Love's Protector: A Maverick's Shield Novel (24 page)

He glanced over and saw Amour curled up in a ball on the floor of the truck, trembling. “Are you okay?”

She shook her head. “N…No.”

“Stay down.” Removing his gun from his waist band, he slowly stepped out of the truck and quickly but carefully walked around it to ensure that no one was there. From what he could see, the other car was still there crashed against the wall down the alley. He wasn’t sure if anyone was still in the car, but at the moment, his only concern was Amour’s safety. He reached for the handle of the passenger door and quickly opened it. Holding his hand out, he beckoned for her to grab his hand and step out.

“I’m scared,” she said trembling.

“I can’t drive my car anymore it’s wrecked. I need to get you somewhere safe so I can call one of the guys to come and get us.”

“W…Where are the people that shot at us?”

“I don’t know, probably knocked out in that car but I don’t want to take any chances. There’s a McDonald’s right across the street. I want to go inside there so I can make the phone call. We need to hurry.”

She grabbed her purse and his hand and quickly stepped out of the truck. They had already walked about halfway to their destination when Jason felt a chill run down his spine. There was no need to analyze what it could possibly mean because he knew exactly why he’d felt it. He quickly shoved Amour in the direction of the restaurant. “Run! Now!” When she’d done so, he stood and watched her as she made her way to the door of the restaurant and also as he felt the barrel of a shot gut press against the back of his head.

Amour paced back and forth in the bathroom of the McDonald’s Jason had told her to run to. Her whole body was shaking with fear with the thoughts of what could possibly be happening to Jason right now. She shouldn’t have left him. She knew he was just trying to keep her safe but still, she should be there to help him. He could take care of himself though. He’s smart and tough. Now if she could just convince herself of that instead of just saying it to herself over and over she would probably feel better about this. What was she going to do? She had to do something. She quickly left out of the bathroom and peeked outside of the window of the restaurant to see if she could see anything across the street.
Nothing, absolutely nothing. She opened the door and poked her head out to see if she could hear anything but she heard nothing but cars passing by and random people wandering the streets. Every part of her body started to tremble even more. She was so scared for Jason that her stomach started to do flips and a tear ran down her cheek.

“Are you alright my dear?” an elderly woman asked after stepping in front of her.

He mind was so occupied she didn’t even realize the woman was there. “What?”

“I said are you alright? Do you need some help?”

“No, I’m fine.”

The woman made a face telling Amour that she didn’t believe her. “Honey if you need help,
don’t be afraid to ask. You’re crying, now something has to be wrong. People don’t cry unless they’re happy or something is really bothering them and you don’t look happy to me.”

Yes, something was wrong. Something was
very
wrong but she didn’t have time for this. She had to get away from this woman…now. “Umm…I just need to go to the restroom. I’ll be fine, thanks for your concern.”

Before the woman could reply to her, she hurried back to the restroom. Once inside, she took a deep breath trying to calm down but she couldn’t help but feel responsible for all of this. Jason was out there risking his life over information that
she
came here to get. Although she knew that Jason wouldn’t see it that way especially since doing such things was part of his job, this was still
her
fault. Jason’s blood would be on
her
hands if anything happened to him. She had to do something, but what? She couldn’t call the police even though she was tempted to. If she did, they’d probably kill him before the cops even had a chance to arrive. Not wanting to betray Jason’s trust again by going against his orders and doing something foolish, all she could do was get down on her knees and pray.

* * *

Jason stood in the alley with a shot gun pressed to the back of his head and no clue how he was going to get out of this situation. He hoped to god Amour made it to the restaurant safely. If he was going to die today, he didn’t need her to join him. He took in a deep breath and tried to think of a strategy to get out of this mess but to no avail. It was looking more and more like he was a dead man.

“Drop the gun!” the other man said as he continued to press the barrel to Jason’s head.

He had no choice but to oblige if he wanted to stay alive so he did as he was told. Perhaps doing just that and trying to reason with this man would buy him some precious time. “Look man, just tell me who sent you after us and I’ll make sure they won’t find out you told me.”

“Do you really think I’m stupid? I’m not telling you shit! Now get on the ground before I pull the trigger!”

Ok…so that didn’t work. “Why? I can’t do anything to you and if I run you’ll just shoot me.”

He shoved Jason causing him to stumble forward. “I said get your ass on the ground!”

“Alright!” He slowly lowered himself on the pavement lying flat down on his belly. The other man kicked Jason’s gun off to the side and he heard it hit the wall.
So much for using that
.

The man pressed the barrel of his gun harder to the back of Jason’s head. “I actually had strict orders to off that bitch but I think I’m gonna enjoy killing you as well.” He laughed softly. “Looks like you hooked up with the wrong chick!”

“Fuck you!”

“Mighty big words for someone lying on the ground with a gun to their head.
You seem to have a lot of balls to do the shit that you do! Did you really think that I wouldn’t find out that you paid Marcus a little visit today?”

“I guess word travels fast when you’re in law breaking business.” He lifted his hand off the ground. “Look man; if you’re gonna kill me I’d suggest you do it now because if you don’t, I promise you there will be no other opportunities.”

He laughed again. “What are you gonna do pretty boy? If you try anything I’ll put a bullet in your head.”

“Then do it!” Jason exclaimed.

“Fine, have it your way. Just so you know, when I’m don’t killing you, I’m going to find that bitch and do the same thing to her except her death won’t be so easy.”

