I was never so glad to see someone in my life, or in this case, several someones. Hank, Abe, Cooper, and Judge had appeared behind Atkins as if they had walked out of thin air. When I felt a presence behind me, I knew it was Jack.
"Your days of terrorizing people are over, Robert Atkins…I mean, Carl Atkins…I mean, whoever you really are." I pointed to the camera in the corner of the room. "You broke into Ian's house, your little buddies shot it up, you threatened me and my friends, some of whom are active military personnel, and you pissed me off. You're done."
"You think any of this matters?"
"I think that the authorities are going to be very interested in the video of what you've done."
"The authorities can't touch me. There are too many people in positions of power who owe me." Atkins scoffed loudly. "I'll never see a single second behind bars."
"You can't buy your way out of this one, Atkins."
"You can't stop me," Atkins countered. "No one can stop me."
"Yeah, there might be a problem with that." Danny stepped out from behind Abe. "It seems that there was a problem with your estate. You forgot to pay your inheritance taxes when you inherited the money from Robert Atkins. Considering the amount of money involved, the US government has frozen all of your assets and financial accounts until they can do a thorough investigation."
Atkins' face brightened. "Danny, my pet."
Abe quickly stepped in front of Danny when Atkins took a step toward him. "Touch him and nothing in this world will stop me from ripping your head off."
I felt practically giddy as I grinned. "You're flat broke, Mr. Atkins. I hope you know how to say public defender."
"Don't be ridiculous." Atkins swung back around to face me. "You can't take my money."
"I didn't. The United States government did."
Atkins' eyes narrowed.
I had a split second to suck in a breathe before Atkins lifted his gun and pulled the trigger. Something slammed into my shoulder, and I felt a pain unlike anything I'd ever felt before, even when Atkins had electrocuted me.
Jack caught me as my legs gave out and I sank to the floor. My shoulder was on fire.
"Fuck, that hurts."
I heard a lot of shouting and something crashed to the floor, but I was too busy trying to breathe and not cry to really pay attention to what was going on. I clutched at Jack's shirt, holding on for dear life. I think it was easy to say I was terrified. I'd never been shot before. Shot at, yes. Actually shot, no.
"Jack."
"It's okay, baby. It's just a shoulder wound."
Just a shoulder wound?
I felt as if I had been shot by a cannon.
I cried out when Jack put pressure on my shoulder. The agony intensified so much, spots danced in front of my eyes.
"Sorry, baby, but I have to stop the bleeding."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, but…" I hated being whiny, but it was better than crying my eyes out. "Fuck, it hurts."
"I have something that might make it feel better."
I didn't think anything would make it feel better. "What?"
Jack grinned as he nodded his head to my left.
I frowned as I glanced in that direction, then a wide grin spread out over my lips as I watched Atkins being escorted out of the house by two police officers, complete with handcuffs. He was ranting and raving about cat shifters and people stealing his money.
The officer standing in the middle of the room just shook his head. "That one is headed for a rubber room."
