Chapter 12
I should not have been focused on Maeve. I should have been focused on the job ahead of me, but she seemed to be the only thing that occupied my mind these days.
I woke up first thing this morning with images of her in the back of my head. I sat up straight in bed and tried to shake the thoughts. That was the only thing I could think to do to get my dick to go down.
I reached for my phone on the nightstand and scrolled her Instagram. Maeve was fine as fuck. I was sure she had men coming at her left and right, and I didn’t want to be one of them. I wanted to be the one she responded to.
I navigated from social media to search for a florist in our area. After settling on one, I searched the website for a bouquet of one hundred red roses. I ordered them to be delivered to her home this morning. Bishop had court this morning, so I knew he wouldn’t be there.
I didn’t have any specific intentions that made me send her flowers. I just wanted her to at least know that I was thinking about her. My phone rang as soon as I cleared my cart for Maeve. It was my uncle Atlas.
“What up, Unc?”
I spoke excitedly like I hadn’t just woken up.
It was almost midday, and my ass was still in bed.
I was always excited to talk to my uncle.
He was one of the only people in the world that I didn’t mind getting on the phone with.
Still, I knew he would get in my ass if he knew I was still asleep this time of day.
“Hey, Nephew.”
“Everything good, Unc?”
The tone of his voice answered my question before I even asked. I could always tell when something bothered him. It was the same way for him with me.
“Yeah, I was just worried about you. Wanted to give you a call today. How is everything going with the case?”
“It’s been smooth so far. I tipped Fitz off about the border meet last night. He said that would make a good break in the case since it was a cover for a drug deal. He was able to raid it and recover all the narcotics.”
“You said he was there himself? That’s fascinating.”
My uncle said a lot without saying much at all.
I could tell he didn’t trust Fitz. He especially didn’t trust him after he helped me go behind his back to get assigned to this case.
My uncle Atlas probably thought Fitz had ulterior motives.
It wouldn’t matter to me if he did or not.
I would bring this shit to an end if it was the last thing I ever accomplished in this lifetime.
“Fascinating how, Unc?”
“Just fascinating is all. You watching your back out there?”
“Come on, Unc. You know I’m always watching my back.”
“Good. That’s what I like to hear. You know I have to be sure. Did you hear about the ambush?”
“What ambush?”
I wasn’t tracking anything going down for tonight. I had just spoken with Fitz last night, and he didn’t even hint toward an ambush. I didn’t know what Uncle Atlas was talking about.
“I don’t have many details because it’s just something I overheard, but they are supposed to try to hit your man after court today. I thought Fitz would have told you.”
“Nah, he ain’t told me shit.”
“See, that’s what I mean when I say you have to watch your back. If I heard about the ambush, then I know Fitz heard about it. It worries me that he didn’t brief you on it. Are you with Bishop right now?”
“Nah, I’m still at the crib. Why would they want to hit Bishop today?”
“The Jack-town JUs blame him for the raid last night. They feel like he set them up since only their men were arrested. This ambush is retaliation for that.”
“Damn, I didn’t even think of that.”
I spoke my thoughts out loud. I’d intentionally had Fitz come in after Bishop and his crew had already unloaded the cargo.
I didn’t want any of them to get tagged yet, since we were still building our case.
In keeping them out of the police line of fire, I’d made Bishop look like a rat to the Jack-town JUs.
“I’ll talk to you later, Unc. I got to go.”
I had put Bishop’s life at risk with one simple decision, and I didn’t have long to stop it. This ambush could not happen.
“Dima, update me when you can. Don’t make an old man worry too long.”
“My head is always on a swivel. Nobody is going to catch me slipping, trust me.”
“Promise me that, youngsta.”
“I promise. I’m good. I got to get out of here, Unc.”
I hung up before he could say anything else because he would never let me off the phone if I didn’t.
Hearing that it was an ambush happening had me springing into action.
I looked at the clock on my phone, and it was 12:15 p.m. Bishop would be walking out of that courtroom in less than an hour. I didn’t have time to waste.
I showered and got dressed in under fifteen minutes.
My helmet was still in the same place as last night, so I grabbed it off the kitchen counter and headed out the door.
My bike was parked on the second floor in the garage.
I would definitely be riding that since I needed to be there as fast as I could.
Bishop had a hearing this morning that would decide if his murder-for-hire case would be thrown out or not.
The FBI already knew he would walk, which was why I was already in place to do the necessary work.
Apparently, we weren’t the only ones who knew Bishop would walk.
If it was an ambush happening today, it was more than likely going to happen on those courthouse steps.
I merged into traffic and made it downtown in about fifteen minutes. Just as I thought, a crowd had already gathered outside of the courthouse, waiting for whatever was going to happen next. As soon as I parked my bike and hopped off, I saw the doors getting ready to open.
“Can you believe they dismissed the case?”
“Yeah, but did you ever doubt it? I’m sure Bishop Moore has the judge in his back pocket.”
“I believe you, because everyone knows he paid for that man to be murdered.”
I could hear the crowd gossiping as I pushed my way to the front. Some of them were happy, but there were also a few disappointed faces. Bishop had been terrorizing this community for far too long.
“Money can get you out of anything these days.”
“Yeah, but you better believe he is walking out of there with a target on his back. It won’t be long until he pays for what he has done,” I heard someone else say. She was right. Bishop had walked away from another murder unscathed. He would forever have a target on his back.
I continued to push to get to the front as fast as I could. I needed to be in position to stop whatever was about to go down.
The doors flung open, and reporters swarmed Bishop and his lawyers with questions. I spotted a man dressed in black jeans with a black hoodie pulled over his head. The bottom half of his face was covered in a black bandana.
His eyes were the only thing that could be seen, and they were locked on Bishop. He was on a mission. They had sent one gunman to pull off a hit on one of the most dangerous men in the city.
I needed to at least make it to him or Bishop, and since he was on the opposite side of the crowd, I was more likely to make it to Bishop. It wasn’t long before Bishop’s lawyers and the police escorts pushed past the crowd of reporters and further down the courthouse steps.
I watched the gunman raise his pistol as soon as Bishop was in sight. I used all the speed in me to tackle Bishop to the ground as the shot rang out. The crowd dispersed as bullets flew.
I could see police drawing their weapons and searching for the shooter. He was taken out in less than five minutes, and I was able to pull Bishop back to his feet. Now I had saved Maeve’s and her father’s lives.