Heart of Glass (Heart #1)

by Lolah Lace

  Brian exited the break room toward the workroom floor. He left them alone without any discussion to when he would return.

  *****

  Something didn’t sit right with Mike. It only took a few seconds for him to grab his coat and slip on his shoes. He rushed out of Tami’s place in search of her. Calling her cell over and over didn’t seem to give him any leads. He wanted to track her cell phone, but decided just to look for her instead. He hadn’t reached the stage of worry quite yet. He drove down the dark snow covered streets of Hinsdale.

  A few blocks out, a snowplow truck passed him from the opposite direction. He felt stupid. Maybe he was overreacting, but he loved Tami enough to take the shitstorm she would unleash if his intuition was wrong. He wasn’t really checking up on her. Actually he was, but the weather could always be his excuse if she was just grocery shopping or something like that.

  *****

  Tami and Misty were on the floor waiting for Brian’s eventual return. Misty had moved closer to Tami as soon as Brian left the break room. Misty was in an uncontrolled panic.

  “Misty calm down and get the key out of my pocket.” Tami whispered hoping Brian wasn’t lurking outside the break room door.

  “He’s going to come back.” Misty whimpered.

  “Hurry up and get the key.” Tami ordered. “Turn around and try to get your hand in my back pocket.”

  Misty’s hands were tied behind her back, but she managed to get close enough to Tami to get a single key out of her pocket.

  “I got it.”

  “Okay, now get close to my hands and hold the key out, but hold it tight. I’ll try to direct it into the hole. You just try to hold it still. I have to get these cuffs off.” She whispered.

  Misty did exactly as she was told. Within a few seconds the cuffs were open. Tami slipped them off of her wrists.

  “We have to get out of here.” Tami murmured. She knelt down to untie Misty’s hands and feet. There was a small handgun hidden under Tami’s pant leg. Her backup gun was a small Ruger LCP 380 securely holstered at her ankle. She had silently prayed Brian wouldn’t find it, and he didn’t.

  “Are you okay?” She asked, although it didn’t matter either way.

  Misty shook her head yes. “He didn’t hurt me bad.” Misty winced, thinking of what could have happened.

  “We’re going to get out of here.” Tami reached for her hidden Ruger but was startled by Brian. She was unable to get to the gun.

  Brian entered with Tami’s Glock in his hand. Tami thought about hesitating but went with seizing the opportunity. She leapt from kneeling and knocked Brian to the floor. The Glock tumbled from his hand and skidded across the floor.

  There was an intense struggle for the gun. They both tried to stop the other from reaching it. They clawed at each other in the animalistic fight.

  Misty screamed in the background. She crawled across the floor and picked up the handgun.

  “Brian, stop!” Misty yelled. “I’m going to shoot! Stop!”

  Brian ignored Misty’s outburst. Misty stood and pointed the gun down toward Brian and Tami’s ferocious embrace. He was staring into the nozzle of the gun. He moved swiftly tossing Tami on top of him and—BLAM! A single shot. There wasn’t any blood on Brian. He pushed Tami’s limp body off of him. A bullet hole pierced Tami’s blouse on her lower shoulder.

  “Oh God!” Misty sobbed when she saw the flood of blood escape Tami’s wound.

  She clumsily dropped the gun and raced through the doorway. Brian leapt over and retrieved the smoking gun. He stumbled to his feet. He was only one step behind Misty as he raced after her.

  It was dark out on the workroom floor making it impossible to see. Misty ran down the center aisle with Brian hot on her frenzied tracks.

  The glow of the outside streetlamp gave a tinge of light to the front of the video store. In the dimness Misty saw the shadow of a person walking down the center aisle towards her.

  “Help me!” Misty shouted at the dense figure.

  Brian raised the gun.

  BLAM!—BLAM, BLAM! The sparks illuminated the darkened room. Misty fell into the shadowy person’s arms. She looked up at him. It was Detective Mike Crane. He had his gun in his hand and pointed out. He held Misty’s weakened body and pulled her to a standing position.

  She turned to see Brian standing a few feet away. He was staring at them. Brian looked down at his torso as realization sunk in—blood. Brian fixed his eyes back on them. He stumbled down to his knees and fell face first to the carpet.

  Tami staggered through the doorway of the break room and lowered her smoking gun. She had taken him down with her Ruger, but she was bleeding badly. Her blood painted the side of the doorway. Tami wobbled in and stood over Brian’s bloody body. The wounds in his chest gushed blood, but he was alive. A thin rivulet of blood leaked from his mouth. He was choking on it. Tami kicked the gun he held far from his immobile body.

  Mike pushed Misty behind him. He moved in closer to view the life slowly leaving Brian’s bullet riddled body.

  Tami knelt down to get a closer look at the Zebra Killer. “Brian.”

  Brian answered with the flicker of his eyes.

  “They don’t just give these badges out to anyone.”

