My hand curled around hers and I squeezed.
“I cannot lose you.”
“You won’t.”
“I got twenty minutes that says otherwise.”
I heard Shiloh sigh then say, “I don’t know how to make this better for you.”
That was because there was nothing that would make any of this better or easy.
Now that the reality of my woman putting her ass on the line and in danger every goddamn time she suited up for a job had smacked me in the face, nothing would ever make it easier.
I saw the armored vehicles and pulled into the lot and found a place to park away from the commotion. I got out and quickly rummaged through my gear in the back seat of my truck and pulled on my vest. I was adjusting the side Velcro when Shiloh stopped next to me.
“Probably not the best time to tell you this, but you look hot in a tac vest.”
I shifted my gaze from my gear to Shiloh and I glared down at her.
“Probably not,” I agreed.
“Too bad I’m telling you anyway.” Shiloh glared back.
We didn’t have time but I took it anyway.
My hands went to her neck and slid up until I was cupping her cheeks.
“You still have blood in your hair,” I growled. “Do not fucking add to it.”
She ignored me and issued an order of her own, “Be safe, Luke.”
Then Shiloh rolled up on her toes and pressed her mouth hard against mine. Her tongue swiped my lips and she pulled away and ran across the parking lot.
26
My heart was jumping in my chest.
This was not because I knew Luke was somewhere lurking in the throngs of officers lining the street. It wasn’t the red and blue lights that flashed up and down the block heralding police activity which would draw looky-loos and give the man—Jeff Shepard—a variety of civilian targets should he choose to take the barrel of his pistol from his daughter’s ribs.
Shit night.
The worst kind of night.
Three teammates down.
One near dead.
Luke out of his mind with worry.
My brothers the same.
The rest of my team on edge.
And now we were facing down another crisis.
A teenage hostage.
A girl.
A father.
Logically, I knew this situation was different. Jeff Shepard wasn’t a loving father powerless to save his child. Shepard was the threat. So it was different but it was the same in all the important ways. An innocent girl’s life was in danger. And seeing the familiar scene playing out again in front of me, knowing how the last situation like this—just like this—ended, made my heart race.
“Shepard, you don’t want to do this,” Ethan called out.
Jeff’s body jerked at the same time he turned his glare to Ethan and the gun in his hand pressed deeper into his daughter’s side. Even from the distance I was I heard the girl’s whimper.
“Easy, Sunny,” Gordy murmured.
I felt his hand on my shoulder halting my forward progress.
“He’s gonna shoot her,” I returned.
“Give Ethan time.” That was Luke, in my ear on the radio.
What the hell?
“Lenox, you have two minutes to talk him down,” Cap ordered.
This was because behind Jeff Shepard and his daughter, his ex-wife lay bleeding out on her front porch and had been for some time considering she was that way when we arrived ten minutes ago.
“You don’t want Laurie to die,” Ethan continued.
Wrong thing to say.
“That lying, cheating bitch is lucky I let her live as long as I did!” Jeff shouted. “Cheating, cheating bitch.”
“There’s still time. We can work something out.”
Jeff’s face twisted into an ugly snarl and he jerked his daughter’s head back and forth. The poor girl cried out in pain and tried to lurch away.
Not good.
“Stephanie, right?” Her tear-filled eyes came to me. “Stay still, honey.”
“Don’t talk to her!” Jeff yelled. “No more talking. Everyone move back.”
No one moved and Ethan continued to try to talk Jeff down.
“We know you don’t want to hurt your daughter. Let her go and we’ll move back. You can get into your car and leave.”
“Bullshit,” Jeff spat. “Bull-fucking-shit. Everything was fine. Everything was the way it should be then that bitch took my daughter. Lying bitches, all of them. They all think we’re suckers. They think they can take our money, our houses, our kids. Stupid bitches. I gave that one time, hers had to be the worst.”
“I’ve got a clear shot.” Luke’s voice came over the radio.
Without moving my head my eyes scanned the area. I couldn’t see Luke anywhere.
“Mine’s uncertain with the girl moving around.” That was Soloman. He was perched across the street on a neighbor’s roof.
“Does anyone else have a clear shot?” Cap asked.
“Best I got is thigh or shoulder,” I radioed back.
The rest of the team called in their positions. None of them had a clear shot for a takedown.
I heard my captain mutter something under his breath then he begrudgingly ordered, “Marcou, you have the go-ahead on my command. Kent, standby.”
“Copy,” I returned.
“Lenox, calm him down now or we’re ending this before that girl gets dead.”
“Tell me about it.” Ethan changed tactics. “I got a daughter, too. Bitch of a mother tried that with me.”
That was a lie. Not Ethan having a daughter, he did. Carson was a sweet little thing. But her mother hadn’t tried to take her. The opposite was true. Carson’s mother had signed over her parental rights to Ethan before he’d taken his daughter home from the hospital. Everyone knew he’d gotten his high school girlfriend pregnant. It was no secret he’d stepped up and raised her as a single, teenaged father.
“That stupid bitch was fucking her brother-in-law. Didn’t even care I was in the house working. She just waited for Mac to go to work and Becca to get on the bus.”
Mac Harper. Oh shit, Patricia Harper was having an affair.
“Just like that one over there.” Shepard jerked his head in the direction of his ex-wife’s prone body. “Cheating bitch took my money then turned my daughter against me. Now this one’s gonna grow up thinking she can fuck around on her husband.” Jeff shook his daughter again and I gritted my teeth when her head snapped to the side. “Now she’s gonna know what it’s like to lose just like the other one.”
From there everything happened fast but at the same time, everything slowed. Jeff spun Stephanie around in front of him, lifted his gun, and Luke’s voice echoed in my ear for me to take the shot.
Penelope’s face flashed. Her father’s wail sounded in my head.
I blinked to rid myself of the vision.
I blinked again. Drew in a breath. Exhaled and slowly pressed the trigger.
Jeff’s torso jerked, his body pitched to the side, and he fell.
Gordy, Guzman, and Watson were on top of Jeff, rolling him over before I lowered my rifle. McCarthy rushed Stephanie, swung her up in his arms, and ran her to safety. Mereno and Jim hit the porch to help the mother and a dozen officers were skirting the woman’s prone body to clear the house.