Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Ty
Oh no.
That was my first thought when I saw my mother’s car pull up in the driveway. She knew I was working tonight. I braced myself for the knock on the door as I slipped on my Kevlar vest and velcroed it in place. I managed to get my uniform shirt on and tucked into my pants before that knock came.
“Hey, Mom,” I greeted her, leaning down so she could press a kiss to my cheek, as was our ritual.
“Well, if it isn’t my firstborn, looking all kinds of handsome in his uniform.” She stepped inside and gave me a once-over. “Mmmhmmm, some lucky woman is going to win the love lottery when she gets you to settle down!”
I bit my tongue as I leaned down to grab my gun belt off the back of the chair. I slung it around my waist and fastened it in place. “I have to leave in a few minutes, Mom. Everything okay?”
“Can’t I stop in to say hello to my son?” She pursed her lips and shook her head. “Always reading into things. Always trying to delve a little deeper. You’re going to make a great detective someday.”
If she wasn’t bugging me about settling down, she was bugging me about getting off the road. I’d only been on patrol for four years, but she was ready for me to be behind a desk. Safe.
Well, safer.
I straightened my tie and adjusted my badge and nameplate as she walked toward my kitchen table. She slapped a thick white envelope down on the walnut tabletop, her dark eyes gleaming.
“What’s that?”
“An invitation,” she said. “It’s a wedding invitation. Your cousin Stephen is getting married.”
“Oh,” I nodded, “the girl we met at Christmas?”
“That’s the one,” she confirmed. “The wedding is next month. Plenty of time for you to find a date.”
A long, exasperated huff flew out of my mouth before I could stop it.
And her reaction—which I knew was coming—was to cross her arms over her chest and give me The Look.
It was the disapproving look my brothers and I always teased her about.
It was ineffective on my youngest brother.
He just did as he pleased. My middle brother was the peacemaker.
He usually fell in line with whatever she wanted.
And me? Well, I tried, I really did. But sometimes I had different priorities.
If she knew about my relationship…
And that was why there would be no “date” for my cousin’s wedding.
“How’s work?” I tried to change the subject. My mother was a well-loved pediatrician, and she always had great stories about her patients. Once I got her started on her practice, I could usually throw her focus off me.
“Work is wonderful and fulfilling,” she said matter-of-factly. “I know you have to go to work yourself, but I was on my way home, and your Aunt Nia sent your invite to me—she didn’t have your address. She thought you had moved already.”
She glanced around the small two-bedroom house I rented in a neighborhood on the outskirts of town. “I thought you’d planned to buy a house this summer?”
Summer was long gone now. The leaves had already started to turn. Time just got away from me—and I’d been working so much overtime, when was it physically possible for me to meet up with a realtor and look at houses?
“Probably in the spring,” I said. “When new houses come on the market. And I’m getting a raise in March.”
“Nice. And promotion?”
I nodded. “That too.”
“I’m proud of you, Tykari.” She looked around my place again. “I worry about you—but I’m proud of you. I hope you know how much.”
“Of course I do. And please don’t worry about me. I’m always careful out there. I promise.” I grinned as I clicked my radio in place on my belt.
“I’m a mother. I’m contractually obligated to worry about you.” She reached up and pinched my cheek. “Isn’t worry synonymous with love?”
I laughed. My mother was one of a kind. “Tell Dad hello, and I’ll come over to watch the game on Saturday.” I patted my gun on one side and my taser on the other. I was ready to go 10-8.
“Hope to see you at Stephen’s wedding,” she said as she opened the door. “With or without a beautiful woman on your arm.” She started to head out, then looked back over her shoulder. “But preferably with.”
“Okay, Mom, I’ll take that under advisement.” I was still chuckling a few minutes later when I climbed into my cruiser and signed on my radio.
* * *
Noah opened the door to my cruiser and greeted me with a grunt. “Domestic. It’s too early for this shit.”
I looked at the clock on the dash. 7:23. He was right. We’d just gone on shift about an hour ago. I’d been doing some speed enforcement while Noah finished up paperwork on an armed robbery at one of the gas stations in town. Now we’d been dispatched to some house out in the country.
“You ready to go? Don’t need anything?” he asked with a grin. It was code for a little secret rendezvous spot we had on the way to our 10-16.
We’d been working together for three years. I knew all of his signals, right down to each and every eyebrow lift. Every smile. Every blink. Every shift of his shoulders or tap of his foot. It was a language we’d developed, and he was just as well-versed in my mannerisms as I was in his.
How we came to be was a story in itself, but we were, and we were fire.
