Pierson froze and stared down at Radar before pointing at me over his head. “You’re going to regret this. You’ll see.”
With that, he left, and a part of me wanted to make him eat those words.
Preferably by me shoving my fist into his face.
Asshole.
“Well,” Trance said, shaking his head. “I can see that you’ve got friends.”
I flipped him off, causing him to laugh.
“I’ll be back at the end of the week,” he said. “Noon. Friday.”
Downy walked with Trance to his car, and Michael and Nico flanked my sides as we watched them get into the car.
“He’s going to do anything he can to ruin your career,” Nico said honestly.
“I know,” I confirmed.
Michael slapped me on the back. “What are you going to do about it?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know yet.”
But I sure as hell needed to figure it out.
Chapter 23
‘Never have I ever’ isn’t in my vocabulary. Instead I use ‘Don’t judge me, but…’
-Secret thoughts of Reese
Reese
“Hello?” I answered the phone that was sitting on my desk next to me.
“Do you have a TV you can get to?” my sister asked frantically.
Did she hear about the campus’ lockdown?
I’d been assured it was just a drill by the principal only a few moments ago. So why would she be calling me about that if it were just a drill?
I looked at the small TV that the school had installed when I’d asked for something for the sick children to watch until their parents came to get them and stood. “Yes, why?”
“The news. Now,” my sister blurted.
Worry tightening my gut, I walked over to the remote and pointed it at the TV.
Slowly, the picture lit up the screen and I changed it to Channel 7.
What I saw next made my heart start to pound, and my breath come in pants.
“What’s going on?” I whispered frantically.
“There’s been a shooting,” my sister said. “They don’t know any more information. But it’s right down the street from you.”
I looked at the familiar buildings, and my already chilled blood turned to ice when I realized that the lot the shooting had taken place in was the one next to the police station.
I read the banner at the bottom, and my knees went out from under me.
One officer dead, two wounded in shooting that happened outside of Kilgore Police Department.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” I repeated over and over.
My sister’s soothing voice had no effect on my out of control emotions. None whatsoever.
I didn’t consciously find myself moving to the front of the building. But I walked out the front door to Mrs. Spire’s, the office receptionist, consternation.
I knew that if I went out those doors, I wouldn’t be getting back in for a while. Not while they were in a lockdown.
I kept going until I could look down the street.
There was nothing there.
The station was a short three quarters of a mile drive down the street from the school
But there was nothing to be seen.
No huge commotion. No police lights. No nothing.
Then I started walking.
It didn’t take me long to realize why I couldn’t see any of the commotion going on.
All the officers were in the parking lot already. The shooting had taken place at the station, which meant that the officers hadn’t had to get in their cars at all. They’d already been there.
The same went for the fire department.
The fire department’s station was directly across the street. They hadn’t had to move the vehicles. They’d just had to run across the street.
The closer I got, however, the easier it was to see the yellow police tape strung up along the road.
There were news crews held behind large, blue sawhorses.
That’s about the time I started running, fully unaware that I’d been doing so until I started getting a cramp in my side.
That didn’t stop me, though.
I kept running.
My legs pumped.
My lungs screamed.
My heart hurt.
My eyes burned.
I was caught by strong arms before I got too close.
I looked up to see a man with dark brown eyes.
He was older, mid-fifties or so. Dark salt and pepper hair. Large mustache that took up half of his face. Deep brown eyes.
“You can’t be in there, darlin’,” the man said sternly.
His name plate said Stoddard, and I remembered Luke speaking with Downy a couple days ago about the man. Stoddard was the man who’d been on KPD for the longest. He had a ton of experience, according to Downy, and was the one cop in all of Kilgore who didn’t let anyone get away with anything. Let it be man, woman, or child.
He wrapped his hands around my upper body and I broke. “My boyfriend…his name is Luke Roberts…is he okay?”
His eyes lit with recognition at hearing Luke’s name. He looked at me for a few long moments. So long that I thought he was going to kick me out. But he shook his head, mouth tight and said, “Girl, I don’t know anything yet, but we’ll find out, okay? I just got here myself. Don’t go far and stay at my side.”
Stoddard grabbed hold of my wrist and started walking toward the building.
My breathing, which hadn’t slowed one bit, started sawing in and out of my lungs as I saw the dozens of uniformed officers milling around.
The first person I saw that I knew was Downy.
He was in much the same as he always was, black pants and black polo shirt with KPD embroidered on the left breast pocket.
Except his shirt wasn’t tucked in, in fact, he was missing half of his shirt. A long strip had been ripped off the bottom.
He had what looked like dried blood on his neck and hands, and he had a thin cut that was oozing blood on the bridge of his nose.
I parted from Stoddard, much to his annoyance, and walked over to Downy.
“Do you have a first aid kit?” I asked quickly.
If I was distracted, maybe I wouldn’t worry so much about Luke and whether he was alive or dead.
