“Is he there now?” I asked, sitting up straight, my hand gripping my phone tighter. I knew exactly where that motel was, as it was one of the places Becky and I had used to secretly hook up at. I could get there in tenminutes.
“No, cameras saw him leaving in the gold car around midnight. He hasn’t been back, but he hasn’t checked outyet.”
“Keep me posted, and do me a favour and drop an anonymous tip to the police department,” I said, ending the call to go back to watching thefield.
I could make out Becky’s dark hair against the faint pink of her tank top as she sat in the bleachers, but the kids on the field all blurred into one as they zipped and raced around. Sometimes, I’d catch glimpses of Aiden’s number before he flew off down the fieldagain.
Rob was focused on the sidelines, his dark eyes scanning up theperiphery.
Nothing out of the normal happened for the entire game. No strange men lurking on the sidelines, no gold cars driving past the field. And yet still…there was something in the air, an unsettling feeling that made the hairs on the back of my neck standup.
Aiden’s team won, and Becky took Aiden out for ice cream to celebrate with his team, like they always did following awin.
Rob turned the engine on, waiting until Becky’s car pulled out of the parking lot before he kicked it into reverse. “Wait,” I said, a flash of gold catching my eye as a Sunfire pulled out a few parking lots over, following Becky’s car. “That’shim!”
I grew more and more sure each moment that passed that the driver was Richie. He kept two car lengths behind her, and waited until Becky and Aiden had gone inside the ice cream parlour to pull into the parkinglot.
Through the windows that lined the front half of the ice cream shop, I could see the blue uniforms of Aiden and histeammates.
Richie was nearing the sidewalk that led to the doors, and I knew we didn’t have much time to spare. Rob gunned it, cutting across the parkinglot.
I opened the door, jumping out of the car while it was still moving, tackling Richie from behind. I heard the breaks squeal on the car while we tumbled to the groundhard.
The sound of metal clanging against asphalt rang out. I rolled to my feet and froze when I noticed the gun half an arm’s length away from Richie. We both lunged for it, but Richie’s hand closed around the handle of it before I could reachit.
He tried to twist his wrist to aim the gun at me. I had a good fifty pounds of muscle on him, and I crushed his wrist against the asphalt. He struggled for a moment, trying to free his wrist of my grip, while trying to punch me using his free hand. I deflected his hit easily with my elbow before I punched him in the jaw as hard as I could, knocking him out. His fingers slackened their grip on thegun.
By that point, Rob had come around and was pointing his own gun at Richie, not that he was a threat, given that he was unconscious. I stood up, kicking the gun from beside his hand. It spun across the asphalt, out of his reach should he wakeup.
“We should probably call the police now,” I panted, glancing down at Richie’s unconscious body with disgust. I hadn’t had time to do it in the car, everything happened sofast.
Someone already had, I realized as the wailing of sirens grew louder and louder. I looked back at the ice cream parlour, my thoughts on Becky and Aiden, and how scared I’d been for them the moment I saw thegun.
All of the customers were as far away from the windows as they could get, looks of fear on their faces as they watched three police cruisers and an ambulance pull into the parking lot. Becky clung to Aiden, her eyes wide and full of tears, her chest rising and fallingrapidly.
They collected the gun for evidence and two paramedics transferred Richie to the stretcher and loaded him up into the back of the waitingambulance.
“Impressive work, son. If you ever get bored with your country music career, at least you have prospects,” Officer Browning joked. He had been the one taking statements from the witnesses inside the ice creamparlour.
“What happens now?” I asked, watching as the ambulance carrying Richie left, followed by one of the police cruisers. I could see Becky approaching warily with Aiden, her eyes darting between the officer and me. She stopped beside me, and I put an arm around her shoulders, drawing hercloser.
“We’ll need to take him to get assessed at the hospital before we book him, but he’s definitely going to be charged with extortion, harassment, breaching a restraining order, and probably some weapons charges by the looks of it,” Officer Browning explained. “Possibly other charges, depending on what we findout.”
I nodded, relaxing. Winston had found out a lot about Richie already, and what he did learn could very well help incarceratehim.
“He’s gone now?” Aiden asked, straining to see around my legs to watch the police cruiser disappear down thestreet.
“Yes sir, you won’t have to worry about him anymore,” Officer Browning said, smilingreassuringly.
“Thanks again, Officer,” I said, shaking Browning’s handfirmly.
“We’ll be in touch,” he promised, nodding. He released my hand and strolled over to his partner, who was standing by the tow truck watching as they hooked up the gold Sunfire Richie had beenusing.
“Are you hurt?” Becky demanded, turning to me, her eyes roaming over every inch of my skin. She grabbed my hand, looking at the bruised and bloodied knuckles. My skin had split from the impact against Richie’s jaw, but it wasn’t overly bad. In fact, I hadn’t even realized I was bleeding until she held it up toinspect.
“A little ice and I’ll be right as rain,” I told her, unable to stop myself from kissing her. I kept it PG, I just needed the feel of her lips on mine to revive me. When I saw the gun, the fear that I was about to lose both her and Aiden had nearly chokedme.
“Ew,” Aiden whined, covering his eyes with a grossed outgiggle.
