“Don’t fucking move,” Chris growled. “If you want to live, you’ll stay right the fuck where you are.”
“Drop it right now, Chris.” Cap made his way around the SUV, his gun pointed at Chris.
“Not a fucking chance. I’m not letting that kid get taken back to an abusive situation.”
“The social worker is in my office right fucking now. Even if we wanted to get the kid out of here, we couldn’t. Every single one of us would be accused of aiding and abetting. There’s a fucking cop down here with us.”
“I’ll fucking deal with that if it means that the kid doesn’t have to go back to that kind of situation,” Chris said.
“Drop it, Cap,” Hunter said, advancing with his own gun in hand. Everyone had turned on each other, and I wasn’t sure how any of us were going to come out of this alive. “This is Florrie’s choice to make. This is her kid, and no one is going to tell her that she can’t fight for him.”
“Over my dead body,” Ice said, stepping up beside Cap and aiming his weapon at Chris as blood dripped down his face. “Sorry, man, but you’re wrong here.”
“Like hell I am,” Chris spat. “Remember that I grew up in a situation like that. She’s saving the kid.”
“She’s putting us all at risk. Maybe you’re willing to risk your family, but I’m not willing to risk mine.”
“We’re supposed to have each other’s backs!”
“Yeah, and that includes not fucking up each other’s lives,” Ice yelled. “I’ve already risked my life with Lindsey one too many times. I can’t fucking do it again.”
“No one’s asking you to,” Hunter said. “Just walk away. This doesn’t have to affect you in any way.”
“Bullshit,” Cap spat. “This affects all of us and our business. You let her run right now and our whole business tanks.”
I watched as they all fought, yelling at each other and all because of my choices. I couldn’t regret trying to make a run for it with Reid, but I didn’t want them all turning on each other either. This was wrong, and it was all my fault.
“This is insane,” Lola said. “What the fuck are we doing here? Turning on each other when we should be fighting to help each other!” She had her gun raised, pointing it at anyone that looked like they might lose it and shoot.
“It seems we stopped fighting for each other the minute the law got involved,” Chris said.
Sean stepped around the SUV, his gun pointed in my direction, but not at any one person. I knew he was trying to stay back and let Cap deal with this. The last thing he wanted to do was get the police involved. Sean was loyal to Cap in every way, and he thought Cap could diffuse this situation, he would let him do it.
“Look, guys,” Cap said, keeping his gun trained on Chris. “I know not everyone agrees with this, but we are not kidnapping a fucking kid.”
Things were escalating too fast. I was out of options, and I was running out of getting out of this with what I needed. I couldn’t see a way out of this anymore. My path was blocked. There were too many against me, and now I had a cop right here, witnessing all of it. And through all that, Reid stood there, his eyes wide and slightly fearful, and I was doing this to him. It didn’t matter if I got out of here with him if he was afraid of me. But I couldn’t give up yet. I had to try one last time. Just one last plea to escape.
“Cap, please, don’t do this to me. Please don’t ask me to walk away.”
Cap looked at me, his face sad and full of regret. I knew that he wanted to help me. I could see it in his eyes, but Cap was a rule follower. He did what he could to stay within the bounds of the law, and straying outside those bounds was something he only did when he didn’t have a choice. Logically, I understood why he was standing against me, but that didn’t mean my heart could handle it.
“Florrie, you know I can’t allow you to leave with Reid.”
I felt my heart shatter, knowing that there was no way out of this for me. I was going to lose Reid for good. Even if everyone helped me fight through this, I still wouldn’t come out on top, and what would we have to show for it? People would be hurt. I would have to live with that for the rest of my life. And the end result would be the same.
“Florrie,” Cap said, trying to talk some sense into me. “We’ll do what we can to watch over Reid, but this is over.”
Anger welled up inside me. I hated being told that I had lost, and I wanted so badly to tell him to fuck off, so I did. “Fuck you, Cap,” I spat. “This is my life we’re talking about and I won’t let you tell me how to live it.”
“Then you won’t work here any longer. This is not the way we operate here. I won’t have everyone turning on each other. This is not a democracy!”
“We all own stock in this company,” Jackson said, his gun pointed at Rocco.
“And you all made it pretty goddamn clear that you don’t want any say in the running of this place. So, you either get on board or you fucking walk!”
The tension in the room ran high and not a single person flinched. Guns were pointed everywhere and it would take a damn miracle for all of us to walk away alive. This was on me now.
But before I could step down, Sean walked forward, his gun pointed directly at me. “Florrie, this is over. I’m a cop. I can’t help you, but if we end this now,
