“I don’t care who I shoot!” Ms. Riley said. “Now!”
Tae started to take a step toward the counter, but Riggs gave her a hard look and she stilled. Then he slowly reached into his pockets and set the contents on the counter. Wallet. Keys. Phone.
“Turn around,” Ms. Riley told him. “Slowly. Are you armed? You seem the sort to be armed.”
“I’m not armed.” Riggs raised his hands and turned in a slow circle.
Ms. Riley nodded her satisfaction and looked at Tae. “You next.”
“Look at me. I had to shoehorn myself into this ridiculous dress. Do I look like I’m hiding anything?”
“Bullshit. I know you. You’re carrying something.”
Tae reached into her bra, pulling out the debit card she’d already revealed, along with two twenties and a small lip gloss.
The kid looked agog.
Riggs was showing nothing.
Ms. Riley gestured with the gun for the rest. “I know there’s more.”
“Fine.” It wasn’t often that Tae felt thankful for her D’s, but she was in that moment as she reached back in for a small can of mace and then under her dress for the pocketknife she had sheathed to a thigh.
“You still carry that thing?” Riggs asked.
“Of course.”
The very corners of his mouth quirked slightly. “What else is in there?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Tae looked at Ms. Riley. “We good?”
“Everything, Tae Holmes.”
Tae sighed and pulled out a just-in-case tampon. “There. Happy?”
“Not until the kid empties his pockets.”
The kid shook his head.
Tae eyed him. She’d been right. He looked to be barely fourteen, and he was definitely still a flight risk. “Listen,” she told him. “She’s not kidding, okay? Whatever you’ve got in there is way less dangerous than Ms. Riley with a gun, trust me.”
He shifted on his feet and yep, it was in the whites of his wide eyes. He was going to bolt. “No!” she cried. “Don’t—”
The little idiot darted for the door.
Ms. Riley swung her gun his way.
Riggs dove for Ms. Riley—and the gun.
And suddenly life became a slow-motion movie montage. Riggs literally flying through the air toward the locked and loaded gun. The kid running faster than the speed of light. Ms. Riley taking aim . . .
On Tae’s left was a bank of coolers holding last-minute items like eggs, milk, soda. On her right was a display of beer, the cans stacked like a castle turret against the endcap. She snatched a can and flung it, beaning the kid right between the shoulder blades. He went down just as Ms. Riley’s gun went off with an earsplitting BOOM.
Immediately on its heels came a shattering sound, and more ceiling tile rained down on them, and glass from the lights. Everyone but Ms. Riley hit the floor. Tae felt a piece of something, either part of the ceiling or a shard of glass, smack her in the face. Raising her head, her eyes locked on Riggs as he got to his feet. No big hole in him anywhere, thankfully. She crawled through the ceiling debris, insulation, and broken glass on the floor to the kid, who hadn’t moved. “Hey, are you okay?”
Riggs tried to nudge her aside, voice gruff. “Careful, we still don’t know if he’s armed.”
Tae patted the kid’s back, going for that bulge Riggs had seen, and lifted up his jacket to find a sweatshirt rolled around his waist. She glared at Riggs. “Some weapon.” Then she pulled two granola bars and a small carton of milk from the kid’s various pockets and sent Ms. Riley a scathing look. “Shame on you.”
“Stealing is stealing,” the woman said, not looking sorry in the least.
“I swear I’ll never do it again,” the kid whispered.
Tae stood, feeling an ache around one eye and the sting of glass cutting into her skin from several different places. Since she’d had worse, she ignored all of it and pulled the kid upright. Glass and bits of ceiling tile rained off them both to join the mess on the floor. Miraculously, the kid didn’t appear to be hurt. “You really picked the wrong place to steal from.”
He looked panicked, and tried to scramble free, but Riggs had him by the back of his jacket. “I was seventy cents short,” the kid burst out with. “My little sister’s been crying all day and there’s nothing in the apartment.”
Tae felt a clamp on her heart. She pushed one of her two twenties toward Ms. Riley. “Here. For what he’s got. Keep the change.” The other twenty she handed to the kid. “What’s your name?”
“Ty.”
“Okay, Ty. Go across the street to McGregor’s market. Make sure you pay this time.”
The kid nodded like a bobblehead as he took a step backward, keeping a wary eye on Ms. Riley.
When the woman lowered her gun, the kid turned and hightailed it out of the store.
Tae felt a trickle of blood down her arm and looked down at her now very dirty dress. And dammit, the slit had ripped up to nearly indecent heights. “I knew I should’ve bought the insurance!” She narrowed her eyes at Ms. Riley. “You’re going to pay for this dress!”
“The hell I will! And you’re going to pay for this whole mess.” She gestured to the broken glass. “I should’ve called the cops on the lot of you!”
“You’ve got two ceiling tiles out, some insulation, and a few light bulbs.” Riggs pulled money from his wallet. Two hundred-dollar bills from what Tae could see. “This should cover it,” Riggs said to Ms. Riley. “We good?”
Ms. Riley snatched the two hundred bucks and shoved them into her pocket.
Riggs nodded and then turned his sharp and—whoa, seriously pissed-off eyes—on Tae. “You’re bleeding,” he said.
She took his left hand and turned it over, looking at his cut palm. “So are you.”
“It’s nothing,” he said grimly. “You shouldn’t have—”
“What? Not stood up for the kid who was stealing for his starving sister? Not given him money to get more food? Not let him go so he could feed her? Which?”
“All of it.” He moved close, eyes on her like he might be approaching a wild lioness. Then, closer still, until they were toe-to-toe. Moving very slowly, he lifted a hand, tipped up her head, and eyed her face, turning it right and then left, studying her carefully.
She jerked her chin free. “I’m fine. And if I hadn’t helped him, then who would have?” She turned to Ms. Riley. “You got a broom?”
Ten minutes later, she and Riggs had cleaned up the mess. Ms. Riley sat on her stool watching Netflix on her phone, ignoring them both.
Riggs looked at her face again.
“Still fine,” she said.
“Is there someone I should call for you?” he asked. “Let them know you’re okay?”
“Nope.”
“Someone’s got to be worried about you.”
“Nope.”
“No one?”
She slid him a look. “Are you fishing to see if I’m in a relationship?”
“Are you?”
“No.” She’d had boyfriends, but no one to write home about, and nothing lately. Her first serious relationship had been five years ago, but they’d split when he’d fallen in love and she hadn’t been there yet. Her last involvement had been a year ago, and they’d split because, according to him, she was closed off and “grumpy.” True, and she’d made an attempt to change that. But even then, when he’d come back a month later to try and make up, she’d told him she hadn’t missed him when he was gone.