Josie slaps the alarm clock as it goes off. She pulls the blanket back over her head. She had another nightmare last night. She had woken up scared and frightened again. The nightmares were becoming less from her ordeal from last year.

Josie falls asleep again and after the alarm goes off a second time. She turns it off and drags herself out of bed. She wasn’t looking forward to work today. She had to go and see her counselor, before reporting to work. It was mandatory, because of what she went through last year.

She heads to the bathroom and set the water temperature for her morning shower. She steps into the shower and let the water cascade down over her short petite body. She fingers the mark on her left shoulder that had been burned into her skin. When the Detectives investigated her
case, they found she wasn’t the only one who had been kidnapped or blackmail.

A special task force had been put together to rescue the girls, women, and boys that had been taken. According to the rumors she heard, the task force was composed of some of the best police officers, FBI, NSA, DEA and DSS agents around. The leader of the task force was a former Navy seal and NCIS agent.

He had paid her a visit to learn what had happened to her. They had talked for eight hours. He had picked her brain for every piece of information she had. She gets out of the shower and gets dress. She had her NYPD T-shirt on and a pair of faded blue jeans. She also had her work boots on. She places her badge on her belt and grabs her shoulder holster and place her gun in it. She might be only a mechanic, but after what happened last year. She never leaves her place without her gun. She heads down to her Duster and head to the counselor office first. She spends an hour there with her counselor. The department was picking up the tab because she had been kidnapped while she was working. Afterward, she heads towards her new post.

After what happened to her, she was transferred to another garage. Instead of working on cars, she was working on boats. She had been transferred to Harbor patrol. It didn’t bother her, she could work on anything.

Her boss at the harbor patrol liked the fact she was so small. The reason, because she could fit in places other mechanics couldn’t on the boat. Some of the guys she worked with, liked her Duster.

They had been surprised a small woman like her had been assigned to the boatyard. They were also surprised, that a woman her size, would drive a car so powerful. They were amazed that she had built the motor and transmission for the car as well.

Her boss sent her to be certified on the boat motors she worked on. He had spoken to her old supervisor and was informed she was a trouble maker, but a good mechanic. He also learned that the reason she had been transferred, was that she was the one that had been kidnapped.

She parks her car next to Big Tony’s custom pick-up truck. He was proud of his truck. He did all the custom work on it and like her, rebuilt the motor. He has been talking about joining the Truck Night in America show to see how well his truck does. He already applied and was waiting to hear from them.

“It’s about time you showed up for work.” Henry spotted Josie walking over to the piers.

“I had a doctor’s appointment this morning.” Josie boards the boat her and Henry were taking out for testing.

She was the third-best mechanic in the yard. The two over her have been working at the boat maintenance yard longer than anyone else. It was all thanks to her natural mechanical talent.

The engine and all the electronics had to be replaced. The wiring harness had caught fire. The spark from a worn wire had ignited the fuel line. The crew had been lucky the boat hadn’t exploded.

“You ready for the test ride?” Henry knew Josie didn’t have much experience on boats.

“Sure, why not.” Josie felt a little nervous being on the boat, but she hid it.

It brought back memories of the yacht she had escaped from. Her new supervisor had asked if it was going to be a problem when she arrived. She reassured him that it wasn’t going to be a problem.

Henry watched as Josie held onto one of the bars in the cabin areas. He increases speed as they traveled down the Upper Bay.

“The engine and the electronics are working nicely, don’t you think?” Henry looks at Josie.

“Yeah, everything looks to be working okay.” Josie tries to relax, but she was having a hard time doing it.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Don’t you like the water and boats?” Henry noticed Josie was a little scared.

“I use too, until last year.” Josie takes a deep breath and tries to center herself. She was safe, and no one was trying to kidnap her again.

Josie turns the boat around and heads back to the pier. She could see Josie was doing everything she could to calm down.

“So, you were the one that had been kidnapped?” Henry heard about it, but he didn’t know it had been Josie.

“I would rather not talk about it, Henry. It’s something I’m still overcoming.” Josie takes a few more breathes to calm down.

“Okay, so have you heard that Larry is going to enter the boat race in June?” Henry tries a different tactic.

Josie looks at Henry “why would I want to know about Larry entering a boat race?”

“Because he was going to ask you to help him with his boat. He knows how good of a mechanic you are. He figures anyone that can build an 800-horsepower motor for a car. Is someone that could help him build a powerful motor for his boat.” Henry had spoken to Larry about bring Josie on.

“Oh, I feel like an ass, now.” She looks down towards the deck in embarrassment.

“It’s okay. If what I heard about you is true. I can understand your attitude.” Henry smiles at his petite small partner.

