I rolled to the side and out from underneath him. He’d dropped the gun during the fall, and he was currently cradling his broken jaw with one hand. I didn’t waste any time. I punched him hard in the back of the head before he could head back up. His face slammed back into the ground, and he screamed with pain. I could hear a wet crunch as he did, though I was unsure if it was his bones or his teeth rattling around inside his mouth as he yelled.
“Nick!” Jase yelled as he came running up to us.
“Oh, thank goodness,” I sighed as I fell backward to lean on my hands. “Handcuff him, please, before I do any more damage.”
“Are you okay?” he asked as he leaned down to do as I’d asked. “I’m sorry I took so long. That guy was bleeding out pretty badly. The ambulance is here now, though. What happened? I heard gunshots.”
“Whoa,” I grunted as I pressed one of my hands against my eyes. “Slow down for a minute. My head is killing me.”
I wasn’t sure when it had started hurting. I’d been so focused on the pain in my shoulder that nothing else had registered.
“You’re probably exhausted,” Jase muttered as he shined a flashlight into my pupils. “It’s like four in the morning. Did you hit your head?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Oh, wait. Maybe I did hit my head when I tackled him. I don’t know.”
“All right,” Jase hummed. “Well, just take it easy for a minute.”
“Check on the kid,” I mumbled in response. “Lorenzo slammed him onto the ground, the prick.”
“Okay.” Jase nodded before leaving to examine the mother and son pair who huddled together a few feet away on the ground.
The next few minutes passed by in a blur of sound and colors as police lights and sirens flooded the area. Jase reappeared at some point to coax me into one of the ambulances, saying something about my shoulder bleeding. I was dazed the entire time, weak from the loss of adrenaline and counting the minutes until I’d finally be able to go to sleep.
36
Nick
I woke up feeling like I’d been hit like a truck. At first, I’d thought that I must have gotten too drunk and was suffering from the effects of a hangover. Then the events of the previous night came flooding back to me, and I remembered why I was in so much pain.
I’d torn open my stitches while trying to shoot Lorenzo and had actually made the original injury worse in doing so. I’d also apparently hit my head pretty hard against Lorenzo’s kneecap when I’d tackled him. It had all happened so fast that I honestly didn’t remember it, but I had a lump on the crown of my head and a killer headache to prove it.
I groaned as I pulled myself out of bed to get changed. Jase and I were supposed to interrogate Lorenzo today. Normally I would have been excited at the idea of doing an interrogation, but I felt so awful that I wouldn’t have minded putting it off for another day.
As I left my apartment and got into my car, I thought about how lucky I was that I wasn’t going to face any repercussions for what had happened. Since I wasn’t a law enforcement officer, I wasn’t technically authorized to chase or apprehend Lorenzo the way I had. However, Flint had apparently argued that I was working in good faith as a consultant for the SDCT. Furthermore, I’d acted to protect an innocent child from being hurt. In the end, Flint had been certain that nothing further would come from it.
I was a little confused, though. I’d always assumed my purpose in the SDCT was to be the fall guy in case something went wrong. That fact that Flint had gone out of his way to defend my actions, while appreciated, was surprising to me.
Despite how I’d felt right after waking up, I started to get pumped as soon as I pulled into the SDCT office parking lot. My head and shoulder both still hurt, but I ignored the pain and focused instead on how I would approach the interrogation. I already had a general idea about what had happened, but I still had a few questions that needed answers. Of course, I also wanted to know how this all was going to affect me personally, considering it was my former Family involved.
I took the elevator up to the eighth floor and stepped into the office. It was as busy as ever, and I immediately spotted Jase, Bette, and Chloe gathered around Jase’s desk.
“Hey,” I called as I approached them. “What’s up?”
Bette rolled her eyes at my greeting and immediately walked away.
“What’s her problem?” I asked as I watched her settle back at her own desk.
“Who even knows,” Chloe scoffed. “Her mood is completely unpredictable.”
“Yeah.” Jase nodded. “Anyway, you ready to go? Lorenzo’s already back there. I was just waiting for you to get here.”
“Yeah,” I replied as I led the way back toward the interrogation room. I didn’t waste any time and walked straight through the door that led to the other side of the two-way glass. I was buzzing with too much anticipation to stall any longer.
Lorenzo looked up at me with a sneer as I entered. I was disappointed to see that I apparently hadn’t broken his jaw after all. His nose, however, was swollen and bruised. He also had pretty heavy and dark bruises beneath both eyes.
“Good afternoon.” I smiled as I took a seat in front of him. “How are you feeling? That looks like it hurts.”
He glared at me but otherwise refused to answer. I wasn’t deterred, though. At least, I wasn’t, until an hour later when
