Page 38 of Sweet Inferno

I looked down at my brother and Noab who both shook their heads.

“We don’t work for the city, so good luck with that shit. We’re here doing them a solid to get your goofy ass out of here,” Gade told him.

“I still don’t understand how he managed to get stuck like that.” Noab angled his head to the side, looking up to the ceiling where a leg was dangling. This idiot had been trying to rob Hollow Grove Bank and got stuck. According to him, he came in while they were open, climbed on top of the back of the toilet in the bathroom, and lifted himself into the ceiling.

He waited until they closed with the intent of dropping into the back where the vault was and blasting it open with explosives he had in a backpack. Unfortunately, he slipped and dropped onto one of the beams—one leg inside the wall, the other outside—and got stuck. When he panicked, unable to free himself, he waved a lighter near the smoke detector to set off the alarm. It signaled the response system. Hence why we were here. Our station took the call.

“This muthafucker got on utility boots and skinny jeans. That shit right there proves he doesn’t make good decisions,” Gade said, grinning.

“Fuck you,” Ol’ boy sneered.

“You really wanna bite the hand that feeds you?” I warned.

“Just get me out of here. Do your fucking job,” he yelled.

“You know the minute we get you out of here, you’re going to jail, right? You might want to enjoy your last few minutes of freedom,” Noab told him.

“I didn’t steal anything.”

“But you tried, dumbass. That’s attempted robbery, my boy,” Gade said amusedly.

“Which one of us is going up?” Noab asked.

“I got him.” I dropped my head back, studying the ceiling.

“You want me to get the ladder?”

“Nah, I’ll do it without one.” I shrugged out of my jacket, removed my hat, and handed them to my brother. I leapt straight up, breaking through two of the tiles next to him, landing on the beam he was straddling. When he looked up at me, his eyes went wide, realizing who he had been talking shit to.

Yeah, muthafucker, I’m a vampire.

“Why…why did they call…call you? It’s not a fire.” His scary ass fumbled over his words, looking like he was about to pass out. If his nuts being crushed on a beam didn’t do it, knowing he had been running his mouth recklessly to a vampire was for sure about to get the job done.

“You want out of here or not?” I asked, not in the mood for any of this. We took the call at six, I had no interest in overlapping shifts. The quicker I got him out of here, the sooner we could get back to the station and I could head home. We almost had a no call day until this dumbass.

“Are you going to bite me, because I don’t want you to? Can’t I tell you no?”

“Nah, you can’t. If he saves you, he gets your blood. Don’t you know how this shit works?” Gade said, fucking with him. It worked because his eyes went wide and he panicked again.

“Where are the cops? Can’t they⁠—”

“Bruh, shut the fuck up. Ay, somebody catch him,” I said right before I snatched him by the shoulders, lifted him from the beam, and dropped him through the ceiling. He screamed like a bitch and I smirked before I jumped down just in time to see Noab dump the guy on his ass.

“What the hell, man? You could have killed me.” The guy sounded like he was seconds from crying.

“Could have but didn’t. He caught you, right?” I looked down and he glared at me then scrambled, trying to stand, but his legs didn’t work. After being up there on that beam for a couple hours, I wasn’t surprised. Bank closed at four, we didn’t get the call until six.

“Did you get him?” Two officers from HGPD came walking in, looking around.

“He’s all yours.” Gade tossed his chin.

“Go with them to debrief and we’ll clean this up so we can get out of here,” I told my brother. We quickly moved through the process of making sure the ceiling was still secure, cleaned up the damaged tiles, then were on the truck heading back to the station. I shot Uri a text with an address to meet me and told her to pack a bag. I had the next forty-eight hours off and I planned on spending them in her pussy.

I stood quietly, watching Uri explore my house. The open concept gave her a full view from the living room to the kitchen which extended to an outdoor space separated by accordion glass panels that reached the cathedral ceiling. Above us were lofts on the right and left above the living room. The bedrooms were all on the main floor. My bedroom consumed the entire right side and there were three other bedrooms to the left. The only thing upstairs were the lofts.

“So it’s true then?” She glanced at me over her shoulder with amusement laced in her expression.

“What’s that?”