413 Cherry Street

“No more running,” he barks as I yank my arm, trying to get away. It’s like it’s wedged in cement. I can’t get out of his grip.

“Help!” Madison screams at the top of her lungs.

Muscles turns his attention onto her to shut her up. He’s distracted. I take advantage of the opportunity and kick him in the balls as hard as I can. He grunts as he doubles over.

“You bitch,” he hisses through clenched teeth. “I’m going to make you suffer for that.”

He pulls out a knife. Madison and I recoil against the brick wall. There’s nowhere to go.

Just as he lunges forward with it, a sleek black car comes peeling out of nowhere and jumps the sidewalk. It slams into him, sending him flying into the brick wall of the shop. Muscles collapses onto the sidewalk as the car stops and Liam explodes out of it.

Madison takes off running down the street. I’d follow her if I could, but I don’t want to leave Liam.

The three others arrive, huffing and cursing at us for making them run.

Liam charges past me and collides into them. He cracks sunglasses in the jaw, dropping him with one hard punch.

The guy in the hoodie is a little faster and hits Liam in the back of the head. All it does is anger him. He spins around and lands a devastating combination of punches that knocks the guy out before he even hits the ground. He’s out of it when he falls to the sidewalk, arms and legs stiff.

The sketchy guy who started all of this pulls out a gun and points it at Liam’s chest.

“Stop right there,” he barks. “You know her?”

“She’s my girl,” Liam hisses.

Even in all of this chaos, in all of this danger, I still get a fluttery feeling in my chest when I hear Liam call me his girl.

I hope we get through this safely so we can be a couple for longer than one night.

“Well, your girl owes me two hundred grand,” sketchy guy says as he shoots me a vicious glare. “She stole my coke and my gun.”

“I was returning it,” I shout back in outrage.

“You should have minded your own fucking business,” he snaps.

“I’ll get you the money,” Liam says calmly. “With interest too. How does two hundred and fifty thousand dollars sound?”

“It sounds like you better get your ass to the bank. Now. Or, she gets one in the temple.”

I gulp, knowing he’s serious.

“She’s not leaving my side,” Liam says in a flat tone that means this is not up for discussion.

“She’s staying with me,” sketchy guy says.

“No. She’s not.”

They glare at each other. I’ve gotten a taste of how possessive Liam is of me and I know there’s no way he’s going to leave me alone with this creep.

A glint of light catches my eye. I spot the knife on the sidewalk and swallow hard. I can’t reach for it or sketchy guy might shoot Liam and then go for me.

“Last chance,” sketchy guy says. “Go get my money or you’re both dead.”

“I’m not leaving her,” Liam says, staring at him defiantly.

“Fine.”

Liam leaps forward as he’s about to shoot. He grabs his arm and yanks it up. The gun goes off and the bullet fires into the air. They’re struggling over the weapon. Viciously fighting as I scream out Liam’s name. “Liam!” I kick the knife toward him and he swoops down, grabs it, and shoves it into sketchy guy’s ribs.

The fight is over after that. Sketchy guy collapses to the ground and Liam disarms him. He holds the gun, pointing it at any of the four guys whenever they move.

“Call the cops,” Liam tells me. “Tell them to send an ambulance.”

I quickly call 911 and tell them we need police assistance and an ambulance.

Within a minute and a half, two cop cars pull onto the scene and officers jump out with their guns drawn.

“Put your hands up!” the same cop from yesterday hollers at me.

Oh shit. Here we go again…

Chapter Ten

Liam

“Is that the cop who arrested you?” I ask Hazel as we hold our hands in the air.

“Shut up!” the cop shouts.

“I know you’re not talking to my girl like that,” I say as rage fills me up. This is the second time this man has held a gun at my girl and there won’t be a third time. Cop or not, I’ll kill anyone who threatens my angel.

“Keep your hands in the air,” he hollers. I can tell he’s afraid. His voice is all shaky and there’s a sheen of sweat on his forehead. If he wasn’t such a scared cop, maybe he would have listened to Hazel when she tried to tell him the truth about what happened yesterday.

“I’m a lawyer,” I say in a forceful tone. I want to come across as aggressive, so they’ll all point their guns at me and leave Hazel alone. It works. I have three guns trained on me. “I work at Garret and Black Law Firm. I can explain what happened. These four men assaulted us.”