Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 82282 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82282 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“Squeeze you back together.” I whispered. “Stay safe. Watch your six.”
He chuckled, as he always did, and gave me one last kiss on the cheek before leaving.
As I listened to his retreat, and Kosher’s claws following in his wake, I felt around for Radar’s head and pulled him in close to my chest. Then I whispered the same prayer that I did every time he left me to go on shift. “Keep him safe, day and night. Give him courage, strength and might.”
My eyes closed, but as soon as I started to drift off to sleep, Radar started doing the dreaded barfing sounds that makes every pet owner shoot up out of bed as if their ass was on fire.
Running through the house at a sprint, I made it to the door and yanked it open, ignoring the alarm. Radar rushed past me, barely making it to the grass in time to yak up God knows what.
I was surprised to find that the wind was blowing like crazy since I never even heard the storm approach like I usually did. And dammit did it suck. I hated when Trance had to work in the rain. Not to mention his rain parka was hanging up in the laundry room.
Bolts of lightning streaked one after the other across the sky, followed quickly by the boom of thunder.
Following the second boom of thunder, the neighborhood, and the house behind me went deathly still. Which meant the lights were out and I’d have to get dressed in the dark. Yay.
Once he was done yakking, Radar came to my side, head hung.
When I turned around to head back inside, I dropped like a stone.
I never even saw it coming.
***
Trance
Lighting streaked across the skies, and thunder boomed, shaking my cruiser with its intensity.
Looking up, I could see the clouds moving at a fast pace. Which meant we were in for one hell of a storm.
Then I remembered that I’d taken my coat out of the car since it was covered in mud from the previous storm. Viddy had washed it for me, and hung it up on the rack just inside the laundry room door, but I’d left it there each and every time I passed it.
Luckily, I was only two, three minutes tops from the house. That would’ve sucked to not have it today. If I hurried, I wouldn’t even be late.
“Damn!” I yelled as another streak of lightening lit up the sky, scaring the absolute shit out of me.
I pulled a bitch in the middle of the road, and pulled up to my driveway just in time to see every single light in the entire subdivision go off.
“Wonderful,” I muttered under my breath.
Leaving the truck running, I locked the doors and made a beeline for the front door.
I didn’t use it often, so once I made it under the overhang of the roof, I had to search for the key.
I was lucky I did, or I would’ve never heard my wife scream.
After one heart wrenching second, I decided to let Kosher out of the truck, and then I called in backup.
“I need some fucking help. I’m at home.” I said, and then pressed the little orange button that I’d never pressed in my entire career as an officer of the law.
The button was simple. Press it in case of emergency.
It wasn’t easy to press, which surprised me. In all the years of having that button, never once had I tried to press it.
Kosher was vibrating with tension at my side as we walked around the side of the house.
I’d been gone for no less than six minutes.
It wasn’t long. But it was long enough to have the lights go out, and someone to get in.
I don’t consciously remember that walk around the house.
All I remembered was my heart pounding, and my vision honing. The backdoor was wide open, but there was a large black lump just on the outside of the porch that I knew was Radar. My gut told me it was him without even needing to confirm it.
Stepping over his lifeless body, I came to a stop, crouched down low, just inside the back door.
I listened and concentrated on the sounds of the house.
Nothing was coming from the room off the back of the kitchen, but I cleared it out of habit rather than desire to do so before I pied the corner of the living room.
‘Pieing’ a corner is a strategic move where the only thing showing when you check around the corner is the barrel of your gun.
Once I confirmed there was nothing there, I turned the corner and pied the corner to the hallway that led to the two back bedrooms.
I’d done so well, not flipping out. I’d managed to shut my mind down and stop myself from reacting like every cell in my body urged me to do.
Instead, I contained myself, and fell back on my training.
I was about to send Kosher ahead when I heard the soft crying of my wife, followed by Paul’s sadistic reply. “Sit still bitch. Or I’ll tie your legs to the post and make it really good for you.”
What I heard made every single part of me freeze and then explode in motion.
In hindsight, I never should’ve done it. I knew better, but I just couldn’t stop myself.
I burst through the door and found Paul between my wife’s legs. She was crying, and blood was coating the front of her face and chest, soaking the grey ‘POLICE’ t-shirt she’d stolen of mine.
I raised my gun, tightened my finger on the trigger, and fired.
If I were thinking more clearly, I would’ve used my Taser. Or at least gotten him to come towards me before shooting.
With the way it happened, the bullet entered at the base of Paul’s head, and exited out the very top, blowing it to pieces.
Blood, bone, and grey matter spread in a fifteen-foot arc across the room, and Paul’s lifeless body collapsed on top of Viddy.
Viddy screamed in fear, and I grabbed the body by the collar of his shirt and hauled him backward, letting him drop unceremoniously to the floor with a loud, meaty thump.