He’d been careful after the first kill, waiting to see how the police reacted, waiting to see if they came pounding at his door with questions. But he now knew the local police were no match for him. He could kill with impunity… so long as he was careful.
He’d carefully scouted the area around Donovan’s apartment, and he had only one option. If he had his trusty M24 SWS, chambered in the .338 Laupa Magnum that he used in the army, the 1,800-yard shot from the closed swimming pool to Lily’s parking lot wouldn’t be as difficult, but it was at the extreme limit of his Browning. He’d made several kills at this distance, and beyond, but that was with his dedicated sniper rifle. This would be an extreme test of his skill, and he relished the challenge.
He watched through the scope where he knew her car had to appear. He was firing between a cluster of six buildings, their alignment giving him a narrow opening of perhaps a ½-degree of arc to fire, though. He had, at most, five seconds from when she exited her car to the time his line of sight was blocked by the edge of a building to make his kill. Complicating matters was the flight time of the bullet. It would take about two seconds for the bullet to travel the required distance. He couldn’t shoot where she was, he would have to shoot where she would be when the bullet arrived.
He saw her bright yellow car arrive and pull into the dedicated space. When she exited the car, he centered the crosshairs on her head, knowing she was wearing a ballistic vest, and then adjusted his aim to correct for drop and lead. He exhaled and held his breath as she turned from her car, looking back at something or someone.
###
Hammer stepped out of his truck as Lily pulled into her parking space. He was a biker, but he wasn’t dedicated enough to ride in the cold and the rain. He could handle one or the other, but not both together. She’d noticed him and waved as she’d shut the door to her car. He suddenly saw her go hard to the ground and he frowned, wondering what had happened, then heard the sharp report of far off gunfire.
“Lily!” he shouted, running toward her. The time between the impact of the bullet and the sound of the shot indicated the shooter was at a great distance. He hadn’t heard the telltale sizzling pop of a supersonic bullet passing close by; the round had either dropped to subsonic or he had been too far away to hear it pass.
Running hard, depending on the distance and speed to keep him safe, he charged across the parking lot. He threw himself to the ground beside her, not even noticing the tearing of his skin on the pavement, then grabbed her by the collar with a strong hand and pulled her roughly to the front of her car. He only guessed it was a safe location based on how her body had moved when the bullet hit her.
“Are you hurt?” he gasped, ripping open her shirt and looking for a wound.
“Son-of-a-bitch, that hurts!” she snarled, tearing at her ballistic vest, desperate to see if she was seriously injured. She ripped open the Velcro closures and reached inside, pulling her hand back to check for blood. It was clean.
He sighed in profound relief. She was wearing Type IIIA armor, designed to stop handgun rounds only. It was a standard police issue, and a high-powered bullet should have punched right through. The impact had been high on her chest, just below her chin and slightly to the left of center, above the heart, and would have been a fatal wound had it not been for the vest. The shooter had probably known she was wearing armor and had been going for a headshot but missed, and the distance and her vest had saved her life.
He grabbed the phone from his pocket as he pulled her to him and kicked farther in front of the car. Since there hadn’t been a repeat shot, the car must be blocking the shooter’s line of sight.
“911 Emergency. What is the nature of your emergency?”
“Officer down at the Rosewood Apartment Complex!” he yelled into the phone, saying the one thing that would bring every cop in the city as fast as they could get there.
There was a brief pause. “Emergency services have been dispatched. What is your location?”
“Building G, in the parking lot.”
“Can you stay with the officer until help arrives?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said before hanging up, pulling Lily to his chest, holding her tight, as he sat on the ground and rocked, his eyes darting as he watched for threats.
She tried to squirm out of his arms, grimacing in pain as she struggled. “I can’t breathe,” she wheezed, his embrace so constricting he was literally squeezing the air out of her.
He gave a soft laugh and peppered her face with fast, butterfly kisses as he forced his embrace to relax. He wasn’t usually one for that kind of affection, but right at that moment, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. After all, he’d almost lost her. And he knew he’d be at breaking point if another person he cared about were murdered in cold blood.
Now, things were clearer than ever. He had to protect Lily.
“You scared the shit out of me,” he said, then laughed again, his relief now almost giddy. “You’re going to be okay.” He pulled her into his chest again and held her tight, being more aware this time of his strength. “You’re going to be okay,” he repeated again, unsure if he was comforting her or trying to convince himself.
She sat up, pulling away from him—wincing, gasping, and grabbing at her chest with both hands as she bent over. “Shit! Fuck! I feel like someone just clobbered me with a bat!”
“Maybe, but you’re lucky to be alive.”
“Yeah, but I’ve only been a full-fledged patrol officer for six hours, and I’ve already been shot!”
