Impossible Choice

by Sybil Bartel

  As he turned, Ariel yelled at his back. “And my purse!”

  “Where I’m taking you, you don’t need no fucking purse.”

  As if making a point, Ariel snatched the cash still in my hand. “Eat shit, Manny.”

  “You kiss your son with that mouth, puta?” Shorty showed teeth and it only seemed to fuel Ariel.

  If I’d been closer and if there weren’t a couple of nine mm’s between us, I would’ve stomped on her shiny-ass foot but apparently, it wouldn’t have mattered.

  Ariel puffed out her chest and her hands went to her hips. “You think you can threaten me?”

  “I don’t need to think. I already did.”

  “Asshole,” she screeched, then she lunged.

  With a speed that couldn’t touch Buck and with none of Buck’s grace, Shorty still managed to sidestep Ariel’s attack and slam her against the wall. Her good cheek hit the yellowed Sheetrock, air whooshed out of her lungs and Shorty yanked her hands behind her back. A few of the bills tucked in her G-string fluttered lazily to the ground.

  Shorty’s voice dropped to a low timbre. “Try that again and you’re dead. You’re nothing but a fucking whore stripper. You die and no one’s gonna come looking, no one’s gonna give a shit. You think the cops care what happens to sluts like you?”

  All my fear, all my panic, three years living a life that wasn’t my own, listening to Shorty threaten someone like he’d threatened me, a rage so consuming boiled up and blindsided me.

  Fists flying, legs kicking, I knew I landed at least two blows but that was as far as I got.

  The gun in Shorty’s hand swung back and connected with my temple. Stars exploded in my head as a fist hit me in squarely in the stomach. The radiating pain was so intense, I fell to my knees and vomited.

  Cursing, Spanish, English, a whirl of movement, none of it registered. I was yanked to my feet by my hair. I stumbled and a sweaty man caged around the protective arms I had against my stomach. With an agonizing, wrenching pull of my torso, my feet dragged the ground and I moved headfirst toward the SUV.

  My cheek slid across leather. The sweaty man followed me in and shut the door. Being put in the SUV was a death sentence but I didn’t care. With my knees to my chest, I rolled to my side and gave in to the ringing in my ears. Just as the creeping blackness threatened to take hold, the door by my head was yanked open.

  “Last I heard, kidnappin’s a felony.”

  Talon.

  Aiming a gun at Sweaty, he spared me a glance. “How’s the head, Sugar?”

  “Stomach,” I groaned.

  Talon’s face turned deadly. “Now I’m pissed.” It was all the warning Sweaty got. Talon slammed his gun to the side of Sweaty’s head. The crack echoed around the car and I flinched. Sweaty slumped forward and Talon took his gun. In three quick moves, Talon tucked the guns in his back waistband, pulled a piece of plastic out of his pocket and zip-tied Sweaty’s wrists behind his back.

  “C’mon, darlin’.” Talon gently lifted my broken and bruised body out of the SUV. “Let’s get you outta here.”

  “How did you find me?”

  Talon didn’t have time to answer. The unmistakable sound of a shotgun loading ratcheted through the predawn air.

  I turned my throbbing head.

  Legs apart, feet planted, elbows slightly bent, Buck had a gun trained on Shorty’s head. Shorty had Ariel in a neckhold with a gun to her temple. Shorty’s other man had his gun pointing at Buck and André had a gun pointing at him. The bouncer was the odd man out. The twelve-gauge in his arms was aimed at Talon and me.

  “Can you stand?” Talon whispered in my ear.

  I barely nodded.

  Talon set me on my feet and the bouncer aimed at his chest. “One wrong move and I’ll blow a fucking hole through you.”

  “Now see, here’s the thing.” Talon casually put his hands on his hips, but the subtle shift of his body was clear. He’d moved between me and the shotgun. “I ain’t worried ’bout that twelve-gauge as much as I’m sweatin’ Deer Hunter catchin’ me with his woman in my arms.”

  Buck looked up. Eyes cold, no expression, he glanced from Talon to me then trained his eyes back on Shorty.