Josie releases the handle once they pull up to the pier. She starts tying the boat up to, so the evening crew can take it. She felt better, once she got off the boat and headed to another boat in the boatyard to work on.

Henry watches as Josie tie the boat off and head into the boatyard to work on another boat. He wonders how bad her experience was.

“Is patrol boat 48 ready, Henry?” Jason comes walking up to Henry.

“Yep, she’s ready to go and stop some crime.” Henry tosses Jason the keys to the boat.

He catches them as he passes Henry. He couldn’t wait to take his favorite boat out.

“Be easy with her. She just got out of the hospital.” Henry heads towards another boat he was working on.

Josie works on patrol boat 69. The motor had a miss in it. She performs a few tests to locate the cylinder that had the miss. She finds the
cylinder and tests the spark plug going to it. The sparkplug was doing its job. She slips a camera down inside the cylinder and looks inside the cylinder walls.

The walls of the cylinder were scorched. She was going to have to tear down the motor and rebuild it.

“How bad is it, Josie?” Sergeant Williams had gone to check on Josie. He ran into Henry and asked him about Josie.

Josie looks down towards Williams “it’s going to need a complete teardown and rebuild. The number four cylinder is badly chewed up.”

“Dam, alright I’ll get Kevin to pull the trailer into the garage. That way, you don’t have to work out in the sun.” Sergeant Williams climbs the ladder up to the boat.

He spot’s Josie sitting on top of the motor with her gauges and remote switch. She had grease on her face and was wearing a pair of blue gloves.

“You’re a mess.”

“You think? Whoever 69 assigned too, did a piss poor job of keeping her clean. There’s oil caked up on the engine and her battery ends are almost gone. They turned them upside down and used a screw to tighten them. She’s going to need a good cleaning when I pull the engine out.” Josie couldn’t believe how dirty the engine compartment was.

“Well, you’ll have all the time to get her straight. We might retire this boat and get a new one. Give me a list of what needs to be done. As for the engine, you have my permission to start work on it.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Josie gathers all her gauges and such up. She closes the engine department and climbs down the ladder.

“So, what else do you want me to work on?” Josie looks towards her boss.

“Why don’t you go and give Jamie a hand with boat 72. He’s having a problem tracing down an electrical problem.” Sergeant Williams knew Jamie could use a hand.

“No problem.” Josie puts her gauges and tools in her portable tool kit and head to help Jamie.

She and Jamie get boat 72 fixed and break for lunch. Most of the crew grab from the roach coach that comes around. She walks across the street to a mom and pop food truck and buys a few tacos, a soda. After paying for her meal, she walks across the street and sits at a picnic table the guys had set up for eating outside.

While Josie is sitting and enjoying her lunch. Her cellphone starts ringing. She looks at it and notices it is from Riker Penitentiary. She presses the accept button “yes, I’ll accept the charges.”

There a few seconds as the phone clicks over and the warning all calls are recorded.

“Hello, Dave are you there?”

“I don’t go by that name anymore, David. My name is Josie Sexton. I would prefer if you call me that.” Josie gets frustrated with her birth father.

“Look, you’ll always be Dave Copeptin to me. The reason I am calling you. Is, I need you to give a gentleman I owe money too, some money. He’s been protecting me in here and he wants the money I promise.”

“Well, that’s sound like it's your problem, David. I don’t have that type of money.” Josie only $10,000.00 in her saving account. That was from all the side jobs she did and cars she flipped.

“Look, I’m not asking you for the money. I have the money, but you’ll have to go and get it for me. It’s in a safe deposit box and the key is in your bunny rabbit, Roger. I knew it would be safe there, because of how much Roger means to you.” David knew his son would hold onto his stuff rabbit.

“So, that’s why someone broke into my place. They were looking for the key to your safe deposit box.” Josie remembers coming back to her apartment after escaping from her kidnappers and finding her apartment torn apart.

The detectives working on the case never found the two men who broke into her place. They had pictures and put out an A.P.B. on them. So, now she knows what they were looking for.

“I didn’t tell anyone about that key, Dave. Still, I need for you to get the money and take it to an address for me.”

“First off David, I told you I don’t answer to Dave anymore and why would I do this for you? You and Kelly wouldn’t terminate your paternal
rights to me when the Sexton’s wanted to adopt me, first off. Then I get kidnap by a human trafficker you owed. He kidnapped and raped me and planned on selling me. So, tell me why I should do this for you?” Josie was still steaming with anger.

