Chapter 28
Tiny
M y second call to Kourtney gets ignored after the third ring. “What the fuck?” I mumble to myself.
Tex, Razor, and Ghost turn toward me, having heard my curse. “Everything alright?” Ghost asks before taking a swallow of his beer.
“I’m not sure.” My brow furrows as I open Kourtney’s security cameras to see why she isn’t answering.
I’m already pushing off my stool, dread pooling in my stomach as the app takes way longer than normal to load.
My phone thuds against the floor and all the blood drains from my face at the sight that meets me when the app finally loads.
“What’s going on, brother?” I vaguely hear Tex ask.
Razor grabs my phone off the floor because I’m already on my way to my bike.
“Shit, we gotta go,” Razor calls from behind me.
I hear boots pound on the pavement behind me as I straddle my bike. Razor hands me my phone before I take off, and just as I’m about to hit the throttle, I look at the screen one more time.
I roar out as I watch Matt pistol whip Kourtney across the face.
That mother fucker is dead.
Fear eats me alive as I race to Kourtney’s house. Three bikes follow behind me, and the town of Desert Rose must really be on my side because there isn’t one thing in my way the entire way there.
When I get there, I don’t even park my bike. I drop the damn thing to the road and sprint inside.
Kourtney’s unconscious body lays awkwardly on the floor, blood pooling from the flesh wound at her forehead. Her chest rises and falls with breaths. Satisfied that she’s alive, I turn to Matt and Evie.
Evie’s curled into a ball on the floor as Matt waves the gun at her. “You’re next if you don’t shut the fuck up!” he screams, not even having noticed my presence. He must be way too far gone to have not noticed me bust in here.
Ghost, Razor, and Tex fly in behind me. I immediately regret not grabbing my gun when Matt finally senses us in the room. Ghost curses.
“Nice of you to join our party, boys,” Matt sneers. “It seems the little bitch was right. She said you’d come, although I was honestly hoping we were all dead by then.” He kicks Kourtney’s limp foot. “Well, better late than never.” Matt lifts the gun from where he had it pointed at Evie and points it at Kourtney.
I don’t think. I just jump. My shoulder hits his midsection as I tackle him to the floor. I’ve never been more thankful for my training than I am in this instance as I fight to disarm him. Unfortunately, his finger was on the trigger when I hit him, and based on the fire burning through my shoulder, I’d say I was hit in the process.
Grabbing the hand with the gun in it, I slam it repeatedly on the floor. I have to give the crazy fucker credit because he has a fucking death grip on it. At this point, if he shoots me again, I know Ghost won’t let him walk out of here. So I do a risky move with him still having the gun and flip his body in my arms. I wrap him in a chokehold from beneath him, and I’m faintly aware of Tex and Razor carrying the girls out of the house to safety.
Thank Christ.
Ghost stomps on Matt’s hand, and I smile at the sound of the satisfying crunch of his bones along with his gasps for air. He finally lets go of the gun, and his need for air must win as he claws at my arm.
Wrapping my legs around his waist, I tuck my chin away from him, and with the smallest extra pull, I snap his neck.
Fucking Christ. All of his body weight drops on mine immediately. “Get this mother fucker off of me!” I shout from beneath him as if I can’t just throw him off.
Ghost drags the slimy fuck by his pant leg, and he smacks the ground with a satisfying thud. I almost wish I wouldn’t have killed him so that I could hurt him some more for everything he put Kourtney and Evie through.
I’m seething as I take in the stupid fuck’s blank face. “You good?” Ghost asks, breathing heavily as if he was the one who did all the work.
I push to my feet and curse as the excruciating burn in my arm makes itself known. “Fuck!” I shout, rolling my sleeve up so I can get a good look at it. Blood trails down my arm. I’m not immune to gunshot wounds, especially with my time in the Marines, but seeing it on myself makes me a little queasy.
Ghost grabs my arm, and I growl at him as my arm throbs in pain. “Looks like it went straight through.”
I rip my shirt off, and Ghost helps me tie it around my arm for pressure to stop the bleeding. “Where are the girls?”
Ghost nods toward the front door. “I’m assuming the guys took them outside. Before you go out there, how are we playing this, man?”
Scrubbing my good hand down my face, I force a breath of frustration. I’m not even a little alarmed at the fact that I just killed a man in my ol’ lady’s kitchen. What’s alarming is that I’m going to have to fucking deal with this shit.
“What do you think?” I ask my president.
Ghost sighs, looking around the kitchen as if taking the scene in for the first time from an outsider's perspective. “We can easily claim self-defense. But then you know damn well all the ropes you’re going to have to climb through.” I eye him, waiting for my other option. “Or we get rid of him,” Ghost shrugs. “Your call.”
Looking up at the ceiling, I know in my gut what the right answer is. Kourtney would never accept if I brushed it under the rug as if nothing happened. Law is her life. Even if I try to persuade her and call it Tiny’s law, she won't take that.
“I can disable the audio feature of her security system and give the police the tapes. They’ll show it was self-defense.”
Ghost smirks. “I had a feeling you had full access to her security, you sick fuck.”
Even with the severity of the situation, I chuckle.
Jogging outside, I quickly retrieve my laptop from my saddle bag and log in to disable all audio, all while deleting all past saved audio from her system. Tucking my laptop back in my bag, I leave the bike right where it is lying on its side on the side of the road. Tex and Razor are nowhere to be found with the girls, so I head back inside. Ghost calls it in, and I see movement through her sliding glass doors.
