by Mays, Nikki
Whenever I go to see my dad, Todd is always there since he works for him. I’ve always tried to be polite and make small talk with him while waiting on my dad to finish up whatever he was doing. But those conversations honestly would go in one ear and right out the other. They weren’t conversations that I was overly invested in. I just didn’t want to be a rude ass to him. Now I’m thinking that maybe I should’ve been.
“Todd, I’m sorry but I just don’t remember that,” I say as gently as possible. No need to piss off the lunatic with a gun any more than Mellie already has. “I’m usually just really excited to spend some time with my dad. That’s usually what I’m thinking about. But I still don’t understand why you’re standing here with a gun.”
I can hear the sirens in the background. My relief is palpable. Todd whips his head around towards the windows. While he’s distracted I swipe my gun from the front pocket of my purse and quickly flick the safety off. I keep my hand holding the gun underneath the counter and put my left hand on top of the counter.
I honestly don’t want to shoot him but I’m going to read just in case. Mine and Mellie’s lives mean more to me that he does. If push comes to shove, I’m taking the shot. He brought this upon himself. I can hear my dads voice inside my head “Shoot first and ask questions later sweetheart. It’s always better to be alive to ask those questions, then dead waiting for permission”.
Todd’s looking around frantically. “No, no, no, no, no! They shouldn’t be here! I shut the alarm and cameras off. No one is supposed to know.” He screeches flipping the hell out.
“You’re the one who’s been messing with the alarm and breaking in?” I ask. I already know the answer but I want the clarification.
He looks over at me and rolls his eyes. What is it with everyone rolling their eyes at me today? “Your alarm system was child’s play for me. You really should think about getting a better system. That one is extremely easy to manipulate.” Oddly enough, I will be taking his advice on that. “When your fiancé,” He says that word with such venom that I recoil. “added those cameras, it became trickier to come and goes as I pleased, but not impossible. It was a little more work but worth the effort.”
Damon and the guys decided to add cameras to shop, as well as, to the entryways and windows at my place. They figured that they might get lucky and see who's been behind all of this. Guess that didn’t really work out, but A for effort, right?
Todd looks even crazier right now which is quite a feat. He looks around rapidly moving the gun in an unsettling arc. “Which one of you did it?” He questions as he goes back and forth pointing the gun at each of us. “I know one of you called them. Do you know how much work I went through?” He yells like a madman.
I can see the police cars lined up outside and to my huge relief, I can see the big black SWAT truck thing outside. Having Damon close by brings me a sense of calm that I didn’t have a few moments ago. I know that with him near me, I’ll be fine. I know without a shadow of a doubt that he’ll always be there. If I make it out of this, I’m marrying that sexy grumpy bear as soon as possible. Screw the whole big wedding, he’s all I really need. I’ll even stop giving him grief over the fact that he didn’t even propose properly. Honestly, his “proposal” fit him to a T anyway.
“I don’t understand. What are you even doing here Todd?” I need to bring his attention and unfortunately his gun back to me. At least I’m now armed, whereas Mellie is not. “I just don’t get it.”
He’s looking at me with a crazed expression and huge bug eyes. All while still pointing the gun at me. I make sure that my finger is on the trigger of my Ruger. It’s weird, I always thought that I would freak out in a situation like this and be shaking. But I’m not. My hand is steady and I’m going over everything my dad, Marc, and Damon have ever said about aiming and shooting a firearm.
“You don’t get? You really don’t fucking get?” He asks shrilly. “I waited for you for years. Then he comes along and within a few months you decide to marry him.” Todd hisses out. “If I can’t have you...no one can!” He points the guns towards my face just as I raise my Ruger. A look of surprise passes his. We both pull the trigger at the same time.
Damon
Forty-Five Minutes Earlier:
I’ve had a bad feeling all day and it just won’t quit. Over the years I’ve learned to trust my gut. It can sometimes be the difference between life or death. Trusting your instincts out in the field can mean going home for dinner or going to the morgue in a body bag. So yeah, I trust when my gut tells me that something’s off.
