“Makes no sense to me,” he said. “A mouth like that needs to be taught a lesson.”
“You don’t think this would be a big-enough lesson?”
“No.”
Kurt hooked an arm around her shoulders and tucked her up close, dropping a kiss on her temple.
Laurie Ann wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. “I was really scared,” she murmured. “The only reason I even stayed on my feet was I knew you were on the way.”
“And I was here,” he said. “I was maneuvering into a better position, where I could take him out.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t just kill him outright,” she said with half a smile.
“Should have,” he said. “Once he heads down this pathway, it gets ugly.”
“You were never this bad,” she said, hearing something in his tone.
He looked down, smiled, kissed her forehead gently, and said, “Maybe not, but I don’t know that I was far from it.”
“The gangs are supposed to be much worse now,” she said, as she looked down at the kids. “What will happen to them?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “Unfortunately probably nothing.”
She stared at him in shock.
“They didn’t attack you, did they?”
“Well, they surrounded me and tried to attack me, but you stopped them.”
“And that will make a bit of a difference, but, if it’s a first offense, they will probably get off with a warning.”
“That’s scary,” she said. “I don’t want to be around this area of town then.”
“And unfortunately one of them knows you and Jeremy, right?”
“Yes, and where we live then,” she said, a shiver passing along her spine.
“Yeah,” he said. “Not good.”
In the distance they heard the sirens. Two cop cars pulled up, and the detective was among them. Amos walked over, two more cops with him, took one gander at the four on the ground, turned toward Kurt with a hard look, and asked, “So you attacked them?”
“Hell no,” Laurie Ann said, stepping forward, anger in her voice. “They surrounded me, intent on attacking me with those pipes. Kurt stepped in to defend me.”
Amos looked at her in surprise. “Seriously?” The pair of cops with him looked on, silent.
She nodded and explained what had happened.
Amos shook his head, looked down at the kids, pried open their eyes, and checked their vitals. “These two are too high to tell us anything and likely won’t even remember what happened,” he said.
“You can check with Reggie,” she said. “He was the other guy here, but he got popped for sticking up for me and left.”
“You had another one too?”
“The fifth one, he’s two years ahead of my son in school. And when Reggie tried to stop the gang leader from attacking me, the leader turned that nasty bar against him. I don’t know how badly hurt Reggie is, but, when the leader threatened me again, Reggie tried to interfere. I told him that he needed to get clear of this crap, and he said he didn’t think he could get out of the deal now anyway.”
“And that’s what I mean,” Amos said, the two cops nodding. “These gangs get into the kids’ lives and make it impossible for them to get out.”
“How though?” Laurie Ann asked.
“It’s hard to say for sure, but they find a way to blackmail them or to get them to do something either illegal or that they’re ashamed of or something the gang will then hold over their heads, until they’ve got them where they want them. Once they start doing major crimes, there’s no going back anyway.”
“What’s this then?” she said, motioning to the gang members on the pavement. “Is this just nothing then?”
“No, this is a major crime at this point, but we’ve also only got your word for it that they attacked you and that you’re not sitting here defending him,” he said with a head nod toward Kurt.
She stared at Amos in shock. “Seriously?” She faced the other two cops. “What about you two?”
But they remained silent, glancing at Amos.
“Sure, you were in his arms when we got here. You would do anything to defend him,” he said. “We’ve seen that time and time again.”
Kurt felt his stomach sink. “That may be,” he said, “but that is not the way it happened, and you’re not even trying to protect her from these thugs. You’re just trying to get me in trouble.”
“No,” he said, “I’m looking at this as a cop who arrived to see you holding her with four guys at your feet.”
“I see,” she said faintly. “So it’s really more important for you to nail Kurt’s ass after all these years than it is for you to get justice for me, is that it?”
“If we find out that what really happened is as you said it was, that’s a different story.” He shrugged. “But we’ll need proof first.”
Again the two silent cops with Amos nodded.
“Did you ever think that maybe cameras are here?” she asked Amos in a hard voice.
Kurt turned to look at her and could see the anger in her eyes, and he grinned. “You always were the first one to defend me.”
“That’s because assholes like Amos were all too eager to throw you to the wolves,” she snapped, glaring at the detective.
The detective raised his eyebrows at her. “We didn’t do anything to him that he didn’t deserve.”
“Maybe not,” she said, “but you made it damn hard for him to change his ways.”
Kurt was touched at her need to defend him and reached out a hand and said, “It’s okay. I’m not the crazy boy I was way back when,” he said, “and this was completely legit self-defense. They surrounded you, about to attack you with a steel bar. There’s absolutely no need for the cops to even look at me over this.”
“Except,” she snapped, glaring at the detective, “they already are. As long as Amos has somebody who’s good for this, he won’t look to punish the assholes on the ground. He’ll just let them create their own little story and have you put in jail.”
“Maybe,” Kurt said, “except for the cameras here.” He pulled out his phone and called Badger. When he explained that he was in a spot of trouble and that he needed camera access on the truck stop, the detective immediately started yelling at him.
“Whoa, whoa, you don’t touch those damn cameras.”
“Oh, hell, yes,” he explained to Badger. “I’ve got a detective here who wants to pin my ass to the wall instead of the four gang kids who surrounded a woman with steel bars to beat her to a pulp. So the detective is Amos …” And Kurt reeled off his full name and then gave Badger the name and address of the truck stop. When he hung up his phone, he said, “Let’s see how you get out of this one. Expect a phone call from US Navy Commander Cross.”
“I was doing my job,” the detective said in fury.
“No, you weren’t. And neither of you were trying to do anything right either.” She turned to look at the two other cops, looking at each other and over at the detective, but who still weren’t saying anything. “Even your cronies here will not say anything,” she said, “because it’s not about the truth for you, is it? It’s all about making sure you nail Kurt.” She looked pointedly at the two cops and asked, “Do you know this guy?”