officially clear the sunroom when a man popped up from behind the sun bed with a gun.
"Freeze! Century SWAT!" Xavier warned. "Drop it!
"Don't do anything stupid," Salsa warned. "You knew we'd come knocking one day. Just make this easier."
The man wasn't listening; he still pointed the gun at Xavier.
"Come on, Man," Xavier said. "I'm not having a good day today, don't make me shoot you. Put down the gun!"
Instead, the man lifted the gun toward Salsa and
Xavier fired. The bullet hit the suspect in the arm and the gun went flying. Rushing forward, he gripped the man's wounded arm and twisted, flipping him to the floor. He quickly rushed forward and kicked the gun out of the suspect's reach. He gripped his arm and spun him over to face the floor. "Didn't I tell you to drop it? What the hell is wrong with you?" Xavier demanded while cuffing his injured suspect. Then and only then did look up at his friend as other officers rushed to the door, rifles drawn.
"You all right?" Xavier questioned.
"Yeah…"
Xavier turned his head slightly to speak into his
microphone. "Sun room, cleared. Suspect down, get us a medic."
They all cleared the house and Rajan hopped from
the truck.
"Are you all right?" Rajan asked.
Xavier set his rifle in the down motion, pointing to the ground and looked into Rajan's eyes trying to see if he was truly concerned. The actor's brown eyes showed
something he hadn't seen before so he smiled and nodded.
"I'm fine. You should see the other guy."
Rajan laughed. "All your guys got out okay?"
"Hey, we're all here," Muse said, walking to stand with them. He extended his hand and Xavier removed his gun and handed it over.
"What's that for?" Rajan asked.
"After a suspect is shot, we have to hand over our gun. There will be an investigation…" Xavier trailed off.
"Investigation? The punk was going to shoot you!"
"Yeah. It's routine." Muse replied. "Nothing to worry about."
Xavier smiled. "Come on… we'll take you back to the house."
"Can we stop for ice cream?" Mack hollered.
"What are you? Six?" a female agent Rajan hadn't met yet shouted and they burst out laughing.
"Say all you want. Ice cream is good shit!" Mack retorted, heading for their ride back to the station.
Rajan laughed. "Are they always like this?"
"Yeah…always," Xavier replied. The others crowded into the truck and Xavier grabbed Rajan's
shoulder. "Wait."
"What happened?"
"About what happened in the locker room
earlier…"
"Don't worry about it. I know you didn't mean it."
Xavier smirked. "Oh trust me… I meant it."
"Then what more do you have to say?"
Xavier took a breath. "Nothing—nothing at all."
They carried on bust after bust, until they were able to leave. Taking a breath, Xavier grabbed his things and followed Rajan out to the parking lot. "You want to follow me to my place?" Xavier asked. When Rajan arched a brow at him Xavier smiled.
"For training. Did you change your mind?"
"You were serious about that?"
"Of course."
"I don't have anything to work out in… Can I go home first and grab some things then come back?"
"I have plenty. Come on."
Rajan nodded and Xavier watched him walk away.
Chapter Five
The room was made into a home gym. There was a
ring in the center. To the left were two boxing bags beside each other, a curled up skipping rope laid on the ground and to the right was a treadmill, an elliptical machine and a few other pieces of gym equipment. Hanging from the ceiling on the wall, high above the equipment was a banner with Excelsior Jiu-Jitsu Champion 2009 written on it with the logo of two fists smashing into each other. Beside that banner was another one. This one was red and black with Congratulations! Sandan! on it. Rajan had no idea what that meant.
In the far corner were weights and a water cooler.
Rajan walked over to the ring and climbed in. It was very strange to be in the middle of one again. The last time, he was in a movie titled Mujhay Tum Say Nafrat Hai. It was about a
Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg