Better When He's Brave
Page 74
Roark’s old boss lifted his gray eyebrows at me as I collapsed in a heap at his feet once my hands were free. I wasn’t sure if it was broken, but my kneecap felt like it was made of Jell-O, so there was no way I was walking out of here on my own.
“I got a frantic call from Reeve Black. She said a man named Noah Booker abducted you and was taking you to Roark. She told us to hurry. She said you told her to wait an hour but that was too long. She called us the second you hung up the phone. I pulled my guys off of her and moved them to go after you. Gotta say the timing couldn’t have been any closer. The guy in the parking lot almost bled out but the paramedics seem to think he’ll make it if he gets into surgery quick and gets a blood transfusion. He was still conscious when we rolled onto the scene, so they took that as a good sign and the bullet missed anything major. Lucky bastard. Looks like you would’ve been in pretty bad shape if we had been even a minute later.”
I didn’t know if Booker would agree that he was lucky. This was the second time he took a round in the chest in less than six months. Even if he did have as many lives as a cat, they were starting to run out.
“I’m glad she ignored me and called you.” Hell, I was stunned she hadn’t tried to ride to the rescue all on her own.
“Yeah. Told someone who she was and was screaming something about trusting the system and doing the right thing. She also said if we didn’t send someone after you, she was calling in the not-so-legal backup. I didn’t realize you had your hand so deep in the cookie jar, Detective. Can you walk?”
I shook my head in the negative and he hefted me up while wrapping an arm around my back. We both looked at where Roark lay still and lifeless, a bullet hole decorating the center of his forehead.
“Seems anticlimactic after everything he put you and the people of this city through.”
I disagreed, but I had just spent the last hazy moments getting beaten with pipes and fists. “He died on the ashes of the empire we took from Novak. Seems oddly appropriate.”
Packard snorted as we hobbled toward the door. “I’m just glad it’s over, and though I’ll never officially admit it, I’m glad I’m the one that fired the shot. I screwed up with Roark. Evens the scales back a little in my favor.”
I sighed. This was the Point. It was never over and our scales were always out of whack in the opposite way anyone wanted. I shuffled, jumped, and stumbled with his help out of the warehouse to where I could hear sirens wailing. We were headed toward the back of an open ambulance when I heard my name. I saw her dark hair in the crowd and growled at Packard when one of his guys grabbed her to keep her back from the chaos and crime scene.
He ordered the fed to let her through and she ran at me like the hounds of hell were chasing her. She hit my chest hard and almost took all three of us to the ground. I was covered in blood, not all of it my own, and she didn’t seem to care. She kissed me all over my face and helped Packard get me the rest of the way to the ambulance. She was talking a mile a minute, her eyes wide and shiny with relief and unshed tears. I slumped down and grabbed her cheeks so I could hold her face. I kissed her to shut her up and because I had to. I was alive. She was alive. The good guys were battered but victorious.
“You didn’t wait.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in the curve there. “I’ve been waiting for something good and right in my life forever, Titus. I wasn’t going to wait for it for another hour. I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t risk you.”
“Thank you. I’m so proud of you for knowing what to do, for taking care of me.”
She nodded against me. “I wanted to do the right thing. I wanted you to see that I do trust you, trust the system. I wanted to show you more. I wanted to take care of you the right way.”
I squeezed her and winced as she brushed my knee. That sucker was shot. It looked like a basketball and was the same color as her dark blue eyes.
“Any choice you make to take care of me is the right choice, Reeve. I love you.”
She hiccuped against the side of my neck and I felt the tears start to fall. “I love you too.”
I ran my hand up under the heavy fall of her hair and wrapped it around the back of her neck. I gave her a little squeeze and whispered into her ear as a uniformed paramedic started to make his way over to us. “I need to tell you something.”
“Anything.”
“You never had anything to do with your sister’s boyfriend getting killed. He owed Novak money for drugs. He already had a target on him. Novak manipulated you, used you like he did everyone else in the Point. You’ve never been a killer, Reeve. You aren’t a bad person. You can go make things right with your folks and let go of some of that responsibility you let control you.”
She pulled back and looked at me stunned. She fussed at the paramedic when he asked her to move away so he could get to my injured leg.
She slowly shook her head and took my hand. “No. I’m still the same, Titus. Regardless of whether I had a hand in it or not, I’m glad Rissa’s killer is dead, and I would’ve killed Conner. I still want to now seeing how badly he hurt you. I won’t make that choice again, I know I can’t and still keep you, but I still want to. I don’t think it makes me a bad person. I think it makes me a survivor. If it’s me and someone I love or a bad guy, the bad guy is going down and I won’t feel guilty for that anymore.”
I leaned over and kissed her. “You are a lion tamer.” Fearless and always willing to dance in the dark with the monsters and animals that wanted to eat her up. No wonder my beast loved her. She wrinkled her nose at me.
“Can’t it be Beauty and the Beast? I think I like that better.”
I wanted to laugh but I groaned instead as they told me they needed to move me to a gurney. It really hurt but it was tolerable because my girl was there to take care of me.
Like she always was. I might bleed for everyone else. Fight to the end for this town and those that I loved that lived here, but this woman . . . she would bleed for me and never ask for anything in return. There was nothing more than that. This is what my love looked like in the Point: a girl that could take care of herself and anyone else she cared about . . . and God help anyone that got in her way.
Chapter 19
Reeve
THE GARAGE WAS BUSY when I walked through it. It was noisy and smelled like oil and gasoline. I got a few curious looks from the different guys that had their heads buried in engines or that were working on various other parts of the car but I didn’t pay any attention to them. They all knew I was with Bax’s brother, and as long as they wanted to keep breathing or stay out of jail, they kept their opinions to themselves.