I knew he was involved, though. There was no way an active shooter was outside the police station and he didn’t respond. He wasn’t the type of man to stand back and let things happen.
Downy had seen me coming, and he braced himself against the car as I walked up to him.
Stoddard growled something about ‘stubborn ladies’ and ‘she’s yours.’
Downy and Stoddard had some kind of man communication happening above my head, and Stoddard disappeared into the crowd.
Downy looked down at me, eyes blank, and said, “If I put you somewhere, would you stay?”
I shook my head, causing him to heave a long, loud sigh. “Fuck.”
When he started to walk away, I grabbed ahold of his hand, clutching it with both of my own and asked, “Is he okay?”
He nodded and pointed. I followed his finger to find Luke leaned over someone on the ground. Luke’s hands were planted on his knees, and he was talking very quietly to someone. Soothingly.
“What the hell is she doing here?” I spat.
Lydia was sitting on a decorative rock along the police station’s yard. Her hands were crossed around her belly and she was rocking back and forth.
“No clue. But the shooting started as soon as she got up to Luke. We were outside getting instructions from Trance, and then the shots fired,” Downy shook his head.
That’s about when I noticed Downy’s shadow, a large white dog the size of a small pony. She was gorgeous, but I felt it prudent not to mess with her. She looked a little shaken up.
“Anybody else hurt?” I asked quietly.
He looked down at me. His pretty eyes saddened. “Trance lost a dog. Radar got shot because he was trying to protect Trance. Trance was the closest to Luke, and when they all dropped, Radar covered Trance’s body. Trance wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Radar.”
A cry bubbled out of my throat, and I started to cry. “Oh, God. No.”
Poor Viddy, Trance’s wife. I’d grown fond of all the wives of The Dixie Wardens, and it broke my heart to hear that her dog had perished in this senseless shooting. Especially one who given so much over his short lifespan, saving not only Trance’s life countless times, but Viddy’s as well.
“Who did it? Did they catch him?” I asked.
Downy shook his head. “No. It was a drive by. He got about a magazine’s worth of shots off before he took off. They found the car four blocks away empty.”
My head hung for a few short seconds before I squared my shoulder and looked up at Downy. “Tell me what I can do.”
***
Two hours later I found myself picking up the girls from their respective schools.
I went home and started dinner, allowing both girls to help keep my mind off the day’s events.
After an easy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, we read books before I tucked each of them into bed, thankful that I had my life. That they had theirs. That Luke would be coming home to us.
Once they were in bed, I found myself glued to the news as they went over what had happened during the shooting.
Then they played a segment on the accomplishments of Radar, and I broke down.
I cried for the lost life. I cried for the two officers who were hurt, although not fatally. I cried for Luke having to experience that. For all the police wives that had to deal with the possibility of losing their loved ones on a daily basis.
How was I supposed to deal with that?
It wasn’t like Luke was just a cop. He was a SWAT officer.
He willingly went into dangerous situations like the one today, whenever the need for him and his team arose.
Then Lydia’s face filled the screen, and she said how thankful she was for the Kilgore Police Department’s quick action that saved her life.
“I just don’t know if I’d be alive right now if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of the Kilgore Police Department. If they hadn’t thought so quickly, I’d very well be in a morgue right now. They’re my heroes,” Lydia said to the newswoman.
My head hung.
It was true. If they hadn’t have been there, she’d have been dead.
If Luke wasn’t a cop anymore, who would be there when someone needed help?
I needed to stop thinking about myself and think about the bigger picture.
Luke was a cop and a hero; I needed to put my big girl panties on and get over it.
***
Luke
“Thanks for the ride,” I muttered to Downy as we pulled into my driveway.
Downy nodded. “No problem. I’ll catch you on Monday. At least I hope, anyway.”
I knew what he meant. There’d been too much excitement today. I was fuckin’ wiped.
I didn’t want to hear my pager go off for a very long time.
After Downy pulled away, I stood outside for a few minutes and reflected on my day.
I’d nearly died today.
A K-9 officer had died today. Sure, some would say he was just a dog. But to us, he was one of our own, and we didn’t take killing one of us very lightly.
I’d also seen two of my fellow officers go down.
Luckily, they were all okay, but that didn’t make it all right.
In fact, it was so far beyond all right that I was justifiably homicidal.
We had three hundred square miles of cops looking for our suspect…God help whomever it was when he’s found.
They’re going to need him and any divine intervention they could get.
“Luke?” Reese’s sweet, sleepy voice called from the doorway.
I hadn’t realized that she’d opened it.
I’d been staring right at it, and I hadn’t noticed the movement.
Shaking my head clear of the cobwebs, I walked inside and closed the door. Locking it. Then facing it, trying to gain my composure.
If I didn’t, I might do or say something I’d regret.