  Brian tried to laugh, but instead choked on his blood. He paused to muster up some strength to speak.

  “Tami.”

  “Brian, why did you do this?”

  He spit up blood. “I don’t have a reason. I just wanted to kill.”

  “No.” She refused to believe there wasn’t some sick motivation behind his deadly actions. “Why biracial women?” Tami inquired. It was the question that would plague her if she didn’t ask.

  Brian’s face crooked into a wicked smile. “Tell, tell Pat…that I, that I…love her.” Brian coughed. “That mixed, bitch … picked him, over me.”

  Brian took his last breath. His words were too baffling and she knew she would never repeat them to anyone. There was no way Patricia had any relationship with Brian other than that of a stepmother. Tami was quite sure of it.

  They all stood around Brian’s lifeless body. Mike removed his cell from his pocket. He called it in, but his voice just uttered a jumbled collage of random words for Tami and Misty.

  It only took a few minutes before the scene was swarming with law enforcement. The ambulance showed up along with the coroner’s van. Even the upper brass showed up. This was major news. The Zebra Killer was dead, and tomorrow’s headlines would probably state those exact words.

  When JT arrived he wasn’t too surprised. He had an odd feeling about Dr. Ziewicke. He mumbled something about the apple not falling far from the tree. It all was a blur to Tami. Her shoulder was burning although she tried to hide the pain.

  Tami briefed her superiors with a quick rundown of the night’s events. She watched as Misty was ushered away with her parents. Now it was her turn to leave the scene.

  Mike rode in the ambulance to the hospital with Tami. The bullet only gazed her shoulder, clipping a major vein and causing a flesh wound.

  “You saved my life.” Tami sat up in the ambulance, while the female paramedic tended to her shoulder.

  “Ah, well I think that means you owe me.” Mike grinned as he thought of all the ways she could pay him back.

  “What do I owe you?”

  “Marriage, remember I asked you. I’ll take that and maybe two or three kids named after whatever professional athletes I choose.”

  The female paramedic smiled as she listened to the odd exchange between the two detectives.

  “Fine, yes I will marry you.”

  “Great, I have a witness so you cannot back out. Verbal agreements stand in a court of law.”

  “I’m not backing out. But my kids cannot be named after boxers.”

  “So Mike Tyson Crane is a no-go?”

  “No way.”

  Mike chuckled. He contained his excitement, but he had longed to hear her say yes. The fear he felt when he realiz
ed she had been shot had turned to exhilaration. He stood and held on to the wall of the ambulance. He bent to kiss Tami on the lips.

  “I love you.” He lovingly gazed down into her eyes. “Please don’t get shot again.”

  “I will try not to.” The smile on Tami’s was the biggest he’d ever seen.

  Mike sat back down.

  “Hey.” The paramedic waved her arm up to get their attention. “Can I come to the wedding?”

  EPILOGUE

  After sometime, things eventual returned to normal. Tami was credited with solving the case. Misty’s parents sent her into rehab and her father had been in recovery for a few weeks. It was going to take a long time and a lot of professional help to get Misty into a peaceful state of mind. The trauma was too much, but she was willing to live through it so her sister’s death wouldn’t be in vain.

  Tami slept better knowing a killer was dead. She only wished this would have been over sooner. She saved Misty, but she would never forget the young women that lost their lives, Kelly White, Christy Toliver, Crystal Hurley and Tracy Washington. It felt good to be able to tell Nicole that she was safe. Tami was sure it was hard for her to go on with her life knowing she escaped the Zebra Killer but that he was still out there somewhere. Now Nicole Zampino and her little daughter Brookie could feel safe again.

  Tami knew it would be impossible to hold on to the relationship she had with her friend Patricia. Brian was dead and there wouldn’t be a trial. It was all for the best. Tami didn’t want to share any of the things Brian had told her that day in the video store. Sometimes she wondered why he really did it. She felt his reasons weren’t good enough. It was only later that she learned Brian’s mother suffered from schizophrenia. She also learned Brian had been treated for various mental disorders when he was younger. Brian was a grown man still living at home in his parents basement. He turned out to be ideal profile of a serial killer. She wished she had realized it sooner.

  Tami knew that Brittany had dropped out of college. She didn’t know much else. She was the last person the Ziewicke family wanted to associate with. She knew their house was on the market. They had to move out of their house. No matter how the Hinsdale and Oakbrook communities wanted to keep things under wraps, the story was too big to die down quickly and quietly.

  Mike moved in with Tami right before their engagement went public. It helped that they worked at two different police departments.

  Tami was more open with Mike about her past. She explained how devastated she was when her father died in the military. And how hurt she was when her mother left her. Her mother abandoned her just days after her father was buried. There was a funeral and then the sudden sense of the loss of two parents. She told him how she blamed herself and thought that if she were a better, smarter and a Whiter little girl, things would have been different.

