by Mason Dixon
Bathsheba forced Ice to his knees. “Me and this army.”
As uniformed officers swarmed into the storage unit, a gray-haired man in a rumpled suit and a spaghetti sauce-stained tie waddled over to Bathsheba.
“You got him.”
“Carswell, I never thought I’d be so happy to see you,” Bathsheba said. “You understood my text?”
“It took a while for your CI and me to figure it out. We’re older and slower than we used to be, but we get there eventually.”
“Better late than never.”
“What text?” Raq asked. She wondered if they were talking in police code because they sounded like they were speaking a secret language.
Bathsheba cut her eyes at Ice. Raq guessed she didn’t want to reveal the name of her confidential informant in front of him. Good thing. Ice treated potential witnesses like he did toilet paper. Both were equally disposable. “Let’s just say you aren’t the only person who had my back today. When did you decide you could trust me?”
Raq shrugged, unsure how to put what she was feeling into words. Ice had been in her life for the past eight years, but Bathsheba was her life. “I’ve been trusting you since the day we met. You haven’t let me down yet.”
“I don’t intend to start.”
Carswell cleared his throat to get their attention. Then he handed Bathsheba a pair of handcuffs. “I’ll let you do the honors.”
“With pleasure.”
Bathsheba cuffed Ice’s wrists and began to recite the charges against him. “Isaac Taylor, you are under arrest for drug trafficking, the kidnapping of a peace officer, and the murder of Rashad Jefferson.”
“You’re trying to saddle me with a murder rap?” Ice asked after Bathsheba read him his rights. “Really? My lawyer will have me out of jail within forty-eight hours and I will have each one of your asses in seventy-two. Where’s your evidence? Where are the witnesses lining up to testify against me?”
Raq stood in front of him. “The line starts right here.” She hoped once it started, it wouldn’t stop until it snaked out the courthouse door. It was time—finally time—for Ice’s reign of terror to come to an end. And she would help make it happen.
Ice was momentarily speechless. He looked defeated. He looked like he thought she’d never turn against him. Until a few minutes ago, she never thought she would either. But her love for Bathsheba had proved to be more powerful than her loyalty to Ice.
She wished Bathsheba had told her she was a cop—hearing it from Ice had momentarily made her wonder if Bathsheba had simply been using her to get to him—but, in her heart, she knew Bathsheba’s feelings for her were real, and she understood why Bathsheba had kept the fact that she was five-oh to herself. While she tried to bring Ice down, Bathsheba needed to protect not only herself but Raq as well. Now it was Raq’s turn to protect her. And if Raq had her way, from now on, there would be no more secrets between them. No matter what the cost.
Trying to save face as his kingdom crumbled all around him, Ice acted tough for the sake of the men being herded past him into the waiting police vans.
“You won’t live to see the trial.”
“Come and get me,” Raq said. “I’ll be waiting.”
“He’s right, you know,” Bathsheba said after she deposited Ice in the back of a squad car. “If you stay in the Middle East, someone’s going to be gunning for you every day until the case goes before a judge. We have to put you in a safe house until the trial starts.”
“I’m not running.”
“And I’m not taking a chance on losing you.” Bathsheba laid a hand on her arm. “We’re family now. I protect what’s mine.”
Family. Something Raq thought she’d never have had become something she would fight not to lose. This time, she had someone in her corner who would fight just as hard for her.
“We’ll talk about it later, okay?” she said. “What time are you going to be home?”
“Not for a while. It’s going to take hours to process and book everyone. When I’m done, I can’t go back to the neighborhood, either. People are going to be gunning for me, too. Until Ice is behind bars for good, neither one of us is safe.”
Raq smiled. “We talked about running away together. Looks like we get our chance.”
Bathsheba smiled back. “We’d be on the run, but at least we’d be together. Is that what you want?”
“I want to be with you. Today. Tomorrow. Forever, if you let me.”
“I want that, too.”
Even though Raq wanted nothing more than to remain in this moment with Bathsheba and relive it over and over, her thoughts quickly turned to unfinished business. “What about King? He was already making moves on Ice’s territory before this happened. Now you know he’s going to try to take over completely.”
“When the opportunity presents itself, we’ll get him, too.”
Raq couldn’t hide her surprise. “We? You want to team up again?”
“Now that you and I are on the same side, you don’t expect me to catch every kingpin in Baltimore without you, do you?”
“Nah, baby.” Raq drew her into her arms. “I’ll always have your back.”
Just as she knew Bathsheba would always have hers.
About the Author
Mason Dixon lives, works, and plays somewhere in the South. She and her partner enjoy grilling, traveling, and fighting for control of the remote. Charm City is her second novel. Her previous work is Lambda Literary Award finalist Date With Destiny. As Yolanda Wallace, she has published six novels—In Medias Res, Rum Spring, Lucky Loser, Lammy Award-winner Month of Sundays, Murphy’s Law, and The War Within. Mason can be reached at [email protected].
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