Page 49 of Enforce This
“E–” Tiffany whispered, once Lou had trotted closer to the crowd and left her to the wolves for a moment.
“Don’t,” I advised.
“This isn’t easy, but I’m going to need you to–”
“What isn’t easy?” I locked my eyes on her and all the dark parts of me unleashed on her at once, “It looked pretty fucking easy, from where I was sitting on the back of my bike. You chased my brother to his death.”
“Okay.” She bobbed her head, the same way she used to do when we were sixteen years old. She raised her voice like it would help assert herself and began to tick her pointer finger against each of the fingers on her opposite hand. “Your brother, just exchanged fire with a second party in a residential neighborhood. He resisted arrest and fled from law enforcement. I witnessed him recklessly discharging a weapon while operating a motor vehicle. Remind me again, is– Your brother allowed to be in possession of a weapon? Isn’t he a convicted drug trafficker?”
“You fucking skank!” Crystal roared. She had a cop on each of her arms and had finally stood back up, so she didn’t hesitate to kick her stiletto-clad foot. She caught Tiffany hard enough to send her flying into my arms.
I caught both of her wrists while Oak flailed in a startled response, probably unsure of whether he should catch the falling lady or keep me out of an orange jumpsuit.
I squeezed as hard as I could, hauled her against my chest and whispered, “You’re not worth my fucking spit.”
“Eric. There was an incident with Feloni Miller this morning,” she blurted out, in a quiet, fearful tone.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Eric
Everything in me went limp and she jerked her hands free and rubbed her wrist. I swallowed, my pulse pounding in my ears. My knees became weak while I stared at Tiffany’s lips more intently than I had when I was swooning the panties off of her.
“Don’t fucking say it…” I begged her, setting my jaw to keep a brave face.
“Eric,” a frantic, familiar voice broke through my pain.
It was the same voice that had always been there to make shit better. I blinked at Tiffany, and she glanced past me in the direction Anthony was supposed to lead his envoy.
A crossover was parked on the wrong side of the road. The driver’s side door was ajar, and that wild, salt-and-pepper mane was bouncing wildly as Daisy scrambled across the embankment and back onto the road.
“Eric, I’m sorry. Oh my God… I’m so sorr…” She trailed off and gave a confused glance over her shoulder.
I started gravitating toward her, my throat too full of emotion for words. I felt like so much had been crammed down my throat lately that I was choking. I couldn’t breathe. My eyes burned. Whether it was from the chemicals in the air, or tears… Who knew…
I finally realized what she was looking at.
Between the stop light and what was left of the nurse tank, lay the front of Anthony’s bike. The handlebar and front wheel.
“Who–?” she gasped, the word catching when she saw Crystal numbly staring at the wreckage. Her shoulders were so slumped and defeated, it was obvious who we had lost.
“No!” she wailed, drawing her limbs toward her body, and stepping away from the wreck. Though she had put six inches of distance between her and that mess, she was pointedly and painfully shifting her attention from the remains of his bike to the fire.
I knew what she was doing. And though I didn’t have it in me, I numbly went to her and hauled her against my kutte. I placed my hand on the back of her head and forced her to look away.
“Stop,” I insisted, taking each side of her face in my hands. I pinned that long hair against her cheeks and kept talking while she attempted several words and started to gasp and make tiny unintelligible sounds.
“He–” She gaped and tried to turn against my hands and look.
“He’s gone, Aunt Daisy,” I huffed past my emotions and tore her back to face me.
I planted my forehead against hers the way she used to force me to do when I broke down all those times after my parents died.
“No!” she ruggedly wailed, in that lost maternal way.
Her legs gave out, and I was so beat, I went down with her.
I rocked her in my arms while she silently sobbed.