Jason heard the click of the man’s gun and knew he was about five seconds away from taking his last breath. His life flashed before his eyes with thoughts of his mother, Oscar, and even his father; but even more than any of them…Amour. He pictured her beautiful face staring down at him and slowly closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable as thoughts of her flooded his mind. When the pressure of the barrel increased in the back of his head, he breathed in deeply as the pebbles and debris from the pavement started to pierce the side of his face and the palms of his hands. He wasn’t ready to die at this point in his life but knowing his mother and Amour would be alright, he was able to accept it. He mentally counted from one in his head as a peaceful calm came over him and he prepared himself to leave this earth.
One, two, three, four, five
…He counted away as he laid there waiting for the blast.

“Say you prayers pretty boy!”

“Why don’t you say yours asshole!”

Jason’s mind was very distracted but that almost sounded like…He lifted his head and looked behind him but he didn’t get up from the ground. His eyes widened in surprise when he’d realized who had said those words.

The click of another gun sounded. “Drop it or I’ll blow you fucking brains out!”

Jason couldn’t believe it. “Mack? How the hell did you find me?”

“Don’t worry about all that. Just get your ass up so we can beat the shit out of this prick or whatever you plan to do with him.”

Jason got up from the ground and went to grab his gun. By the time he’d gotten back over to the two of them, the other man had dropped his weapon. “Now I want
your
ass to get on the ground,” Jason said.

“Please don’t kill me!” The other man pleaded.

“I won’t if you tell me who you are and who you’re working for!”

“I can’t do that! They’ll kill me!”

Jason fired one shot in the man’s leg and he started to scream in agony. “
I’ll
kill you if you don’t!”

“My name is Armando!”

“Who in the fuck are you working for?” After Armando’s long hesitation, Jason fired another shot in his knee cap causing him to scream even louder in agony. “I said who are you working for?”

He took in several breaths.
“Mrs. H…Harrington.”

He clenched his leg and Jason could tell he was thriving in pain. He turned to Mack.
“Just as I suspected.”

“Is he talking about Mrs. Harrington as in the senator’s wife?” Mack asked.

“Yes. I’m afraid so.”

“Get the fuck out of here!”

Jason nodded as he heard sirens getting closer and closer to them. “Looks like the cops are on their way. I guess we can claim self defense here.”

Mack chuckled. “Well I technically can’t, but I will.”

Two police cruisers pulled up into the alley and stopped in front of the three of them. A female officer in the passenger seat of one of the cruisers got out and opened the back passenger door.

“Jason!”

He turned around to Amour hopping out of the back of the cruiser and running towards him. When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tightly against her. A huge sigh of relief washed over him as he held her back. “Oh baby, I’m so glad you’re okay!”

He kissed the top of her head and she looked up at him and touched the side of his face. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you? I told the police everything.”

“No sweetheart, they didn’t hurt me. I’m fine.”

She planted a kiss on his lips that lasted at least sixty seconds. “Thank goodness you’re alive. I was so worried!”

The female officer who let her out of the car approached them. “Ms. Graciette I need you to come and speak with us.”

She looked at Jason as if she needed his approval. “Go ahead sweetheart,” he told her. He glanced up to find Mack starting at him with smirk and a cocked eyebrow. “What?”

Mack’s smirk turned into a full out grin. “Well, it looks like somebody’s been getting some.”

Jason’s expression turned serious.
“Really Mack? At a time like this?”

“I’m just saying.”

“Well don’t.”

Mack threw his hands up. “Sorry…”

Jason stopped Mack before he could walk away. “Hey!”

Mack turned and faced him. “What’s up man?”

Jason walked up to him gave him a hug. “Thanks man.” The hug lasted a few more seconds and then the two of them parted.

“Don’t worry about it man. You would’ve done the same thing for me.”

“You bet your ass I would have.” Mack gave him a salute but remained silent. “A man, you never told me how you found us.”

“Chandra called me after she ran a trace on your cell when she heard you crash.”

“Did she send the cops here?”

“Most likely or somebody over here did.”

“She said she had some info for me.”

“She does. She wants us to meet her at her house after we’re done here,” Mack said.

“Okay. I sure hope it’s something good because all of this uncertainty is really starting to piss me off!”

“I hear ya man. Now let’s go talk to these damn cops and get out of here because I’m hungry as hell!”

After Jason and Amour had their medical examinations, they’d gone home to shower and change before meeting up with Mack again at Chandra’s place. The four of them were sitting at her kitchen table when she plopped a large envelope full of a stack of papers on the top of it.

“Here are the phone records of that inmate you asked about Jason,” she said before biting off a piece of one of the bread sticks that came with the pizza they’d ordered.

Jason dumped the contents of the envelope on the table and studied them. After a few minutes he looked up. “I’ve noticed that he’s made a lot of calls to a lot of various numbers, but he’s called this five six two number quite a bit. As a matter of fact, he’s called it twelve times in the last few days.”

“Well I can do a reverse look-up on it and see whose it is. That would probably be better than just calling them out of the blue. They’ll probably just get spooked and hang up anyway,” Chandra said as she grabbed her laptop off of the bar. She sat it in front of her on the table and began typing the number in the search engine. After a few second’s she looked up at Jason. “This number belongs to Carter Medical Center in Downey.”

“Where’s Downey?” Amour asked.

Chandra took another bite of her bread stick. “It’s about twenty minutes from here.”  

Mack stood. “Well what are we still sitting here for? Let’s take a little trip to Downey.”

Amour stood as well and grabbed her purse. “But we don’t know who he was calling?”

Jason put his arm around her waist. “We’ll find out.”