I’ve edgy since I woke up this morning. Everything seemed fine this morning. Doll woke up at her usual awful hour of fuck no o’clock. She got ready and left with a much too brief kiss on my lips. I got up at a normal hour, got ready for work, and even met all the guys for breakfast at the girl’s shop. The guys love all the shit that they make. Morris and I just like getting in some extra groping time while the rest of the guys hassle us for being whipped.
I couldn’t care less what they say. If they had women like Doll and Mel, they’d be doing the same damn thing. One day they’ll fall and Morris and I will make sure to get some retribution. I don’t know who I’m more excited to torment. My twin or our resident gigolo. I know that Dec isn’t dating anyone seriously but I have my doubts when it comes to Marc. That bastard hasn’t been around as often and has been extremely secretive. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen him leave with any of the usual badge bunnies either.
I’ve gone through most of the day with this horrible feeling and I just can’t shake it. We’ve actually had a pretty quiet day. No major calls and only a few routine traffic stops. The only somewhat interesting this that happened was when I pulled over an eighty-two-year-old woman for speeding. When I asked if she knew that she was pulled over for speeding she replied that she did. When I asked her why she was going so fast, thinking that she might’ve had an emergency seeing as how she was close to ancient, her reply shocked the hell out of me. She told me that at her age she had to go fast since “death is on her ass.” I gave her a warning and told her to have a nice day. How was I going to argue with that logic?
I’m now nearing the end of my shift with only a few more hours to go and I’m sitting in the break room with the rest of the guys. We’re about to get some tactical training done and then be done for the day. Maybe that will clear my mind a bit.
Declan looks over at me strangely. “What’s wrong with you?” He asks me. Of course, he would know something is up. We’ve always been able to tell when something is bothering the other. It’s annoying, to say the least when you want to be left alone.
Marc snorts out a laugh. “The better question is, what’s not wrong with him?” He chuckles at his own joke. The rest of the guys smirk at him, except for Declan. I raise my middle finger to Marc, which just makes him laugh even harder.
Declan is still staring at me waiting for me to answer his question.
“I don’t know. I’ve had a bad feeling all day.” I tell him and the rest of the nosy fuckers listening. “I can’t seem to shake it even though nothing has happened.”
If possible Declan looks even more serious. “Like that feeling you had on that OP in Afghanistan before everything went FURBUR?” Fucked Up Beyond All Repair is putting it nicely. That clusterfuck was wiped from all records it was so bad. It’s also the catalyst for Dec and I deciding that we were done and not re-enlisting. Nothing like having your position leaked to a terrorist cell and losing a shitload of good men. I still have nightmares of that day and judging by the haunted look in Declan’s eyes, I’m not the only one.
“Yeah, just like that one.” I nod my head. “Except I actually feeling edgier. Like I’m missing something and don’t know how to find it. It’s driving me insane.”
All the guys look serious now. Each of us has been enough situations to know that you trust whatever feeling you may have. It’s best to be a little paranoid instead of ignorant.
�
��Well, what do you think you could be missing?” Rocco asks sitting forward in his chair.
“That’s just it, I don’t know. I’ve been edgy ever since this shit with Shell has started. But It's been quiet for a while now. So, I’m not really sure.” I tell him.
Marc gives me a thoughtful look. “Do you think it’s been too quiet?”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Why would quiet be bad? Isn’t it a good thing that Shell isn’t getting bothered anymore?” Declan questions.
JJ wipes a hand down his face. “No, I get what he’s saying. It’s odd that whoever it goes from breaking in, to nothing at all. Usually, the person would escalate, not back down entirely.” And that feeling is now getting worse. Maybe saying something was a bad move.
“Maybe whoever did it saw that Damon had cameras installed. Not getting caught on video is like criminal 101 or something.” Rocco shrugs. “He probably smartened up and decided to leave her alone.”
