“He told you who I am, right?” Vincent asked.
Eric nodded jerkily.
“Did he tell you what I do to people who threaten my friends?”
Eric shook his head.
“That’s because no one’s that stupid,” Vincent murmured. “You that stupid, Eric?”
To his credit, Eric was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
“Now here’s how this is going to go,” Vincent said easily. “Youaregoing to walk out of here because my new friend, Ethan, wants it that way. But just remember that when you’re in that tiny little cell that he’s” – Vincent looked over his shoulder at me – “going to putyou in, I can reach you there. I can reach you, your family, your friends, your fellow cops who might be inclined to help you send Ethan a message…from this moment on, I own your ass. Not the courts, not the prison guards who are going to put you in that little hole that no one will even remember you’re in. Ethan gets even a hangnail and I’ll take it out on your ass.”
Vincent shifted off Eric long enough to put his gun to Eric’s groin. “One word from me and you won’t even have the benefit of solitary confinement to keep you safe from the men you put behind bars. And Eric,” he added softly. “They’re going to love having a little bitch like you to play with.”
And just like that, he pulled the trigger.
Eric screamed in agony and put his hands over his groin as he folded in on himself. Vincent straightened and turned away from him. When his eyes fell on me he said, “What? He’ll live…probably.”
I started stripping off my jacket, but Cain grabbed my arm. “You are not helping him,” he said.
“Yes, I am,” I returned. “I want his ass alive so he can rot in jail.”
“Don’t worry, Doc. Ambulance will be here any second.” It didn’t surprise me in the least that Vincent knew I was a doctor.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because John knows me too well,” Vincent said with a slight smile.
And sure enough, a few moments later I heard the sound of a siren off in the distance.
“We should go,” Vincent said. “It’ll take John a while to sort all this out with the local cops.”
“Are we going to be arrested?” I asked. I knew, despite Vincent’s threat, that Eric would tell anyone who’d listen what had happened here.
But Vincent didn’t answer me. As Cain’s warm fingers closed over mine, I didn’t even spare Eric one last look before following Cain from the room.
Epilogue
CAIN
Six MonthsLater
“I swear,it’s like that thing with cats,” I grumbled as I carefully shifted the baby in my arms. I held my breath to see if she would wake up, but fortunately, she didn’t.
“What thing?” Ethan asked. His mouth was pulled into a wide smile as he settled down on the couch next to me. He held out the bottle of beer he’d brought me, but with my arms full of sleeping kid, I didn’t want to risk waking her.
Ethan chuckled and held the bottle up to my lips so I could take a drink.
“You know how cats always gravitate to visitors who don’t like them? That’s what this is,” I said as I motioned to the baby.
“Probably don’t let my sister hear you referring to her daughter as a cat,” he said as he shifted so he could lean against my side. His eyes fell on his niece. I never got tired of seeing the love in his gaze when he watched her doing something even as simple as sleeping.
“You want this, don’t you?” I asked.
Ethan straightened enough so he could look me in the eye. “Do you?” he asked, carefully.
I glanced at the baby. Yes, it had scared the hell out of me early on when I’d held the baby for the first time, but I was getting used to her gentle weight and squirming little body. And the way she looked at me with her big blue eyes…it was indescribable.
