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He began to draw his gun from its holster, and I stepped one foot back and pressed my boot into the gravel. I steadied my arm. Sylvie scrambled backward as quickly as she could with only one working arm.

Good girl.

Her father watched her, and he gripped the butt of his gun tighter.

C’mon, jackass. Don’t be that guy.

I had no clue what he would do, if he would really threaten his daughter with a deadly weapon. But he was contemplating it, and that made my choice pretty easy.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I whispered to myself as I waited the last two seconds it took for Sylvie to be a safe distance from her father. I aimed my gun at the meat on the side of his calf. The dude had tree trunks for legs. It was an easy shot. I knew I wouldn’t miss.

Red flinched a little in reaction to the sound when I fired. Sylvie stiffened against the dumpster she had been trying to hide behind, and her dad jerked around in surprise. He hadn’t thought I’d really do it. Shock and disbelief colored his mean face, but he hadn’t been fast enough to beat my bullet. It hit his leg right where I’d aimed, and he dropped where he stood.

Sylvie clambered to her feet and rushed to Red, who was still nursing his wounds on the ground. It said a lot about her relationship with her father.

“Are you okay?” she asked Red and he grunted. I knew him well enough to know he hadn’t been hurt too badly. If he had been, he would’ve been cursing up a storm.

The back door to the community center banged open, and Theo and Brady appeared in the doorway in their pajamas, hair all mussed and eyes blurry with sleep. I didn’t look away from my perp, but I could see Theo’s hair standing up out of the corner of my eye.

“Stay where you are,” I said and they froze.

I hit the PTT button on my radio. “Shelley, send an ambulance to the alley behind Ace’s House.”

“Dispatched ’em already,” she replied. “I’ve been watchin’ y’all on the security feed. I pulled it up when I heard the commotion. That guy messed Red up proper. Frank should be there any second, and Roxanne and Dan are on their way to you now too.”

“Thanks.”

I didn’t holster my weapon as I approached the father of the year, but he clutched at his leg as he glared up at me. Pfft. His next mistake had been underestimating my aim.

“Move and I shoot again. Capiche?”

“Fuckin’ cunt,” he spat up at me, and then he literally spat at me.

“Nice to meet you too,” I said, stepping away from his loogie. “Oh, and you’re under arrest.”

I disarmed and cuffed him, but I was nice and didn’t do it behind his back. I read him his rights and let him hold his leg and curse till the ambulance got there. He hadn’t apologized to his daughter. She was still shaking and nursing her arm next to Red. They looked like twins, both of them babying their left arms with their right. Sylvie’s father made sure to sling a few loogies at his daughter, too, before he was hauled off in the ambulance. Right before the paramedics closed the bay doors, he hollered, “Don’t you go back home! You ain’t welcome in my house anymore!”

As they drove off with the douchebag cuffed to a stretcher and Roxanne looming over him, clutching her Taser in her hand, I kneeled in front of Red and looked him over. “You okay there, old man?”

“I’ll live,” he grunted. The tired look in his eyes caused a pang of sadness in my gut. It didn’t look like he needed to go back to bed, but more like the world had worn him out.

“What happened?” I asked both him and Sylvie.

She looked at the ground again, and Red stared at the side of her face.

“C’mon. Somebody’s gotta tell me.”

I would’ve laughed at Red’s inability to say whatever the hell had been caught in his throat—it was just so unlike him not to have a mouthful—if he hadn’t seemed so upset.

I concentrated on Sylvie for a minute while Red gathered himself. He stood, and I held out my arm for him to use for support. He actually took hold of it and steadied himself. I didn’t make a big deal about it, but it was a big deal. Red wasn’t one to reach out to anybody.

“What’s your last name, Sylvie?”

“Locke.”

I heard Frank arrive behind me. When I glanced over my shoulder, he was already in a huddle with Red, hopefully getting Red’s side of the story.

Turning back toward Sylvie, I called behind me. “Frank?”