“Shots have been fired! Shots have been fired!”
“Nooooooooo!”
Karl’s scream broke through the tension and Trey gripped his cousin’s shoulders, preventing Karl from going forward and storming into his mansion where a standoff was taking place.
After the scene at the gym yesterday, Brittany had insisted they keep to their original plans. His joy matched hers when they’d picked out maternity clothes for her. They’d gone window-shopping and gathered ideas for the nursery then they’d headed to the supermarket. Once they arrived home, they’d showered together and made love, her old vulnerability creeping back.
He’d insisted on driving her to Spenser’s house. She’d seemed so exhausted and weary. He always fucked up with Brittany. She was still healing and yesterday’s argument appeared to have sapped everything from her.
More shots.
Goddamn motherfucking son-of-a-bitch! The sun was already high in the sky and this standoff had been going on for almost twelve hours. One of Karl’s bodyguards was inside his estate, holding Destiny hostage. Trey put himself in his cousin’s place. If Brittany was being held captive, he’d find a way to rescue her. Karl was frantic, his sobbing pleas to the bodyguard going unheeded.
“You’ve got to help her!” Karl choked. He shoved his cellphone into his pocket after his last attempt to reason with the bodyguard failed.
Hours ago, Trey had wanted to sneak through another entrance but Mitchell forbade it.
The ominous sound of more shots drowned out another scream from Karl.
“Please,” he sobbed, his nose running.
SWAT was moving in and Trey knew they’d handle it.
Falling to his knees, Karl begged for Trey’s help again.
Fuck!
Trey tried not to think of Brittany at the moment and how she must be feeling. News helicopters were swarming the area, hovering just overhead. Mitchell was somewhere amongst the horde of commanding officers. Bryson had been one of the first patrolmen to respond.
Another volley of shots.
“Please! She loves a little room on the first floor,” he sobbed. “My house is so big, they may take a while to get to her. I pray she’s hidden away safe. You’ve got to get her for me.”
Trey would want help finding Brittany and Karl was right. The response teams might take a while to find her, searching from room to room. Karl was his family. He had to try, on that basis alone. Command was ordering everyone into position. It seemed to have been hours since this hostage situation began. Trey knew the protocols in place to keep everyone safe. But if he followed Karl’s specific directions, he’d get to Destiny sooner.
Even if his feelings for his cousin wasn’t the best, Destiny was an innocent woman.
“Where is she?”
“The quickest way is through the side door at the back of the west side of the house.”
Teams of tactical units were fanning out, one battering the massive entry doors and another group circling to the back. Crouching low, Trey rushed forward.
“Wilson, get the fuck back here and that’s an order!”
Ignoring Mitchell’s bull-horned demand, Trey ran around the wide gallery littered with glass and splintered wood. Bullet holes punctured glass on the side of the house as he crept toward the back, gun raised.
More shots, shouts, curses… A volley of shots. Return fire, he suspected, from the officers in the house. Sweat poured down the sides of his face and his heart pounded with adrenaline.
At the door his cousin directed him to, he nudged it open. Finding it clear, he continued toward the room where Destiny was thought to be hiding.
Blood spatter on a door drew him to a room near the back of the house. The stench of a violent death hung in the air, the gore a gruesome contrast to the pink and white furnishings. A clock ticked, grating on Trey’s nerves.
He halted, revulsion and horror stunning him. He’d found Karl’s girlfriend. One entire side of her face and head was blown off. She resembled Brittany so much—
Fuck!
He had to leave Destiny, secure the scene and send in homicide, and somehow find a way to break this devastating news to his cousin.
He couldn’t wait to get to Brittany, hold her and hug her, feel their baby moving inside her. He needed her so badly. If only to reassure himself she lived.
Drawing in a shuddering breath, Trey murmured a prayer for Destiny. He wanted to weep and rage for Karl.
He wanted to shout with relief his woman was alive and well.
He’d never felt luckier.
Reaching for the radio at his side, he prepared to call in the 187 and his location but that damnable ticking was like a bomb waiting to explode.
A chill slithered down his spine and he gazed around. Then he saw it in the corner. A homemade explosive device.
“Clear out!” he yelled. “Bomb on premises! Clear out!”
Trey was smack in the middle of the house so either way he ran would get him to an exit in the same amount of time. Footsteps were pounding in every direction, the command team yelling instructions, calling for backup and the bomb squad. A side door gaped open, the welcome sight of sunshine and a measure of safety shimmering through. The device might malfunction. Or blow the entire fucking house, if similar bombs were planted in other rooms.
Something slammed into his back and Trey jerked around, pain exploding through him. Sunlight glinted off a .357 Magnum and Trey knew he’d been shot. Sticky wetness coated his back and his vision blurred.
He battled to stay conscious. The gun barrel aimed at his chest faded in and out and the burning in his extremities slipped away to nothingness. An image of Brittany popped into Trey’s head and tears formed in his eyes. He wouldn’t have the chance to tell her goodbye. Hold her in his arms again. Tell her he loved her.
The .357’s hammer cocked.
As one, Trey and the suspect fired. The force of the bullet’s impact threw him back just as the sound of an explosion drowned out everything else.