A car pulled out of a side-street. Robbie’s sedan clipped it at high speed. He began to lose control.
The back end of the car was beginning to spin down the road.
“Jack!” Casey screamed. “Watch out! Jack!”
The tires of the sedan slipped. Robbie’s car began to move sideways.
He had lost it. The sedan hit the side of another car before the front corner of the sedan caught the edge of a pole, launching him into a spin.
Then came the impact. He hit another car at high speed. The sound of the crashing metal was deafening. Robbie’s sedan flipped and landed onto its roof, still spinning, grinding down the road.
I slammed on the brakes. My truck slid to a halt.
The sedan was upside down in the middle of the road, beaten and broken. I leaped out of my truck, searching the smashed wreck. I could see blood. A lot of it.
“Robbie!” I shouted. “Robbie!”
Casey leaped out of the passenger seat.
I waited for a response, but then came the gunshots. Six shots.
“Casey!” I yelled. “Get down!”
Chapter 34
I hit the pavement hard.
The sound of gunshots had reverberated down the street, echoing around us, and I felt the instant pain in my shoulder. Hit twice in one day. That’s got to be lucky.
“Jack!” Casey called out from behind the truck—frustration, anger, and worry all packed into a single word. “Jack! Are you hit?”
I was sprawled on the sidewalk, arms and legs out wide, the searing agony spreading to my entire left side. Reaching down to feel the top of my shoulder, my fingers came away slick with blood.
“Casey!” I called back. “You hit?”
“I’m clean!”
She was behind my truck, next to the back tire. I could see her shoe from my position on the sidewalk. I crawled a few feet to take cover against a blue USPS mailbox. The air in the street had changed, and I knew I had to force myself to be the center of Robbie’s attention. Taking a moment, I drew a breath, the feeling in my left side disappearing by the second. I was seated on the sidewalk, leaning my back against the mailbox.
“Robbie!” I yelled out. “Stop this! Killing anyone else is the worst thing you can do right now!”
I caught sight of Casey moving to the front of my truck. She leaned her head around the front and signaled to me. I gave her the thumbs up, but the pain in my left shoulder was searing. I leaned forward to look at Robbie’s upside-down car. I could hear him trying to struggle out of the wreckage.
“Robbie! Enough!”
“Don’t come near me!” Robbie called back. “Either of you! If anyone starts to come near me, I’ll start shooting into the street!”
I looked around the street. Most people had taken cover. They were prepared. The traffic on the street had come to a standstill, thanks to the accident, but on the other side of the street, still in range, were a group of five people, all with their phones out taking videos. I tried to signal that they should take cover, but they didn’t move.
I had to take control. I couldn’t let anyone else die. I let the breath come, slow and deep.
“Robbie, be smart,” I called out again. “This isn’t the way you want this to end. There’ll be uniforms swarming all over this place in minutes. You don’t need to go down like this.”
“Stay away, or I’ll shoot you! Nobody cares about me! Don’t you get it?” I could hear Robbie continue to struggle under his car. “Humankind has stopped caring about each other! Nobody cares anymore. They need a defender. They need a hero. They need someone to bring the bad guys to their knees and not ever let them get back up. To stand in front of the innocent and make sure they’re protected and aren’t forced into a life they don’t deserve. That’s me! The world needs more people like me! The world needs people like me to stop those money hungry grubs!”
I could feel the pain beginning to burn through me and my shirt was beginning to become heavy with blood. I listened, but I couldn’t hear sirens. I leaned forward to check on Robbie again. I could see that he was almost out of the car. His torso was out of the front windshield but he was struggling to get his legs free. I spotted the gun in his hand.
“You should be on my side, Jack!” Robbie continued. “You want to help keep the innocent protected. All the innocent people. The victims, the wrongly convicted. This should be your job. You should care!”
I could feel the last of my energy draining slowly, ebbing away. I pressed my hand onto the front of my shoulder. My mouth felt fuzzy, and I could smell the sickly stench of blood all around me.
I looked to my left and saw Casey crawl around the truck. She had her weapon drawn and could see Robbie was almost free. She looked at me and I shook my head. I couldn’t risk her. Not now. Not again.
She glared at me. I shook my head again.
“Drop the gun, Robbie,” Casey called out. “It’s over!”
Finally, I could hear sirens in the distance.
But Robbie was free. He was out of the car.
I leaned across and could see that he was standing, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. The gun was dangling in his right hand, ready to be used in an instant. His clothing was covered in blood, and it was dripping onto the pavement.
