I didn’t let that stop me from doing my job, though.
Scuffling continued to sound, and then one more shot rang out.
Then nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
I was so scared that Foster was dead, that when his voice came back on the radio, I visibly wilted in my seat.
“Unit 4, 10-106,” Foster growled breathlessly. “I’ll need an ambulance for the man that just tried to shoot me in the face.”
I dispatched the ambulance, alerted other officers, and then promptly threw up.
I dashed for the trashcan across the room, barely making it in time before I lost my lunch.
Jesus Christ on a cracker, the man had scared the absolute shit out of me.
I made it back to my seat, eyes glazed, and collapsed into it.
My head hit the desk, and I started to cry silently.
“Take a break, Rhodes,” Bradley ordered. “And good job.”
I ignored him, going back to my Solitaire game I’d been playing before the call had come in, but I wasn’t into it.
I lost.
Badly.
My mind was a jumbling roil of emotions as I waited for the clock to strike eight.
Once I’d heard that Foster had made it back to the station, I gave Pauline a wave and vaulted out of my chair, forgetting completely that I was connected to the headset.
It yanked off my head once I’d reached the limit on its length and slammed against the desk in my wake.
I didn’t stop, though.
Instead, I kept going, running through the doors to the bullpen, and straight through the lobby outside.
I saw him there, talking to his brother, and I didn’t stop to think.
I just launched myself into his arms, holding him to me tightly.
He took a step back, the SUV at his back stopping him from going any farther, and gathered me to him.
After I kissed him, I started to berate him.
“You scared the absolute shit out of me!” I yelled loudly into his face.
He grinned weakly. “Yeah, I see that. It seems to be a trend tonight,” he said as he looked over my shoulder at his brother.
His hands were resting on my ass, holding me up, so I twisted and looked at Miller.
He was looking at his brother with relief, love, and a little bit of annoyance.
He kissed my forehead, and then let me slip down to my feet before he said, “Do you mind hanging with Miller here while I go talk to the Chief?”
I looked at him suspiciously, but nonetheless nodded and said, “Sure.”
“I’ll be done quickly. Just need to give him a report of what happened, and then go from there, okay?” He confirmed.
I nodded again, and he disappeared into the building.
“So…” I said, looking at his brother once the door shut behind Foster. “What do you think really happened?”
He winked at me. “That’s the twenty-three thousand dollar question.”
***
Foster
“He was waiting for me,” I said to the Chief. “I know it like I know my last name’s Spurlock.”
The Chief sighed and leaned back into his seat, rubbing his eyes with his hands. “Tell me why you think that. From what I gathered from the cops that questioned him, you startled him…or so he says.”
I shook my head.
“I passed that same freakin’ street ten times tonight. You told me to watch for the party that we suspected would be taking place, and so I kept running different routes, practically making a figure eight,” I said. “I saw that man on the first street and didn’t think anything of it. Then he moved to the next street I was on. After the fifth time I saw him, I finally pulled up.”
He nodded, motioning with his hand for me to continue.
“I didn’t actually see him until I walked up to the car. He was lying in the backseat, fully dressed. When I asked him to step out, he did. Peacefully. Then when I started to walk back to the cruiser with his license and registration, he moved. If I hadn’t turned back around to ask him a question about his license, he would’ve shot me in the back of the head.”
“Jesus, what a clusterfuck,” Chief Rhodes said tiredly.
I nodded. “A Charlie Foxtrot indeed.”
“Well, you’ll be glad to know that the mobile fingerprinting unit got a match on him. For quite a few offenses, in fact. Only one of which being the print we pulled from Blake’s house and the break-in a few weeks ago,” the Chief said.
My teeth gritted, and suddenly I didn’t feel so bad about shooting him in the belly three times with his own gun.
“Has he said anything?” I asked forcefully.
The Chief shook his head once. “Nada. I have Greer on it, though. If there’s anything to find, Greer will let me know.”
I rubbed my chest, feeling a bruise already forming from where the bullet had slammed into my Kevlar vest.
“What’s that on your… foot?” the Chief asked when he stood.
I looked down at my foot and grimaced.
“I think it’s skin,” I said. “He fell on it.”
The Chief’s expression soured. “That’s just disgusting.”
He handed me a disinfectant wipe from the tub he kept at the corner of his desk.
“Get that cleaned up. I can tell you from experience that Blake pukes at the sight of blood,” he said.
I bent down and scrubbed the blood and bits of…stuff, off my prosthesis. Then threw the towel in the trash next to the Chief’s desk.
Wiping my hands with some hand sanitizer, I stood and looked at him.
“This all has to do with her, doesn’t it?” I asked point blank.
He shrugged. “Best guess, yes. I just don’t know what she’s done to warrant it. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be finding out, though.”
I nodded.
“Well, she won’t be leaving my sight, that’s for sure.”
As I exited the Chief’s office I heard him say, “I never doubted you would. Just make sure you state your intentions to Shank before you get too involved with her.”
