Chapter 25
I grabbed Genesis’s hand as we arrived at the entrance of the courthouse. When I got off work, we’d gone out for dinner then made our way back here. I kissed her hand then glanced at the ring I’d slid on her finger last night. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted her to be my wife a month or so ago. My mama was gonna be pissed that I didn’t tell her that was what I was preparing. However, I knew if I told her of my plans, she would have found a way to screw them up.
She would have been way too excited and would have wanted to be there for when I asked the question. It wouldn’t have been nearly as passionate as it was. She wouldn’t have left the house in time, and Genesis would have known something was up. I didn’t want Gen to know it was coming. I wanted to catch her completely off guard. If I would have been taking too long, Mama would have probably popped the question for me.
I opened the door for my wife-to-be, and we were both stunned when we saw Samuel being escorted in handcuffs. “Samuel!” Genesis yelled.
He didn’t look at her. He kept his head lowered in embarrassment. I wasn’t sure how they’d found him, but obviously, they had. I put my arm around her and pulled her closer to me. Stephanie appeared next to us and said, “I’m sorry you had to see him that way before I could inform you that we found him at a hotel in Nederland.”
Nederland was only about twenty minutes from here. If he was gonna go somewhere, I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t go further. This whole thing was weird to me. He could have at least gone to Houston. I slowly shook my head as Stephanie patted my back. She walked away, and I looked around to see if Tyson was here yet. When I didn’t see him, Genesis and I proceeded into the auditorium where the meeting would be held.
Surprisingly, there were only about twenty people here so far, and we were only ten minutes ahead of schedule. Apparently, feeling the discomfort I felt, Genesis frowned. “I wonder why no one else is here yet.”
“I know. I don’t like this. It feels weird, like others know something we weren’t privy to.”
Genesis held my hand tightly as we sat, looking around at everyone here. So far, there were only a few police officers, one of which responded to the house fire at my house, a judge, and a few office personnel, along with roads and drainage workers. Stephanie joined us inside and kind of glanced around as we had done. She sat next to me and said, “I guess everyone is running late.”
“Mm hmm,” I responded, offering no other words.
Suddenly, what Tyson said in that note yesterday came back to me. Just as I was about to stand from my seat, Stephanie pulled her weapon and aimed it at me. She slowly shook her head and chuckled as Genesis wrapped her arms around me from behind.
“You just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” she asked.
I couldn’t respond, because it seemed my tongue was on hiatus. The one person I chose to trust was dirty. The feeling I had in my gut was definitely misinterpreted concerning her. As she held us at gunpoint, I looked around the room to see other people watching but doing nothing. We got invited to a damn team meeting. “You can’t expect to get away with this in the courthouse.”
“Oh, but we do,” she said as Samuel was pushed inside. “You see, Samuel was disgruntled about being found and arrested and somehow stole a gun from officers and opened fire on the entire room.”
When he stood next to her, she handed him the gun. He was trembling. I could tell he was being forced to do this. He didn’t want to kill anybody. I also had to assume they were altering the camera systems as well. It seemed all of this would be picked up on if they hadn’t.
“Samuel! What are you doing?” Genesis yelled as she stepped to the side of me.
I stepped in front of her again and swallowed hard. I didn’t know how I would escape death this time, but I was praying in my spirit that He spared us once again.
“Genesis, I didn’t want to do this. I knew if I turned myself in, they would get to me. That was why I didn’t want to do that. They found me anyway. I never wanted anyone to get hurt, especially not Darlene. She always looked out for me.”
I frowned. “Darlene killed herself,” I said. “She couldn’t bear the guilt of the crimes she’d committed.”
He slowly shook his head and lifted the gun to where it was aimed at my head. Tears fell down his cheeks as AJ entered the room. He gave us a wicked smile and said, “I thought y’all would have handled this by now. What’s the hold up?”
“Do it, Farris!” Stephanie yelled.
“Please, Sam. Don’t do this. I love you so much. You’re willing to kill me? Your big sister who taught you to tie your shoes? The one who read books to you at night and taught you to play baseball? You can’t, Sammy. Pleeeeaaaassse. I don’t want to die, but I will die for Kyrie, and I know he will do the same for me. You know how I know?”
She held her hand up to show him her ring. The gun lowered some as he stared at it. “He asked to marry me last night. I won’t allow him to die unless you kill me too. I refuse to live without him. I know it’s the same for him.”
“Good, because we didn’t intend for either of you to make it out of here alive! Shoot them!” Stephanie yelled then pushed Samuel.
The gun went off, causing Genesis and me to hit the floor. When I heard her moan, I spun around to see her wincing in pain. “Genesis! Nooo! Where are you hit at, baby?”
I looked over her body and didn’t see blood until I got to her foot. There was blood all over it. I quickly began unbuttoning my shirt, prepared to tie her foot with it, when I felt the barrel of the gun pressed to the back of my head. Genesis’s eyes widened as I stared at her. The tears were falling down her cheeks. I gently swiped them with my hand.
“I love you so much, baby.”
“Noooooo!” she screamed. “Sammy, please!”
“I’m so sorry, Genesis! I have to do it.”
“No, you don’t! They are going to kill you too. Can’t you see that? They aren’t going to let you live to tell about this. They aren’t going to take that risk! Please. I’m begging you. Ooooh my God,” Genesis said as I glanced down at her foot.
She was losing a lot of blood. Suddenly, there was a gunshot, and Samuel fell to the floor as Genesis screamed and cried. Her agony at this moment was tearing me apart, and I wanted to comfort her so badly. AJ was standing there with his weapon and slowly shook his head. “This emotional shit is on my last nerve. Genesis, I hate you got wrapped up in this. You really are a good person. Despite Samuel speaking up for you, you deserved to be chief. Unfortunately, there is no way you can live with what all you know. I know you know a lot since you’re tied to this man.”
