Chapter 13
Kam was at an all-time high as she closed her car door and headed to her apartment. Mentally and physically exhausted, but totally elated by the events of the day, she bounced up the two steps to her front door.
And stopped.
Ice water ran through her veins as she noticed her door was not completely closed.
Kam instantly stepped to the side nearest the doorknob and plastered her body against the bricks. She had to get her racing heartbeat to slow.
Do I quietly sneak back to my car and call the police? You are the police. Or at least I used to be. At that moment, she suddenly missed her beat partner. They could always depend on each other and had breached more doors together than she ever counted.
Partner. Should I call Jeremy? No. He lived almost twenty minutes away and she’d sent him home nearly an hour ago. He had a beautiful wife, in every sense of the word, and loved his kids. If he got shot, Kam would never be able to forgive herself.
As she leaned against the warm bricks, she remembered the last time she’d been in that exact same position. Mike had been inclined against the opposite side of the door, gun drawn.
Kam looked down at her hand and didn’t remember when she’d drawn her weapon.
But there it was. That comfortable extension of herself.
She’d cleared her apartment by herself most nights since someone had tried to run her down in the parking lot of the martial arts studio.
It was probably just kids looking for something easy to steal and pawn.
When she showed up with a gun, she’d scare the shit out of them. Maybe she’d call the cops then.
Taking a deep breath, she crouched low and slid through the smallest crack in her front door that she could. Her soft-soled boots made no noise as she took three steps to hide behind the couch.
Click.
The noise sounded like it was coming from the kitchen.
Using only the ambient light from the streetlight in front of her apartment, she silently cleared the living room and dining room.
She could see where the chairs had been knocked over.
The pretty candles that had stood proudly on her table since the day she moved in were on their sides and broken.
From the slivers of light coming through her side windows, she could tell someone had tossed the pillows off her couch and shredded them, stuffing popping through the slices.
Her kitchen looked relatively undisturbed. With her left hand on the handle to the pantry, she heard a hissing noise from down the hall toward the two bedrooms and guest bathroom.
She slid around the corner to the doorway leading to the hall and popped her head around the corner to quickly check.
Empty.
In two long strides, she stepped into the rarely used second bathroom.
Kam forced herself to inhale quietly and slowly. She could have counted her heartbeats in her ears but needed to listen.
Hissss. Hisss. Hissssssss. Ssssssst.
“Bitch’ll get the message with that,” a man said in a satisfied whisper.
That confirmed they were miscreant children. Most likely they had been sent by Big Daddy. Kam smiled inwardly. That meant she was getting close to shutting his entire operation down once and for all.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow move at the end of the hallway near the living room.
Fuck. There are two of them.
She didn’t have to check her magazine or confirm that there was already a bullet in the chamber. Her favorite handgun held fifteen shots. Even though she’d never shot a person, she knew she could tonight. Someone had broken into her home. Someone had violated her personal space.
Glancing from her bedroom doorway to the other end of the hall, back and forth, a large man’s shadow filled the hall.
From her kneeling position, Kam popped around the corner and shot twice, once to the chest and the second to the head.
She watched the green dot of his night-vision goggles lens fall to the floor but not before he’d gotten off a shot in her direction.
The second man emerged from her bedroom, knees bent, hiding behind NVGs. His weapon in front of him, he scanned first down the hallway and his gaze held on his fallen comrade.
Big mistake .
Kam pulled the trigger twice and the man crumpled to the ground. She immediately stood and flipped on the lights. If she hadn’t killed them clean, at least they were blinded.
Unsure of her second shot on the first man, she trained her weapon on him until she checked him for a pulse. Dead.
She quickly moved to her bedroom doorway and checked the second man. He was also dead.
Inhaling a deep breath, she stepped over him and flipped on the light in her bedroom. Spray-painted on the wall, still dripping long red streaks, was a warning— stop or die . B.D.
Kam tried to swallow but her mouth was so dry her tongue stuck to its roof. Had these men been sent to simply scare her or actually kill her? She glanced down at the body two feet away. She’d never know now.
One last glance around her bedroom told her he’d spent some time there.
