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Craning their necks to look the room over, nothing stuck out. His eyes landed on that ugly ass picture of Bull, and he walked over to it. It seemed affixed to the wall solidly. Placing his hands on either side of the painting, he rocked it back and forth and after a loud click, it slid to the side, revealing a hallway that headed toward the outside of the building.
Officer James stepped forward, gun in hand and peered around the newly found doorway. Finding the passageway empty, he stepped inside. His gun out, he nodded to Officer James and followed him into the cramped space. Taking three steps toward the back of the passageway, a sound rang out, as if someone burst through a door, letting it bang closed. Screaming erupted outside.
Chapter37
Her heart hammered in her chest; this was nerve wracking. The only thing that made it bearable was that it didn't seem like anything of interest was going on. Other than the people standing around, mostly behind her, thanks to Ford getting her past the barricade, chatting and guessing what was going on. From what she could overhear, the majority of her fellow onlookers figured it was drug related. This place had a horrible reputation. She'd never been here in her life, not even on this street, and now she knew why. Figured it’s where Waylon and Bobby Ray spent their time.
Her thoughts quickly drifted to Waylon and a lump formed in her throat. They'd basically left him there to be killed, but she wasn't ready to die for him either. Not after all the shit he'd put her through, and dammit, his life choices simply sucked; nothing she could do about that. But, still, she felt bad if that's what that shot they'd heard was. She debated on running back inside, but what would that have done other than making her a witness to a murder or at least a witness to see Marcus standing over him with a gun or dragging him away or something? And, likely, Ford would never have let her go back inside anyway.
An officer walked out of the bar, and she cranked her neck to see inside. All she saw was a darkened doorway and a darker interior. Probably to mask its occupants as they were making their drug deals. She inched a bit closer to the side of the building, a few steps from the police car she'd been standing behind when she heard a loud bang. A wall on the side of the building broke open, and a man came running out like he was on fire. Dirty white T-shirt, at least it looked like it was supposed to be white, ripped up jeans and tennis shoes that looked the worse for wear. The mop of dirty brown hair flopped with each step he took, but all she could see was the back of his head because he kept looking behind him at the building. She frantically looked around for smoke, worried that a fire had started and Ford was inside. That's when she was grabbed around the waist and pulled into his smelly flabby belly.
His bad breath assaulted her nostrils, and he said close to her face, "You're mine now, Megan June. You're my way out of here alive."
Dread filled her stomach as a gun was jammed into her ribs, his beefy arm wrapped around her neck and dragged her back along the street. Screaming and yelling sounded from the onlookers, and her eyes frantically sought Ford. Just as she thought of him, he appeared from the same opening Bobby Ray had run from, and the look on his face when he saw her dragged along by Bobby Ray was scary indeed. His jaw tightened. Even from this distance, she could see the murderous look on his face.
"Back up, Montgomery. I'll kill her for sure."
To make his point, he jerked roughly on her neck, briefly held up his gun for everyone to see and then shoved it back into her ribs causing her to wince.
Her head was slowly coming around to what had just happened and to say she wished more than anything that she was pointing the gun at Bobby Ray would be an understatement. As far as she was concerned, he could go to hell with Waylon and they'd both probably piss Satan off so damn much they'd be expelled from hell. Wouldn't that be funny?
Ford slowly took a step forward, and Bobby Ray jerked her again which halted Ford's progress. She placed both of her hands on his pasty forearm, as much to give her something to hold on to as to keep the pressure off her throat. Why hadn't she taken jujitsu classes with Jolie when she'd wanted to go? This would have been a great time to use it.
The officer who'd been standing by the car was on his radio, and the officer at the barricade had his gun trained on Bobby Ray which also meant on her by default. An officer standing next to Ford also had his gun pointed at them and who knew how many more were inside? What struck her as weird was Ford did not have his gun raised at them, his was pointing to the ground. And, at a time like this, why would stupid things like that stick out in her mind?
Ford held out his hand and slowly knelt down to lay his gun on the ground. "Bobby Ray, I've laid my gun down. Let Megan go. She has nothing to do with any of this." He took a step forward. "This is between you and me."
"Not one more step, Ford, or Megan will be going to live with your parents."
That made Ford's lip curl up in a snarl, and Bobby Ray chuckled. Her stomach turned at the taunt. How could he or anyone for that matter, be so blasé about killing someone? He wasn't a human being anymore; he was an animal.
Her stomach rolled at the stench of his breath, clothes, and this whole situation. How did she continue to get into shit like this? Closing her eyes for a moment to think without looking at the sea of horrified faces staring at her, she tried taking a cleansing breath, but the pressure on her throat made it impossible. Then she thought she could use that to her advantage.
"Bobby Ray, I can't …" She struggled. "… breathe."
"Shut the fuck up, bitch."
"Can't." She made herself sound as pitiful as possible then let herself go limp. Her mind told her to let herself fall to the ground, a bruise or even a broken bone here and there would heal. Bobby Ray grunted as her weight became too much to handle and he dropped her like a sack of rocks.
"Megan." She heard Ford yell her name but was afraid to let him know she was okay in case Bobby Ray stood there.
Screaming sounded from the crowd then she heard fists hitting flesh, and she braved a look for herself. Men in the crowd descended on Bobby Ray, a couple of them beating the daylights out of him, the cops now jumping into the fray. Ford dropped down beside her and quickly scooped her up. "Megan!" his strained voice yelled out.
"I'm okay, Ford; go get your collar."
His hands framed her face. "Go. I'm good."
He swiftly kissed her lips then ran off toward the fighting in the street.
As she got to her feet, one of the paramedics came to her aid. "You all right?" he asked.
She smiled at him. "Shaken but fine."
"Ma'am, please come to the ambulance and let us make sure. Plus, you'll be out of the crush of bodies."
She nodded, and he assisted her to the large red vehicle. Her knees were wobbly, and now that the fear had time to sink in, her whole body shook uncontrollably.
Another paramedic wrapped a silver heat generating blanket around her shoulders, "It's the adrenaline hitting all at once. You'll be fine in a few minutes once it dissipates," he explained.