Hammer looked up as he heard the faint wail of approaching sirens. The cops were responding in full force to help one of their own. He’d never had much use for cops in the past, but he was thankful to hear them now.
“That was your news? That you’d made it as a patrol officer?”
“Yeah,” she said then smiled as she rubbed at her chest, still grimacing and grunting in pain. “You think me getting shot on my first day as a patrol officer is going to count against me?”
Chapter Eighteen
“Lily Donovan?” a doctor called as he stepped into the waiting area attached to the Emergency Room, his eyes searching.
Hammer and three officers rose. “Here!” Hammer said, raising his hand, but the doctor had already spotted the uniforms and was walking toward them.
“She’s going to be okay,” the doctor said as he coasted to a stop in front of the men. “She’s going to have a lot of bruising and soreness, but the bullet didn’t penetrate the vest. We’re sending her to X-ray to check for fractures. She’s very, very, lucky. We’re going admit her, give her something to help with the pain, and keep her overnight, just in case, but she should be able to go home in the morning.”
Hammer and the three officers waiting all nodded as they sighed in relief. It had nearly gotten ugly at her apartment complex, with Hammer insisting on riding with Lily in the ambulance, and the uniforms just as adamant he wasn’t going anywhere until they had their questions answered. Lily put an end to the argument by asking for him to ride with her.
While the doctors checked Lily out, Hammer had answered officer’s questions, and the tension between them had eased.
“Carl?” Officer Ryder said as an elderly man hurried toward the officers. “The doctor just came out. She’s fine.”
“I have to see her!”
“They’re not letting anyone see her at the moment, but she’s okay. The doctor said the bullet didn’t penetrate the vest,” Ryder explained.
The man sagged in relief.
“Carl, this is Joe Grimes. He was the one that pulled her to safety and called for help. Joe, Carl Donovan, Lily’s father,” Officer Grendle said, making introductions.
“You’re Joe?” Carl asked, taking Hammer’s hand and holding it firm. “I can’t thank you enough for what you did. Lily’s told me a little about you—how you’re helping her with some self-defense training.” He released Hammer’s hand. “It seems like you’re her knigh
t in shining armor.”
Hammer smiled as his face heated up. “I don’t know that I would go that far.”
Carl put his arm around Hammer’s shoulder and steered him away from the officers. “You’re part of the Immortal Souls?” he asked, the patch on the back of Hammer’s jacket making the question rhetorical.
“Yeah.”
Carl nodded. “Knowing your reputation, do I have anything to worry about with my daughter?”
Hammer looked at Carl for a moment. Carl was probably pushing seventy, his short cut hair thinning and gray. He’d probably been a big man once but had gone soft with age. His pale yellow shirt, though neatly pressed, was hanging loose on him in places, tight in others, but Hammer could sense that his mind was as sharp as ever, his eyes quick and alert behind his glasses.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“No, of course you don’t. I was a detective for Amberton PD for over twenty years, a patrolman fifteen years before that. I never had the opportunity to cross paths with the Souls. I want to keep it that way.”
Hammer pursed his lips, reminding himself that this man was the father of the woman he was fucking. If it were his daughter, he’d be just as protective. “I think we understand each other, Mr. Donovan. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
Carl nodded. “What you did today goes a long way in convincing me that the rumors about your club may not be entirely true. Don’t make me regret my decision.”
“You won’t.”
“Tell me what happened. Does this have anything to do with the other shootings?”
“Yes, everything, I think. I asked Lily to check out a name for me. I was meeting her to find out what she found out. I saw her go down and then heard the shot. I ran over and dragged her behind her car to keep her safe.”
Carl nodded. Hammer made it sound simple, but running across open ground with a sniper firing on you takes balls. Big ones—made of brass.
“She was shot because she was checking out a name?”
“No, I don’t think so. How would he know, and killing her after she’d given the name to the detective accomplishes nothing.”
“Was the shooter targeting you?”
“I don’t think so. We were at least a hundred feet apart.”
“Then why Lily?”
Hammer hesitated, unsure of how much he should say. “I think because of me.”
Carl’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Before I thought the Souls was being targeted. Now, I don’t think so. It’s not the Souls the shooter is targeting, it’s me.”
“You?”
“Yeah. I think he’s trying to hurt me.”
“Why?”
Hammer shook his head. “I don’t know,” he lied.
“Then why do you think he’s targeting you?”
“Because Lily has nothing to do with the Souls. The only connection between all the killings is me. I thought Motor… Morgan Blasick… was killed because he was ex-Souls, even though I couldn’t figure out why. Now it makes more sense. He was killed because he was important to me.”