“Luke?” Reese called again, placing her hand on my shoulder.
I tensed, needing her touch, but knowing if I allowed my body to take hers while I was in this state, it would be far from gentle. In fact, it’d be so far from gentle that she’d probably become scared and I didn’t want her to ever be scared of me.
But then she made a mistake.
She started stripping me.
First my gun. Then my belt.
The muscles in my belly tensed, and my hands fisted where they rested against the door.
Control, Roberts.
Get some fuckin’ control!
Her soft, nimble fingers tugged the shirt from my pants, pulling it up and over my head, leaving it dangling from my hands that were still planted against the front door.
She leaned her head against my shoulders, running her nose along the skin of my back, tracing the tribal tattoo as she liked to do.
Then her hands slipped down, starting at my collarbone and ending at my hip bones.
My stomach, already tense, froze solid.
I realized too late that I was hanging on by a thread.
When her soft lips ran from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, all propriety flew out the fucking window.
Turning with a growl, I lifted her from under her arms, forced her up against the wall, and slammed my mouth down onto hers.
The kiss was rough, hard and hot.
The force of my kiss felt bruising, but I couldn’t let up. I didn’t have the willpower.
I didn’t have the strength to pull back. I wanted her. I needed her.
“If you don’t want this,” I managed to pant. “You need to go to your room. Leave me now.”
She circled my hips with her legs, grabbing onto my neck with both hands. “Even if I wanted to leave…which I don’t,” she said, nipping my neck. “I couldn’t. You’re pinning me to the wall.”
I nipped her bottom lip, then sucked it better.
With every ounce of energy I had left, I grabbed her ankles and physically removed them from around my hips. Stepping away from her one painful, debilitating, inch at a time, I didn’t stop until our bodies had a good foot between us.
My fists were planted above her head and my head hung.
My jaw was clenched, and my chest was heaving.
“Go,” I rasped.
She ducked underneath my arms, walking straight out of the room without once looking back.
I heaved a sigh and dropped my arms.
One hand went to my crotch, and I pressed against my raging erection, squeezing the head of my dick, willing it to go down.
It didn’t.
Not even a little bit.
Turning out the last light in the bathroom, I walked to my bedroom.
My heavy dick led the way as I walked into my room, forgoing the light.
I closed the door, stripping out of what was left of my clothes before walking to the bed.
My hand encountered a leg as I started to crawl into bed.
It convulsed, and I growled, yanking the leg down until Reese’s ass was on the edge.
My hands traveled up until they encountered the soft fabric of her panties, then I hastily ripped them from her body.
She squealed in surprise, reflexively trying to close her legs, but I stopped the movement with both hands pressed firmly on her thighs, holding them open wide.
The panties were gone with a ripping sound, and my head descended in the next moment.
I latched onto her clit in a hungry fervor. Running my hardened tongue around the tightened bud quickly, flicking it back and forth.
She rocked her hips, a
nd her thighs tried in vain to close once again.
My hands gripped her thighs harder, pushing them not only down, but wider, exposing even more of her to my hungry mouth.
I ate her up; licking, sucking, and rubbing.
“God,” she gasped frantically, her hands latching onto my hair in desperation.
When she was on the brink of coming, her hips rocking in desperation, I sat up so fast I went lightheaded.
Then, in the very next instant, I slammed home.
Her hot, needy pussy was hugging my cock like it was made for me.
The fact that it was dark, and the only thing I could feel was her body wrapped around mine…her breath on my neck…the smell of her scent enveloping me, rocked my fucking world.
My ass tightened as I pumped into her, taking her so hard that she was forced up the bed in my enthusiasm.
She held on, though. Taking each of my thrusts and giving back more of her own.
My cock felt like it was in heaven.
The head of my cock bumping against her end with each thrust was making my head spin.
Then…she bit me.
Her sharp little teeth sank into my shoulder as her pussy started fluttering around my length.
Then she screamed. The only thing muffling the abrupt sound was my flesh.
I shoved my hands underneath her shoulders, grabbing hold of the top of her shoulders for leverage as I started pounding into her roughly. There was no finesse in my strokes. Only hard, raw, dirty possession.
She gasped as I twisted my hips, and impossibly, she started convulsing around me once again.
Her hot, little nipples poked me in the chest as she came, and the continued movement of her sensual body against mine finally pushed me over the edge.
In five jerky strokes, I started coming, pouring myself inside of her.
I leaned down, giving her my weight as my orgasm subsided, but I didn’t pull out.
I was quite content where I was, more than willing to sleep on top of her all night.
But her soft laughter, as she explained that she ‘couldn’t breathe,’ had me withdrawing my softening member from her well used pussy, rolling over until I fell onto my back beside her.
“Holy shit,” I said breathlessly.
She curled into my body, and I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her in until her head rested over my heart.
Code 11- KPD SWAT Box Set Page 16