  Tami’s paternal grandmother raised her as best she could on a fixed income. She told him how drastically her life changed with the death of her favorite cousin, Latanya. She wanted him to understand why she had such a hard time getting close to people. Latanya was not only her cousin. She was her best friend. Latanya made Tami feel complete. She made Tami proud to be Black and made her feel happy in her own skin after years of being teased for being mixed.

  Seeing Latanya shot dead by a rookie officer was one of the worst days of her young life. She managed to get through it, but she could never forget it. She would always wonder how her cousin would have turned out. How many kids would she have had? What job would she have picked? Tami knew it was odd that she choose law enforcement after what happened to her cousin. She had dreams of making the world a safer place.

  The settlement money from the lawsuit paid for her and her grandmother to move to Hinsdale. It also paid for her college, but all of that was in the past. Tami was looking forward to a future with Mike. Being Mrs. Tami Crane was starting to sink into her system.

  First, she took Mike to meet her grandmother. She didn’t tell her grandmother she had been shot until she was stitched up. She didn’t want to worry her.

  The visit went well. She was sure the dozen red roses Mike bought her grandmother helped. Tami’s grandmother and Mike hit it off. They had a shared love of sports that Tami never considered until she saw them talking about college basketball. It warmed her heart to see them together. She would be starting a family soon, and she wanted her grandmother to approve. She did, and it was a relief.

  Tami decided she was ready to meet Mike’s mother. Something she had been avoiding for more than a year.

  She sat in the passenger seat of his truck and was on her way.

  “Don’t be nervous.” Mike took his eyes on the road to glance at her. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

  “She could hate me.”

  “No way, she would never be mean to someone that’s has been shot.” Mike pulled into the driveway of a spacious middle class suburban home.

  “That’s a plus.” Tami smiled.

  “You caught and killed a killer. I think she’s going to treat you like a celebrity. She loves cops. I’m second generation law, you know that.”

  “I’m nervous.” Tami finally admitted out loud.

  “About us?”

  “No, I want to be Mrs. Crane.”

  “Good, that’s what I want. My mother wanted me to get married a long time ago. She is dying to meet you. She’ll love you. I know this because I love you. You ready?”

  “I’m ready.”

  Mike smiled. “Let’s do this.”

  They both got out. Mike met Tami at the front of his truck. He took her hand in his and pulled her close. He planted a kiss on her lips that she willingly accepted.

  “Mike.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I love you.”

  “Yeah I know. Stop stalling.” Mike gently pulled her hand. “Let’s start a new chapter in our lives together.”

  THE END

  Authors Note

  Zebra Crossing is a revamped book from a screenplay I wrote over a decade ago. Please take the time and leave a review. Honest reviews are greatly appreciated. Also, please take a minute and leave a review over at Amazon, Goodreads or the online retailer where you purchased the book. Thank you so much to the new readers that have found my books. Thank you so very much to all the readers that have been rocking with me since the Balls To The Walls series.

  Review at Amazon

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  HEART OF GLASS

  By

  Lolah Lace

  Copyright © 2017 by Lolah Lace

  www.lolahlace.com

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  EXPLIC
IT ADULT CONTENT

  WARNING

  This novella is considered erotic romantic fiction. This is for mature audiences only. This book contains adult profane language and extreme sexual situations. This is dark.

  ***

  CHAPTER 1

  When I woke, I thought today was going to be a pretty good day. The weather was on the verge of breaking. It was February but the cold winter weather had disappeared. I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. My problems flooded my brain. My piece of a car was acting up. What else was new? I really needed extra shifts to save up some money to get it fixed. I needed new brakes and new rotors amongst other things.

  I sluggishly went into the kitchen to make coffee when I heard someone thumping on my door. The faint thump quickly turned into banging. My heart raced as I physically froze in place. It was seven in the morning, too early for the noise or for the random person that had mistakenly knocked on my apartment door. I hated living alone. I didn’t feel secure. I didn’t feel safe. Tiptoeing to the front door I looked through the peephole.

  Dave was standing there looking just the same as I last saw him. He was in his sanitation supervisor uniform. I held my breath hoping he wouldn’t hear me breathing from the other side of the door.

  “Kelby.” His voice boomed. “I know you’re home. Your car is in the parking lot.”

  Shit that was true. My piece of shit car is parked out there. I sucked up the courage. “What do you want?”

  “Open the door.”

  I ignored his request. “What do you want?”

  “Did I leave my black leather belt over here?”

  Oh, course not. “No, Dave.”

  “Let me in so I can look for it.”

  “No. Gone.”

  “Seriously I need it and I can’t find it.”

  “Dave, I don’t have your stupid belt. You took all your things. Leave me alone.”

  “I already left you alone. I just want my belt.”

  “I don’t have your fucking belt. Ask your baby mama to buy you a damn belt.”

  “Why are you acting stupid? I don’t want you.”

  “Shit, I can’t tell. Stop coming over here.”