Chapter 53

Dalton

I’ll be home soon. Sleep well, Kip.

A simple sentence that scared the shit out of me, but also had me smiling for the first time in nearly a week. How soon was soon though?

Not fucking soon enough.

I wanted Devolin home now. I wanted to come home to her, or for us to leave work and go home together. I want to be able to curl up on the couch with a beer, and just be. I want my dad to pop by, and see my woman and Skylar cooking up a storm with their singing and dancing shenanigans. I wanted to wake her up in the middle of the night, just for the sake of reminding her what she means to me. In one night, she broke me, and I haven’t been the same since. Like a thief, she snuck in and stole my heart, never giving it back—and I didn’t want it back. It was hers. I was hers. All of me. All I had to give.

My dreaming about my future with Devolin came to an abrupt halt when I heard my phone chime.

“Yo,” I greeted the caller.

“Mr. Kippers?”

“Speaking.”

“It’s Hugh at Riverside Estates. I was informed that if I saw Ms. Taylor on the premises to contact you.”

My heart beat at a wild gallop. “Where is she, Hugh?”

“She went up in the elevator, so I assume she must have gone to her apartment,” he said, a phone ringing in the background. “I haven’t left my desk all night, and she hasn’t come down.”

“Thanks, Hugh.” Instead of hanging up right away, my gut told me to hold on.

“Mr. Kippers, that’s the tenants’ line, do you mind holding for a sec?”

“Not at all.”

Soon enough, I’d know why I’d waited.

Ring after ring, the man named Hugh fielded calls until he came back to the line.

“I think you better get here,” he said. “I’ve just received three calls reporting something sounding like gunshots coming from Ms. Taylor’s unit.”

“Hang up and call 911,” I told him. “I’m on my way.”

Pocketing my phone, I rushed to my safe, pulled my weapon and some extra bullets, shoving those in my pocket, and the weapon in the back waistband of my pants. Grabbing my keys, I locked the door to the house that would no longer be just mine, if I had anything to do about it, and jumped in my truck while hitting Shane’s contact.

“Just got the call,” the man answered. “I’m on my way to the scene now.”

“Good.” I hung up, started my truck, put it in reverse, then hit Brycen’s contact.

“What’s up?”

“Get your ass to Devolin’s and call the guys,” I told him.

“She back?”

“Yeah, but we’ve got a problem. Shots fired. No one’s come out yet.”

“Be there in ten. I’ll round up the crew.”

Hanging up, I threw my phone into the middle console and floored it.

 

Five minutes is all it took me to get to Devolin’s. It had been enough time for emergency personnel to start crowding the place.

Parking in the only free spot I could find in front of the building, I took my keys out, grabbed my phone, locked my vehicle, and ran across the road to Shane, who was talking to his partner.

“D,” he greeted me.

“Give it to me straight,” I demanded.

“No one’s come in or out. We’ve got a few witnesses stating that they’d only heard the one shot. Some are stating up to three. The lady next door was the one who confirmed three,” he explained, pointing to Devolin’s neighbor.

“I’m going in,” I told him and made to head for the door.

The man stopped me with a hand to the chest. “Not without backup, you’re not.” His face brokered no argument, and doing so would only waste precious time.

“Fine.”

“I’ll lead.” He did just that. I followed on his heels, Will, his partner hot at our backs.

“Do we know who’s in there with her?” I asked as we entered the elevator.

“No idea, but the neighbor thought she’d heard two women,” Shane said.

The fact that Devolin wasn’t up against a man filled me with relief, but when it came to guns, it didn’t matter if you were a man or a woman. What mattered was if the person manning the weapon knew how to shoot. The worst kind of shooter, however, was the inexperienced one.

With that thought, I vowed that I would be bringing Devolin to a shooting range and teaching her all there was to know about defending herself with a weapon. Adding on to that, I’d teach her in hand-to-hand too, while I was at it.

There was no way my woman would ever be caught in a situation like this, or like the one she’d ended up in a week ago, ever again.

As the elevator arrived at the twelfth floor, my focus returned on the task at hand.

A few doors opened as we walked down the hall toward Devolin’s unit. Residents watched us, relief palpable that the authorities were in the building.

Will ordered each neighbor to shut and lock their doors, and that they’d be notified when it would be safe to leave their homes.

When 1203 loomed in front of us, half an apartment length away, Shane turned to his partner and me. “I’ll go in, Will’s got my back. Not that I don’t trust you, man, but you’re emotionally vested in this, and you’re not wearing Kevlar.” He pulled his weapon, as did the rest of us.

I nodded.

We were almost right up on the door when we heard a loud shriek, some grunting, followed by the crash of broken glass.

My body went solid at, “You fucking bitch! I’m going to kill you!”

I knew that voice.

“Guys, I know that voice,” I told them over the ensuing scuffle going on. “My ex.” I was seriously regretting not getting Brycen to look her up now.

“For real?” Will said at the same time Shane said, “Psycho Suzie?”

“The one and only,” I replied.

Before we even breached the door to Devolin’s apartment, a gun went off. Repeatedly. Five times to be exact before Shane made his move.

“Freeze!” he yelled, Will next to him.

As for me, I was thinking the worst. Especially as the gun kept firing until I could hear the sound of its trigger clicking.

“Devolin, put the gun down,” Shane ordered.

That’s when I rushed to action, freezing as soon as I took in the sight of her.

It was apparent that the woman was in shock. Letting her arms fall limply at her sides, the hand holding the gun shook before it released the weapon, allowing it to thump against the carpeted floor.

“You need to teach me how to shoot,” she whispered before she hit the floor hard.

Rushing to her side, I fell to my knees beside her, feeling for a pulse, and finding a strong one. Looking up, Shane met my gaze and shook his head as he removed his hand from Suzanna’s carotid.