  Talon chuckled. “Catch my drift?” he asked the bouncer. “Trust me, that’s not a look you wanna mess with, my friend.” Talon held his hands out and shrugged. “So, if I were you?”

  Talon moved.

  Lightning fast, he grabbed the barrel of the shotgun, pushed up and drove his body forward into the attack. Wrenching the gun from the bouncer’s hands, Talon swung the butt and nailed the bouncer in the face.

  Grabbing his nose, the bouncer landed on his ass.

  Talon swung the shotgun around and aimed it at the bouncer. “I’d learn not to stand so fuckin’ close to your target.”

  A quick grunt, then a wet-sounding thud made me whip around. The guy who’d had a gun to Buck’s head was facedown on the pavement and André now had his gun pointed at Shorty.

  “You’re out of options, Maldonado,” Buck said in a deadly quiet voice.

  “Go ahead and shoot. You think I’m the only one who knows you killed my uncle?” Shorty pressed the gun harder against Ariel’s head. “You might even take me before I blow this slut’s brains out.” He choked out a half laugh, half snort that was all fear.

  A tear slid down Ariel’s face. “Don’t shoot,” she pleaded. Her body, barely covered with a scrap of a dress, trembled violently and Shorty almost lost his grip on her.

  Buck took a step forward and Shorty snapped, “Back up!”

  I wanted to scream at Ariel. I wanted her to tell Shorty the truth, but if she did, he’d kill her.

  Buck didn’t back up and Shorty held the gun higher. “I said, back up.”

  “Stand down, Deer Hunter,” Talon said calmly.

  Buck didn’t stand down. And he didn’t back up.

  “You want to threaten me?” Buck said quietly.

  Cold dread went up my spine and lodged in my throat.

  “Blackmail me?” he asked, quieter still.

  Oh God.

  Buck inched forward and lowered his voice even more. “Beat my woman?”

  He was going to kill him.

  “And live after that?”

  Sirens sounded in the distance.

  “Thirty seconds, Deer Hunter.”

  Sweat traveled down Shorty’s face in slow motion. Ariel whimpered, and Buck’s voice went all soft and coercive.

  “I’m not going to kill you by blowing your brains out.” He lowered his aim to just below Shorty’s waist.

  “Twenty seconds,” Talon warned but Buck wasn’t listening.

  “I’m just going to make you wish I did.”

  Shorty’s gun swung toward Buck.

  I screamed.

  Shorty pulled the trigger, Ariel shrieked and André fired back. Blood spread from Shorty’s thigh and he fired off a second round but the shot went wild as Buck slammed into him, forcing his gun hand straight up.

  His fists flying, Buck’s silent rage rained down on Shorty like a hurricane.

  I grabbed for Talon. “Is he hit, is he hit?” I couldn’t breathe past the panic.

  “He missed him, Sugar.”

  Red and blue lights cut through the parking lot as Buck beat the fucking shit out of Shorty.

  Powerless to stop the fury of flying fists, I begged Talon, “Stop him, please!”

  “No way.” Talon shook his head and casually checked the man on the ground for a pulse.

  “We have to get out of here, the cops.” I couldn’t breathe through the panic. “Buck’s going to get arrested!”

  “Too late.” Talon shrugged like it was no big deal and dropped the shotgun to the ground.

  I spu
n to André, but he’d already holstered his weapon. “What are you doing? We have to go!” Now!

  “They’ll trace the bullet in his leg to my gun anyway.” He pulled Mr. Sweaty out of the SUV and threw him on the pavement face-first.

  Desperate, I tried to reason with Buck. “Buck, stop! They’ll arrest you,” I cried.

  Talon chuckled. “Don’t think he cares, darlin’.”

  I spun on Talon. “His career!” I didn’t know how military law worked, but I did know Buck would be in deep shit if he got arrested. He’d go to military jail or marine jail or something bad and it’d be a hundred times worse than a cell in Miami. “You have to stop him.” I reached for Buck, but Talon caught my arm.

  “Truth had to come out sometime, Sugar. Everythin’s got an expiration date.”

