Page 50 of One Step Sideways

“Okay, Kane and I are listening.”

“Shae’s just been arrested.”

“Shit,” Danny swore. “How come?”

“The idiot tried to join an underground fight but there were detectives there on a different case. They let his fight play out and grabbed him when it was done. Apparently he was tranqed to stop him from running.”

“Now what?” Danny asked while I was still processing that.

“Now, he’s on his way to the new enhanced detention center at Ware Correctional.”

Which meant I was out of choices. My worst nightmare. “We’re on our way back,” I said, and Danny clicked his phone off, and for a second we just stood there.

“I don’t want you to go,” Danny whispered.

Neither did I if I was honest, but no one else would stand up for Shae. It was up to me.

Chapter Twenty-one

Kane

Rawlings had dropped me on the corner at the liquor store twenty minutes before they closed and people were still going in and out. The original plan to leave the front unlocked wouldn't work as it was too likely customers might come in. He was to lock the door, flip the sign to closed, but then unlock the delivery entrance at the back to leave, then forget he’d promised his wife he’d bring home a bottle of the wine she liked, and come back inside. I, of course, would follow him.

Waiting in the alley for nine o’clock, my thoughts drifted back to the weekend. Buck and Elizabeth, or Liz as she asked me to call her, had been disappointed we had to leave early but still so happy with what had gone down. We were invited back as soon as we could make it, and a very stern Buck told us to consider all holidays now officially taken as we were expected back for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And the way they included me in everything, and the way Danny held my hand, made me feel all sorts of things I didn’t have time to pick apart that minute.

I glanced at the cheap phone Rawlings had given me, and sure enough, exactly on time the front lights of the store went out, and two minutes later the back door was unlocked.

I was quite calm when I followed the guy back in, then aimed the gun and gruffly ordered him to hand over the cash. The guy glanced up and jerked in shock, then immediately raised his hands.

“Don’t shoot.”

I all but rolled my eyes, hoping his customer service skills were a little better than his acting ones. One of the things I’d been permitted to watch on TV were Archie’s beloved westerns. I felt like I was robbing a stagecoach, or maybe asaloonwould be more appropriate. “Just shut it and open the fucking safe,” I snapped, and the guy stared at my gun, glanced at the cameras, then took a step to the side as if he was moving reluctantly. I’d memorized where they were and instantly knew that small movement meant my body was blocking the cameras from seeing him. He mouthed a word at me, then bent, surreptitiously pressed the panic button as arranged and hurriedly started trying to press the safe buttons, giving a better impression of fearing for his life.

I glanced at the gun in my hand, then mentally swore as I took the safety off. Not that I thought it would make a difference to the cops, but it had to look realistic. And I couldn’t believe the guy had needed to point it out.

I got visibly angry, shouted, and waved the gun, making sure it was aimed at the ceiling.

The guy practically hyperventilated when he couldn’t get the safe open, after delaying long enough to get the cops here. When I decided he was now worthy of an Oscar, I left with the cash he had in his pocket and a bottle of whisky just for show.

The cops were ready for me as soon as I burst out of the back door into the alleyway. And that’s where the cops pounced. These fuckers weren’t messing around, and I was face down in the dirt with a barrel pressed into my neck before I could take a breath.

It wasn’t that funny anymore, not that it had ever been really, but anything to take my mind off what I was doing. I was cuffed, then dragged up and my face mask pulled off, and that’s when everything really went to hell as my knees were kicked out from behind me and the gun pressed back against my temple while the cuffs were quickly replaced by zip-ties. I even pressed my eyes tight shut, butthen the sound of the zip-ties’ teeth as they were pulled threatened to drop me in a dark hole I’d promised myself I would never go to again. I tried to tell myself I knew all cops carried them because some enhanced could manipulate locks and metal, but then they were tightened too far, and the bite of skin just pushed me over the edge.

In between one second and the next my back was screaming from Dad’s crop, and the cops were dragging me away from the house. All I could hear was Dad crying and saying I’d attacked him when he’d tried to stop me from beating the dog. And I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t breathe. My lungs sawed in and out, and I wasn’t gonna let them force me back. I started struggling, ignoring their shouts, ignoring their guns, until something like lightning struck me. Whatever it was made every muscle lock in agony, and I seized, helpless, as a million knives sliced me open.

By the time I’d worked out that I wasn’t dead, I was in the back of the patrol car and wondering what the fuck had happened. One cop joked about lighting me up like a Christmas tree and the other laughed like it was all some joke. I concentrated on breathing and tried to think past the fact that all any of us had ever done was wake up one morning with a scar on our faces. I squeezed my eyes shut against the memories, but it didn't drown out the voices. I’d heard too many times when a prisoner offed themselves. I remembered hearing one talking about a buddy and using the phrase suicide by cop. Right at that moment I knew it was only Shae being on his own that stopped me being sorely tempted, along with the memory of a pair of stunning blue eyes that I desperately wanted to see at least one more time.

Danny

It took me way too long to get into the liquor store camera feeds, just in time to hear Diesel confirming Kane had just entered.

I watched as a typical store came on the screen. I could see Kane’s back—they only had one camera, unfortunately, and we hadn’t dared fit him with a body cam in case it was discovered by the cops—and the cashier who was making a good impression of being scared. He had his hands in the air, but he took a stepto the side so he went out of view. The cameras didn’t have audio so I couldn’t hear anything, just made sure Diesel was seeing everything I was.

I got the notification from hacking into the alarm company that the panic button had been hit and watched as Kane dragged it out as long as possible.

“Fuck,” Diesel suddenly said. “Our cops had to answer a 911 call, and I have no idea who they’ve sent in.”

My heartbeat, already high, leapt into my throat, and I vaguely felt Sadie’s head land on my knee. Then Kane ran for the back door, and I stopped being able to see anything. Police body cams weren’t live, so there was nothing to access. Ringo was listening to police reports and two minutes later he confirmed they had a suspect in custodywho had resisted arrest.

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