Joe’s flat on his back, on the ground. It’s not going to end like this. Not ever again. He’s done, too. They’ll make sure of it this time. He tried to kidnap her. I’ll testify until they have no choice but to put him away forever. Her friends will testify. It’s so sunny out. Really, the perfect day to stand in a parking lot and wait for the ambulance.

“Did he get anybody else?” I ask. There were a lot of people in that café. Starting to get light-headed. Probably blood loss. It might be a good idea to sit down, but I have a bad feeling about that. Sitting down seems like giving up.

“No,” Jane says. “My friends tried to stop him, but he said he’d shoot.”

“They didn’t give up on you. That girl. Purple hair?”

“Grace?”

“The purple hair. She wanted to come out here and throw punches. I had it covered.”

“Beau.” Jane’s getting worried. “I think we should leave.”

“No, shhh.”

“Don’t shush me. You’re bleeding. You’ve lost a lot of blood. You don’t get to decide what to do right now.”

“I meant—listen.”

There’s a siren in the air. Two sirens, actually. Or one siren and one cop car. None of these bastards had better be Joe’s friends.

A few seconds later, a parade of emergency vehicles speeds into view. I was wrong. There are two ambulances. Joe doesn’t deserve an ambulance, but I guess it’s better if they keep him alive for his jail sentence.

People gather at the edges of the parking lot. We’re becoming a scene. Let them look. Paramedics jump out of the ambulance and split off. Cops swing themselves out of cop cars. There are so many lights. Pretty fucked up, how nice those lights are. People like Joe Causey shouldn’t get to drive around in cars like that. I guess that’s over for him now. He won’t be arresting anybody else after this.

“Where’s the weapon?” one of them barks. “We had reports of a shooter.”

“It’s in that bush.” I gesture vaguely toward the bushes. “I want to press charges against that motherfucker. He shot me,” I say, in case it’s not obvious. I must be covered in blood.

“You’ll have to do that in the hospital.” A paramedic has gotten in close when I wasn’t looking. Two more of them join her. It seems like overkill, but I’m not a doctor. I’m just a guy who got shot in a parking lot. “We need to get him into the ambulance. Gunshot wound at close range.”

Another one of them puts a hand on Jane’s arm. “Ma’am. Come this way. We need you out of the way.”