"I said let him go," Chris growled as he pointed his weapon at the suspect. He tried to put it out of his mind that it was one of his men that was being held in a chokehold with a gun to his head, but the growing patch of red on Ezra's pale purple shirt made that hard.
"You come one step closer," the suspect yelled, "and I swear I'll put a bullet in his brain."
"Mr. Larabee," Ezra gasped as he clawed at the arm around his throat, "I suggest you just shoot this imbecile and get it over with." He was able to move the choking arm away from his throat enough to breath easier. "If he were going to 'put a bullet in my brain'," he continued derisively, "He would have done so already. I'm not sure he even knows where the trigger is."
"Shut up, Ezra," Chris yelled. He couldn't figure out why Ezra would want to antagonize a man who could kill him.
"You shut up," the man holding Ezra screamed. There was a wild, almost hysterical sound to his voice. "You think I don't know how to use a gun. You think I don't know where the trigger is. I could kill you…splatter your brain all over the ground."
Chris saw the faintest movement above and behind where Ezra was being held and barely made out that Vin had finally gotten into position on higher ground. He gave a slight nod indicating that Vin should take the shot if he could.
"No. I don't think you know where the trigger is," Ezra said contrary to the orders to shut up. "Why don't you show me where it is. Moron."
Chris could only gape at the insane words coming from Ezra. It was as if he were goading the man to shoot him.
"I'll show you. I'll show you," the crazed man screamed. Then, to Chris's surprise, he pulled the gun from where it was pressed to Ezra's head and held it in front of him. "It's there. Right there. That's the trigger," he said as pointed to the area in question. "You think I don't know where it is."
Free from the choke hold, Ezra took the opportunity to drive his elbow back into his captor's stomach. The man let out an oomph and dropped the gun as he staggered backwards. Ezra dove to the ground, grabbing the gun and turning to point it at his former captor. "As I said. Moron."
Chris was shaken from his surprise and hurried over to subdue their suspect as the others converged on them with Nathan making a b-line to Ezra. Ezra brushed off the concerned hands of Nathan as he tried to inspect the injury. "It's nothing...just flesh wound. I'm fine."
"Yeah. I'll be the judge of that." Nathan pulled open Ezra's shirt to reveal, as the other man had said, a flesh wound. A bullet had grazed him just under the ribs leaving a furrow in his flesh. It was bleeding heavily, but nothing vital had been hit.
"Are you insane?" Chris demanded as he came over to kneel by Ezra once one of the others had taken the suspect off his hands. "He could have killed you."
"As I told you, Chris, the man is an imbecile. He handed the gun he still had over to Chris.
Chris took the gun and inspected it. "The safety's still on," he said in disbelief.
"Exactly. Although, I really didn't think he'd be moronic enough to take the gun from my head to show it to me." Ezra shrugged slightly. "Regardless, between the safety being on and Mr. Tanner being in position to take a shot...I saw your little nod, by the way. It's a really a good thing we were dealing with such a dolt. I knew that I was in good hands and none of you gentlemen would let me down."
Chris shook his head slightly. "You're just lucky we found the world's stupidest criminal."
"And that I have such good friends I can trust to have my back," Ezra added on with a smile.
I'm not sure if I'll ever expand this one or if I'll leave it as is. Since it's so short, I thought this was the best place for it. As far as how Ezra got shot, who shot him and why, and what everyone was doing...that will be left to the mysteries. :)