Page 64 of I Do, or Dye Trying

“I don’t believe it,” I said. “You went out of your way to help me investigate leads on his case in your free time.”

“No, I was making sure you never learned the truth. I might’ve recommended you for promotion as my partner for purely selfish reasons, but along the way, I came to love you like a son. I didn’t fake my affection for you, but then you went and stabbed me in the back. I’m not sorry that I killed your brother anymore. In fact, I’m going to kill your husband with the same gun I used to kill him.” Jimmy jammed the gun in Josh’s head again for emphasis.

He was right. His words cut me to the bone. I hated the thought of my brother afraid and scared. Had Dylan known he was going to die? Did he die instantly or did he linger slowly in a pool of blood and melted ice cream. “I fucking hate you.”

“Good, and now for my final act…”

“Put your hands up, you dumb son of a bitch, and I won’t blow your fucking ass away!” Sassy said loudly, repeating a line from a movie she’d recently heard. Her voice was so clear that it sounded like a person and it was the distraction I needed to go for my gun. I dropped to my stomach and aimed at Jimmy, but I wasn’t the only one Sassy spurred to action.

I watched in awe as Josh elbowed Jimmy in the stomach, stomped down hard on his foot, rammed his head back into Jimmy’s nose, and brought his hand back and tagged Jimmy hard in the balls. Jimmy had dropped his gun in the middle of Josh’s assault, and Josh kicked it out of Jimmy’s reach like a pro. Once Josh got free from Jimmy, he turned around and kicked him in the ribs. The air in Jimmy’s lungs loudly expelled as he collapsed writhing on the floor, unsure of where to put his hands. I’d seen a bit of Josh’s skill when he took down Billy, but the moves he used on Jimmy were something spectacular.

I scrambled over to Jimmy and pushed him down face first into the carpet. “Josh, go get my cuffs from the bedroom.”

“Don’t let him bleed all over my rug. Drag his sorry ass to the hardwood floor so I can mop it up later,” he said as he ran from the room.

“Where the fuck is my dog, you sick bastard?” I demanded to know.

“He’s just sleeping,” Jimmy said. “I couldn’t hurt an innocent animal.”

“But innocent people like my brother and my husband, are okay?” I asked him. “Never mind, don’t answer that question. Save your breath for your attorney.”

“I can’t go to prison, kid. I won’t last a minute there. It doesn’t matter if they keep me out of general population either and you know it. The inmates will pay off a guard to slip them inside so they can kill me.”

“You’re going to die anyway,” I said. “Isn’t that what you said about Ace Dixon? Am I supposed to feel sorry for you after what you confessed to doing before my husband took you out?”

“Detective Wyatt,” Officer Wen hollered from the kitchen.

“In here, Wen,” I yelled back. “I’ve apprehended the fugitive.”

“Are you taking credit for my work?” Josh asked when he ran back in the room and handed me the cuffs.

I secured Jimmy and jerked him to his feet. “Check him for secondary weapons, take him to the station, and phone Deputy Marshal Matthews.” Then I told them about Jimmy’s confession about killing my brother and his claim that the gun they took into evidence was the murder weapon.

I heard toenails on the hardwood floor and looked up to see Buddy walking groggily into the room. “Josh, please call Kyle and ask him to come back to check on Buddy. I don’t want to take any chances.”

“We’re going to need you to fill out a report,” Wen said with a crooked smile once I finished barking orders.

“I’ll be there first thing in the morning,” I promised Wen.

Kyle came right away and listened to Buddy’s vitals. “He sounds good, but I’d like to pump his stomach, flush him with IVs, and keep him overnight as a precaution if that’s okay with you,” he said.

“Whatever Buddy needs,” I told him.

“I’ll call you guys in the morning and let you know how he’s doing,” Kyle said.

I carried Buddy out to Kyle’s truck and promised I’d pick him up as soon as possible. Kyle smirked at my puppy dog voice but didn’t comment. I returned to the house and breathed my first real sigh of relief since the police hauled Jimmy out of our house. The threat to my family was over, and I could focus all my energy on good things. Then I saw the thunderous expression on Josh’s face and stopped in my tracks.

“What did I do?” I asked, knowing that I was in trouble but not knowing why.

“What the fuck was that ‘let’s take a ride’ bullshit?” Josh demanded. “You thought it was okay just to let him drive off someplace and shoot you?” He was so angry that his voice cracked and tears threatened to spill. Chaz once told me to avoid making Josh mad enough to cry or risk having him rip my arm off and beat me to death with it. I scoffed then, but I wasn’t when faced with snapping hazel eyes that had turned brown with rage.

“Sunshine, I was just buying us time. I remembered what you and Adrian said about yapping villains, and I just thought I could buy some time for the BPD to arrive.” I was hoping that my praise got me out of trouble a little bit. “It turned out we didn’t need them because you used badass moves to take down a gunman and…”Oh my God! Josh could’ve been killed! “What the fuck were you thinking?” I yelled, suddenly angry at the risk he’d taken.

“Me? What about you?” Josh yelled back.

We argued back and forth for several minutes until we both wound down once we realized that we were wasting energy on fighting when we could be loving. “Where’d you learn those moves?” I finally asked once I pulled him into my arms, relieved that we were both okay.

“Miss Congeniality,” he replied.