The beachy glass lamp she’d bought when she first moved to San Diego lay in pieces on the floor, sand and seashells scattered across the blue rug.
Her favorite lacy panties were strewn all over the room, one pair dangling from the ceiling fan.
He’d obviously had fun by hooking one of her bras over a different paddle.
As she trudged back through her home, she made mental notes of the damage.
Leaving her door open, Kam sat on the top step of her porch and dialed 911.
Identifying herself as a federal agent, she told the emergency operator that she had just killed two intruders.
She also informed the woman that she was sitting in front of her home still armed with the weapon used in the shooting.
Although the woman wanted her to stay on the line, she hung up.
Her next call was to Mike.
“Kam, are you all right?” Just hearing his deep calm voice smoothed her sharpened nerves. “Kam? Are you there?”
“Yeah,” was all she could manage. The adrenaline was pushing every emotion to the surface. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to puke.
Kam leaned over into the bushes in front of her home and threw up.
Still holding her phone, she could hear Mike yelling her name.
When she was sure her stomach was completely empty of all the coffee and the excuse for supper Jeremy had grabbed from the pizzeria down the street, Kam ignored her training and trudged into her kitchen.
Her throat was so dry and raw. She grabbed two bottles of water and hoped that would be enough to quench her thirst.
Once back on her porch, she plopped down in the same spot where she’d been sitting previously.
“Kam, I’m on my way over. Talk to me. Kam, are you all right?”
After chugging half a bottle of water, Kam felt saturated enough to speak. “They were here. Waiting for me.” She knew her voice shook but damn it, she was talking to Mike. She felt as though it was okay not to be the strong, tough cop who’d seen it all.
Now, she’d done it all. “I killed them.” Her throat constricted around the words.
“Fuck.” The single word was drawn out. Kam knew exactly how Mike felt. “Have you called the cops yet?”
“Yeah, they’re on their way.” She heard sirens in the distance.
She wasn’t sure if her ears were still messed up or if they’d sent more than one patrol car.
Then she realized that they’d send homicide detectives and eventually the medical examiner.
She sent up a silent prayer to heaven that the ME would be her friend, Audra.
“Kam, I want you to stay on the phone with me until I arrive. I’m only a few minutes away.” Just the cadence of his voice was helping her breathe slower. “Did I hear you get sick?”
“Yeah,” she hated to confess, but it was Mike.
After everything they’d talked about, she felt as though she could tell the man anything and he wouldn’t condemn her.
“I threw up in the bushes out front. At least I didn’t damage the crime scene.
” Although she had walked back in for the water, something she’d have to tell the detectives.
“You have any idea who they were? What they wanted?” Kam heard Mike’s truck start with a rumble and tires squeal.
“Oh, yes.” Admitting it out loud was cathartic.
“Asshole number two spray-painted a message for me over my bed. ‘Stop or die.’ With the initials B.D. underneath. I’m quite sure B.D.
doesn’t stand for bastard dickhead but the title fits.
” She giggled, most likely from adrenalin.
“You know what this means, though—I’m getting close. ”
“I know.” Mike didn’t sound happy about it. “I’m almost there. And so is the cop in front of me.”
Blue lights flashing, a patrol car pulled into the middle of her parking lot and an officer stepped out, shielded by the car door. “Ma’am, are you still armed?”
Without hanging up the phone on Mike, she held up her pistol by the butt and yelled, “Yes.”
Slowly, she took a few steps forward, laid the gun on the sidewalk, then returned to her position on the stoop. “That’s the gun I used.” She didn’t finish the sentence because several people in the neighborhood had come out to watch the excitement.
A second police officer jumped out of the car with a large inside-out baggie. Without directly touching the weapon, he picked it up using the bag itself and sealed it inside.
Kam pulled out her gold federal badge and waved it in the air. “I’m a federal officer. This is my home.” She couldn’t ignore the whispers from her neighbors.
She stood and called over her shoulder. “Please return to your homes. Officers will be by to ask you questions shortly.” At that pronouncement, people scurried back into their houses. The clicks of locks and deadbolts echoed.