Judge wasn’t planning on dying tonight. He needed to distract the man so he could get the gun away from him. “Gonna kill me, motherfucker? That what you’re gonna do? Think of your fuckin’ daughter. She’s gonna have to live with her daddy being a fuckin’ murderer.”
“I am thinking about her. I’m setting her and Cassie free.”
“No, you’re thinkin’ about yourself again. Just like when you stole that money from a goddamn kids’ cancer charity. Was all about Dennis Lange. Fuck everybody else.”
“That’s not true!” he screamed into the still night.
“Then prove it. Give Cassie what she wants, the fuckin’ divorce and you out of her life.”
Lange nodded. “Fine. I’ll sign. I’ll sign and then you’ll let me go.”
The gun in his hand shook and his finger was way too close to the trigger. The man probably didn’t know the first thing about guns. That could be a good thing or a very bad thing, depending if things went sideways.
But Judge wasn’t going to wait for that.
Lange jabbed the gun in his direction. “Step back. I need to go to the other side of the car.”
Judge took a step back, giving Lange space to move around the Dodge. He followed the man, staying a few feet away but close enough to make a grab for the gun if he got the opportunity.
And he needed to get it. Because there was no way Lange was going on the run again. Judge was delivering his ass to the bail bondsman in New York, getting his cut and giving that scratch to Cassie. It would hardly make a dent in what she lost but it would be a start.
She’d get some money, get her divorce and finally be free of the man who was reaching for the passenger-side door handle.
And as he did, Judge saw his opening. He interlaced his fingers and lunged at Lange, bringing both connected fists down on his wrist. As he struck it, Lange cried out and dropped the gun. Judge put his boot on it so Lange couldn’t recover it, then snagged the surprised man by the throat, shoving him against the car.
Judge squeezed hard enough to make the man’s mouth open and close as he struggled for air. He leaned in until his face was in Lange’s. Then he gave Cassie’s ex a little lesson. “I am the Judge. I am the jury. And I am the fuckin’ enforcer. I alone decide what happens to you.” He flexed his fingers around the man’s throat. “Right now, I have your life in my hand, and decide whether you live or die. Not you.”
He pulled the Dodge keys from Lange’s coat pocket and shoved them into his. There was no way he was letting this man escape.
Cassie’s life would turn around with what happened tonight in this very goddamn empty lot. A lot that held history for the Fury. A lot that held more recent history between Judge and Cassie.
The night he found her crying because of the fucker he was currently strangling. He reluctantly loosened his fingers and let the man breathe.
“Gonna let you loose. You do somethin’ stupid, you’re gonna regret it. You get me?”
“I’ll sign the papers if you let me go.”
“You’ll sign those fuckin’ papers ‘cause I said you’re signin’ those fuckin’ papers. I’m tired of this shit. You’re wastin’ time. Now get in there and do it.” Judge yanked Lange away from the car, opened the passenger side door and shoved him toward the open doorway. Lange stumbled but caught himself on the door frame and while he was climbing into the passenger seat, Judge kicked the man’s gun away, spinning it into the dark and out of reach. He’d deal with it later. Right now, he needed to watch Lange do what Cassie needed him to do.
Lange, now sitting in the passenger seat with the stack of papers on his lap, said, “I… I have a pen in the glovebox. I’m going to reach for it.”
“Do it slow and don’t do anything stupid,” Judge warned him.
Lange opened the glove box and dug around with Judge watching his every fucking move.
And once he pulled out that pen, he began to sign those damn papers Judge never wanted to hear about again after tonight. Thank fuck it would finally be over.
Lange flipped through the pages, signing on every line one of those little plastic arrows pointed at. When he was done, he put the pen back in the center console instead of the glove box and when he pulled his hand back out, he had another gun in it. This time what looked like a fucking snub-nosed .38 revolver was pointed at Judge.
For fuck’s sake. He should’ve strangled the motherfucker.
“Back off,” Lange shouted at him. This time the man’s finger was securely on the trigger and the hammer was cocked, too.
Lange was desperate and desperate people were dangerous, so Judge reluctantly took a step back. But gun or not, Judge wasn’t allowing Lange to escape.
“You were wrong. You don’t decide whether I live or die.” He put the barrel of the handgun to his own temple. “I do.”
As Judge fell forward to grab the man’s wrist, the crack of the gun going off made every inch of his body flinch and he stumbled, landing hard against the Dodge. He caught himself, his ears ringing and his mind spinning, trying to make sense of what just happened.
And then everything went still and deafeningly quiet.
With his own heartbeat pounding in his ears, Judge straightened and stared over the roof of the car into the dark. To where only the memory of the Original’s clubhouse remained.
His past.
He sucked in a deep breath of frigid winter air, and, with his gut twisting, dropped his gaze to the car’s interior.
To his and Cassie’s future. Now marred by what he saw.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Lange’s head had fallen forward. Blood and brain matter covered the inside of the car and windshield. The hand holding the gun sat lifeless on Lange’s lap and under it was Cassie’s signed divorce papers. Splattered with dark, shiny spots. Soon to be soaked to the point they were unreadable. When ink and blood eventually blended into one.
But it didn’t matter. None of that mattered.
What mattered most to Judge was Cassie was now free.
But not entirely. Because this was not how Cassie wanted it to go. Neither did he. And this might haunt her for a while. If not forever.
Judge turned and slid his back down the side of the vehicle until he sat with his knees cocked on the cold, rough pavement. He drew his fingers over his face, finding and smearing warm blood on his skin that was not his. He dropped his head into his hands and just breathed.
Fuck.
He’d have to tell her. And then she would have to explain it somehow to her little girl.
Daisy was too young to understand the wrongs Lange did. No matter what choices the man had made, he was still her daddy. A father she would never see or hold again. And that was going to hurt.
After a few more minutes, when he had pulled his shit together, he scrolled through his cell phone and found a saved number.
Not looking forward to making this call, he closed his eyes and put the phone to his ear. “Chief…”
Judge stood back but kept his gaze forward, keeping an eye on the activity in the distance.
Rochester had a few inches of snow last night and the wind was biting. He worried his girls would be cold since they’d been out there for over a half hour now. He was getting impatient for this to be over.