Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
LELAND
“Police! On the ground, hands on your head,” someone shouts.
Jackson hesitates before tying off the officer’s leg and getting down.
“We are CCW holders and are currently carrying,” Jackson calls.
“Of course it’s you two,” Jeremy hisses as he comes onto the scene. “Fucking hell. What happened?”
Oh, how fun this will be to explain. It’s one thing to brush it under a rug when no one is harmed, but this is a public place and a police officer was shot. Wonder if I can joke my way out of this one? Or if I call Henry “Daddy” enough times, can he make it all disappear?
“You two alright?” a woman I’ve seen with Jeremy more than once asks.
Honestly, most of the police are pretty nice to us. Somehow, the more time they’ve spent with us, the more they trust us. They generally go about their jobs, trusting us, and don’t dig into us too much, especially when we can help them find the answers they’re looking for. So it should all be fine…
Until Detective Patel walks in through the door.
Like doesn’t she have something else to do today?
“I heard you two were caught up in something and knew I needed to swing by since I was in the area,” she says, like she’s doing it for us, and I really feel like she’s doing it because she’s nosy.
Why yes, I’m also well taught in the fine art of nosiness, but I’d rather she be nosy about something else.
“Are either of you injured? I see you’re bleeding a little bit, Jackson.”
I swing my attention over to Jackson so I can examine him, unsure how I missed him being hurt.
“Just a scratch,” he assures me when he sees the look on my face.
I hurry over to determine how much of a “scratch” it is as Patel helps arrest our attackers.
This won’t look good for whoever sent them.
To lose this many in the span of minutes?
They must have been pretty confident they’d win, though they were smart enough to send a significant number to deal with us.
When the police have the assailants handled, Jeremy ventures over to us.
“I see you have company,” he says as his eyes flick over to Patel.
“You think she’d notice if we ran?” I ask.
“I think it’d make you seem more suspicious if you bolted out the door, but then maybe Cassel will find normal friends,” Jeremy says.
“I’d say something like ‘Jackson’s had clothes on for too long, we need to run,’” I assure him.
“We can do this interview in any state of dress, if that’s what it comes down to,” Patel says as she comes up behind us. How the hell did she hear me? Is she part vampire?
“Ooh, a woman who recognizes a fine specimen when she sees one,” I comment, suddenly growing to like her that much more.
“I recognize two very suspicious people,” she says, immediately falling back down on my chart. Like… come on, did she have to fall so quickly? She could have at least tried a little to stay in my good graces. Or is she just too shy to admit that she wants to see Jackson in all his glory?
“Are you a shy woman, Detective Patel?”
“Does it look like I am?” she asks. “Let’s step outside and have a word.”
“Just one? If I get to pick, it’s going to be ‘run.’”
“‘Bye’ definitely would have been a better pick. Kind of details the same action but said in a much less suspicious way,” Jackson says.
“Fuck. This is why you’re the smart one.”
Patel oddly ignores all of that. It’s not like I thought she should give Jackson a trophy, but a pat on the back wouldn’t have killed her. “I want a breakdown of what happened. Second by second.”
I hold up my hands, knowing that while Jackson’s got the brains, I have the best ability to recall events. “I got this. So, there we were pulling into the parking spot, my sweet husband blindfolded and completely at my mercy.”
“Why was he blindfolded?” she asks.
“None of this pertains to these events,” Jackson says. “I’m going to skip ahead. We were in the room and smashing things when the door opened. I think we both thought it was an employee until Leland saw him drawing a gun and he disarmed him.”
“Tell her how,” I prompt, proud of myself.
“The second he saw the man pulling a gun, he grabbed a plate and threw it at the man’s hand, hitting him just right and causing the gun to go flying back into the hallway,” Jackson says.
“Sure did. I taught that fucker to never draw a gun again when a man has a plate,” I announce.
“I’m confident you’re the only one who could have pulled that off,” Jackson tells me.
“You’re the only one who could pull off hanging from a fence and stealing my breath with one little look,” I say.
Patel, the heartless being she is, sighs. “Please stay on track.”
“Well, they attacked us, I kicked them back. Jackson did this extremely sexy move where he hit a VHS tape at them. If you have time, when you go through the footage, can you get me a copy of that?”
“On. Track.”
“Right. Right. I went for his gun so he couldn’t grab it and it ended up in the hallway where even more assailants were.