That was something I really, really didn’t want to do.
Not that I didn’t plan on having Blake as my own, because I did. But because I didn’t want to talk to that man period until I had this situation ironed out.
Would I talk to him anyway? Yes.
Would I enjoy it? Fuck no.
Chapter 17
Who lit the fuse on your tampon?
-T-shirt
Foster
I opened the door to my apartment, not surprised in the least to see Blake’s father standing on my doorstep.
Blake had fallen asleep on the couch during the movie I’d insisted we watch and had been sleeping for over an hour.
Not wanting to wake her, because I knew exactly where this conversation was going, I grabbed my gun from the coffee table, shoved it in the back of my pants, and met him in the hallway.
He watched my movements with the eyes of a trained officer.
Someone who had been there and done that so many times that they could anticipate the movements of another officer before it was even done.
His eyes, though, stalled on the body of his daughter as she laid on the couch, and his eyes snapped to mine, all of a sudden furious.
I hurried outside before he could start demanding answers, closing it behind me before I leaned against the wall and waited for it.
“Why’s she been crying?” Lou demanded.
I sighed.
Then started telling him about my night, followed by what the Chief had told me before I’d left.
“Fuck me,” he said, turning around to pace back and forth in the hallway. “I haven’t found shit. I’ve pulled every goddamned marker I had and still have nothing to show for it. I’m going to have to dig deeper.”
I didn’t doubt that the man had markers. I also expected that he had a lot of the criminal und
erground in his back pocket.
You didn’t stay a cop for as long as he had and not know a few criminals that you could call on if you needed them.
“I have a couple of computer savants working on it through a buddy of mine. I also have my brother’s club president working on it from his end,” I said.
“Silas Mackenzie?” he asked, surprised.
I nodded, not surprised that he knew the men associated with my brother. I was fairly positive he had a file twelve inches thick on me and my family.
“How’d… never mind. I’m sure I don’t want to know,” I said, shaking my head. “He was… is CIA, I think. I haven’t really been able to figure out exactly what he is. I’m not sure he ever got out. Anyway, I digress. He’s pulling anything he knows about Bryson Bullard, the man that tried to shoot me tonight.”
The Shank came out to play, then.
He pulled out his phone and dialed a number, not looking at me as he started talking low into the phone.
I couldn’t make out much of his conversation, but what I did hear, I knew was definitely on the opposite side of the line that one tried not to cross as an officer of the law.
“I don’t care what you have to do, you stupid son of a bitch. Either you get him to talk, or I will, and you really, really won’t like it,” he hissed before he hung up.
My brows raised as he turned around and stared blankly at me.
“What’d you just do?” I asked curiously.
He smiled.
“A daddy has a duty to his daughter. If she’s hurt, I’m hurt. I’m not going to fucking fail in this. It’ll be over my dead body that she’ll have to endure another day like two days ago. She’d be dead and gone right now if it wasn’t for your friends,” he growled. “Now, you do your job protecting my girl, and I’ll do mine.”
With that cryptic comment, he turned and started down the hall.
His wide, strong shoulders bunched with tension as he went.
“Lou?” I called to his retreating back.
He froze and turned around slowly.
“No,” he said. “You haven’t known her long enough yet.”
I grinned. “You realize that’s not going to stop me, right? That I do plan on doing it whether I have your permission or not. I just wanted you to know my intentions. I’d planned on waiting until all of this was over, but I changed my mind.”
***
I lifted Blake into my arms, carrying her effortlessly into the bedroom.
She didn’t even stir as I laid her on the bed and threw the covers over her.
She made the cutest little groan as she settled deeper into the bed, and it took all I had not to roll her over and start fucking her before she was even awake.
Alas, I turned on my heel and ran through my nightly routine of trimming my beard, washing my hands and face, and slicking on some deodorant and removing my prosthesis before getting into bed.
I slipped under the covers and slid into the middle, all too aware of my missing limb as I pulled Blake into my arms.
She curled her legs around my leg and snuggled deeper into my chest before giving another cute sigh and falling back to sleep.
I was nearly asleep myself when the pager on my nightstand went off, alerting me to a SWAT call.
“Motherfucker,” I breathed.
Chapter 18
When the scent on his pillow has to be enough.
-Night shift wife
Foster
“You’re the bomb,” I said to Alice as I let her into the living room.
Alice was a fellow police officer that lived downstairs.
I was lucky as fuck that she was at home, otherwise I would’ve been torn on leaving Blake by herself. Especially with the shit storm that was swirling above her head lately.
“You’re welcome, Foster. I just wish you’d have called me for something other than to babysit your woman,” her sultry voice said from behind me.
I winced.
Yeah, we’d slept together before.
It’d been convenient, but neither one of us had been looking for anything but a good time.
Something that we got and then left soon afterward.