“Because you’re my son and if you don’t do this for me, you’ll have my death and your mother’s death hanging over your head. Also, what you experience before will be a cake walk, compared to what will be coming your way. They won’t be coming for you, but your foster parents and your Duster.” David was going to get his son to do what he wanted, one way or another.

“You do know, I’m a New York police officer and my foster father is as well.” Josie didn’t like anyone threatening her adopted family.

If anything happened to her Duster, she could live without that. She would miss it, but her foster parents meant the world to her. They have been the only family she has had, and they encouraged her to be who she was.

“I know Dave and that doesn’t mean anything. So, are you going to do what I requested of, Dave?” David knew he had his son.

“FINE! I’ll do this for you, but you better not call me again.” Josie hates that she was being blackmailed to do this deed.

“I thought you would see it my way, Dave.” David stretches out Josie’s old name.

Josie just ends the damn call and was ready to throw her cellphone. As for her lunch, she tosses it away. She didn’t feel like eating it anymore. She was too upset to eat.

Josie heads back into the garage and starts tearing down the engine from harbor boat 69. She would rather put her anger to good use. By the time it was time for her to knock off. She had the engine completely out of the boat and torn down on her workbench. She checks everything and wipes her tools down.

Does Josie wonder if she should tell Sergeant Harrison about what her father wants her to do? She locks her tool cabinet up and heads towards her Duster. She needs to inform him about the conversation she had with her birth father. She dials his number as she heads towards his Precinct.

He had been promoted from being a patrol officer to be a Detective at the 54th Precinct. Detective Ramirez transferred down to Norfolk, Va. and his old partner became Detective Harrison’s new partner.

54th Precinct, Detective Division, W 54th St, New York, NY:
Detective Harrison was reading the email he received from his older brother down in Augusta, Georgia. He had been promoted to Internal Affairs, after collaring a major drug dealer and corrupt police officers. His brother didn’t go into detail about the case, but he did say one of his CI’s had helped him. That same CI was helping him again with a problem at the training academy.

“You know something, I would love to meet my brother’s CI. They helped him take down a major drug dealer and exposed police corruption at the same time.” Detective Harrison looks over towards his partner.

“I would like to meet this CI. How did they manage to fret out police corruption and help capture a drug dealer?” Detective Gacy looks at his new partner.

“I’ll ask my brother, next time I talk with him. How’s your daughter doing?” Harrison knew Gacy’s youngest daughter was having problems at school.

“She’s still having a problem, but hopefully the tutor we got for her, will help out.” Gacy hopes the tutor can help his daughter bring her grades up or she’ll have to repeat the grade again.

Detective Harrison’s desk phone starts ringing. He picks it up “Detective Harrison, Detective Division.”

“Detective Harrison, it’s Josie Sexton I have a problem and I’m on my way to you.” Josie watched as the light changes to red.

“What’s wrong Josie?” Detective Harrison has been keeping an eye on Josie since she came back to work.

He knew she’s been seeing a counselor about what she went through and that she had been transferred from the garage she had been kidnapped from, to Harbor division as one of their mechanics. His friend over there said she hesitated whenever she was out on a boat, but as a mechanic. She was a valuable asset.

“I can’t go over it on the phone. I’ll be at your precinct in about twenty minutes.” Josie floors the pedal when the light turns green.

“Alright, I’ll see you then.” Detective Harrison ends the call.

Twenty minutes later, Josie shows up at the precinct. She spots Detective Harrison sitting across from his partner. She remembered Detective Gacy from when he came down to pick her up.

Detective Gacy spots the short mechanic him and his former partner picked up from Norfolk, Va. last year. He was still looking into her case from the burglary. He still hasn’t caught the people who broke into her place.

“Long time, no see Gacy. What brings you here today?” He hasn’t seen her for at least a year.

“I have a problem and some answers to why my place was broken into, besides trying to kidnap me again.” Josie couldn’t believe they wanted to try again after she escaped the first time.

“What’s your problem?” Both detectives look at Josie.

Josie looks around “can we speak somewhere more private?”

“Sure, Josie.” Detective Gacy escorts her and his partner to another room.

“Okay, what is your problem and what information did you learn?” Both Detectives were curious.

“Well, remember when my place was broken into, last year? Whoever broke into my place to kidnap me wasn’t only there for that, but a key my birth father hid in my bunny rabbit. He wants me to take that same key and go to a bank he has money stored and take it to an address or he’ll go after my foster parents and my Duster. I can live without my Duster, but I can’t live without my foster parents.” Tears were leaking from her eyes.

“Josie, it’s going to be alright. What is the address you are supposed to drop the money off?” Detective Harrison takes his notepad out.