They rammed me against the door on the other side of the hallway, and I think the people inside thought someone was knocking or something.
With this music playing, it’s difficult to hear much.
“Police showed up, the officer got shot, I disarmed the guy, we knocked the rest down and collected the guns for her. I handed her the empty guns, but I did slide the ammo into my pocket just to make sure no one could grab it since she was down and I didn’t want them attacking her for the ammunition.
Let me get it for you,” I say as I pull it out and hand it to her.
“Are the cameras going to be down just like every other place you’ve wandered into?” she asks.
“That’s because Jackson’s so sexy that the security systems can’t handle it. They break the moment he steps into a room,” I inform her.
“Who are these people?”
I stare over at the handcuffed people being shuffled out of the building. It’s a question I also have. I have to assume they’re working together, which tells me that the Barlow family sent them after me. But why?
How would they even know we were involved?
Or am I wrong and they’re working for someone else?
“I can see you thinking,” Patel says.
“I’m always thinking. Just… what you were saying about the people who took Cam.
You said the Barlows, right? We… looked into them a bit after that.
It doesn’t seem like they’re very good people…
What if they saw us pick up Cam and tracked us down?
What if Raul Barlow got wind of what happened with Cam and is coming after us because of it?
Detective, did you by any chance mention our names to any of them? ”
“Of course not. I’m not that sloppy.”
“I think I want to check on Sophia, so we should probably head out,” I say.
“No, you’re giving your statement.”
“You have security footage, and now I’m very concerned they’re going to go after Sophia as well.
Jackson and I have trained in the fine art of fucking people up, so we’re perfectly fine, but what about some defenseless woman like Sophia, alone and scared in her home?
She’s probably clutching her rosary and cowering in a corner, begging for two brawny men to come save her. ”
“Not sure you fall under that category,” Patel mutters as she pulls her phone out. “I will reach out to Sophia to make sure she’s okay and alert her.”
“Oh, you really are too sweet and kind,” I say, and I use the minor distraction to try to sneak out the door.
The woman is either an alien or a mother because the eyes on the back of her head engage and she cuts off my path so adeptly that even I’m a little impressed.
“Please stay here until I have cleared you to go.”
“Is that legal?” I whisper to Jackson. “Don’t we say something now, like ‘You have no legal right to keep us here! I will be contacting my attorney!’ and then storm out?”
Jackson looks over at me. “That’s only for people who are trying to hide something. We haven’t done anything wrong, so it’s probably best to stay on her good side.”
“I don’t know. I think it’s kind of wrong for you to be so fine,” I say with a wink.
His raised eyebrows tell me it’s not the time, and I sigh before looking over at Patel, who is pulling her phone down and watching it for a moment. I’m not sure if she’s thinking or waiting for it to do a trick.
“I’m going to go check on Sophia. Would you prefer to meet me at the station when I’m done? You seem very adamant about leaving here,” she says.
“Sure, station sounds great,” Jackson replies.
“Alright.”
As soon as she’s gone, the officers are so busy being wound up in this mess that I begin to sneak toward the car before anyone can say otherwise.
“We probably should wait,” Jackson says.
“Didn’t you hear Patel? She said that we were free to go and then she thanked us for our service with a small tear rolling down her cheek. Did you see the tear?”
“I did not.”
“I did. I saw it. She called us heroic.”
Jackson cocks his head. “Wow, I can’t believe I missed all of that.”
“I know, right? It’s a pity. It really is,” I say as I grab his hand and resume sneaking away before I realize we’re still wearing their attire. We shed it, and instead of drawing attention to ourselves by going back in, I just leave it on the bench right outside the door.
“So… we’re going to Sophia’s?” Jackson asks as he gets into the driver’s seat of the car while I get into the passenger seat.
“Why would we ever do that?”
“Because something might be wrong if Patel couldn’t contact her.”
“I don’t think so,” I respond as I question if I should have gotten into the driver’s seat. “That woman drew us into this. She can have fun suffering alone.”
“It was so sexy when you threw that plate at the gunman,” he says.
I hesitate, my head whipping to the side to face him while I give him my sexiest look. I even rub my chin a bit to lay it all out there. “Yeah?”
“I would love to get to see it again if we went to help Sophia and you had to save her. I mean… you really think she could have done what you just did?”