“Whatever you do, don’t piss her off. Her uncle is the chief. Trust me, you don’t want any of her kind of trouble,” I ordered, tossing her a look over my shoulder.
She tossed me a glare that clearly showed how scared she really was.
“And whatever you do, don’t tell her we’ve slept together. I want her to stay where she’s at, which totally defeats the entire purpose of having you here if you piss her off and make her leave,” I explained, picking up my keys from the table.
“Whatever,” Alice said.
I winced.
Alice, although a cop, was also a girl.
She had hormones, and mood swings just like the rest of the female population.
She was also pissy that I hadn’t called her in a while.
She was a professional, though, and enjoyed her job.
I also saw her as a friend I could count on, which was why I was trusting her with one of the most important things in my world.
Something that kind of startled me. Especially since it’d been so short a time period since we’d met.
“Thank you, Alice,” I said. “Make yourself at home.”
I stopped though, turning back around. “Except my room. Don’t go in there unless you have to.”
She flipped me off, and I left with a smile on my face.
When I got to the station, though, I wasn’t smiling at all.
“What do you mean you’re afraid of heights?” Luke said, yelling. “You were a fuckin’ SEAL!”
“Hey man, back the fuck off,” I said as we got into Rita.
Rita was actually an armored truck. Something that was made to withstand a shit ton of violence and keep on truckin’.
I wasn’t really sure who’d started calling the truck Rita, but it was permanent now and didn’t look to be changing ever again.
“I said I was nervous around heights. I never said anything about being scared of them. I’ll still do my job,” I snarled. “And what’s your fuckin’ problem tonight?”
Luke grimaced. “Reese started picking up shifts on the cardiology floor at the hospital. That’s one floor away from the fuckin’ roof where we’re going. I don’t like her there, but she’s stuck.”
That explained that.
Immensely.
I’d be short, too, had I been in his shoes.
Luckily, though, the man we were going to the hospital to get out was on the roof.
Which meant that the man wouldn’t be able to get back off the roof without a badge to scan him back in.
The trip there was spent talking schematics of the hospital, what we were going to do, and if we were to take lethal force if needed.
As I entered the hospital behind Luke, I stopped abruptly when a familiar pair of shoulders, and a steely pair of eyes caught mine before he disappeared around the corner.
“What the fuck?” I asked, startled.
Why was Lou here?
And if he was here, why was he leaving when there was clearly a hostage situation going on upstairs?
He couldn’t lie to me and tell me he didn’t know.
That man knew shit before other people even had time to report it.
Yet I didn’t have the time to dwell on the fact because we heard the man who had tried to kill me earlier start screaming.
We couldn’t tell what he was saying, though. It all just sounded like a bunch of gibberish from this far down.
He was really yelling, too.
I followed Luke, not sparing Lou another thought as we made it through security and straight to the stairs.
The elevator had been temporarily turned off, the only people who could override it were us, medical personnel who would need it in case of an emergency, and the fire department.
No one would be coming in or out without us knowing.
“Alright, boys,” Luke said as we climbed the last flight of stairs. “Stay safe and stay sharp.”
Something that Luke said every single time we entered a situation such as the one we were about to head into.
Nico slammed the door open with a booted foot, and immediately passed through the open door, dropping down to his knees to allow Michael, who’d been behind him, a clear shot.
It was for naught, though.
Bryson Bullard didn’t even turn to look at us as we came out.
“You can’t do this, old man! I’m fuckin’ protected!” Bullard screamed.
Instead, his eyes were focused on the building across the street, at a certain window, in particular.
“James, what’s he lookin’ at?” I asked.
James was the sniper for the SWAT team, and a man damn good at his job.
However, what Bullard was looking at was not James, seeing as James was in a building catty-corner to the one that Bullard was currently shouting at.
“You won’t take me alive!” Bryson Bullard screamed, turning to us. “That crazy fucking guy can…”
He suddenly focused somewhere behind us and started screaming. “I’m so dead. I’m sorry!”
“Do you think he’s using?” Nico asked me.
I shrugged, aiming my gun at the man.
He had a huge fucking Oxygen tank strapped to his chest. Duct tape was wrapped around his middle, holding the tank in place, and he was scanning the surroundings of the roof like a man possessed.
“I won’t tell you!” he screamed, spittle spraying a three-foot radius in front of him.
None of us moved, all of us backed up against the side of the building while the man screamed at the edge of the hospital’s roof.
I knew that if we weren’t careful with where we placed our bullets, the man would fucking blow up if they tore through the tank.
“If we don’t do something, he’s going to jump over, and then where will we be?” Bennett, who was on the other side of me, rumbled.
We didn’t get a chance to answer.
“Your daughter’s a hot fucking piece, and I’m sorry I’ll never get the chance to fuck her properly! Just remember that I’ll be taking the name of the man who plans to take her with me to the grave! You’ll never get…” Bullard screamed as he raised a gun.
Code 11- KPD SWAT Box Set Page 93