He cocked the gun and pointed it toward us. I lay on top of her, trying to do anything to buy time, hoping someone would intervene before he could get to her.
“You, though. Man, you are too smart for your own good. This had nothing to do with you. We were running Beaumont until Darlene had to mess up and take too much money at once. She drew attention to us, and she had to go. Making it look like she did it herself was great work by the C.O. Now you will have to suffer the same fate.”
Stephanie smiled as AJ aimed his weapon and was about to fire until a bullet went right through his head then another through Stephanie’s. I closed my eyes, feeling relief flood my being. Easing off Genesis, I looked up to see Tyson standing there. He looked at us and yelled, “We need a bus! Who’s hit?”
Blood was all over the floor and was on both of us as well. “Genesis got shot in the foot.”
I quickly took off my shirt, what I was attempting to do earlier, to make a tourniquet for her foot. I needed to slow the blood loss as much as possible. She was starting to blink slowly. “Baby, this is about to really hurt.”
When I pulled my shirt tighter around her foot, she yelled out in pain. I immediately went to her and held her in my arms as Tyson knelt to check Sam’s pulse. “Yo! He still has a pulse!”
Lieutenant Gamble and Genesis’s coworker, Bransford, came over where we were. I recognized him from the news when he was seeking the appointment against Genesis. He knelt beside her and grabbed her hand as he nodded at me. “Chief, we got you. You’re gonna be okay.”
Genesis nodded as I stared at her, doing my best to hold in my emotions, but I failed miserably. A couple of tears fell down my cheeks as she stared at me. I was so scared I was either going to lose her or she would lose me. Either way, I didn’t want to be without her. Heaven could wait. She brought her free hand to mine and gently held my cheek.
I could hear sirens, so I turned to Tyson. “Man, I owe you my life. We were about to die. How did you get in here?”
“I knew you had plans with your lady last night, so after I left the note, I went to the fire station. I knew Bransford was cool with Lieutenant Gamble. I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing me at the police station and overhearing what I had to say. I didn’t even want to write names in that note just in case someone else got ahold of it first. I was risking a lot by putting my name on it. I overheard one of the detectives talking to an engineer about making sure the cameras wouldn’t be functional tonight.”
He slowly shook his head. “I knew we needed to get a team together and fast. Gamble got at least thirty officers to show up here tonight, and that was how we were able to get in. Carl joined us as well. He said there is a camera that isn’t on the same network as the others. Not many people know that.”
“Carl… the DA?”
“Yeah. I was worried that he was one of them for a while, since he didn’t seem to be investigating anything after Darlene, but to my surprise, he was. He has an entire file on who were suspected players. He just couldn’t take a chance saying anything to anyone about it.”
I nodded as paramedics rushed inside, going to Samuel first. When the bullet hit him, I thought he was gone. Clearly, AJ wasn’t as good a shot as he thought he was if he still had a pulse. I knew he didn’t shoot him in the head, but I was sure he’d gotten him in the chest from the back. Not long after, another set of medics came in to see about Genesis. I looked down at her to see her eyes were closed.
Just as I was about to panic, she opened them. “I’m going to be okay, Kyrie. I just feel tired from the blood loss.”
I nodded then released her so they could get to her and get her to the hospital. I stood from the floor and shook Tyson’s hand then pulled him in for a hug. “You are the definition of a true friend. Whenever Genesis and I set a date, I want you to be my best man.”
He frowned slightly. “You proposed?”
“Yeah. Last night, man.”
He smiled and shook my hand again. “Congratulations. God definitely has some things He wants you to do. You got more lives than a cat. There was no way I was going to sit idle after what I’d heard. You’re my boy. You want me to call anybody?”
“Yeah. Call my mama and Genesis’s mother.”
I gave him their phone numbers as I watched Bransford watch Genesis. To say he was so adamant about her not being chief, they seemed extremely close now. That was probably why her day wasn’t too bad yesterday. They’d probably cleared the air. We didn’t get to talk about a thing last night. After my proposal, we could barely concentrate long enough to eat. Every moment was consumed with me showing her how much I loved her and how happy I was for our future.
That almost came to an end tonight. Had Tyson and Lieutenant Gamble been five seconds later, Genesis and I would both be dead. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then followed the paramedics out to the ambulance. This was finally over and probably would have been over if I weren’t so quick to trust Stephanie Johnson. Seeing her go out like this was hard, but at that moment, it was either her or us. She’d impeded the investigation and made it seem like she was making progress. I was a fool to think that she had my best interest at heart.
When I got into the back of the ambulance with Genesis, I watched them set up her IV then give her fluids and pain medication as we made our way to the hospital. I grabbed her hand and stroked her head with my other hand, staring into her eyes, grateful that God spared us.
“We have to get married ASAP, Kyrie,” she said quietly. “I don’t want another day to pass without me being Missus Patrick, wife of the esteemed Judge Kyrie Patrick.”
“Whatever you want is what we will do, baby, but I totally agree.”
“I saw they took my brother out on a gurney. He’s still alive?”
“He still had a pulse, so yes. Of course he’s extremely critical, but he’s alive.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she nodded. “Did you call your mother? I’m sure all of this is on the news by now.”
“I got Tyson to call her and your mother.”
She nodded and drifted off just as we were turning in the hospital parking lot. My heart was heavy, thinking about how I could have lost her tonight. Hearing her say that the only way I would die was if she died, too, moved me in ways indescribable. Hearing her words of devotion and loyalty was overwhelming. She was the woman I’d been needing and after tonight, there wasn’t a single doubt in my mind that she was who I was intended to spend the rest of my life with.