Marcus looked enraged all of a sudden, stalking toward the car with the clear intention of fucking Bruno up.
But the moment that he rounded the trunk, Royal exploded out of it.
One second, she was in it, and the next she was on Marcus’ back clawing at his eyes.
The two police officers filed out of the office then, followed by the ones stashed in the other various places, all having heard the commotion.
Royal went flying as Marcus ripped her off of his back and flung her at the closest wall.
Seeing the hurt it was about to cause her, I dove for her, managing to catch her and turning her so that my back hit the wall first.
Everything slammed into me so hard that I saw stars.
My back hurt. My eyes hurt. My head really fuckin’ hurt.
And then I was opening my eyes and staring down the barrel of a gun.
Royal moved to cover me from where she’d rolled, but a quick-thinking cop moved to intercept her before she could get a step in my direction.
“It’s over,” I said to Marcus, who was looking around wild-eyed.
He shook his gun at me.
“It’s not,” he disagreed. “They’ve got nothin’ on me. I’m…”
“Pointing a gun at a police officer,” I supplied. “Assaulting the daughter of a judge. Trust me when I say, you’re not getting out of this lightly.” I paused. “Plus, we have a couple counts of grave robbery—at least five.” I grinned. “Class C felony. Up to ten years in prison and up to a ten-thousand-dollar fine. You’re fucked.”
“I didn’t…” he began to say.
“You did,” I disagreed. “Friends gave you up right quick when we told them you’d no longer control Eleventh Street.”
Marcus’ eyes went dark. “I’ll kill their family.”
“Was that a threat?” I asked. “Could you repeat that?”
Marcus grew even more pissed off, jerking the gun in my direction.
“Stand up,” he ordered.
I didn’t bother.
If he wanted to shoot me, he was going to shoot me.
“Drop the gun, Gomez.”
That was Lock.
Where and when the fuck had he arrived?
“Drop the gun!” Yao bellowed.
I didn’t take my eyes off of Marcus.
Not when he took a step forward and spat at my feet.
Not when he said, “I’m going to kill you in front of her.”
And not when the last person I would’ve ever expected to see rolled into the shop.
Marcus did, though.
And I took my chance.
Knowing that the others would have him covered, I dove to the right behind the car I’d been working on, and two shots rang out.
One from Yao, and the other from Lock.
The other officers quickly moved in just as Jimmy rolled up in his wheelchair and stared down at me, offering me his hand.
I took it, and only then noticed that he was sweating profusely.
“You look rough,” I rumbled, finding it hard to breathe.
I took Jimmy’s hand as he said, “Yeah. Wheeled my fat ass all the way here.”
I was on my feet for all of three seconds before I was hit straight in the chest by Royal.
“Justice!” she cried out, burying her face into my neck.
I wrapped both arms around her and held her tight, cursing myself for letting this happen.
Her legs came up and encircled my hips, and despite the activity going on around us, my dick still got hard.
“What happened?” I asked, not sure if I was directing that question toward Royal or Jimmy.
“My thoughts, too,” Yao said, coming up to stand beside me.
Tellings was there as well, silently leaning against the car and ignoring the pool of blood only about twelve inches from his left foot.
I glanced down at the obviously dead Marcus and moved until the car was covering the majority of it up.
Then I set Royal on her feet and asked again.
“What happened?” I pushed.
“I got this weird call from him.” She gestured at Jimmy. “Telling me to come over now. He had a problem. I guess I should’ve thought better of it before I did it.” She held up her hand when I rolled my eyes. “I know. Dumb. Yes, yes. Anyway, I get there, and I’m picked up and shoved into a trunk by him.”
Royal points at a man that’s casually leaning against the car he’d brought Royal in.
“How did you know where Jimmy was at?” Yao asked. “I thought he was in a safe house.”
“They released the house to us yesterday,” Jimmy interjected. “And we have that ‘find your iPhone’ thing on our phones. We can look up where the others are without breaking a sweat.”
That made sense.
“Plus, I have to do it at least once a month,” he continued. “Royal always helps me find it.”
Yao nodded as if that made perfect sense.
“I tried to kick the taillight out, but I couldn’t.” Royal sounded frustrated. Then her eyes trained on something along the floor, and she grimaced.
I looked down to see that Marcus’ blood was now gravitating to our side of the car, and Jimmy’s wheels were now a casualty.