It must have been enough to convince him of my quasi innocence because I was freed. She quickly moved to my side, wincing as I pulled her close.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Slate breathed, reaching forward to grab Eliza’s chin and inspect her face. “Flint,” he called out without dragging his eyes off her. “Go upstairs and ask Erica to come down here. Then get on the phone with nine-one-one and tell them we need an ambulance.”
“Yes, sir,” Flint answered as he headed out the door.
“You all right, hun?” Slate asked with a forced but gentle grin.
“I, um, think so,” Eliza squeaked out, moving even closer to me.
“Good.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Q called. Said something was going down and he was worried. Erica and I were just leaving the gym, so we hauled ass over here. I have to be honest. I was not expecting this.” He waved his hands around the room.
“Yeah. Neither was I,” I scoffed, but it was only to cover the emotions packed into the memories of the moment I’d rushed through that door.
“Oh my God!” Erica gasped as she walked into the apartment. Her eyes were glued to Derrick on the floor, but as she lifted her gaze, I saw the exact second in which she saw Eliza. She slapped her hands over her mouth and her eyes jumped to Slate.
He tilted his head to Derrick and walked over, stopping in front of her. “You gonna be okay with this?” He tucked her shoulder-length, blond hair behind her ears.
She stared up at him for a brief second before clearing her throat and nodding.
“Of course you are,” he mumbled, kissing her forehead. “I think she’s all right, but can you make sure that one isn’t dying. The ambulance is on its way.”
“Yeah, sure,” she answered nervously before lifting her eyes back to Eliza. “Are you okay?”
“I think so.” Eliza looked down, embarrassed, and it made me want to kill Derrick all over again.
“You mind if I talk to Till for a minute in the hall?” Slate asked, and her whole body tensed.
“Um . . .” She squeezed me even tighter as her eyes drifted down to Derrick, who was still laid out on the floor. It appeared he was finally starting to come around.
Slate must have caught her pointed glance, because he called over his shoulder, “Johnson.”
“What’s up?” The scary beast of a man came walking inside.
“I trust that man with my life. He follows Erica everywhere,” Slate told Eliza. “She hates it, but it makes me feel better. He won’t let anything happen. I swear.” He smiled genuinely, but it did nothing to soothe Eliza.
“Can I . . . um, just go up to your apartment and maybe clean up?” she asked, tilting her head back to look up at me.
“Yeah, baby. Of course. Come back down whenever you’re ready.” I kissed the top of her head, and her shoulders relaxed.
The three of us walked out the door, and Eliza continued past us up the stairs.
Then the sounds of sirens rang through the night.
“All right. You have about sixty seconds before the cops show up. What exactly happened?” Slate leaned around me to look toward the parking lot.
“I walked in. Found Derrick straddling Flint. Knocked him off. Then I saw Eliza. Lost my fucking mind. The end.” I pushed a hand through my hair, becoming enraged all over again.
“Shit,” he cursed under his breath. “Did he fight back?”
“Yep.”
The screaming sirens neared.
“He didn’t land anything?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m gonna be real honest here, son. I’m not sure the cops are going to feel this was self-defense when he looks like that . . . and you don’t have a single mark.”
“I know.” I shrugged. . “Slate, I’m okay with anything the law wants to say about this. I know I did the right thing. No amount of probation in the world could teach that asshole the lesson I just gave him.”
“I happen to agree with you.” He sucked in a deep breath. “Heads up. Incoming.” He nodded his chin toward the breezeway.
I steeled myself for an onslaught of uniforms. Just as I turned my head to look in that direction, a hard fist slammed into my eye and forced me back a step. Before I could even bring my hands up to cover my face, I was popped squarely in the mouth.
“Son of a bitch!” I rocked to the balls of my feet and defensively lifted my hands, readying myself for the next blow.
“Well, look at that! Derrick did fight back.” Slate smiled while shaking his hand out.
“Jesus Christ. What the fuck?” I dabbed my mouth to find blood seeping from my lips.
“He looks like fucking hell, but if he’d touched Erica, I wouldn’t have stopped until his sorry ass was loaded into a coffin. You did good, Till.” He reached forward to squeeze my shoulder, and I instinctively flinched, causing him to laugh. “Go get your woman. The police are going to want to talk to her, too. They’ll be here any second.” He paused to point to my eye. “Don’t ice that shit either. Make it look good.”