Carl looked at him. “Are you sleeping with her?”
Hammer looked at his feet for a moment before he met Carl’s gaze again. The old man was sharp, he’d give him that. “Yes.”
Carl stared at him. “You have to break it off. She can’t be involved in your world and still be a cop.”
“No. I’m not breaking it off unless she wants to. She has nothing to do with the Souls, and the Souls has nothing to do with her.”
“Yet, she’s here after being shot.”
“Which has nothing to do with me being a member of the Immortal Souls. Even if I weren’t a brother, she would have still been shot because this has nothing to do with them.”
Carl held Hammer’s stare. “You’re putting her in danger.”
“No. I’ve put her in danger. I didn’t know this was going to happen. But now that he’s targeted her, he will probably keep coming at her until she’s dead. I think it’s safe to assume he knows he didn’t kill her.”
“We can protect her.”
“We who, Carl? The cops? How? Unless you put her in a windowless building for the rest of her life, until this guy is caught, no one he targets is safe. This is what he did in the army, and he was very, very, good at his job.”
“What’s your alternative?”
Hammer couldn’t hold Carl’s gaze anymore. “I don’t have one at the moment, but I have a better chance of protecting her than the cops.”
“How?”
“Because I know how this guy thinks and I know how he will want to set up for a kill. That means I’ll know a killing field if I see one and we can avoid it. Can you say the same about anyone on the force?”
“They can put multiple officers on her and—”
“You’re not listening,” Hammer snapped, cutting him off. “You’re just like all the other cops I’ve talked to. I’ve told them this guy is like a ghost and the shots were coming from hundreds of yards away, but all of you seem to think this guy is just some gangbanger. I’m telling you, he’s not. He’s the fucking angel of death, and if the cops don’t start pulling their collective heads out of their asses and stop trying to treat him like a common thug, all you’re going to end up with is a bunch of dead cops. Lily included. Do you hear what I’m telling you?”
Carl stared at Hammer. “How do you know all this?”
“Because I was a spotter for this guy and I know what he’s capable of. You don’t believe me? You were a detective, right? Go check out her apartment complex yourself. Find the place where he took his shot. If you find it, it will be so fucking far away you will dismiss it as impossible, but it won’t be. Lily was lucky this time. She might not be the next time.”
Carl paused, his eyes far away as he stared into space, then he focused on Hammer again. “What do you suggest?”
“She’s safe for the moment. He won’t try anything while she’s in the hospital. Getting in close isn’t his style. Too much chance of being seen. These guys live and die on cover and stealth.”
“And after she gets out?”
“I don’t know. Not yet. Now that I know what I’m up against, I can better plan. I’ve lost too many friends to this fucker already, I’m not going to lose her too.”
“We could put her in protective custody at the station.”
Hammer smirked. “Have you met your daughter?”
Carl spluttered out a laugh. “I see you know her.”
“Yeah. She needs to be off the streets until this guy is caught. But after that? I don’t know.”
Carl rubbed his face with one hand. “You seem like an upstanding guy. Do what you can to protect her. I’ll call in some favors to get you some help. I still have some pull at the station.”
Hammer nodded. “I dragged her into this mess, I’m going to get her out of it.” He paused as he thought. “Do the cops have some kind of windowless van we can move her in? He knows where she is. He could be waiting tomorrow when she’s released and pick her off right outside the hospital, or through a car window. We have to keep her out of sight until we can button her up.”
Carl nodded. “I’m sure I can scrape up something.”
Hammer offered his hand. “I’ll keep her safe, Mr. Donovan, or die trying.”
Carl took the open palm. “That’s all anyone can ask.”
###
“How’re you feeling?” Carl asked as Lily’s eyes fluttered opened.
“Hey, Dad. Drugged,” she murmured.
Her eyes flicked around the room until she located Hammer. She smiled and reached for him. He stepped to her side, took her hand, and held it.
“The doc said nothing was broken,” Hammer said softly. “They’re going to keep you overnight then release you in the morning.”
“Good,” she replied, her voice thick and slow. “Doesn’t hurt at the moment.”
“That’s because they have you on the good stuff,”
Hammer said and gave her hand a squeeze.
Lily looked back to her father. “Some officer I am, huh? You worked forty years as a cop without a scratch. I’m on the job one day and I’m in the hospital.”
Carl chuckled and rubbed her arm. “Don’t worry about it.”
She looked to Hammer and then back to her father. “He saved me.”
“I know.”
“It’s Robert,” Hammer said.
She nodded as she blinked slowly. “How do you know?”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. Everyone thought the Souls was the target, but it’s not. I’m the target. He’s trying to hurt me. He is hurting me, by hurting those I care about.”
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