Chapter 58
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Louis
Fucking orcs. Eric was great, but his brethren were the fucking worst. I’d started by tasing them, but they didn’t stay down, so it was either swing a fist at their head or shoot them.
Now my fists were bruised, the holding cells at the CVPD were full, and we’d cleared out most of Southside. Honestly, it was a little hairy until Chet arrived and went full dragon. Everyone was brave until there was a motherfucking dragon lighting your shit on fire.
Some of the orcs I’d arrested didn’t even know why they were rioting, like the one I was stuffing in the back of a cop car now.
“Honestly, you’d think they wanted to put you all in jail, not give you a fucking vote.
Why are you like this?” I grunted to the kid.
He was big, though, easily my height despite being no more than maybe sixteen.
“A vote?”
“Yeah, man. That’s why you’re rioting. Didn’t you know?” I sighed.
He frowned. “No. They just said they were putting orcs in jail for no reason.”
I was exhausted. I wondered if I could just smack some sense into him.
“Nah, man. Think. Use your brain and ask, ‘Why the fuck am I in jail right now?’ Who benefits from riling you guys up?” I held his head as I pushed him in.
“This is the best for you, otherwise you’re going to be stuck in a spiral of poverty forever, kid, because someone benefits from you being a dumb shit, and it isn’t the rest of us.
” I sighed, taking in a calming breath. “Ask yourself what Eric Voight gets out of this.”
“Who fucking cares? He’s a cuck.” I wanted to bang my head on the car door. It was like talking to a brick wall. “He’s been excommunicated from the clan.”
“Exactly. Despite you being a stupid prick, he still wants to make your life better. So how about you think with your goddamn head and stop making his life harder than it has to be?”
I slammed the door before I was tempted into violence myself.
I needed a beer. Several beers. I looked over and saw Otis talking to one of the cops.
They appeared bewildered, all except for Officer Nextra.
I strode over, because I didn’t like how Eric would be persecuted so this guy could swoop in, save the day, and become the man who brought democracy to the fucking orcs.
Nextra straightened when he saw me, and I could only imagine how my face looked. His partner, Silver, was beside him, and he eyed me warily. I lifted my chin at him. “Silver.”
“Gentry,” he replied. “Bit of a mess.”
I grunted my agreement. “Is this what you expected?” I asked Nextra, and his eyes were flinty.
“Orc society is always like a meth lab ready to explode,” he growled out.
“You hang him out to dry, and you won’t be wearing a crown. You understand me?”
Silver’s eyes were bouncing between us, and I wondered how much Nextra’s human partner really knew about what was going on.
Nextra lifted his chin, and I turned away, walking back to my team… my family. Otis had a cut on his lip from a lucky hit, and Ilyas’s hair was plastered to his face. Syke looked positively gleeful.
“I’m so full, I’m going to explode,” he said, rubbing his stomach like that was where demons stored the negative energy they fed on. “Even I can appreciate how calculated this was.”
We climbed into the back of our SUV, which was going to need a new rear window. Someone had smashed it with a baseball bat. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged, resting his head against the seat. I looked for Ilyas and saw him moving a Honda out of the way of a firetruck.
“I mean that Eric files to enforce democracy among the orcs, and then someone whips them up into an animalistic frenzy filled with violence and destruction of property? He may as well have made them seem rabid, unable to vote for a civilized king. They need a firm hand, an iron fist, and the current king will come out soon and do a press conference that says the perpetrators of today’s violence will be dealt with to the full extent of orc tradition, and then he will make it seem like he is the only one who can get them back under control.
It’s kind of brilliant, really, especially considering the orc tradition would be to give them a keg of beer and a hearty pat on the back for their actions. ”
I hated that Syke was probably right.
Finally, Otis and Ilyas made it to the car, and we drove back to the center.
Procedure said that Hailey would triage most of the non-urgent calls until tomorrow—or later today—and that meant tomorrow was going to be busy as well.
Fucking orcs. I needed a nap because a lack of sleep made me crabby.
I also needed to hold my mate in my arms and snuggle away the bad feelings…
or maybe I’d eat my feelings, just not with food.
When we rode the elevator up to the office, Otis strode out first. His feet stilled, and he turned, holding his fingers to his lips. I looked around his big body and smiled. Eric had Hailey sitting in his lap, and they were both asleep. Hailey still had her headset on.
Syke crept closer, but Eric’s eyes snapped open, a snarl on his lips. When he saw it was us, he relaxed. His eyes drifted to the woman in his arms, and his face softened. “She wouldn’t go to sleep until the riots were under control,” he murmured softly.
I walked over, shifting her from his arms into my own. He stood and stretched, his face drawn and tired.
“Is everything okay? Any fatalities?” he asked the guys, and I didn’t stay to hear the answer.
I walked her down the hall to the rooms and opened the one I stayed in.
I wanted her in my bed, in my sheets, surrounded by my scent.
I wanted to breathe her in and chase away the residual stench of blood and smoke.
I stripped out of my clothes and climbed into bed beside her. It was selfish, but I needed her too. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she blinked slowly, fighting to stay awake. “Okay?”
“We’re all fine and home, my love. Go back to sleep.”
I pulled her tightly into my arms and prayed that this ugliness wouldn’t find its way to her doorstep.