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♙Kai Hamilton♙
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“..Kai, so what did Ameer say?”
Kai turns to Rafeeqa while they are all driving back to the station. Kai seemed lost in thought since he came back to them.
“..Huh?” He asks absentmindedly.
“Ameer? You know that guy you were talking to for the past 10 minutes? I’m assuming he said something more to you since you were with him for a bit.” Rafeeqa asks again with a curious look on her face.
“Oh, right sorry. No, actually he didn’t say much more. It was more of the same ‘I don’t know’ etc etc.” Kai said with a sigh.
“So we got nothing, awesome.” Jaivon mumbles from the front.
A small part of Kai does wish he could tell them the truth but that is overtaken by the rest of his logical mind knowing that he doesn’t trust them. Not even Rafeeqa fully even though its a few near things. He just doesn’t know who’s is talking to who and if this doesn’t pan out at least it won’t be wasted time on all their parts. So for this, he decides to go it alone, just like he has been since the beginning. The ride back to the station was mostly quiet, probably due to the dread of having to tell Jonas that they got nothing more than before. Kai knows he’s a bit distant during the meeting and as soon as its over he goes back to his desk. His gaze however keeps trailing to Gravin who was on the far other end of the office. He was talking with his team over whatever case they were on now.
Kai isn’t sure that Gavin was the one Ameer was talking about. He’s never really seen Gavin outside of police gear, and he doesn’t really scream as someone anyone would use for that kind of work. Garvin is a chill guy, a bit lazy if Kai was being completely honest. So that means it had to be someone from his team. He rules on one being that it was a female officer which left two other. Officer Frank Wilson and Officer Noah Butler, both of whom Kai has very limited interactions with. Frank more so than Noah was due to personality issues. Noah was younger, probably closer to Kai’s age. He was a bit of a kiss-ass by basically everyone who know the guy. He cares more about looking good than doing real justice but Noah’s also a coward. Frank on the other hand was a different breed altogether.
Rude, arrogant with a superiority complex a mile wide.
To make things really simple Kai and him do not get along. Frank is more or less Jaivon but ten times more hostile. Kai was both surprised and not at the same time that he was a cop here. He’s tall, well-muscled, and easily cuts an intimidating figure, which certainly is someone who can be used to threaten others.
“..Kai?!”
Kai’s head snaps over to Rafeeqa who is looking at him expectantly.
“Oh sorry about that.”
“We gonna go over the old crime scenes again to see if we missed anything.” She said before motioning him to follow.
The rest of the day dragged on, Kai was only half present and he knew it was a bit too obvious. But his mind couldn’t help but think back to Ameer’s words and bring Frank to the forefront of his mind. The time even would match up as Frank was around since that case as well. Finally, the day comes to an end. Unfortunately, Rafeeqa ask to come over so Kai can’t do much more snooping around than he wishes he could. But he figures if anything it will sell his ‘nothing wrong’ card since he’s pretty sure she is very suspicious of his behavior today.
“We keep hitting dead ends. Sooner or later they’re gonna call in the big guns and no one wants that…” Rafeeqa says with a sigh as she takes a bite of her food.
The ‘big guns’ as she calls them are the Feds and from what Kai knows, those guys are just as bad as anyone else in this city. Any time a case gets to a point where the police aren’t getting any results and time goes on, the Feds are called in. Particularly Federal officer, Jorge Crawford, Briagas’s fix-it man.
No matter what the case, he will close it. Even if that means less than … savory means. He operates in ways however that only benefit the wealthy, justice is as much a game to him as anyone in upper Briagas. If Kai had thought his little crusade about the damn city was hard, adding Crawford into the mix would just be overkill.
Crawford doesn’t care about actual justice or holding those accountable if it has anything to do with those who pay his check. He will find a ‘culprit’ even if he has to pull it out of thin air. And usually, everything is tied in a perfect little bow. All the evidence suddenly appears and everyone’s happy.
The end.
Well everyone except those who are eventually screwed over of course. But that’s not his problem.
If Kai wants to get to the bottom of this, he knows he needs to work fast. The moment Fed is called in, he and his team will be taken off the case and he knows any information about hidden dealing will be once again lost.
“Kai!”
Kai’s head snaps up to look back at Rafeeqa who looks both annoyed and a bit worried. Kai whines a bit as he knows he’s not doing himself any favors to keep things under wraps with her.
“Sorry, I’m just trying to think if there was anything we missed.”
“..Ah I see..”
An awkward silence filters into the air. He really is fucking this up royally. He steals a glance at Rafeeqa who is now looking down at her plate sadly. She knows something is up, Kai can practically smell it.
“Rafeeqa…”
“I’m not going make you tell me anything… I know you have your reasons to not.. trust easy.” Rafeeqa says suddenly.
Kai just stands there in shock as he takes in that information. He didn’t think she would notice that about him but given how he is in the office it kind of makes sense he would get there. He’s never really talked with anyone in the office outside of work topics and even then no one really tried to get close to him outside of Rafeeqa and Arthur he guess.
“..The force isn’t filled with people who have great morals or even care about justice if we are being completely honest. Someone like you sticks out like a sore thumb.” She says in a matter-of-fact way.
Kai wasn’t surprised by her observation, it wasn’t like it was something he hid. It made his job easier honestly that no one wanted anything to do with him. Didn’t make him any friends sure but he really didn’t want to befriend anyone in the upper region.
“What’s your point?” Kai said as he really wanted her to just get to the point.
“…All I want you to promise me is that you stay safe. Don’t take stupid risks. If you going to go off-grid, just trust someone enough to let them know, even if it isn’t me.”
Kai wasn’t sure what to say to that. He was rather surprised by the lack of digging she doing. She even looked genuine with the concern written on her face. Like she really cared if Kai was out doing something dangerous without backup. It was … refreshing to say the least.
“..I know I haven’t always been on your side…”
Kai is pulled into the memory of the big party that Lance had. How upset Rafeeqa had gotten. While Kai still defends his decision to intervene, he does understand how Rafeeqa feels. She’s had to cover for him more times than he could count since they became friends. Lovers? He’s honestly not even sure what label to give their relationship currently. They’ve never put a label on it and always act professionally at work. Hell, even back at his place, she’s only been a few times but he’s never bothered by her presence.
She makes him feel calm… Almost makes him want to trust her.
But only almost.
“..Rafeeqa, I promise everything is okay.” Kai insists.
She seems to just watch him, searching his face for something. But after a few moments, she seems to let it go and they dive into a new conversation. He knew very well that this wouldn’t be the first time this conversation would come up. And if things got too crazy, she probably wouldn’t be as kind of this time, but he just couldn’t trust her.
Not yet anyway…
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