room. This is a first and doesn’t make sense. They leave this area alone, so that could only mean one thing, someone called them, someone who had influence over them.
The guy under my foot stirs, and I lift my foot, but he doesn’t move. Emma is still standing there, still staring at me like she doesn’t know me.
She’s right. She doesn’t.
People slam into the cage in their bid to outrace each other. I see a flash of navy and black. A copper is close.
“I said get out.” I grip her arm, and like a rag doll, I drag her from the cage and push her outside. She stumbles into the crowd, and I slam the gate closed on her. “Go.”
I don’t stay to see if she does leave. I return to the bleeding body on the ground. Blocking out the chaos behind me, I kneel down beside him.
“Do you know who I am?” He can’t answer.
“I’m Shay O’Reagan. You remember Frankie? You remember how you danced on his head?” Anger laces through me. He blinks but doesn’t speak.
“What did it feel like when his skull caved in?” I push a thumb into his forehead before knocking on it. I want to smash it. I want to make him pay.
“Open the gate.” The bark of the copper behind me doesn’t stop me from speaking to the man who took Frankie and destroyed my family.
A baton hits the gate several times.
“Did you feel like a big man? Could you smell his piss?” Frankie had been terrified.
His silence I had wanted, but now I don’t. Gripping him by the collar, I shake him. “You answer me.”
Hinges screech, and several hands grab my arms, dragging me back. I don’t resist, I let them pull me away, but I never take my eyes off the man who took Frankie away. I’m pulled to my feet and spun around to face a pistol in my face.
“Shay O’Reagan, you are under arrest for illegal fighting.”
I grin at the copper with his combed over hair and small dick. I’m released.
“Put your hands behind your back.”
The copper puts his pistol away and removes his handcuffs from his band. He’s hoping I resist. He’s hoping he can use the baton that his left hand keeps reaching for.
I don’t let the grin leave my face as he circles me slowly. I’m tempted to move when gargling sounds from behind me have me half looking over my shoulder.
“Don’t let him die. Get him to a hospital,” I speak to a young copper who looks to the guy who’s handcuffing me.
The handcuffs clip down hard on my flesh. “I make the orders, not you,” he whispers in my ear, more confident now that I’m restrained.
“Ring an ambulance,” he orders the young guy, who pulls out a radio and makes the call.
For the first time, I look up and outside the cage. A few people are being arrested, but most have fled. I’m scanning the crowd looking for red hair but don’t see any.
A hard hand on my back shoves me outside the gate, and I’m taken through the room. I leave happily with them as I listen to the radio call.
“An ambulance is on the way.”
There is only one hospital in the area, so I’ll be able to find him. They can keep him alive for me, like a drink on ice.
“I heard your da got shot.” A new copper arrives to help escort me outside. His large frame and dark hair make him stand out from the other two. He doesn’t carry the same authority as the one who handcuffed me, but I can tell he’s fairly new.
He chews gum as he tucks his fingers into the band of his bullet-proof vest.
“I heard you take it hard up the ass,” I say.
He stops chewing, and the snickers close by have the gum nearly falling out of his mouth. He releases his jacket, his ego bruised, but nothing close to what I want to do to his face.
“Leave it, Jackson.” The one who cuffed me barks, and Jackson veers off.
“Use Vaseline. It will help.” More sniggers follow my words, but the boy doesn’t react.
I’m brought down to a squad car and pushed into the back. I take my time searching the sidewalk for a flash of red, but I don’t see her.
***
I get a cell to myself after they take my belongings, and I go through the booking ritual. I always get my own cell as I’m considered high risk. The cuffs are