me dog names? I'm sick of this," he mumbled to himself.

Landry smacked. "You too soft, tighten the fuck up. And get out." She parked the vehicle next to a couple of PD cars with their blue and red sirens flashing light everywhere. Brenner hopped out and put a pair of latex gloves on, striding over to the medical examiner. He ducked under the yellow caution tape.

He squatted over the body, instantly recognizing the face. "Ta'Carlon Simmons," he said. Behind him, Landry let out a few curses under her breath.

The world knew him as Carti, but the two of them knew him as a payday. If he would have kept going like he was, he'd have led them straight to their target and the whole ring would have collapsed on itself. Looks like someone had gotten to him before they could.

"Severed carotid artery. Looks like something jagged pierced it. He bled out in minutes." The ME picked him over, but something caught Brenner's eye. Nestled deep in his scalp was a coil of hair that didn't seem to match his own low cut. He grabbed some tweezers from the examiner and plucked it out.

"Got sumn?" Landry came in close to get a better look. He hated her poor concept of personal space and tried his best to ignore her. "Maybe his killer's hair? Bag it," he tucked it safely away inside a small ziplock bag and handed it to the forensics team. Hopefully, they could get somewhere with that DNA evidence.

"How do you suppose we go about finding his killer?"

"Well, Milo. It's too damn many people that's out for his ass and we can't risk all the progress we made by asking too many questions. We might get sumn' off that hair you just pulled, doubt it though," Landry spoke. She was hating on him but that's what they always did to rookies.

He was glad that she finally called him by his name and kept combing over the body.

Lorena kissed her teeth and kissed those plump lips one more time. He wiped his mouth off, ranting about how he hated getting kisses when she wore lip gloss.

"Shits all gooey and glittery. It ain't gonna look good if I walk in the trap looking like a damn clown or somethin'. Come on, Lo. I said I had to go." He kissed her forehead and cheeks at least thirty times before pushing her off of him.

She stared up at the ceiling feeling like a complete idiot. She gave Braxton all that hell about his lifestyle when they were together. She hated the streets and what it could do to people; it made them fiends, killers, robbers, just bad shit in general. She refused to be with him if he was gonna put her life in danger like that. And even years after their relationship had ended, he was still putting her in harm's way.

Her bruises from Carti had turned yellow and only looked a shade different from her own skin. She was healing well. And though the whole ordeal may have made her a lot more paranoid, she had someone else to make her feel safe.

Lorena had been seeing Darius for a few months. Despite their extremely lowkey relationship, they were close. She hated that things were as they were, but that's just how they had to be. What kind of hypocrite would she look like for leaving Braxton and then falling back into the arms of someone just like him? His partner in crime at that.

"Yeah, I heard whatchu said. That don't mean I was listening." She climbed back on top of him and began to kiss his neck. She liked hearing him grunt or moan, she was a perve like that. All she wanted to do was lay up with him and hear those things over and over again.

"You know what? You must not fuck wimme like that, cause clearly you tryna get me killed!"

"Whatchu mean?"

"You know that nigga Braxton crazy as hell. And if I'm late to our appointment he gon off me right then and there. So you see this handsome ass face? It's gonna have a big bullet hole right here," he pointed at a spot in between his eyebrows and made a finger gun.

Lorena flicked his forehead and rolled off of him, this time for good. She hated that kind of joking but Darius was the type that made you love him, even the parts of him you didn't particularly like.

"Yeah whatever, gon, git." She shooed him away like a puppy.

"Keep playing and I won't come back mamas," he stood up after lacing his shoes. It always hit her harder when he called her "mamas." She was a sucker for the pet names.

"Sorry. You know you never come by so when you do I just don't want you to leave," she pouted and pretended to cry. Darius ignored her shenanigans and grabbed her arm. He wrapped his long ones around her whole body as they walked to the door. He wasn't obnoxiously tall, though he still had over five inches on Lorena.

"I know. But you know I'll always come back."

"How do I know that?"

"Cause I always forget some shit over here." She rolled her eyes at him and opened the door. "Okay dummy. Fuck outta my house," she spat playfully.

