“Yeah, well, don’t worry about it,” he said.
“Why is that?”
“Because you’ll never drive her,” he said with a laugh.
Kurt thought he recognized that voice, but he couldn’t see the face, still in the shadows. “Hey, no harm done,” he said, lifting a hand. “Nice car.” Then he stepped back ever-so-slightly and, as he walked about midway along the car, he bent to take a closer look in the interior. And recognized the driver as one of the other kids who had attacked him.
The kid looked at him, recognized him too. “You,” he snarled in fury.
“Wow,” Kurt said, looking at him.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Kurt turned, as if innocent, to look around and stopped, stared, and, in a move that surprised the kid entirely, Kurt opened the passenger door, sat inside, and pulled the keys out of the ignition. All before the kid knew it was done.
“Give those back,” the kid yelled, hitting and punching Kurt. Sabine immediately jumped in on top of them, growling at the kid.
“I would stop doing that if I were you,” Kurt said.
“Get the fuck out of here. I’ll have you arrested for this.”
“Oh, is that right?” he said. “Arrested for what? For being the getaway driver as a crime was being committed?”
The guy just stared at him, his eyes huge. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, his voice squeaking.
“You’re already out of your free passes,” he said. “It’s jail for you next time around.”
“You don’t know anything about it,” he said.
“Yeah, I do,” Kurt snapped. “I was once here, and you seem to be determined to follow in my footsteps, but I got out, and you won’t. Bad choice to be here tonight.”
“I’m just parked, man. I don’t have anything to do with nothing.”
“You can try telling the cops that,” he said.
“What do you mean, cops?”
“They are on the way, in case you didn’t know.”
He shook his head. “I have to get out of here. I can’t do no cops.”
“Well, you could if you had keys, but you can’t, so too bad.”
And with that, he stepped back out of the vehicle with the dog. The kid hopped out and said, “Gimme my keys, asshole.”
“Nope, I’m not. You’re sitting here as part of a crime being committed,” he said. “I’m not letting you go anywhere.”
“I don’t have anything to do with anything. It’s not my deal. He asked for a ride, that’s all.”
“Yeah, and you’re sitting here, waiting for him to come back out, after he kills an innocent woman.”
“She’s not fucking innocent,” he snapped.
“No, maybe not.” At that, he heard other neighbors coming out on their doorsteps. “You see? Look at the commotion you’re causing.”
“I’m not causing anything. Gimme my keys,” he roared. He turned to one of the neighbors. “This guy, this asshole, stole my keys.”
One of the neighbors came down, half-dressed, a robe around his chest. He looked at Kurt. “Is that true?”
“He’s the getaway car for a break-in two houses down—the doctor,” he said. “We already caught the intruder and came out looking to see who his partner was. Cops are on the way.”
At that, the older man turned and looked at the kid. “Punk-ass kids. They don’t even know how to work for a living anymore, and they just want to steal everything.”
The kid glared at him. “I don’t know what this guy’s talking about.”
“I don’t know about that. You just said something about she’s not innocent. Did you go in and attack that poor woman? After all she’s done raising her own kid so he becomes a decent citizen of the world. She’s a doctor for Christ’s sake. Who’ll look after you when you end up in the hospital?”
“Nobody’ll look after me,” he roared. “I’ll rule the world. You guys are all assholes and need to die. You’re all useless.”
The older man looked at the punk and said, “Right, like we haven’t heard that before. Petulant bloody kids, that’s what it is.” He turned to look at Kurt. “You okay with this guy? I want to go in and get a shower and get away from the stench.”
“Go for it,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”
“You with her?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’ll be around a lot now.”
“Good,” he said, “we don’t need any more of these guys.” And, with that, he shot the kid another look and said, “Let me know if we need to call more cops,” he said.
In the distance they heard the sirens coming closer. The kid started to scream again. “Gimme my keys! Gimme my keys!”
“Nope. Not going to,” Kurt said. “So you can either run and I’ll come after you and tackle you to the ground,” he said, “or you can just sit here and take your punishment, like a man. But, of course, you’re not a man,” he said. “You’re nothing but a punk headed for juvie.”
“I’m not going to juvie.”
“No, you’re probably not,” he said. “You’ll go to adult court now,” he said. “You’ve mucked up and lost all the goodwill that’s available. We’ll see how you like jail.”
“I’m not going to jail,” he said. “No way.”
“Yeah, why is that?”
“I’ve got protection,” he said.
“Protection? You mean the guy who is in the hospital?”
“He was in the hospital, asshole,” he said with a sneer. “You don’t know anything.”
“No, maybe not,” he said, “but I do know that you made the mistake of coming after this woman,” he said, “and, for that, I’ll make sure you go down.”
“You don’t know nothing,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“It’s just a matter of time,” he said, “but that’s okay. I can see that you don’t understand how life really works. Not too smart of you though.”
The cops pulled up where they stood, as Kurt talked to the punk. And, sure enough, the detective was in one of the two cars. He got out, glared at Kurt, and then looked at the punk. His eyebrows shot up. “What’s this?”
The punk immediately jumped in. “He stole my car keys.”
At that, the neighbor came stomping back down. “No, he didn’t,” he said.
And then the detective faced both of them.
“He’s the getaway car for the asshole tied up in Laurie Ann’s house,” Kurt said, his arms crossed over his chest. “That one broke in her house.”
“What the hell for?”
“Well, when I said to this one that he went in to kill an innocent woman, this asshole here jumped in and said she wasn’t innocent.”
At that, the detective’s face turned a thunderous color, and he glared at the kid. “Three strikes and you’re out. You know that, right? Now you’re involved in a felony crime.”