His Hope

Part 19: Our Past Was Never Pretty

19

5 Years Ago

He stumbled into the empty parking lot. Scrambling back up to his feet, he tried to take off again only to fall back down because of the pain in his thigh. His eyes burned as he looked back only to the see the stupid fucking cop behind the barrel of a gun pointed directly at his head.

"You've got nowhere to go, Davis," Xavier said his chest heaving as he watched the broken man lying on the ground. His leg was now bent in an odd direction and he wasn't sure if the man could even feel it with the number of drugs and alcohol in his system. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aiden, Sebastian, and Ronnie forming a perimeter around the man.

"Leave me the fuck alone!" Davis screamed into the night, his head lolling from side to side.

"You put two people in the hospital, evaded your county police with a warrant out for your arrest, and you're higher than a kite right now, probably with drugs on you. You are going to jail." Xavier spoke calmly as he inched closer to the man. He didn't know what weapons he may have on him and he had to be cautious.

"I didn't do none of that shit... saying I did that... you don't know what I've done you, bitch! Go get the kids! You fuck..." Davis rambled on, shouting to different areas of the darkness.

Xavier sighed looking to Sebastian showing he was going to put his gun away and Sebastian nodded, motioning to his other men. "Davis you are under arrest-..."

"I said leave me the fuck alone!" Davis screamed again and a sudden movement from his side had Xavier's eyes widening. Davis had pulled a gun from somewhere and was now waving it around his head.

"Davis," Xavier spoke in a calm voice, his heart speeding up as he held his hands out showing he was unarmed. He trusted his men, they know what to do in a situation like this, so he put his focus on trying to calm Davis down. He was too close now to back away.

"Were just here to talk ok? I'm not going to harm you or take you anywhere you don't want to go, but in order to do that, you have to lower your hands." He said inching closer with every word, he needed to get the gun out of his hand.

"Talk, talk, talk, that's all you want to do, well I'm done talking!" Davis screamed, he was pissed, and he had been for a long time. He kept seeing his wife, his stupid fucking kids always wanting shit. Well, he wanted shit too!

Whilst he was talking to himself, Xavier had gotten close enough to be able to unarm him. He slowly lowered himself to Davis's level. He didn't see Ronnie move from his position to help, or Sebastian trying to tell him to get back. He didn't see Aiden move to cover Ronnie, leaving Sebastian open. He trusted his men to make decisions they felt we're best in the moment. Davis swung his gun again, in a direction that was empty only moments ago and Xavier lunged, just as a shot popped off. Davis and Xavier struggled as another shot rang in the distance. Xavier rolled away, found his the gun at his hip, pulled it and took one shot, just as two more went off. His heart was racing as Davis fell to the ground. He immediately knocked the gun away from him.

"Everybody okay?" Xavier yelled as he moved to assess the man. When he didn't get a reply, he turned towards where his men should be, only to find them gone. Confused he whipped his around till they settled on the ground behind him. "Ronnie!"

***

"Dude... Xavier!" James slapped his friend on the shoulder, gaining his attention. He had been totally zoned out the past few hours, blindly following himself and the others as they got him to the hospital and got him checked out. When Xavier finally looked over, James nodded towards the doctor who had come out to update them on Louisa, who had been rushed into surgery a while ago.