CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When Mick walked into the police station, there were three sheriff’s deputies at the front desk: The deputy with the word sergeant stitched on his uniform was seated behind the desk with a window in the middle and a tall glass on either side.
Two younger deputies stood on either side of the glass.
They appeared to be joking around until Mick walked in.
The sergeant stared at Mick as he made his way to the desk. “May I help you?”
“Is your chief in?”
“Depends on who’s asking,” the sergeant said and the two deputies grinned.
“Mick Sinatra is asking,” Mick said.
When he said that name, the grinning stopped. The sergeant swallowed hard and then picked up the phone. “Chief,” he said, “Mick Sinatra is out here. Yes sir, you heard me right. He says he’s Mick Sinatra.” He ended the call. “He’s coming out now.”
But the first deputy grinned. “Why do they call you Mick the Tick?”
Mick didn’t even look at that deputy.
“It’s because he has a temper like a ticking time bomb,” said the second deputy.
“You mean like this?” the first deputy asked as he pulled out his gun to aim it at Mick.
But Mick, who was already hyperaware, saw his slick move coming a mile away and grabbed the gun before he could aim it at him and flung it away from his body, which caused it to misfire. Then Mick took the gun out of his hand as the sergeant and second deputy began pulling out their weapons.
Mick lifted the deputy and flung him through the window opening of the desk, landing him on top of the sergeant. And then he shot the second deputy before he could get off a single round. And then he shot the sergeant and the deputy that landed on him.
The chief came running up front firing too, hitting Mick in his upper left arm, but Mick was able to fire on him several shots to take him out too.
But outside of the station, where Duke sat in Mick’s fortified Escalade, those gunshots put terror in Duke’s heart. He clutched his gun and reached for the doorhandle, ready to go inside and help his parents.
But he remembered what his father had said in no uncertain terms. Stay in the vehicle no matter what. Call Teddy. And get the hell away from that station.
Duke turned on his father’s vehicle, with the car phone that should have come up, but it registered no signal.
Then he quickly pulled out his own phone, but that registered no signal either.
“What police station doesn’t have cell service?
” he cried out. And he heard more gunfire. “Oh God. Oh God. Oh God!”
But inside the station, Mick was on the move. After he took that chief out, he began running toward the back of the station. “Rosalind?” he yelled as he ran. “Rosalind?!”
“Mick? Mick, I’m back here! I’m back here, Mick!”
When he turned a corner and saw her in that jail cell, he grabbed the keys and began unlocking it. “How many did you see?” he was asking her.
“The chief and three deputies. What happened? You’re bleeding, Mick!”
Mick unlocked the door, grabbed her, handed her a gun from his pocket, and they both began running back toward the front. Mick, certain Duke would be gone, planned to grab the keys from one of the deputies and hop into his patrol car.
But he stopped Roz in her tracks and listened. That was when he heard the sound of feet running toward them.
And as soon as they made it in the hall, a group of four more deputies showed themselves and began firing. Mick grabbed Roz and ran into a side room as bullets whizzed past them. He slammed the door behind them.
But he knew it was only a temporary fix. He hurried to the window, lifted it, ordered Roz to jump out and hit the ground running as he hoisted her out.
But just as he did, the door to the room was busted open and the gunmen ran inside.
Mick was cornered. He dropped his weapon. And the gunmen swarmed.
But Mick pulled out another gun and began firing at the men to distract them all from Roz, as they began backing out and firing on him.
But Roz hit the ground running just like Mick ordered. She knew the only chance he had was for her to go in through the front door and ambush those gunmen from behind.
She ran for Mick’s life.