Page 64 of Judgments of Fire and Desire

The gun went off, causing Genesis and me to hit the floor. When I heard her moan, I spun around to see her wincing in pain. “Genesis! Nooo! Where are you hit at, baby?”

I looked over her body and didn’t see blood until I got to her foot. There was blood all over it. I quickly began unbuttoning my shirt, prepared to tie her foot with it, when I felt the barrel of the gun pressed to the back of my head. Genesis’s eyes widened as I stared at her. The tears were falling down her cheeks. I gently swiped them with my hand.

“I love you so much, baby.”

“Noooooo!” she screamed. “Sammy, please!”

“I’m so sorry, Genesis! I have to do it.”

“No, you don’t! They are going to kill you too. Can’t you see that? They aren’t going to let you live to tell about this. Theyaren’t going to take that risk! Please. I’m begging you. Ooooh my God,” Genesis said as I glanced down at her foot.

She was losing a lot of blood. Suddenly, there was a gunshot, and Samuel fell to the floor as Genesis screamed and cried. Her agony at this moment was tearing me apart, and I wanted to comfort her so badly. AJ was standing there with his weapon and slowly shook his head. “This emotional shit is on my last nerve. Genesis, I hate you got wrapped up in this. You really are a good person. Despite Samuel speaking up for you, you deserved to be chief. Unfortunately, there is no way you can live with what all you know. I know you know a lot since you’re tied to this man.”

He cocked the gun and pointed it toward us. I lay on top of her, trying to do anything to buy time, hoping someone would intervene before he could get to her.

“You, though. Man, you are too smart for your own good. This had nothing to do with you. We were running Beaumont until Darlene had to mess up and take too much money at once. She drew attention to us, and she had to go. Making it look like she did it herself was great work by the C.O. Now you will have to suffer the same fate.”

Stephanie smiled as AJ aimed his weapon and was about to fire until a bullet went right through his head then another through Stephanie’s. I closed my eyes, feeling relief flood my being. Easing off Genesis, I looked up to see Tyson standing there. He looked at us and yelled, “We need a bus! Who’s hit?”

Blood was all over the floor and was on both of us as well. “Genesis got shot in the foot.”

I quickly took off my shirt, what I was attempting to do earlier, to make a tourniquet for her foot. I needed to slow the blood loss as much as possible. She was starting to blink slowly. “Baby, this is about to really hurt.”

When I pulled my shirt tighter around her foot, she yelled out in pain. I immediately went to her and held her in my arms as Tyson knelt to check Sam’s pulse. “Yo! He still has a pulse!”

Lieutenant Gamble and Genesis’s coworker, Bransford, came over where we were. I recognized him from the news when he was seeking the appointment against Genesis. He knelt beside her and grabbed her hand as he nodded at me. “Chief, we got you. You’re gonna be okay.”

Genesis nodded as I stared at her, doing my best to hold in my emotions, but I failed miserably. A couple of tears fell down my cheeks as she stared at me. I was so scared I was either going to lose her or she would lose me. Either way, I didn’t want to be without her. Heaven could wait. She brought her free hand to mine and gently held my cheek.

I could hear sirens, so I turned to Tyson. “Man, I owe you my life. We were about to die. How did you get in here?”

“I knew you had plans with your lady last night, so after I left the note, I went to the fire station. I knew Bransford was cool with Lieutenant Gamble. I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing me at the police station and overhearing what I had to say. I didn’t even want to write names in that note just in case someone else got ahold of it first. I was risking a lot by putting my name on it. I overheard one of the detectives talking to an engineer about making sure the cameras wouldn’t be functional tonight.”

He slowly shook his head. “I knew we needed to get a team together and fast. Gamble got at least thirty officers to show up here tonight, and that was how we were able to get in. Carl joined us as well. He said there is a camera that isn’t on the same network as the others. Not many people know that.”

“Carl… the DA?”

“Yeah. I was worried that he was one of them for a while, since he didn’t seem to be investigating anything after Darlene, but to my surprise, he was. He has an entire file on whowere suspected players. He just couldn’t take a chance saying anything to anyone about it.”

I nodded as paramedics rushed inside, going to Samuel first. When the bullet hit him, I thought he was gone. Clearly, AJ wasn’t as good a shot as he thought he was if he still had a pulse. I knew he didn’t shoot him in the head, but I was sure he’d gotten him in the chest from the back. Not long after, another set of medics came in to see about Genesis. I looked down at her to see her eyes were closed.

Just as I was about to panic, she opened them. “I’m going to be okay, Kyrie. I just feel tired from the blood loss.”

I nodded then released her so they could get to her and get her to the hospital. I stood from the floor and shook Tyson’s hand then pulled him in for a hug. “You are the definition of a true friend. Whenever Genesis and I set a date, I want you to be my best man.”

He frowned slightly. “You proposed?”

“Yeah. Last night, man.”

He smiled and shook my hand again. “Congratulations. God definitely has some things He wants you to do. You got more lives than a cat. There was no way I was going to sit idle after what I’d heard. You’re my boy. You want me to call anybody?”

“Yeah. Call my mama and Genesis’s mother.”

I gave him their phone numbers as I watched Bransford watch Genesis. To say he was so adamant about hernotbeing chief, they seemed extremely close now. That was probably why her day wasn’t too bad yesterday. They’d probably cleared the air. We didn’t get to talk about a thing last night. After my proposal, we could barely concentrate long enough to eat. Every moment was consumed with me showing her how much I loved her and how happy I was for our future.

That almost came to an end tonight. Had Tyson and Lieutenant Gamble been five seconds later, Genesis and I wouldboth be dead. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then followed the paramedics out to the ambulance. This was finally over and probably would have been over if I weren’t so quick to trust Stephanie Johnson. Seeing her go out like this was hard, but at that moment, it was either her or us. She’d impeded the investigation and made it seem like she was making progress. I was a fool to think that she had my best interest at heart.

When I got into the back of the ambulance with Genesis, I watched them set up her IV then give her fluids and pain medication as we made our way to the hospital. I grabbed her hand and stroked her head with my other hand, staring into her eyes, grateful that God spared us.

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