“What about?”
“Erica.”
A strange look appeared in Davey’s wide eyes that everybody saw. Including Ricki. What was that about, she wondered.
“What about Erica?” he asked.
Ricki decided to just come out and say it. “The head guard at the jail said you paid him to kill Erica. That you had Erica killed.”
Unlike any other innocent man accused of what would amount to conspiracy to commit siblicide, Davey didn’t shout how crazy that was or how dare she accuse him of conspiring to have his own baby sister murdered. He just stared at Ricki anddidn’t say a word. And then he looked past her, and his eyes stretched.
When they all looked where Davey was looking and saw a group of police cars driving onto the property, they all frowned. “What the fuck?” asked Vince. “How did they find out?”
But as the cops began getting out of their cars, Davey threw down that bamboo rod and took off running toward the backside of the property.
“Davey don’t!” Ricki cried out and started running after him.
Vince’s heart dropped when he saw those police officers running too. “Ricki, come here!” he yelled as he took off after her. He could only imagine those cops shooting to kill Davey, but hitting Ricki in the process. He had to get to her!
Milo and the security detail were attempting to run after their boss, to protect him, but a couple of the cops aimed their guns at them and ordered them to stay right where they were. As if they were criminals too.
But Vince was running as fast as he could run trying to catch Ricki. He was as angry as he was scared. She had no clue she was putting her life in mortal danger. All she could see was protecting Davey. She’d always been her siblings’ keeper!
But Vince never was anybody’s keeper. Not until he met Ricki. Now he found himself forced to be her protector because of her seeming inability to worry about herself. And he was desperately worried about her.
And when he heard gunfire from behind him, he took on track star speed and leaped toward Ricki, knocking her to the ground. And that was when a barrage of bullets were unleashed by the cops.
Although Vince was on top of Ricki, covering her with his own body, she lifted her head up at her big brother. And that was when she saw his knees bend as bullets caught him in theback, and then he fell. She saw him fall on his face as the police stopped shooting and ran to him.
She tried to get away from Vince, to go to her brother, but Vince wouldn’t let her move at all. He wasn’t letting her out of his grasp.
And all she could do was scream. She screamed for her brother. She screamed for her sister. She screamed even as her parents ran outside to see what on earth was happening on their own property. She couldn’t stop herself from screaming.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Milo opened the back passenger door of the Bentley as Vince and Ricki came out of the hospital and got inside. Milo closed the door, hurried around and got in on the front driver side under the steering wheel, and closed that door too. George was on the front passenger seat and the security detail car was parked behind the Bentley.
Then Milo looked through the rearview mirror at Vince and a still-distraught Ricki. “How is he, sir?”
“He’s in ICU, but in stable condition. The doctors believe he’ll pull through.”
“Thank God for that,” said Milo.
“But what I don’t understand was how those cops found out about Ricki’s brother,” said George.
“They were probably following the Bentley around town,” Milo said as Ricki’s phone began ringing. “And they followed this Bentley right to her brother.”
“But just because he ran they shot him?” asked Vince as he shook his head. “Based on what?”
When Ricki saw that it was JoJo from Brooklyn calling her, she decided to answer. But with a quick answer on Speaker. “I can’t talk right now, JoJo,” she said.
“How’s Davey?” JoJo asked.
That surprised Ricki. “How would you know about Davey?” she asked, and they all looked at her.
“I just wanna . . . I’m so sorry. Man, I’m so sorry though.”
His voice sounded strange to Ricki. “What are you sorry for?”
