Rebound
soppingwetpanties
This story is the seventh in the timeline of fourteen Max Pemberton detective stories. You're encouraged to read the stories preceding this one to give you additional background, though this story can stand on its own.
For those of you who don't know Max, she's a big, sexy woman with a tough as nails demeanor and a soft center. She follows her heart, and not her head, which usually gets her into trouble with her girlfriends, her boss and the bad guys.
So here we are, the fourteenth installment of her adventures.
Enjoy!
Dedicated to migbird for his unwavering dedication to Max.
Final note. You might be confused why "Cold Steel," the first Max story I wrote, is in the middle of the chronology. I never envisioned writing a series and thought that "Cold Steel" was going to be a one off piece. I loved the characters, and you readers did as well, so I wrote "Hot Steel," followed by "Pink Ice." I kept the timeline going with "Betrayal," "Loss of Innocence," "Revenge is Best Served Cold, and finally "To Hell and Back." At that point I was interested in exploring more of Max's backstory, so I wound the clock back ten years and wrote "Maelstrom." I've since been filling in the middle of the timeline. Here's the chronological breakdown of Max's stories:
Maelstrom
Deception
Blindsided
Jackknifed
Tailspin
Crash Landing
Rebound
Cold Steel (this story was written first, followed by Hot Steel)
Hot Steel
Pink Ice
Betrayal
Loss of Innocence
Revenge is Best Served Cold
To Hell... And Back
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, merchandise, companies, 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. All characters in sexual situations are 18 years or older.
Chapter One
Who Did the Dirty Deed?
My life revolved around drinking and sex with beautiful women, preferably at the same time. It wasn't a perfect life but it was my life. I was Maxine "Max" Pemberton, police detective and ass kicker on the Cincinnati Vice squad in my public life, and pussy hound and alcoholic in my private life. Needless to say, there was rarely a dull moment in my life.
My current girlfriend was everyone's wet dream. Sondra... Sondra Karlsson. A tall Scandinavian blonde, perfectly straight honey blonde hair to the middle of her back, blue eyes the color of a freshly calved iceberg, and shapely legs that were a mile long. She was also a cutthroat criminal defense lawyer with a wicked sense of humor and a thirst for 16 year old scotch.
I took up with Sondra a few months ago, and the affair was going in a decidedly bent direction. She loved our rendezvous at the Royal Palms, a flophouse motel in the heart of the worst neighborhood in Cincinnati, the West End, which also served as my chief residence. No sex was too raunchy for the Royal Palms, and no sex was too raunchy for Sondra.
I'd just dropped off my partner, Lesley Groesbeck, at the police station. Lesley was a short, perky blonde who, under my tutelage, had become a first class police officer and down and dirty street fighter. No one survived in the West End without street fighting skills. Lesley was headed off to a romantic dinner with her girlfriend Alessandra Caruso. I was headed to the liquor store to pick up the refreshments for that night's festivities with Sondra. We were in the hot sex phase of our relationship, which meant that we skipped the bars, restaurants and movie theaters and went straight to my motel room. I had no idea how much longer Sondra would be with me before one of us strayed, but that was a worry for later.
My trusty Honda Civic sputtered as I drove to the nearby liquor store. The beater was twelve years old, and the only vehicle I'd owned since I was an adult. I promised myself I'd take it into servicing, but I conveniently ignored the red warning lights as I drove. The liquor store was busy, both inside and out. Outside, a familiar black Escalade was parked in the corner. A pimp and three girls were hanging out, waiting for customers. Inside, my buddy Nigel was dispensing cheap wine and malt liquor to the masses. I usually drank cheap vodka, the cheaper the better.
I parked next to the Escalade. I knew the pimp and the girls. I'd busted each of them at one time or another, but our relationship evolved into one of mutual trust. I made sure that no one got hurt and they watched my back and provided me with information. Information was the coin of the realm in the West End. Their pimp, Eddie, was a smart aleck white boy who grew up in the West End and was comfortable with its hard edged existence. He was doing a line of coke off of one of the whore's compact mirrors when I approached him.
Eddie crinkled his nose after he snorted, and then looked up.
"Hey Max," he said. "Heard about Lily. You were there?"
Lily was the drug lord of the West End until she was taken out the previous month. Lily and I had feelings for each other (and sex) despite our opposite stations. Her entire crew was brutally murdered, and the police had no solid leads on the killers. The smart money was on Jumbo Williams, a local football hero turned criminal. Lily took over Jumbo's turf after she framed him on a drug charge. Later, Lily had arranged to have Jumbo poisoned, but failed. Jumbo was doubly incented to kill Lily.
But I was on a different track. Lily had fingered Bratva, the Russian mafia, with her dying breath from her lips to my ear. The problem was, no one in the department was aware that Bratva had made inroads into Cincinnati. Everyone I shared this name with thought it was a longshot, including my partner, but my gut told me otherwise. Lily was no fool. I also owed her.
I hit a brick wall for a full month trying to discover Lily's killer. I worked in Vice, and under the guise of a drug investigation, I put out feelers to everyone I knew about Bratva. There were only hints of their presence, and I needed a solid sighting. I hadn't approached Eddie yet, but I knew he dealt a little on the side and was savvy to the source of the local drug connections. Eddie owed me. I got one of his girls out of lock-up the month previous and saved him a few thousand in legal fees from his shyster attorney as well as the downtime for his girl.
I decided I'd use his question as an opportunity to pump him for information.
"I was there first. I saw everything," I said, piquing his interest.
"No shit."
"Looked like a professional hit. Large caliber weapon. So I wanted to ask you if you've heard anything."
He shook his head. "Nothing. There's just talk. Rumors."
"What's the word on the street?" I asked him.
"Russians."
His answer gave me a shiver. I hadn't prompted him and he gave me the answer I was hoping for.
"You've seen any?"
"No."
"How about the drugs, any changes in quality or sourcing?"
Eddie looked at me with bloodshot eyes and dilated pupils. He was flying high.
"Yeah. The coke's gotten really good. And cheaper."
"Do you know where it's coming from?"