“The police are outside,” Delilah whispered in my ear. “Don’t turn around. We need to get her free, though.”
“Shut up!” I screamed at Delilah. “Why don’t you two take this one, too? She’s a little mouthy and I’m tired of dealing with her.”
The shock on Delilah’s face only lasted a moment before I saw a flash of understanding in her eyes.
“I’m tired of all of this. I don’t want anything to do with any of you. I’m leaving,” she announced as she headed toward the door.
“Oh no, you’re not, little lady,” Carlos said and pulled her back. “I’d like to keep you around. Remember that little party the two of us were going to have?”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but Delilah seemed to have a plan. She got herself situated next to Rose, but Carlos and Antonio were on either side of them. I didn’t have a gun – I didn’t have any way of actually rescuing them and it felt totally helpless.
“Look at this mess you got me into,” Rose yelled and slapped Delilah.
“Me? You’re the one who has all these loser guys around. How about having a little self-confidence?”
Before I knew what was going on, the two women were at it again and rolling around on the ground arguing. Now the three of us men were watching as the girls argued and grabbed at each other.
They had done an excellent job of distracting Carlos and Antonio because before I knew what was happening, the front door had been kicked in and the living room was filled with police. The officers were yelling at everyone.
I looked over and saw Del and Rose hiding together on the floor. Carlos and Antonio seemed reluctant to follow the officers’ orders, but finally obliged because the officers had their guns drawn.
If Delilah and Rose hadn’t been on the floor, they certainly would have been used as human shields by Carlos and Antonio. But they were out of reach and the men had no choice except to put their hands up. Well, they had a choice: they could have drawn their guns and gotten their butts shot by the police officers, but that seemed like a bad idea, even for a couple of meatheads.
The whole scene was rather anti-climactic as the police put cuffs on the two men and hauled them out to their cruisers. Outside, we saw Billy, Dick, and Josh all waiting as the girls and I walked out to great them.
“Sorry for punching you,” Rose said to Delilah.
“No, it was great. Definitely believable.”
“You know, you two had me scared to death,” I told them as we walked toward the guys.
“You should have seen your face when we were rolling around on the ground. Man, that was funny. Did you see them?” Delilah asked.
“Oh, so predictable. They were all standing around with their tongues out like we were going to strip naked or something like that.”
“Can’t leave men to do a woman’s job,” Delilah laughed as the two of them hugged. “It was nice meeting you. Maybe we could hang out sometime when we aren’t punching each other in the face.”
“I don’t know how Brandon would feel about that.”
“Hey, I’m all for you two being friends. And, you can fight naked anytime you want,” I joked.
“What? Wait, was there naked girl fighting and I missed it?” Josh joined in the conversation.
“No, Josh, but I think you could convince Mattie to have a naked fight with you if you’re nice to her,” Delilah teased.
“Mr. Baker, Billy here says you have some evidence about this case? I’m Officer Michaels.”
“Yes, Sir. I’ve got this all recorded right here,” I said as I unbuttoned my shirt and exposed the wire that was taped to my chest. “It might take me a minute to get it off….”
“Oh, I’ve got it,” Rose said as she leaned over and ripped the wire right off my chest.
“Hell! Shit! Damn it!” I screamed.
The pain shot through my body as about half of the hair from my chest was pulled off with the tape from the wire. I saw the smile of contentment on Rose’s face, though, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She had probably been waiting a really long time to cause me to scream like that.
“Just trying to make things go a little more quickly,” she smiled. “You know you deserved that, right?”
“Yep,” I said through the pain.