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“Why are you even talking?” Rage bubbles in my blood as I approach the end of the brick wall. “You murdered three police officers, Taylor! You killed cops, and you want me to trust you?”
“You’re not a cop!” He dashes around the next corner before I can squeeze off a round and put a bullet in his temple. “Not a real one! You’re a made man who just so happens to have a badge. That’s what I wanted.”
“Running from us isn’t how you create those relationships. Fletch!” I catch his pained groan from the mouth of the alleyway, his body on the ground right in no-man’s-land. If I walk out there, I become a sitting duck. But if I leave him out there alone, he’s dead. “Where are you hit, Fletch? I need you to speak.”
He attempts to roll onto one side, hissing when the movement hurts. “Um… thigh, maybe.” He drops flat again, grunting with exhaustion. “I think. I dunno.”
“Plug it.” I scrape my back along the brickwork, one eye on my partner and the other in the direction Taylor went. “You need to pack it, Charlie Fletcher. Ambos are on the way, but you gotta take care of your own shit till they do. Philip Taylor,” I turn my attention to the motherfucker I’ll put a bullet in if I get half the chance. “You’re under arrest for the murders of Isaac Haightman, Daniel Wright, and Lucas Mercer. You’re under arrest for shooting and injuring Detective Charlie Fletcher. You’re under arrest for a whole heap of other shit, too, but I reckon those are enough for now. You have the right to remain silent. Step out of the shadows with your handsabove your head, place your weapon on the ground, then kick it out of reach.”
He laughs, taunting and desperate. I could be wrong, but I feel like he’s not gonna follow my directions. “I’m protected, Malone! I have a way out of this. Do you?”
“You’re making this worse on yourself.” I pause at the edge of the building and test the airspace, ducking my head forward and bringing it back again. “You’re going away for a long fucking time, man. Be smart now and I can help you.”
“Help me?” Laughing, he shoots the brickwork on the opposite side of the alley. “You can’t even help yourself! You’re stuck in a world where youcouldbe great, but you choose this instead. Loyalty to the fucking law? It’s a joke!”
“Loyalty to those I love, actually. Which means I’m gonna end your miserable fucking life for what you did to my partner.” I dip my head forward to check around the corner, only to realize my mistake when the long barrel of a handgun nestles on the center of my forehead.
The rest of my words garble in my throat. Death, so fucking close, I feel it in the tips of my fingers. In the blood that pumps through my heart. “Shit.”
“Not so fucking slick now, are you, Malone?” Taylor steps around the corner, facing me head on, and jams the steel barrel harder against my forehead until I’m certain metal breaks skin. “You had the chance to be on our side of this bullshit. The winning side.” He flexes his finger around the trigger and tempts fate. I see Minka in my mind. Her smile. Most of all, her scorn when she finds out the situation I’ve put myself in. I see my brothers, and the life I lived with them. After them. I see Fletch, writhing in the street at my back, and sweet Mia, cackling on the swings when her father pushes her at the park. “This city is going to hell, whether you like it or not. It’s smart business to become friends with the devil.”
“Who is the devil?” I grind my head closer, if only to break the lock of his elbow and cast doubt into his mind. “You answer to Nathan Booth. Who does Booth answer to?”
His eyes flash in the darkness, proving to me that I’m on the right track.
“You’re gonna kill me anyway, so there’s no harm in giving me a name.”
“If he wanted you to know, you’d know. The fact that you don’t tells us both that you’re nothing to him. Your blood is the only reason we’re even having this conversation.”
“What about my blood?” I take a step forward, forcing him back. Ifnothing else, I’ll lead him around the fucking corner and away from Fletch. “Booth wants an in with the Malones?”
Sirens scream closer, louder, so the sound travels through the alleyway. “Quick,” I sneer. “They’re coming. Speak up now or you’ll forever be silenced.”
“If I’m silenced, you’re silenced.” He reaffirms his grip on the gun and wraps his finger around the trigger. Behind it, his eyes burn with desperation. With determination. “Get us out of here,” he snarls on an almost hiss. “You have the power to do that. Work with me and I’ll get you a seat at the main table.”
“That doesn’t sound like fun at all.”
My heart spasms and damn near comes to a dead standstill, because Minka’s voice rings through my ears a single second before her arm wraps around Taylor’s neck and a scalpel rests at his jugular.
“You feel that heavy pulse in your neck, Mr. Taylor?” She presses the blade closer and draws a single droplet of blood to shimmer against the silver of her knife. “That’s your carotid artery. It extends from your aorta and carries blood all the way up to your brain. If I slice it open,” she grins, practically hugging his back and almost resting her chin on his shoulder. “You’ll have approximately two minutes before it’s lights out. Less, probably, considering how fast your heart pounds right now.”
“What the fu?—”
Collecting my wits and finding my common sense, I snatch his weapon and turn it back, lightning fast, and press the barrel to his heart.
“We’re gonna talk about this soon, Doctor Mayet.” I reach across with my free hand, pulling her blade from his skin and nodding toward Fletch. “For now, you need to save his life.” But if Taylor thinks he’s safe when she dashes away, I steal that hope back, wrapping my palm around his throat and digging my fingers in. “You’re lucky the cops are coming, Philip. Because I have half a fucking mind to tear your esophagus clear out. I’ve wanted to try this thing I learned from the medical examiner’s office.” I slam him against the bricks and hold my breath when his lungs evacuate. “Did you know when they’re performing an autopsy, they cut right up here,” I tap the underside of his jaw, “then they bring your tongue down, through the hole. But they don’t stop there. They cut all the way to your stomach.”
“All the way to his pubis, actually.” Minka settles on her knees and leans over Fletch, packing his wound with his own shirt. Unhurried, it seems. So either he’s already dead, or things aren’t all that dire. “Then I reach in and pull the testicles out from the inside. The family of the deceased gets weirdabout testicles,” she adds, almost as an afterthought. “I come in from the inside, so there are no stitches on the outside when we put them back. The amount of times a loved one has checked is…” She peers over her shoulder when red and blue finally illuminate the alleyway, a goofy expression on her face. “It’s a lot, anyway. Only one time, one, ever, did I forget to put them back exactly right. I learned early on that these things matter to the family left behind.”
“I won’t let my wife perform your autopsy, Taylor.” Grossed out, I look back at the prick and wrinkle my nose at the stench of urine permeating the air. “I don’t want her to touch your balls. Not even for medical reasons. We’ll give you her worst doctor on staff. Have your balls bouncing around the autopsy room when he drops them.”
“They areseriouslyslippery,” she taunts. “We don’t mention in our reports when we’ve accidentally dropped them. We just put them back and hope it never comes up in court.”
“Detective Malone?” Officer Clay barrels into the alleyway, gun drawn and eyes wheeling with panic. “Is everything okay? You said there was an officer down.”
I hook a thumb over my shoulder and indicate toward Minka and Fletch in the shadows. “I think he’s okay, maybe. Direct the paramedics this way. Doctor Mayet hasn’t announced death yet, so I’m hopeful…”
“Har-har,” Fletch groans, grunting so in my mind, I see him attempting to move. Maybe even sit up. “I’m so fucking done with this case. Where the hell did you come from anyway, Delicious?”
