“Just after midnight I think. It definitely wasn’t later than twelve-thirty.” He tells her to go on. “I tried to get a car but the closest one was forty-five minutes away and since it was a nice night I decided to walk instead. I don’t live that far. When I passed the store, I decided to stop in and grab a bottle of water. My feet were killing me, so I kicked off my shoes and held them when I went inside. I know it’s completely gross but it was a foot emergency. Then I was just minding my own business when the front door bursts open and hits me in the arm.”
“Who entered the store?” Rafe asks while furiously taking notes.
“The guy they arrested. He was waving a gun around and shouting for all of us not to move which I wasn’t happy about because I was only three feet from him. We all just stood therewhile he started yelling at the cashier to empty the drawer in a bag. He was totally doing it too, nobody was going to argue with the dude with a gun. I’m pretty sure we all just wanted him to grab the cash and get out of there. But there was this older guy, he had to be like sixty-five or seventy, and he was standing at the counter. The guy with the gun started yelling at him to get out of his way but the old guy was like, frozen in place, he looked terrified. I guess he wasn’t moving fast enough so he took his gun and hit the old man over the head with it. The old guy just crumpled to the ground. I’d never seen anything like it, I thought he was dead.
“That was the gentleman they took out of here in the ambulance?”
Bianca nods her head emphatically. “Do you know if he’s okay?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t, but we’ll see what we can find out after we finish up here, alright? Why don’t you go on, how did the assailant end up bleeding and why were the two of you in a screaming match when we arrived?”
She takes a deep breath like she’s stealing herself to continue then she starts speaking so quickly I almost can’t keep up. “Okay, so, I got pissed. That old man wasn’t trying to get in his way, you know? For all I knew that guy had killed him. I was worried he was going to hurt someone else. I mean it was obvious he was totally out of control, right?” She doesn’t bother waiting for confirmation from either of us before she continues. “I swear I didn’t even know what I was doing until I was already in the middle of doing it. I was just so fucking angry, and I was worried about everyone else in the store, and I was already holding my shoes. There was no way I could walk all the way home in them, I mean have you seen these things?” She holds up the pair of shoes still grasped tightly in her hand.
She’s not wrong. Those things have heels on them that have to be at least five inches high and they aren’t thick either, I’m surprised she could walk in them at all.
I look over at Rafe and can see he’s trying, with what looks like great difficulty, to keep a grin off his face. At this point I think we can both see where this is going.
“Those do look rather difficult to walk in. Go on, Miss Moreno.”
“Oh, please, just call me Bianca. Um, anyway so I was a few feet behind him and to the side so I guess he couldn’t see me coming. I swung my shoe at him. I just wanted to hit him in the head, I thought maybe I could distract him and he’d drop the gun or just decide it was too much trouble and take off.” She wraps her arms around her middle in a protective gesture.
“Well, I guess he must have seen me out of the corner of his eye because at the very last second he turned his head toward me and the heel of my shoe went straight into his eye.”
You can hear both Rafe and I suck in sharp breaths. I didn’t know she had gotten him in the fucking eye. It takes everything I have not to bring my hand up and rub at my own eye socket. It’s only then that I notice the smear of red on the heel of one of her shoes. I don’t know how I missed that up til now. We’re going to have to bag those for evidence.
It’s been a few heartbeats since either Rafe or I have said anything and it’s apparent that Bianca is taking that as condemnation of her actions when she starts spewing, “I didn’t do anything wrong. It was self-defense, or at the very least other people defense, or old man defense! Is that a thing? Whatever, he could have killed someone and all he got was a teeny tiny stiletto in his eye. Frankly, he got off easy. Not to mention the fact that I threw him a box of tissues so he could stop the bleeding. I’m not heartless. Anyway, I kicked the gun he dropped across the room and while he was rolling around on the groundand screaming at me two officers pulled up. Man, they got here fast. How did they get here so fast?”
Rafe looks like he wants to burst out laughing but answers her instead, “It looks like as soon as the assailant walked in the cashier hit the silent alarm which alerted our dispatch.”
“Oh, that makes sense,” Bianca nods her head. She lets out a long breath and her body slumps against the seat like she just used the last of her energy to tell us what happened.
While Rafe has been standing here taking notes and finding this whole thing very amusing, I have steadily been getting angrier and angrier the longer she spoke. It takes a herculean effort not to grab her shoulders and shake her. Nope, I don’t do that. Instead I try to steady my breathing that’s gone ragged and close my eyes for a quick second before opening them again and zeroing in on her.
“Give your shoes to Rafe, Bianca.”
She gives me a disgruntled look that says she doesn’t like me ordering her around.
“Why do I have to give him my shoes? Will I get them back? I love this pair.”
“Bianca, they’re covered in blood.” She looks down at the shoes in her lap and does a little jump in surprise, quickly thrusting them away from her body and straight towards Rafe who calls over an officer to bag them.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.” I’m sure she didn’t. She’s been so caught up in adrenaline and what’s been going on that she hasn’t had a chance to come down, but she’s going to crash hard soon.
“Come with me.” I grab her hand and pull her from the backseat of the vehicle. Thank God she doesn’t bother fighting me. I’m not in the mood.
“Carson, slow down please,” she says softly from behind me. I turn around to eye her without missing a step but see that she’sconcentrating on the ground and where she’s stepping. That’s when I remember she doesn’t have shoes on.
In one swift movement I turn completely, wrap my arm around her thick thighs that are on full display in that dress and haul her up over my shoulder.
She lets out a scream. “Carson, what the fuck are you doing? Put me down right this second.”
“You can’t walk in this parking lot without any shoes on,” I growl at her. I turn to my partner who’s watching this interaction with great interest. “Give us a minute, will you?”
He doesn’t bother asking me what I’m up to which is probably a good thing because I have no damn idea what the fuck I’m doing right now.
It’s then that I notice Bianca is struggling to reach behind her and hold the bottom of her skirt over her ass. Despite her best efforts the bottom of her plump cheeks are out on display. Arousal immediately sings through my blood stream. Then I notice all the men in the parking lot ogling her. A deep growl of possession rises from my chest.
I quickly turn around so that her ass is pointed toward the side of the building and start walking backwards. I stare down every man here until they all flinch and avert their eyes. I know they might have something to say about me carrying a witness away over my shoulder, but right now I don’t give a shit.