Better When He's Brave

The world exploded . . .

BANG!

I saw Roark jerk violently as bullets started to fly all around the cavernous warehouse space. His eyes stayed locked on mine as he fell to his knees in front of me, the gun in his hand falling harmlessly to the side. Roark’s guys started to scatter as the room was suddenly swarming with guys in tactical gear and other guys wearing black jackets embellished with US MARSHAL across the back. I ducked my head uselessly as a bullet pinged against the pipe above my head, and looked around at the chaos that was ensuing. A familiar face appeared as a man dressed in a polo shirt covered in Kevlar dashed into the fray and stopped at Conner’s body. He kicked a guy aside as he bent down to check Conner’s pulse and frowned. He looked up where I was dangling and then maneuvered around his men and the bodies of Roark’s crew where they lay.

“You got a key for those, King? You look like shit, by the way.”

“In my pocket.” He started patting me down as I continued to watch him. “That’s some good timing you got there, Packard.” Not that I wasn’t happy to see him, considering I was about to eat a bullet.

Roark’s old boss lifted his gray eyebrows at me as I collapsed in a heap at his feet once my hands were free. I wasn’t sure if it was broken, but my kneecap felt like it was made of Jell-O, so there was no way I was walking out of here on my own.

“I got a frantic call from Reeve Black. She said a man named Noah Booker abducted you and was taking you to Roark. She told us to hurry. She said you told her to wait an hour but that was too long. She called us the second you hung up the phone. I pulled my guys off of her and moved them to go after you. Gotta say the timing couldn’t have been any closer. The guy in the parking lot almost bled out but the paramedics seem to think he’ll make it if he gets into surgery quick and gets a blood transfusion. He was still conscious when we rolled onto the scene, so they took that as a good sign and the bullet missed anything major. Lucky bastard. Looks like you would’ve been in pretty bad shape if we had been even a minute later.”

I didn’t know if Booker would agree that he was lucky. This was the second time he took a round in the chest in less than six months. Even if he did have as many lives as a cat, they were starting to run out.

“I’m glad she ignored me and called you.” Hell, I was stunned she hadn’t tried to ride to the rescue all on her own.

“Yeah. Told someone who she was and was screaming something about trusting the system and doing the right thing. She also said if we didn’t send someone after you, she was calling in the not-so-legal backup. I didn’t realize you had your hand so deep in the cookie jar, Detective. Can you walk?”

I shook my head in the negative and he hefted me up while wrapping an arm around my back. We both looked at where Roark lay still and lifeless, a bullet hole decorating the center of his forehead.

“Seems anticlimactic after everything he put you and the people of this city through.”

I disagreed, but I had just spent the last hazy moments getting beaten with pipes and fists. “He died on the ashes of the empire we took from Novak. Seems oddly appropriate.”

Packard snorted as we hobbled toward the door. “I’m just glad it’s over, and though I’ll never officially admit it, I’m glad I’m the one that fired the shot. I screwed up with Roark. Evens the scales back a little in my favor.”

I sighed. This was the Point. It was never over and our scales were always out of whack in the opposite way anyone wanted. I shuffled, jumped, and stumbled with his help out of the warehouse to where I could hear sirens wailing. We were headed toward the back of an open ambulance when I heard my name. I saw her dark hair in the crowd and growled at Packard when one of his guys grabbed her to keep her back from the chaos and crime scene.

He ordered the fed to let her through and she ran at me like the hounds of hell were chasing her. She hit my chest hard and almost took all three of us to the ground. I was covered in blood, not all of it my own, and she didn’t seem to care. She kissed me all over my face and helped Packard get me the rest of the way to the ambulance. She was talking a mile a minute, her eyes wide and shiny with relief and unshed tears. I slumped down and grabbed her cheeks so I could hold her face. I kissed her to shut her up and because I had to. I was alive. She was alive. The good guys were battered but victorious.

“You didn’t wait.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in the curve there. “I’ve been waiting for something good and right in my life forever, Titus. I wasn’t going to wait for it for another hour. I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t risk you.”

“Thank you. I’m so proud of you for knowing what to do, for taking care of me.”

She nodded against me. “I wanted to do the right thing. I wanted you to see that I do trust you, trust the system. I wanted to show you more. I wanted to take care of you the right way.”

I squeezed her and winced as she brushed my knee. That sucker was shot. It looked like a basketball and was the same color as her dark blue eyes.

“Any choice you make to take care of me is the right choice, Reeve. I love you.”

She hiccuped against the side of my neck and I felt the tears start to fall. “I love you too.”

I ran my hand up under the heavy fall of her hair and wrapped it around the back of her neck. I gave her a little squeeze and whispered into her ear as a uniformed paramedic started to make his way over to us. “I need to tell you something.”

“Anything.”