“Drop it!”
“Freeze!”
“Hands where I can see them!”
It’s a chaos of shouting police, and I smile inside as I watch the mobsters completely taken by surprise. They don’t even have the time to draw their weapons.
“Red Team go, go, go!”
Above me, the Red Team are racing across the rafters, yelling from above, laser pointers aimed at their targets and holding them fast in place. I see Travis cautiously step back, one foot at a time, and then turn and run towards the back door.
He stops when he sees me pointing my gun in his face.
“Stop right there,” I say through clenched teeth.
His eyes dart left and right.
“Go ahead,” I say. “Try to run. Give me an excuse to shoot you.”
I’m already holding myself back from pulling the trigger.
Travis raises his hands up. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” he says, smug and appalling as expected. “Do you even know who I am?”
Two SWAT officers grab him roughly by the wrists and twist his arms behind him, zipping his hands tight.
“Travis Milano,” I say with a smile. “You’re under arrest.”
Chapter 10: Take down
Jen
Three weeks later
To say I am relieved is an understatement. I hold my head high when I step out of the judge’s room and into the hallway, fooling everyone but myself. You can’t see it from afar, but I am shaking, and I have to stop myself from constantly wringing my hands.
I turn search the halls and find Matthew standing a few doors down, and when he sees me, he rushes to me and takes me in his arms. His dark eyes are wide and concerned. “How did it go?”
I shrug and clear my throat. “Oh, you know. Same as usual.”
Matthew holds my hand tight. “I know you didn’t want to be involved in any of this, but I think you did a great job.”
Testifying isn’t as glamorous as they make it out to be in the movies.
Especially when Matthew made a few phone calls to ensure it was all anonymous. An hour ago, he’d driven me to court. My heart had been thundering inside my chest with anticipation the entire time. This was it. This was when we finally got them.
They had led me into Judge Madeline Crave’s chambers, where two lawyers waited. She greeted me with a warmth that was meant to ease me into the whole ordeal, but when the questioning started, I could feel the temperature in the room drop. I answered a charade of questions, enough to make my head spin, and by the time I was done, I was exhausted.
But I soldiered through.
“I’m just glad it’s over,” I say.
Knowing Travis and the othersare somewhere in the building, awaiting judgment, fills me with a strange sense of satisfaction. And having Matthew by my side immediately put me at ease.
“Thank you for being here.”
Matthew smiles. “I come bearing gifts.”
He steps to one side, revealing an eager looking Bennett and Simone. She jumps to her feet and pulls me onto the bench next to them.