Marc shakes his head. “But that’s the thing. Why go through all the trouble of disabling the alarm system to be scared away from some cameras. And let's face it, they had to have disabled the alarm because there is just no other excuse for the alarm company to never get any signal.”
“So you think it’s someone who is good with computers and shit like that?” I ask him. It makes sense. They would have to have a decent amount of knowledge to consistently bypass the alarm.
Marc nods his head affirmative. “Yeah, I do. And that’s the thing that’s been bugging me about them going silent. The camera system is still operated through an app that we all have installed. It wouldn’t take too much for them to get past if they could get through the alarm. So, why go quietly. Something just doesn’t feel right about it.” He says with a frown.
I take my phone out of my back pocket. I try not to log in and watch Doll all day long. We have an alarm set up to go off on all of our phones if something happens to the cameras. But if what Marc is saying is correct than the cameras might not be enough.
“What are you doing?” Rocco asks.
I pull up the app, log in and wait for it to load up. “Just checking on the girls. I want to make sure that everything is still working properly.” I say. I look down at my screen and see that everything is black. “What the fuck?”
“What’s wrong?” Morris asks while practically flying over a few chairs to reach me.
“I don’t know. All of the screens are black. I can’t pull up any images.” I tell them.
Marc grabs the phone out of my hand and starts swiping away. Better him than me. I barely know how to log into the damn thing. “That’s because someone has shut them off.” He says just as our pagers go off.
JJ looks down at his and the look on his face when he looks up is not comforting at all. “I need you all to get to the bus and stay calm.” He says in an eerie voice.
“And why would we need to make sure to stay calm?” Morris asks while side eyeing me. Yeah, I’m not the only one with a bad feeling anymore.
“Because the call that we just got is for a hostage situation at The Sweet Grind.” He calmly states as the rest of us throw out a bunch of expletives. “Luckily we’re already dressed thanks to training. Grab your gear and get to the bus so that we can get there as quickly as possible.”
We all rush to grab everything that we will need and make it to our armored vehicle in record time. The girls mean something to all of us, albeit more to Morris, Marc and myself, but they’re loved just the same by the other three.
I swear to God if anything happens to Michelle, I don’t think that I’ll survive it. “Yes, you will,” Declan says to me. Damn twin bond. “She’ll be fine. We’ll get there in time. Don’t worry. You’ll be listening to her bitch about your awful proposal before you know it.” He tries to smirk but it comes out as more of a grimace.
“I hope you’re right,” I reply.
He scoffs at me. “Of course I’m right. I’m the smart and good-looking twin.”
“We’re identical.” I deadpan.
“Nah, I’m way sexier. Plus, I don’t have the personality of a cactus-like you do.” He states like an asshole. The guys all chuckle and Declan’s plan of breaking some of the suffocating tension seems to have worked.
“What do we know so far?” Marc asks JJ who’s sitting up front while Rocco drives. Probably safest to have him behind the wheel right now. Morris and I are likely to get us all killed rushing.
“I’ve gotten a report from one of the uniforms on the scene. It’s one lone gunman with two female hostages. One blonde and one brunette, both matching descriptions of Mellie and Shell.” He says grimly. “Assailant is around five foot ten inches with a thin build wearing a baseball cap. The females appear to be unharmed and are standing in the front talking to the gunman.”
“Well, this sucks for us,” Marc states calmly.
Morris looks at him incredulously. “Ya think? It’s my wife and your sisters in there. Obviously, it sucks Marc.”
“That’s not what I was referring to.” I know that Marc can be an asshole but he just took it to a whole different level with that comment. “Not like you jackasses. I love those two more than anything in this world.” He says while giving us a menacing glare. “What I was referring to was the fact that we had poly bicarbonate windows installed when Mellie was being stalked by the crazy bitch Ashley. We can’t take him out from a distance.”
