Fuck.
Please don’t tell me he had hurt this chick and her agency—hell, who was I kidding—herpimpwas here to deal with Lester. There was no way I was getting involved in that.
It was bad enough I usually had to stick around to pay off his prostitutes and show them out because he was geeked out of his mind. If he’d done something bad to her, I was done. I’d figure something out. Even if it meant finding out a way to create a new identity for myself.
Debating whether I should try to sneak out and run or grab the bull by the horns took all of two-point-two seconds.
Knowing I was being that dumb chick that I always shouted at during scary movies, I quietly made my way to the connecting door. When I swung the door open and saw Lester bleeding out on the floor, I raised my gun at the man wearing a dark mask. He swung in my direction and raised his gun to point at me, but I was prepared.
I pulled the trigger right as I could’ve sworn he whispered my name.
The bullet hit him in the shoulder, causing him to spin slightly before he fell to the ground.
“Goddamn it!” I whispered in horror as the man writhed on the ground cursing. Unsure what to do next, I held my free hand over my mouth and let out a muffled scream of frustration.
Damn him for making me have to shoot him!
The decision of what to do next was taken out of my hands when two guys also dressed all in black came barreling in the door and I raised my gun again.
“Whoa! What the fuck?” the taller guy said with wide eyes as they both froze. They too had on black masks, and I had to fight not to shake like a leaf. They were intimidating, and there was no way I could take them both before one of them got to me.
Then as I blinked, the shorter one simply… disappeared. Positive my eyes were playing tricks on me, I blinked rapidly and shook my head. The next thing I knew, the cold barrel of a gun was being held to my head.
“Where the hell did you come from?” I whispered, afraid to move. The bigger guy dropped to his friend I’d shot and ripped the mask off. He quickly used it to hold pressure on the man’s shoulder. I heard him murmur something after he reached up and touched his ear. Then the pounding of more boots followed.
Three more guys showed up at the door. “Holy shit,” one of them muttered as he knelt.
“We’ve got him, can you start the cleanup? We need to get the fuck out of here.” The guy putting pressure on the first guy’s shoulder said.
Then the guy I’d shot slowly turned his head my direction. He was panting painfully.
When his dark mocha eyes burned into mine, my lungs refused to work. Black dots flickered in my vision, and a whooshing filled my ears. Choking to find air, I clutched my chest. Finally, I gasped out a single word.
“Jude?”
All eyes flashed my direction as every one of them paused in their tasks. A sob escaped as I thoughtlessly started toward him. Except the vise-like grip on my arm and the cold steel to my head stopped me.
“Please,” I pleaded, unable to get further words to pass my suddenly parched lips.
“Let her go.” Jude groaned out the words. The guy holding me back let go after he slipped my gun from my hand, and I stumbled forward.
“What the fuck are you doing, Jude?” I cried out as I looked over to where the other guys were rolling my boss’s lifeless body in plastic.
Nothing made sense. The sweet boy I’d loved couldn’t be this person. Lester Damon had been a shitbag, but Jude… he killed him.
Maybe it made me an awful person, but I didn’t care about Lester. My fear was seeing Jude go to prison for it.
Regardless of our history, I didn’t want that to happen to him. For so many reasons.
Kneeling next to him, I struggled to breathe. They rolled him to the side and slid a makeshift backboard under him. He winced and gasped. Blood seemed to soak the guy’s fingers as he tried to hold pressure.
I leaned in when they rolled him back over. “Jude,” I frantically whispered. “Heal yourself.”
Those dark brown eyes I knew so well stared up at me. Pain hazed them as he gave me a sad smile.
“Back up, babe,” one of the guys said to me, and I looked up in confusion. “On three,” he said.
They lifted him, and his face crumpled in pain again. No longer worried about my former boss, my job, or my mother and her threats, I followed them outside and to the dark SUV they had backed up to the rear porch.