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“Fugitive apprehension,” Lula said, taking the cuffs from me and clamping them onto Antwan. “Stand back.”
“No way,” Bear said.
He swiped at Lula and knocked her on her butt. I lunged at him with my stun gun, pressed the prongs into his arm, and hit the GO button. Nothing. No reaction.
“That tingles,” Bear said. “I like it.”
Antwan’s eyes cam
e into focus, and he realized he was cuffed. “Fuck.”
“That’s a bad word,” Lula said. “You shouldn’t say that in the presence of ladies.”
“Gimme the key,” Bear said.
I reached for the gun lying on the floor, and Bear grabbed me by my ankles and held me upside down.
“For a big man you’re deceptively fast,” Lula said to Bear. “And I gotta say I’m impressed with how strong you are.”
I wriggled, trying to get loose, and Bear gave me a shake. “Stop wriggling. I want the key.”
“She hasn’t got the key,” Lula said. “I’ve got the key, and you can’t catch me.” Lula waggled her butt and waved her arms. “You can’t catch me. You can’t catch me.”
Bear tossed me aside and went after Lula, chasing her into the apartment and around and around the couch. The gun was still lying on the floor, leaving me to reach the conclusion that Bear might be big and strong but he definitely wasn’t smart.
I scooped the gun up and held it with two hands. Awkward because of the splint on my broken finger. “Stop!”
“No way,” Bear said, still running circles around the couch after Lula.
“Get the fucking gun from her,” Antwan said to Bear.
Bear stopped and looked at me in surprise, like this was the first he saw that I had the gun. “How am I gonna do that?” Bear asked. “She’ll shoot me.”
Antwan was on his feet, hands still cuffed. “She’s not gonna shoot you. She’s just a dumb bitch. Look at her. She don’t even know how to hold a gun.”
Bear lunged at me and I fired off a shot. The gun kicked back and smacked me in the face. I saw stars and tasted blood, and my brain fogged for a beat.
Through the fog I heard Antwan yelling. “She shot off my ear! The fucking bitch shot off my ear!”
I’d intended the shot to go wide as a warning shot, but Antwan had moved at the wrong time and the round had obviously caught him on the side of the head. My face was throbbing, and blood was dripping off my nose onto my shirt. Lula was dancing in place, shrieking. Bear stood frozen, mouth open, eyes wide.
“Don’t just stand there,” Antwan said to Bear. “Get me to a fucking doctor.”
Bear slung Antwan over his shoulder, ran past me, and I heard him thundering down the stairs. I heard the front door open and slam shut. I was still holding the gun, and Lula was still shrieking.
“You can stop shrieking,” I said to Lula.
“Sorry,” Lula said. “I freaked when you shot off that cannon and everyone started gushing blood.”
“We need to get out of here before Antwan sends in someone with a brain and a gun.”
“Your nose don’t look good,” Lula said. “It’s swollen up already, and it’s making a right-hand turn.” She searched her purse and came up with a tissue. “You could stick this tissue up it for the time being. And you know what? Here’s my gun! I had my gun in here all the time. It must be what stopped the bullet when he shot up my purse, and it’s what gave him a good clunk on the head.”
I gave Antwan’s gun to Lula and took the tissue. I retrieved my messenger bag, and we crept down the blood-splotched stairs. We left the building and stood on the sidewalk in the pouring rain. No car.
“I don’t know what it’s coming to when people go around stealing cars in the rain,” Lula said. “Some people just don’t think what a inconvenience it is to other people when they steal a car in the rain.”
I walked, head down, to the corner and called Ranger.