Mother fucker. I forgot all about those windows. “I should still be able to take a shot with my rifle. Even if it doesn’t penetrate fully, it should hopefully distract the fucker enough to give the girls a chance to run.” I say.
“I don’t want to take any chances. What if it does penetrate but goes off course and hits one of the girls? Or what if it spooks him enough to shoot them? Let’s get there and check out all of our options. The three of you all have keys to both the front and back doors. We should be able to go in quietly from the back and get a better shot at him.” JJ states calmly.
If I didn’t know him so well, I would think that he didn’t care at all. The only indication that he’s pissed is the tick in his jaw. No, he’s pissed, he’s just trying to keep the rest of us calm. I’ve noticed Declan inching closer to me, most likely in an attempt to make sure he can reign me in if necessary. JJ is eyeing Marc and Morris like he expects them to erupt at any moment.
After the longest ride of my life, that in truth was probably less than seven minutes, we reach the girl's shops. I get out of the back and take a look around. It is surrounded by police cruisers, as well as EMS vehicles. I look across the street and into the front window of the shop and what I see takes about twenty years off of my life.
Doll is standing behind the counter with some asshole in front of her waving a gun around. Mellie is off to the side behind the coffee counter. Luckily, both girls look completely unharmed but scared. I swipe my hand down my face. Jesus, this idiot keeps waving the damn gun around. He’s likely to accidentally shoot them acting like such a moron.
I turn my head and see the rest of the guys come to the same realization as I just did. We’re going to need to get in there, sooner rather than later. This jackoff is obviously unhinged if he’s just swinging a weapon around like that. No one would be that stupid otherwise.
“Alright. Load up and start going around towards the back. That’s our best bet for point of entry.” JJ says. I look up to the shop and see Michelle raise her gun from under the counter and hear two gunshots go off.
“Shots Fired! Shots Fired.” I hear called out from somewhere.
Everything in my life flashes before my eyes. I can’t go back to the darkness before Doll came into my life. She’s my reason for breathing. She’s my life. Without her, I’ll be like an empty pit of despair. She’s filled up my darkness with her warmth and light. I need her more than I need air to breathe.
Everything seems to slow down and speed up all at the same time. Before I even realize that I’m running, I’m at the door to the
shop. Morris beat me here and already has the door open. I follow him in with my gun drawn. I go high to his low. I can feel Marc and Declan at my back.
I scan the room dreading what I might find. I follow behind Morris who is standing over a bleeding figure on the floor. I’m not a very religious man but I’m praying with everything in me that I don’t find my whole world bleeding out. I look around Morris and let out a huge breathe. On the ground is the gunman with a bullet hole in his right shoulder, the gun is a few feet away from him. One of the guys kicks it aside. I then remember that there were two shots.
“Doll!” I yell out in a panic looking around.
“I’m fine.” I hear called out behind the counter. I’ve never heard such wonderful words in my entire life. Those are the best words that she will ever say.
“We’re both fine,” Mel calls out from the other side.
Both girls stand up and look fine. Shaken and disheveled but nothing a shit ton of wine won’t fix for them.
“Clear.” I hear called out from the rest of the team.
“Was it just him?” I ask the girls just to make sure. We don’t need any surprises.
“Yeah.” They answer in unison. Thank fuck!
Both the girls run around the counter. I holster my weapon just in time to catch Doll as she jumps into my arms. From the corner of my eye, I see Morris barely catch Mel. I squeeze Michelle so tightly that I’m surprised that I don’t hear a rib crack. But my woman doesn’t protest. Nope, she hugs me just as fiercely. I inhale the top of, her head and revel in her smell. Once again, everything is right in the world.
Chapter 10
Damon
A few hours later we’re all sitting around the living room at Mel and Morris’ house having a few beers. After a day like today, it was necessary. Well, the woman is having wine, they’re already a bottle and a half in and seem to be feeling pretty good finally. We’re all sitting here going over today’s events. I still can’t believe this shit.
