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“I’m sorry,” I whispered to everyone and no one. “I’m so sorry.”
Dad finally leaned down into his car, but it wasn’t a gun he grabbed. What he held up to his mouth was a walkie-talkie.
“Now,” he hissed into it. “Everyone move!”
The sound of police sirens filled the air in the distance. The approaching Copperheads froze in place. Jayce let go of the gun and allowed his hand to drift back to his side.
“What is that?” Sid demanded, whirling around. “What thefuckis that!”
The police cars came from both the north and south like two swarms of bees, driving on both lanes and both shoulders so they could ride four cars across. The Copperheads spun around, watching the police arrive in all directions and wondering how best to defend themselves. The police cars formed two lines, blocking everyone in on this section of the main street. Officers spilled out of the police cruisers and took cover behind open doors, weapons drawn and aimed.
I gawked at my dad. “What did you do?”
He drew his own gun now and rested it on the door frame, aimed at Sid. “Told you I had a plan.”
There was a still, silent moment while everyone processed what was happening. The Copperheads still outnumbered the police, but they were surrounded.
This is about to become a bloodbath.
“Sidney Baca-Santos,” a policewoman to the north called out from a megaphone. “Have your men drop their weapons and surrender peacefully. There’s no need for blood.”
Sid held his head up high, defiant. “Won’t be no blood if you pigs ride back out of town.”
“Run to the diner,” Dad whispered. “Both of you.”
I realized he was talking to me and Momma. She nodded, but I resisted. “I can’t.”
Dad gawked at me. “What do you mean, you can’t?”
I looked back at Jayce. He was still standing in the middle of the road, hair blowing gently in the breeze. He was more than just some biker boy I’d slept with these last weeks. He was a man I cared about.
I’m in love with that man, which means I can’t run away from him.
“Jayce!” I hissed. “Jayce, come with us!”
Jayce didn’t hear me. He was still totally transfixed on Sid.
“Copperheads,” the policewoman boomed through her megaphone. “Look around. You are surrounded. We only want Sid. Throw down your weapons and allow us to apprehend him peacefully.”
Heads swung in all directions as the Copperheads tried to decide what to do. More than one lowered their guns, but didn’t drop them.
Maybe this will go peacefully after all,I thought.
“Don’t die for Sid,” Jayce shouted to his former gang. “He sure as hell would never die for any of you.”
“No,” Sid said, whirling to face Jayce. “But you will.”
In one smooth motion, Sid pulled something from his side, raised it to the man I loved, and pulled the trigger.
“No!” I screamed.
51
Charlotte
The gunshot was painfully loud. It echoed off the few surrounding buildings, and birds took flight from the nearby trees. For a split second afterward, everything was silent. Peaceful. Like the eye of a hurricane.
And then all hell broke loose.