Tex’s big body is outlined by the soft lights. I head that way, unlocking the door to let them back in.
Kourtney’s scared eyes meet mine, and she immediately starts sobbing. The gash at her forehead already seems to be scabbing over, and her entire body slumps in exhaustion as soon as I gather her in my arms.
Tucking her face into my neck, she sobs. I don’t tell her that everything’s okay because I know, in her brain, it's not. It's going to take time for her to come to terms with the fact that Matt was planning on killing her tonight. That’s not something she’ll just get over at the snap of a finger.
“Is he dead?” she whispers, her lips pressed against my neck.
I nod gently, not wanting to disrupt her.
She whimpers, burrowing further into me. I hold her tightly in my arms and run my good hand through her hair. The arm with the bullet through it lies limp at my side.
Within minutes, sirens surround the house as multiple police officers rush inside. Tex pushes off the chair and holds his hands up. “The weapon is on the ground in the kitchen, and we are all unarmed out here.”
Moments later, a detective around my mom’s age steps through the open door and stops in front of us, immediately noticing the blood trailing down my arm and my shirt tied around the wound. “You need an ambulance, son?”
I shake my head. “I can get myself there eventually.”
“Can someone tell me what happened here?” he asks, his partner carrying the gun out in a clear evidence bag.
“I’ll do you one better,” I say, pulling my phone out of my pocket. “Actually, babe, go get your laptop.” I pat Kourtney on the thigh.
Kourtney moves on wobbly legs into the house, and a female officer follows her into her office while she retrieves her computer.
As soon as she hands it to me, I log in to the security system and rewind back to where Kourtney was alone in her kitchen, feeding Meatball.
Shit. Where is that fucker? I hope he’s unscathed. Kourtney would be fucking devastated if anything happened to him.
Rewatching the entire thing that happened makes my blood boil all over again. How he toyed with Kourtney and Evie is fucking sick. I’m not satisfied that the fucker is now lying lifeless on Kourtney’s kitchen floor with a white sheet draped over him. I want to bring him back to life and suffocate him all fucking over again.
“What is he saying to you?” the detective asks Kourtney softly.
She sniffles, rubbing the cuff of her sleeve under her nose. “He’s pretty much telling me how he planned to kill both Evie and me and then himself.”
The detective turns to a stunned Evie, who nods in confirmation. “Who is this man?”
In a voice I’m not sure any of us would hear if we weren’t all looking at her, Evie squeaks. “My husband.”
The detective nods, turning back and pressing play on the tape. He winces when Matt pistol-whips Kourtney, who jerks in my arms, tucking her face into my chest. I don’t blame her for not wanting to watch what she already just lived through.
When we get to the part where I tackle him, the flash on the screen of the gunshot makes me grind my molars as the pain flares in my arm again.
The scuffle plays out until the end, and the detective pauses the video as I’m pushing myself up to stand on the screen.
“This is clearly a case of self-defense.” He points at the screen. “I don’t see a need to arrest you.”
I nod.
“That being said, I can’t promise that the family won't disagree with me once this gets out.”
“I understand,” I nod again.
“I’m going to need a copy of this to put in the file, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other in court for this sometime soon.”
I force out a laugh. “Good thing I know a good lawyer.”
I run the fingers of my good hand through Kourtney’s hair.
The detective watches my movement, and his eyes shine with recognition. “Is that where I recognize you from? You’re the new defense attorney in town, right?”
“Guilty,” Kourtney forces a smile.
“I thought so,” the detective says. Reaching his hand out to me and then down to Kourtney, he introduces himself. “Adam.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Adam. I won’t forget your kindness today,” Kourtney says sweetly.
“No kindness needed. I do this job for a reason. I don’t make a habit of going around falsely arresting people.”
“Then we are going to get along great, Adam.” Kourtney squeezes his hand once more before turning back into me.
I watch as the detective speaks lowly to Ghost and Tex. I hold Kourtney’s face to my chest and breathe in her sweet honey scent.
“Tiny, we really should get your arm looked at.” Kourtney’s melodic voice pulls me from sleep. Shit. I didn’t even realize I fell asleep.
“Your shirt is saturated, and you’re still bleeding. We need to go to the hospital.”
I roll my eyes at her bossiness. “Yes, ma’am.”
I allow Ghost to pull me up from the couch and guide me to Kourtney’s Rover while the police do their thing all around Kourtney’s house.
Before leaving, I give Detective Adam my phone number and email so he can contact me about getting him access to the footage.
I’m not even entirely sure who drives to the hospital. All I register is the softness of Kourtney's sweater against my cheek as I lay my head in her lap. I wake again when we’re outside of the emergency entrance. Ghost and Tex lead me out and into the ER, coming to a stop at the reception desk. Once upon a time, before I had my ol’ lady right behind me and before I became so damn enraptured with her, I’d waggle my brows at the girl behind the counter that checks out my naked chest. “Can I help you?”
“I got shot,” I say. Kourtney comes up next to me to take Tex’s place as I gesture to the blood-soaked shirt wrapped around my arm.
The girl's eyes widen, and she ushers us through the locked door.
As soon as I’m on a stretcher, a nurse and doctor flock to my sides. Untying the shirt without warning, I black out at the sight of blood gushing from the hole in my arm.