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“Carter didn’t know,” Doc said and started to get out. “I’m gonna call him now.”
When Doc got out of the car to go in the house along with his men, as they always did, the six of them had surrounded Doc when Richard saw a car coming down the street fast.
“Car coming up fast.”
At that, Doc’s men moved closer.
“Gun!” Richard shouted.
Doc immediately hit the ground and was protected by his men. When the car drove off, Richard looked around, and since everybody was all right and the threat had passed, Doc got up.
“Everybody all right?” Doc asked right before the bullet hit him in the temple and the impact blew half of his head away.
“I just got off the phone with Doc,” Carter said to Jackie as Travis walked up with Fiona. “I told him what happened here and told him to be alert.”
“Why are you three still here?” Lexi asked and pointed toward the rear of the club. She looked at the carnage left by the shooters. At that point, the dead and injured were too many to count, and that included Smoke who died in the shootout. The list of casualties also included Cristal, who was shot while performing. Thanks to the quick actions of her label mates, she was literally dragged off stage and was rushed to the hospital and was listed in guarded condition.
Lexi had another look around to be sure that no members of the family were still in the building and didn’t see any. As soon as the shooting stopped, Lexi saw Ryder leaving the club with Baby Chris. Knowing that his priority was Barbara, RJ kept heading for the back door once he had his sister. As for the rest of the Kings, they wasted no time getting out of there once the shooting stopped.
“You need to get out of here before the cops get here,” Lexi said and kept moving.
“We’re going,” Carter said. He looked around quickly for Fantasy.
“I’m here,” she s
aid.
“Come on.” Carter grabbed her hand. “Are you all right?” he asked as they followed Jackie, Travis and Fiona to the rear of the club.
“I’m all right,” Fantasy promised as they went out the back entrance.
Lexi stopped and watched them leave and when she turned around, she saw Detectives Bautista and Dickerson enter Cuisine. She took a deep breath and went to greet them. Bautista held out her arms as Lexi approached.
“What the fuck?” Bautista said looking at all the blood and body’s.
“Can you tell me what happened here?” Dickerson asked and prepared to receive the standard answer.
“I was in my office when the shooting started, so I didn’t see anything,” Lexi said. “When I came out,” Lexi held her arms out. “This is what I found.”
“Do you …” Dickerson began, but then he paused and looked at Lexi. “I was gonna ask if you had any idea who hit you guys, but what’s the point. You’re gonna say, no, you have no idea, and I’m gonna say, well, if you hear anything—blah, blah, blah. You fuckin’ people get on my nerves with this shit,” Dickerson said and walked away.
Bautista smiled at Lexi, and she shrugged her shoulders. “If I hear anything, I will be sure to let you know, Detective Bautista,” Lexi said.
“Right,” Bautista said and walked away as more first responders; emergency personnel, officers and crime scene technicians entered Cuisine. There were two other Detectives that had arrived at the Cuisine crime scene, but they chose not to come inside. Kirk and Dawkins were parked across the street, leaning on the hood of their car, watching the flurry of activity and wondering.
“What the fuck is going on?” Dawkins asked.
“I don’t know,” Kirk said, concerned for more than just professional reasons. The Detective had been dancing with Mike Black since they were both young men. It wasn’t what either of them would call a friendship, but it was something. And yeah, it meant something to them both. “I’ve been around these guys for a long time, I’ve seen them go to war a bunch of times, against a bunch of people over the years and come out on top. But in all that time I’ve never seen anybody go this hard at them before.”
Since both Detectives had something of a vested interest in the case because of who they were connected to, they both wanted to stick their hands in, especially Dawkins, but since Bautista was lead Detective, they agreed that it was best that they stay out of it.
That was about to change.
“We got a call. McGraw wants to talk to us,” Dawkins said, and the Detectives got in their car and drove away.
It was just about that time that Judah got a call from Richard. “What’s up, Richard?” Judah asked as he and Pills drove away from Cuisine.
“Glad you’re all right,” Richard said.