Chapter Thirty-Nine

 

Anna's arm hurts. Mitch is pulling on it too hard, but she's not going to tell him to stop. They turn down another alley. Does he know where they're going, or is he just leading them blindly into the bowels of the city?

It's hard to say for sure. Mitchell has always lived on the edge of the city. Where things start to spread out. This is downtown, this is where everything starts to tighten in on itself like a giant snake eating its own tail.

"Hurry, we've got a car waiting," he says. Anna's breath comes in harsh bouts. Nine months of pregnancy hasn't done wonders for her endurance.

"I need," she gasps. "I need a second."

A car waiting? She leans against the wall, her arms clutched tight around Ava. What?

That sounds strange. Do they always plan for these sorts of things? It's difficult to say for certain that they don't. They might, with how many threats there are on a nearly-daily basis to Mitch's dad.

But it still strikes her as odd. Between gasping breaths, her head starts to catch up with the rest of her. "Mitch, where are we going?"

"Around this next corner, down a few hundred feet, take a left. The car will be right there."

He does know where he's going, then. Whether it's suspicious or not, he's clearly got a good sense of where they're going.

"I just. One second. Please, just the one second, okay? Then we'll go."

Mitch leans back against the wall himself, now. His own breathing is hard, as well. "A second, but we've got to go. We've got to make sure that damn psychopath doesn't have anyone working with him."

It's hard to say whether he doesn't, or not. But whoever that guy was, it's not hard to believe that he's at least related to the guy who got his 'payment' up front.

Anna's breathing starts to come back to her after a few seconds. She gets up, and Mitch pushes himself off the wall beside her. He's got a tear in his suit. Hopefully it won't be so expensive to repair.

"Ready?"

"Ready." She follows him through the alleys. They take a slower pace this time, and she has a much easier time keeping her breath, even as the panic threatens to overflow the high walls of her self-control, and her breath catches over and over in his throat.

Mitch stops dead in his tracks. A body lays in the middle of they alley. He's got a dark suit and he looks like a driver. Anna's chest tightens. There's no question what's happened here.

And the man who steps out is wearing a pea-coat, same as all the others have been. He raises a pistol.

"Give me the money, you son of a bitch."

Anna's already been seen. She knows it, but even still she wonders if she can get away before the guy can adjust and shoot.

Mitch reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. "This is all I've got. Leave me and my fiancée alone. Please."

The guy doesn't reach for the wallet.

"Don't play any fucking games with me. You walked off with my money, and I'm going to have my god damn cash. Now."

Anna's heart thumps in her chest, and Mitchell's fear slips a little. Now he looks less like he's being robbed and pissing his pants; he looks almost confused.

"What the fuck are you talking about? Where's Robert?"

The big guy's gun presses in close to Mitch. It's not hard to notice that he's barely paying a lick of attention to Anna.

"You're not in charge here, you sack of shit. I'm asking the questions. I was hired to do a job, and I'm not getting away without getting paid, is that fucking clear? You tried to double cross me and you thought that shit was just going to fly?"

Mitch looks at him with a snarl. It's an instinct that he's never been able to kick. He doesn't like being stood up to. Even the gun in his face hasn't fixed that.

The gunman looks over at her. "Get out of here."

Mitch's snarl tightens. "You don't give the orders here. Anna, stay until I give you permission to leave."

She doesn't need to be told twice, though. She's already moving, already heading towards the other end of the alley. Back the way she came. It's dangerous, but she's not going to be stuck there with a guy with a gun who's that angry.

A loud, sharp pop permeates the air as she escapes into the open air. A moment later, she's scooped up by Josh.

"Anna! Are you alright?"

Her stomach's turned upside-down. "I don't know. Mitch, he's—there's a man with a gun, and he's going to kill Mitch."

Josh takes a deep breath. "I should really go get someone. I don't know if I should take this by myself." He turns toward the crowd and calls out a name.

A uniformed policeman runs over, almost looking relieved to be out of the melee.

"We're going in to look for trouble. Come with me. You're my witness."

Anna stands there. Should she follow? She probably shouldn't. She just gives directions and waits for them to get back.

There's no second shot. Ten minutes later, Josh comes back, his expression sour. The uniform's face is drawn and pale.

"I've got some bad news, Anna."

She doesn't need to hear what it is. Mitchell is dead. She's not sure how to feel about it. She's not sure what any of it means. Her stomach twists like someone trying to get the water out of a rag.

"Dead?"

Josh nods. He pulls her close into a hug. Should he have done it—she doesn't know. But she knows that whether he should have or not, she nestles into his arms.

It feels warm and safe. Whatever is going on, whatever the bigger picture is… it doesn't really matter right now. All that matters is that she's safe.

In the end, she'll have things back under control, but right now, with the whole world falling down around her, she feels like Detective Meadows, at least, is there to keep things from hitting her on the way down.

She reaches up on her tip-toes and presses a kiss against his lips. He takes it like it's a rapture threatening to overtake him.

"I've got to get back. Your friend, Terry. He's hurt. We've got him waiting on an ambulance. It shouldn't be far, but we've got to have as many people working on crowd control as we can get, either way."

"What happened?"

"He stopped a bullet."

Anna's throat tightens. He'd better be okay. He'd better live. Because she doesn't know who his daughter is, but she knows that she couldn't possibly imagine a woman going through the rest of her life not being able to say goodbye.

Not that she could do it, either. She gathers up her courage and goes over into the swarming maelstrom of people and police. She's got to make sure that Terry's going to be alright.

And she's got to calm him down, because God only knows that man will keep trying to protect her until there's not a single breath left in his body.