The amount of love and trust I had in Noah and Lainey equaled the volume of every drop of water on Earth. The magnitude of every star in the heavens. I would go to the ends of the universe for the both of them. And I knew they felt the exact same way about me.
The dispatcher’s voice crackled through my radio, asking for our ETA.
“Ten minutes,” Noah responded.
“Be advised, the complainant called back. The subject is armed.”
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. “Copy that. Calling for backup.”
They confirmed, and we headed west toward one of the more remote spots in the county. The October sun had set long ago, and the moon was hovering over the tree line. The smell of autumn permeated the air. It was my favorite time of year.
We followed the GPS to a dusty gravel lane off the curving country road. I sucked in a deep breath as I put the cruiser in park. “Well, you wanna take the lead?”
Noah nodded solemnly. “Yeah. Let me check on backup ETA real quick.” He spoke into the radio, and we were told three minutes.
“Let’s go.” Without another word, we made our way toward the front porch. The windows and doors were closed, but I could hear screaming inside.
With one hand on his holster, Noah used the other to knock. “Police. Open the door.”
The screaming was so shrill, I figured they didn’t even hear us. A crash echoed against the front window, and it shattered, glass flying everywhere. Noah didn’t hesitate. He twisted the handle—door was unlocked.
More glass breaking, but the screaming stopped. Guns drawn, we entered the home, and my gaze immediately fell on a female lying on the living room floor, motionless. “I got her.”
“I’ll check out the back.” Noah paced through the room with sure, deliberate steps, head swiveling left to right as I rushed to the victim.
What appeared to be a bookend lay beside the middle-aged woman with brown curly hair and fair skin.
A bump was swelling on her forehead as I bent to check her breathing.
It was shallow but steady. “Ma’am, Officer Jones here.
I’m going to check your pulse.” I radioed for an ambulance as my fingers pressed against her wrist. She moaned softly as her vein pulsed beneath my skin.
“He went out the back door,” Noah’s deep voice came over the comm. “Going to follow him.”
“Wait for backup,” I warned.
“He’s in the woods. I have eyes on him. Repeat: he’s in the woods on the south side of the property.”
“He-he hit…me,” the woman choked out, trying to sit up.
“No, don’t move, ma’am. Wait for the EMTs to get here and check you out. You may have a concussion. Is that bookend what hit you?”
“Uh-huh,” she groaned, her hand rising to her forehead.
Noah’s voice came over the comm again, “Freeze, police! Hands in the air! Drop your weapon and get on the ground.” He sounded gruff but steady.
Sirens blared in the distance, gradually growing louder. Something told me to leave the woman and go back up Noah. I looked down at her. “Just stay right there. The ambulance is on its way. Don’t move.”
She was breathing. Her pulse was strong. I was off to back up my partner. I didn’t hear anything after he told the asshole to drop his weapon. Hopefully he would be in cuffs by the time I got out there.
My boots thundered down the hallway to the back door, across the deck, down rickety wooden stairs and into the backyard. My eyes zoomed in on two figures at the edge of the tree line.
I felt the gunshot ricochet through my body as if the bullet struck me. My service weapon fired without any thought or deliberation. I ran into the woods, trailing the suspect as my partner staggered to the ground.
Training took over. I fired another shot, and the suspect dropped.
I ran back to Noah.
“Motherfucker shot me!” The words were garbled as his mouth filled with blood. I saw a pool forming under his body.
“Oh, fuck, no, Noah. Stay with me.” I grabbed his hand and dropped to my knees, my heart racing, my lungs on the verge of exploding as I tried to force air in and out. “Noah, you’re okay. You’re gonna be okay. An ambulance is on the way.”
The sirens that were in the distance a moment ago had stopped wailing at some point.
Now shouts echoed in the distance, and, in no time, our backup was running toward us.
“Officer down,” I spoke into my radio, trying to keep my voice from cracking as Noah’s eyes started to flutter closed. He was losing blood. So much blood.
I couldn’t even tell where the bullet had struck him. “Hang in there, man. I’ve got you,” I told him as his eyes popped back open.
He reached up, grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me toward him. His bloody lips grazed mine. “Take care of her, Ty,” he rasped. “Promise me.”
I pulled back enough to look into his eyes. No. This couldn’t be happening. It was too fast. I didn’t get a chance—
“Promise me!”
“Don’t leave me. Don’t leave us,” I stammered. “Noah, just hold on. Help is coming.”
“I love you,” he said to me. “Tell her I love her. And promise me you’ll take care of her.”
“I promise, man, but you can tell her yourself. Don’t go—”
But those last few words fell on unhearing ears.