"You feeling yourself huh? Lucky I'm leaving cause it really would have been your ass." He shook his head and climbed in the white Audi and sped off.

She plopped on the couch and sighed deeply. She needed to get a life, seriously. Between working at the hospital and Darius, she didn't do much. It wasn't that she wasn't content. She just felt like she needed to live a little more.

Lorena also felt like she needed to make up her mind. Time wasn't getting any slower and she wanted kids and a white picket fence. She didn't know if she could get any of that with Darius, not if he wouldn't get out for her. Not even Braxton would get out for her, and they had formed the deepest bond she had ever had to this day.

Two raps at the door snapped her out of her thoughts. She yanked the door open without even glancing through the peephole. "You back already?"

"Ahem."

A young-ish white man stood in her doorframe. By the smell of him, she knew he was a pig. Her heart rate sped up, wondering why he had stopped by her house. "Not who you were expecting?"

"Naw." She looked him up and down and peered around the corner. He had come by himself, and luckily the streets weren't busy today. "LAPD. May I come in?" He flashed her his badge.

"Naw."

"Oh, you're gonna wanna let me in."

She crossed her arms, "And why is that?" The white man was always busting down somebody door in East Los.

"Because Carti told me all about you." She almost shut the door right in his face after hearing that name. It had been weeks and she thought Braxton had taken care of it. What did he mean Carti had spoken of her? Was this before or after he died in the middle of her living room?

She didn't want to let him in, but there was no way she could risk it. She needed more information. Ignoring the smug look on the man's face, she opened the door wide enough for him to enter. Taking one last look down the block, she closed it quickly.

"You don't have a fucking warrant so quit looking around." He cleared his throat and took a seat on the couch.

She had so many questions but had no idea where to start. "What's this all about?"

"It didn't take very long for the hair I found on Carti's body to come back with a DNA match. I wonder why that is. It usually takes a long time for those kinds of results to come back but for some reason it was fast." Aloofly, he looked around her home.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She stroked her locs, one of her nervous habits.

"Cut the shit. I'm not here for you. I couldn't care less that Carti is dead. I'm actually glad."

She didn't know Carti well but she knew enough to know that he wasn't a snitch, and he for sure wasn't working for the cops.

"People talk a lot. And you know, this isn't the first time I've heard the name Lorena Perez come up in conversation." He leaned closer, "You see, I know all about the relationship you had with Braxton Wright, and it seems to me that the whole world knows, too."

She had distanced herself from Braxton for a long time. It had been almost five years and she thought that any evidence of what they had was gone. Word about her had quieted down, but not as much as she thought. There were a few people who still remembered or knew them from when they were young. Now all that had caught right back up with her. "What does he have to do with this?"

The detective ignored her question. "It would be a shame if, I don't know, anyone found out that you killed Carti."

"I ain't kill him. What's a little hair gonna show?" She barked defensively.

"But it's my word against yours. Who do you think they're gonna believe?"

He was right. A white cop in this world held as much power as the president himself. Free to kill, lie, cheat, steal, basically whatever he pleased. Nobody would take her side.

Though their love had become something different, Lorena still loved Braxton. With everything in her. They may have not been romantically involved, but that was still her brother. Her best friend at a point. It went against everything she believed in to do anything that harmed him in any way.

"What do you want?"

"Become my CI. I need information on Wright."

"And if I don't?"

"Then your little fucking boyfriend is going down with him too. And I'm sure you don't want that. I'll be in touch."

He let himself out through the same door in which he had entered. He had just dropped a bomb on the poor girl and he felt a tad bit sassy. It didn't matter that much to him, because the case was starting to take off.

Brenner pulled out a burner from the glove compartment and called the only number that was on the phone. After two rings, she answered.

"It's done," he beamed proudly. He had probably just secured a confidential informant that would be the key to bringing Braxton down.

"Can you trust me now?" Her voice came out very matter-of-factly.

He had his answer. Working with a bad guy to catch another bad guy wasn't so much his style. But he didn't mind, as long as he got the job done.

"I think you know the answer to that."