Page 105 of Rules of Engagement

Damien stepped back, swinging around so that he could still see Maddox but aiming the gun now at me. I steadied myself, getting prepared for the inevitable moment he shot me. Over his shoulder, I could see into the living room, and the silent police cars arriving on the street, streaking past one after the other. Damien's chances of escape were already lost but I didn't want him to feel cornered or that he had to shoot his way out. Somehow, I didn't think his debt would end with his death. I worried the Copleys or Dutku's men would still come after Solomon and Anastasia to collect all of the payments. Undoubtedly, I would become leverage.

"Look at me, Damien," I said. "I'm telling you the truth. You have an attractive option. You can make a deal for immunity and tell Garrett everything. You can go into witness protection and take this whole gang down like a good police officer. Don't you want that?"

"More than anything, but they're like a hydra. Cut off one head, and two more heads grow back."

"Fine! Then we take down everyone. You know what they do, don't you? You must have plenty of inside information."

"I know a lot. I know how Dutku launders his money and the Copleys' money too. I’m also familiar with their gambling rings, and I know how they ship their drugs from Boston to Montgomery and beyond. Hell, I even know where they bury their bodies! I know how the Niners got involved and that Dutku pulls all the strings, and I know that I'm implicated in a bunch of it."

"Is that what was in Lucas's file?"

"There was a photo I saw and it wouldn't take long for someone else to figure out it was me."

"You'd already tried to influence Garrett's investigation," I said.

Damien nodded. "They had so many ideas at first and none of them were right, then things started coming together. Dutku called me. He told me to make sure it didn't come back on the Niners because if any connections were made to him, we would all be worse than dead," he said, sounding utterly defeated.

"What could possibly be worse than dead?"

"We'd all be implicated. They threatened to plant drugs on Anastasia and leave an anonymous tip, or hide some stuff at the agency if the hit man came back on them. However, Mikey Gibb got picked up and I couldn't make it go away. I thought I could throw you off a little longer, just to get enough time to collect all the money together. But when I left PD earlier, they called me and said there was a man at the hospital, waiting to make his move. I got all the cash I could find. Now you and I are going to go out and get the rest of it."

"You're forgetting something," I said.

"What?" Damien glared at me, his eyes staying on mine for a fraction too long.

Behind him, Maddox grabbed the lamp from the console table and swung it hard, cracking Damien squarely on the back of his head. His gun fired and I reflexively dropped to the floor. A piece of plaster ricocheted from the wall behind me.

Within seconds, the door smashed inwards. Police officers in bulletproof vests surged forward to surround us, shouting at us to drop our weapons. On the floor, I released my grip on my gun and stuck my hands up high. Maddox dropped the remains of the shattered lamp.

"You two okay?" asked Garrett, running in. He wore a flak jacket over his clothes and had his gun drawn and ready.

"I am. Maddox?"

"Never better," said Maddox. He dusted his hands against his jeans and grinned.

"Damien?" I asked.

Garrett bent down next to him, placing two fingers at his neck. "He's out cold. Someone, get an EMT in here. What happened?"

"Damien was just agreeing to help take down the Niners and their Boston connections when he started to panic. He took his eyes off Maddox and that was when Maddox made his move. Damien wasn't aiming for me but his gun went off." It wasn't quite the truth but it might have helped Damien avoid a lengthier prison sentence, or a very short and brutal one. Perhaps now that he was about to be taken into custody, he would realize that my way of fixing things was a lot better than his.

"Get that gun off my sister!" said Garrett to the only officer with a gun trained on me. "Are you the only cop in Montgomery who doesn't know who she is?"

The cop sheathed his gun and gave me an apologetic smile.

"Where did Damien get his weapon?" asked Garrett, kicking the gun that was still resting in Damien's fingers away from him. It skidded to a stop a couple meters from me.

"Not sure but possibly from Solomon's gun safe," I said. I wasn't sure how many weapons in Solomon's concealed safe were legal, but I really didn't want to get into that right now. "Or maybe from somewhere else. I don't know."

"That ambo on its way?" asked Garrett over his shoulder to one of the officers. "Where did you learn to swing a lamp like that, Maddox?"

"Two years of tennis camp," said Maddox.

"I have a doubles game this weekend. Want to pitch in as my partner?" asked Garrett. "We might win with that kind of an aggressive swing."

Maddox grinned again. "I'm in!"

"Now that you two have your tennis date sorted out, can I get a ride to the hospital?" I asked.

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