“I got a frantic call from Reeve Black. She said a man named Noah Booker abducted you and was taking you to Roark. She told us to hurry. She said you told her to wait an hour but that was too long. She called us the second you hung up the phone. I pulled my guys off of her and moved them to go after you. Gotta say the timing couldn’t have been any closer. The guy in the parking lot almost bled out but the paramedics seem to think he’ll make it if he gets into surgery quick and gets a blood transfusion. He was still conscious when we rolled onto the scene, so they took that as a good sign and the bullet missed anything major. Lucky bastard. Looks like you would’ve been in pretty bad shape if we had been even a minute later.”
I didn’t know if Booker would agree that he was lucky. This was the second time he took a round in the chest in less than six months. Even if he did have as many lives as a cat, they were starting to run out.
“I’m glad she ignored me and called you.” Hell, I was stunned she hadn’t tried to ride to the rescue all on her own.
“Yeah. Told someone who she was and was screaming something about trusting the system and doing the right thing. She also said if we didn’t send someone after you, she was calling in the not-so-legal backup. I didn’t realize you had your hand so deep in the cookie jar, Detective. Can you walk?”
I shook my head in the negative and he hefted me up while wrapping an arm around my back. We both looked at where Roark lay still and lifeless, a bullet hole decorating the center of his forehead.
“Seems anticlimactic after everything he put you and the people of this city through.”
I disagreed, but I had just spent the last hazy moments getting beaten with pipes and fists. “He died on the ashes of the empire we took from Novak. Seems oddly appropriate.”
Packard snorted as we hobbled toward the door. “I’m just glad it’s over, and though I’ll never officially admit it, I’m glad I’m the one that fired the shot. I screwed up with Roark. Evens the scales back a little in my favor.”
I sighed. This was the Point. It was never over and our scales were always out of whack in the opposite way anyone wanted. I shuffled, jumped, and stumbled with his help out of the warehouse to where I could hear sirens wailing. We were headed toward the back of an open ambulance when I heard my name. I saw her dark hair in the crowd and growled at Packard when one of his guys grabbed her to keep her back from the chaos and crime scene.
He ordered the fed to let her through and she ran at me like the hounds of hell were chasing her. She hit my chest hard and almost took all three of us to the ground. I was covered in blood, not all of it my own, and she didn’t seem to care. She kissed me all over my face and helped Packard get me the rest of the way to the ambulance. She was talking a mile a minute, her eyes wide and shiny with relief and unshed tears. I slumped down and grabbed her cheeks so I could hold her face. I kissed her to shut her up and because I had to. I was alive. She was alive. The good guys were battered but victorious.
“You didn’t wait.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in the curve there. “I’ve been waiting for something good and right in my life forever, Titus. I wasn’t going to wait for it for another hour. I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t risk you.”
“Thank you. I’m so proud of you for knowing what to do, for taking care of me.”
She nodded against me. “I wanted to do the right thing. I wanted you to see that I do trust you, trust the system. I wanted to show you more. I wanted to take care of you the right way.”
I squeezed her and winced as she brushed my knee. That sucker was shot. It looked like a basketball and was the same color as her dark blue eyes.
“Any choice you make to take care of me is the right choice, Reeve. I love you.”
She hiccuped against the side of my neck and I felt the tears start to fall. “I love you too.”
I ran my hand up under the heavy fall of her hair and wrapped it around the back of her neck. I gave her a little squeeze and whispered into her ear as a uniformed paramedic started to make his way over to us. “I need to tell you something.”
“Anything.”
“You never had anything to do with your sister’s boyfriend getting killed. He owed Novak money for drugs. He already had a target on him. Novak manipulated you, used you like he did everyone else in the Point. You’ve never been a killer, Reeve. You aren’t a bad person. You can go make things right with your folks and let go of some of that responsibility you let control you.”
She pulled back and looked at me stunned. She fussed at the paramedic when he asked her to move away so he could get to my injured leg.
She slowly shook her head and took my hand. “No. I’m still the same, Titus. Regardless of whether I had a hand in it or not, I’m glad Rissa’s killer is dead, and I would’ve killed Conner. I still want to now seeing how badly he hurt you. I won’t make that choice again, I know I can’t and still keep you, but I still want to. I don’t think it makes me a bad person. I think it makes me a survivor. If it’s me and someone I love or a bad guy, the bad guy is going down and I won’t feel guilty for that anymore.”
I leaned over and kissed her. “You are a lion tamer.” Fearless and always willing to dance in the dark with the monsters and animals that wanted to eat her up. No wonder my beast loved her. She wrinkled her nose at me.
“Can’t it be Beauty and the Beast? I think I like that better.”
I wanted to laugh but I groaned instead as they told me they needed to move me to a gurney. It really hurt but it was tolerable because my girl was there to take care of me.
Like she always was. I might bleed for everyone else. Fight to the end for this town and those that I loved that lived here, but this woman . . . she would bleed for me and never ask for anything in return. There was nothing more than that. This is what my love looked like in the Point: a girl that could take care of herself and anyone else she cared about . . . and God help anyone that got in her way.
Chapter 19
Reeve
THE GARAGE WAS BUSY when I walked through it. It was noisy and smelled like oil and gasoline. I got a few curious looks from the different guys that had their heads buried in engines or that were working on various other parts of the car but I didn’t pay any attention to them. They all knew I was with Bax’s brother, and as long as they wanted to keep breathing or stay out of jail, they kept their opinions to themselves.
