Wild Ride | ✔

This Needs to End

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what you want." Hailey peered around the house again, watching as the guy aimed in her direction. She was able to spot something moving behind him, the young boy sitting on the grass tied up so he couldn't run away.

"I want you to leave! That's what I want." He fired off another warning shot against the house, this time the bullet lodged into the fence just beside the shed. "This is my business, and I don't need anyone meddling in it."

"You know I can't do that. Look at those kids, look at their faces. They're scared. I can't let you take them." Clearly, she was baiting him, buying time for Jay to come around the corner so this could all end.

"Who said I was taking them with me?" She took another glance around the corner, her main focus on where Jay was without giving away he was there. He appeared a few seconds later after the guy was spewing off random, unintelligible garbage. It was just as well knowing he wasn't watching as Jay untied the boy's feet, helped him stand, duck safely behind the house and cocked his piece against the back of the guy's head.

"Drop the gun," Jay told him firmly, the guy's smirk disappeared off his smug face as Hailey came out behind the house pointing the gun in the other direction. As the guy finally complied and dropped his piece to the ground, sirens grew louder in the distance as backup came nearer their location. "Now the girl. Let her go, gently." He didn't look like he was going to until the girl got her foot loose and kicked her heel into his shin as hard as possible. She stumbled to the ground, found her footing, and stepped behind Hailey who never took her eyes off the suspect.

"Don't even think about it. Put your hands behind your back." Jay was one step ahead of him as he kept a firm hold on his shoulder so he couldn't go after her, while Hailey swept his gun away from reach with a sigh of relief. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you don't have one, one will be appointed to you."

"You're okay." Hailey crouched down, looking her over to make sure there were no pressing issues she needed to address as the girl came down from a rush of emotions from a few minutes ago. "He can't hurt you anymore. I'm Hailey."

'Where's my brother?" Panic settled in as she looked around the empty backyard. It was possible the young girl had spotted her brother first after coming around the corner, although when Jay untied him, she had been facing a different direction after the suspect grabbed her.

"He's probably getting checked out by the paramedics." Hailey pointed over in the distance where an open rig was parked near the front of the house. They began walking side by side towards it when the little girl snaked her hand up to Hailey's and held on tightly as the suspect was secured into the back of the police car.

"What's going to happen to him?"

"Well, he's going to jail. Probably for a long time." They walked a few feet before she stopped in her tracks with another question in mind.

"Hailey? What's going to happen to us? We only have each other now."

"What about your mom?" Hailey crouched down to her level again. It was a heartbreaking situation that seemed to happen all too often these days, leaving children to either stay with relatives or thrown into foster care.

"She died last year." The spark in her brown eyes dimmed immediately upon the mentioning of her mother. Her bottom lip then jutted out, letting her know how clearly she missed her. It didn't seem fair that they lost both of their parents in the last year.

"I'm sorry to hear that." The conversation hadn't been lost on her as she spotted her brother resting on the gurney inside the ambulance, the paramedic working on bandaging up his leg a little better.

"Detective." The paramedic had short brown hair and a gentle smile when cutting the bandage away from the roll so she could finish wrapping it around his wound." Who might this be?"

"This is his sister."

"Got a name, little one?"

"Can you help me, please?" The little girl asked after tugging on Hailey's shirt. She had completely ignored the paramedic's question purposely as she awaited Hailey's help to get up into the rig, to which she did carefully.

"It was worth a try. I can't get him to talk much." The paramedic shrugged before hopping out of the rig so they could talk a little more privately and still keep an eye on them while they hung out in the rig. "Not even a name. The cut on his leg is superficial, so I don't think he'll need stitches."

"The only information I got from her is that their mom died last year. I have a feeling those kids have seen things they shouldn't have."

"Poor kids." The paramedic sympathized as they both looked back into the rig to see the siblings working on some sort of handshake. Their hands would collide in unison, other times they would giggle whenever they messed up.

"Hailey," Jay called out to her, his strides quick and his expression serious as he glanced back over at the ambulance where the paramedic had hopped in and was now blowing up gloves to entertain them. "How are they doing?"

"Right now, they're okay. Under the surface, I think it's going to be a long time before either one of them trusts anyone again. Still haven't gotten a name on either of them."

"Kim may have gotten a small lead on that. She finally found someone from his old neighborhood who knew Gabriel and his kids." He rubbed just above his eyebrow before pointing to the boy first and then the girl who were still messing around in the rig. "Meet Joey and Maya."