Josie wipes her eyes and hands her cellphone to the Detective. She didn’t want anything to happen to her foster parents. Her father was close to retiring and her mother already lost a few friends. She was a cop, like her husband.

Detective Harrison leaves the room and runs the address. The place comes up belonging to the family of Kevin Sparrow. He was in jail for killing two police officers. He takes the report back to the room where Josie and his partner were.

While Detective Harrison was gone, Josie sat down and talked with Detective Gacy. The two of them talked about her trip back from Norfolk, Va. and her playing chicken with her Duster with those people in the SUV.

They stop talking when Detective Harrison comes back into the room. He had a printout in his hand when he walked in.

“What did you find out?” Josie was curious.

“The address belongs to Kevin Sparrow’s family.” He sits down at the table.

“So, I should go ahead and do what he wants me to do?” Josie looks at both Detectives for an answer.

“We’ll come along with you. Let’s see if it is the family or something else. Also, how did the courts miss this account?” That struck Harrison as odd.

“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind finding out. Also, it’s too late to do this today. I’ll have to do this tomorrow morning.” It was close to seven o’clock. She has been at the precinct for at least forty minutes or more.

“You’re right. Let’s meet tomorrow morning at 8:00 am.” Detective Gacy figures that will give them enough time.

“Alright.” Josie heads home.

Saturday Morning, 8:00 am., Atlantic Bank of New York:
Josie arrives at the bank and goes up to the teller “hi, I would like to access my safe deposit box.”

“You’re name and box number?” The teller watches the young boy in front of her.

When Josie opened her Bunny Rabbit, she found a copy of her old social security card and a fake Identity card with a picture of what she would have looked like if she stayed as a boy. She guessed her birth father used an aging program to age a picture of what she would look like as she got older. She was surprised that he had thought this far ahead. She also found the key as well. She fixed her bunny rabbit afterward and place him where he normally sat.

Josie shows the teller her id cards and social security card. The teller looks at the picture and then at Josie and back at the card.

“If you’ll follow me, please?” The teller leads Josie to the safe and escorts her to the safe deposit boxes.

Once the teller leaves, Josie opens the box and couldn’t believe it was loaded with money. She takes out the money that she was told to take. There was still enough money left. She debates if she should take the rest as well. She shakes her head and put the box back. She didn’t want to be indebted to her birth father or anything.

Josie walks out of the bank and back towards her Duster. She gets in and drives off. She could spot Harrison’s undercover car a few lengths behind her. There was another car in front of him, following her. When she stops at a stop light. She dials Detective Gacy’s phone.

“I have a tail.” Josie keeps watching in her review mirror.

“I see him, keep going.” Detective Gacy and Harrison spotted the other car when it started following her.

Josie goes to the house. It wasn’t in a bad neighborhood, but something didn’t seem right. She pulls up in front of the house and parks. She takes the gym bag with the money in it with her, up to the door and knocks.

Josie waits a few minutes, before knocking again. As she is standing there, waiting for the door to open, the car that had followed her. Stops right behind her car, blocking her from backing up and pulling out. Two men get out of the car and walk towards her.

“We’ll be taking the cash and you as well.” As the tallest of the two men spoke to her.

He had tattoo’s covering both his arms and part of his face. His companion stood a few inches shorter than him and had tattoos as well. Josie noticed that the taller one had an accent when he spoke.

“You know do know, I’m a cop, don’t you?” Josie spotted Gacy and Harrison getting out of their car.

“We know and if you don’t do as we tell you, your foster family will pay the price.” The taller one had a smirk on his face.

“Well, guess what guys. You two are under arrest for assaulting a police officer.” Josie had a smile on her face.

“Your funny, now come with us.” The shorter guy shows his gun.

“Put your weapon down and raises your hands above your head. You’re under arrest.” Detective Harrison and Detective Gacy had their guns out and pointed at them.

“Damn!” Both guys put their weapons down and had their hands up.

“Oh, by the way. The goons my birth father send after my foster family will have 45,000 police officers after them. Pass that along to my birth father.” Josie watches as Detective Harrison’s and Detective Gacy arrest the goons.

Josie takes the gym bag back to her car. She wasn’t going to spend the money. She was going to put it back where she got it from, but in a different account under a false name.

Several Weeks Later:
Josie is sitting at her foster parent’s kitchen table having morning breakfast with her family when she comes across an article of an inmate being murdered in Riker’s prison. It goes on naming her birth father as the person that was killed along with the man she was supposed to deliver the money for.

Josie’s father looks at his daughter and noticed she was smiling. He wonders why she was smiling “what’s so funny, Josie?”

“My birth father got his just reward, along with his protector.” Josie shows her foster father the article.