  Shorty wasn’t even fighting back anymore. He’d gone limp and Buck kept beating on him. Blood everywhere, Buck’s face contorted with rage, I was out of options. I dropped to my knees and did the only thing I could to make him stop.

  “Blaze. Help me.”

  Six feet four inches of warrior turned and met my plea with complete stillness. Releasing his hold on Shorty’s shirt, he dropped him to the ground. Staring at the throbbing wound on my temple, his bloodied hand reached out and he gently touched the slow-oozing gash.

  “I need you,” I whispered, my voice trembling.

  The man that had been my Buck lifted me into his arms.

  “Police! Hands on your head!”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “On the ground! Facedown, hands out!”

  Three more police cars pulled into the lot. Six policemen surrounding us, weapons drawn, the three other cars opened their doors and more weapons appeared.

  “Blaze,” I whispered.

  Slow, careful, he set me on my feet.

  The closest policeman screamed at us, “On the ground!”

  Buck, Talon and André went down, face-first, and laced their hands over their heads.

  Ariel dissolved into a sobbing, trembling mess.

  “Down. Now!”

  I dropped down next to Buck, but his head was turned away from me, toward the police. When my stomach hit the cold concrete, I cringed but laced my hands over my head.

  “Blaze,” I whispered again, terrified.

  Chaos erupted around us. Pulsing lights, yelling, police and guns, so many guns, everywhere.

  “Don’t speak,” Buck ordered right before the cop was on him, cuffing him.

  Another cop appeared over me and pulled my arm behind my back. The movement strained my lower abdomen and I cried out.

  “She’s unarmed and injured, she needs medical assistance. Don’t cuff her,” Buck barked out authoritatively.

  Not listening, the cop pulled my other arm behind my back.

  “André!” Buck yelled.

  The cuffs cinched tight around my wrists, digging into my flesh, but the pain was nothing compared to the strain on my sore stomach muscles.

  “Fuck. André, they cuffed her!”

  I wanted to tell Buck it was okay, but suddenly, it hurt too much to breathe. Panting, my stomach on fire, my head pounding, I tried to curl to my side but the goose egg on my temple scraped against the gravelly pavement and I whimpered. I squeezed my eyes shut to block the tears dripping down my face and the cops hovering over us.

  “Look at me, Layna,” Buck commanded.

  It hurt. My stomach, my incisions, my head, but it paled in comparison to the guilt. This was all my fault. We were all getting arrested because of me. Buck was getting arrested because of me. I wanted to sink into darkness and disappear.

  “Goddamn it. Layna,” he barked.

  I choked on a sob.

  “Uncuff her! She needs medical attention!”

  The sob broke free.

  “Look. At. Me,” Buck pleaded.

  I opened my eyes and looked at the man I didn’t deserve. Handcuffed, on his stomach, in the filthy back parking lot of a strip club—I’d done this. I’d done this to him. I’d brought him here. “I’m so sorry,” I cried.

  “Shh. Breathe, baby. In through your nose, out through your mouth.” Turning his head away from me, he yelled out again for André.

  Panting, the urge to go to sleep suddenly overwhelming, my eyes fluttered shut.

  “André!”

  Everything swirled.

  I was vaguely aware of André’s and Buck’s voices. Uncuff her, Officer. Keep breathing, baby. Where’s the goddamn ambulance? Get Talon!

  Then the noises faded to black.

  * * *

  Bright lights, lots of voices, the smell of antiseptic.

  I opened my eyes to see Buck leaning over me. His brow furled, his eyes tight, his elbows were resting on his knees. “You’re in an ambulance.” His voice had no intonation.

  I glanced toward my feet. The back doors to the ambulance were open, and Talon and André were talking to a man in plainclothes who had a badge clipped to his chest pocket. Something tickled my nose and I reached up. Oxygen. I tugged at the plastic.

  Buck placed his hand over mine. “Leave it.”

  Seeing his bloodied, swollen knuckles made my stomach lurch. I ripped off the oxygen and forced myself into a sitting position, biting back a cry of pain from my battered body. “I want to go home.”

  “No.” Buck spoke the single word like a command to a dog.

