the shirt. He yanks me after him as he pushes the door open and presses a gun against my head that makes my heart thunder in my chest. “I’ll fucking kill him! I’ll fucking kill him!”
If I do anything with the knife, will he shoot me? He doesn’t seem to care if I come out of this alive or not. When he drags me out, I see Shepherd running for me, his car left in the middle of the street some ways back, and hope fills me. Shepherd’s here, he can save me, but what if this man hurts him? What if Shepherd gets hurt because of me?
“I’ll kill him!” the man yells at Shepherd. The barrel of the gun shoves even harder into my head and I know he’s not bluffing, he will kill me.
“Okay, I’ll put my gun down,” Shepherd says, but I don’t want to leave him defenseless.
I catch his eyes and my chest aches. I can’t lose him. I can’t. “Shepherd, just go. Please, just go. I’ll be fine,” I say, but Shepherd slowly drops his gun. No, no, no. He can’t get hurt because of me. And as he rises up, the officer pulls the gun off me, planning on shooting Shepherd. “No! Please! Stop!”
“How cute, you’re ready to die for him.” Davis seems amused by this.
“No, please!”
The moment the gun moves away from my head, Shepherd draws another and pulls the trigger. The movement is so quick that even Davis, who already had his gun out, didn’t have time to react. His head snaps back as his legs begin to sink down and his grip on me loosens.
“I took care of the car tagging behind you,” a voice says and I turn to see Delta walking toward Shepherd.
“Tony said you’re free to go. Rose is safe.”
“Thank you,” Shepherd says as he gives him a nod, and I wonder what happened to get Delta to help Shepherd. Was it just because Tony now said we’re free to go? Then again, Shepherd and Delta have probably known each other for years. “We’re going to bring this whole fucking thing down, Delta. So if you don’t want to get caught up in it, I think it’s best you do what Tony’s doing and run. You have plenty of money. Just go.”
Delta watches him for a moment. “I’m glad you finally found someone worth fighting for, Shepherd. There was a while there that I thought the only thing you knew how to fight was your own monsters and you were fucking losing that battle. There’s another cop in the car but he seems to be praying to God for someone to save him.”
“Thanks, Delta.”
“Yeah,” he says before turning around and heading off.
“That was fucking risky,” I tell Shepherd. I realize I’m shaking because I thought I was going to lose him. I was going to lose Shepherd.
“I knew if I got shot, Delta would get you out of here,” he says. “Now come on. Bear’s waiting for us. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
I look back to the car Shepherd came from where I see Bear watching us, probably confused on why his family is off playing with guns.
Shepherd guides me back to the car that we quickly get inside before he starts driving. His hand tightens on the steering wheel, and I quickly look over at him.
“Did you get hurt? Are you okay?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I’m fine, I promise. I just… I feel like I’ve done so much wrong in my life and I finally have the chance to do something right. We have to stop your father. We have to make this end.”
I nod as I reach out to him and set a hand on his leg. “We will. First, we need to get out of this fucking city, you need your arm to heal up some, we need the flash drive, and then I need a computer. Remember way back when, how you were making fun of me by telling me I couldn’t beat anyone with my GPA?”
He looks aghast. “I would never make fun of your 4.0 GPA.”
I feel so relieved hearing him make a joke. Back in that room, I felt like I’d never see his smile again. “Yeah, well, guess what? We’re taking his ass down with my 4.0 GPA. Because I’s smart.”
He’s grinning at me now. “You’s smart,” he says.
I snort. “Exactly.”
“Or we could go to your father’s right now, and I could shoot him.”