  I struggled not to react to his tone. “I’m not going to the hospital.”

  A paramedic I hadn’t noticed before placed a gloved hand on my shoulder. “Ma’am, please, lie back down. We’re going to take you in to get checked out.”

  Nauseous, the pain from being punched rivaling my surgery pain, I lost my struggle for composure. “Take him.” I gestured at Buck’s hands. “He’s the one who’s bleeding.”

  Buck’s nostril’s flared, then it was like a switch had been flipped. Every single emotion on his face wiped clean.

  I knew that look. It was his warrior look.

  Rising, shoulders bent to accommodate his height, Buck stood.

  Everything inside me went cold, dead cold. “Blaze.”

  The man with the badge standing outside the ambulance looked up and tipped his chin at Buck.

  I reached for Buck’s arm. “Wait.” But I was too late.

  Buck stepped out of the ambulance.

  I swung my legs off the stretcher, and the paramedic moved to where Buck had been sitting. “Ma’am, you need to lie back.”

  “Talon,” I snapped, holding my side.

  Talon said something to André, glanced at Buck’s retreating back then stepped into the ambulance.

  “I want to go home.” I ignored the catch in my voice. “They can’t force me to go to the hospital.”

  “Stats?” Talon asked the paramedic, ignoring me.

  The paramedic rattled off a bunch of numbers and acronyms I had no clue about.

  “Lie back,” Talon said briskly.

  What? “No.”

  Talon pushed my shoulder at the same time as he cupped the back of my head, lowering me to the stretcher. “Close the doors,” he ordered the paramedic before lifting my legs back onto the stretcher.

  The paramedic pulled the doors shut and Talon reached for the hem of my dress.

  “Stop!” I gripped the thin material.

  Talon’s hands stilled and he met my eyes. “I can check you out here or you can go to the hospital. Your choice.”

  I turned my face in defeat and he lifted my dress to my ribs, exposing my boy-shorts underwear. His warm hands touched the skin around my incisions.

  “Tell me if it hurts,” Talon said without a hint of his accent.

  I nodded but I didn’t say anything. Humilia
ted, I just wanted the intrusion over with.

  “Here?” he asked, pressing harder.

  It hurt but not worse than earlier so I shook my head.

  “Show me where he punched you.”

  I gingerly touched my stomach, right under my ribs.

  “Not in the ribs?”

  “No.” I shook my head and my temple throbbed so bad a wave of nausea threatened.

  Gently, Talon pressed his fingers all around my stomach and ribs, then he pulled my dress back down. Peering into my eyes, he spared a glance at the wound on my head. “She’s good, we’ll watch her for a concussion.” Talon helped me up.

  “Sir,” the paramedic protested.

  Talon put a hand up. “Not my first rodeo, soldier. Army?”

  The paramedic frowned. “How’d you know?”

  Talon smiled. “Haircut.” He slapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks for the help.”

  When we got out of the ambulance, I scanned the parking lot but Buck was nowhere to be seen. If I wasn’t aching everywhere and didn’t feel like I’d hit an emotional wall, I would’ve been panicking that he’d walked out on me.

  “Can you take me home?” I asked Talon.

  “Sure thing, Sugar, give me a minute.”

  Talon strode over to André and the man he was speaking with before. Only one cop car remained and there was no sign of Ariel, Shorty or his men. I waited a few minutes, then all three men approached me. The cop held his hand out.

  “Detective Williamson.”

  He was older than Talon and Buck but not by much. Tall, lean, his brown eyes were shrewd and he looked like nothing got past him. “Jennifer Dellis.”

  “Yes, ma’am, I know. I have to say, I wish you’d come to us awhile ago. We’ve had Maldonado on our radar for quite some time.”

  I only nodded, not sure how much to tell him.

  “I’ll need a statement but I hear you’ve had a pretty long day.” The detective handed me a card. “Call me tomorrow and you can come down to the station.”

  “Okay.” There was no way I was going there without a lawyer.

  André stepped up to my side. “I’ll bring her tomorrow afternoon. I have a morning meeting.”

  I started to protest that André’s work was done, but he put a hand on my back.