Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 75240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
My hand gripped the gun tighter involuntarily.
Elise shrieked, causing me to look up, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a blur of motion.
Dropping my phone, I spun around, my hand still on my gun, and saw Troy staring at her from only two feet away.
His arm was coming down, another fucking pry bar in his hand, and it was headed straight for my head.
Acting on my gut reaction only, I lifted my gun, aimed, and fired.
Thank fucking God for trigger safeties. If there’d been an actual safety on the gun, I’d have missed my opportunity.
Troy fell backwards as a blossom of red formed on his chest followed by a loud bang echoing in my ear.
Troy laid on the ground his mouth opening and then closing as he tried to make sense of what’d just happened.
Hell, I was trying to make sense of it, too.
I was still in the fucking truck. Elise was screaming. I could hear my phone ringing from the floorboard. Oh, and people were screaming on top of that.
Starting the truck, I turned the air conditioner on, grabbed my keys, picked up my phone, reached for my go bag behind the seat, and then closed the door.
Once it was closed soundly, I locked it, pocketed the keys, and dropped down on my haunches and immediately answered my phone.
“Luke,” I said calmly. “I need an ambulance at my daughter’s daycare. I just shot Troy.”
***
Angie
Heart pounding, I ran up the steps of the police station, and walked straight into the inner sanctum.
In all my years as a citizen of Kilgore, Texas, I’d never once been in the police station.
Not. Once.
Then again, a lot of things had changed in only a day.
One, I’d finished my probationary period and I was now an official nurse of Good Shepherd Medical Center, although I was at the Kilgore branch.
Two, I’d nearly lost my job when I’d not only refused to help a patient, but I’d then walked off the job.
Which led me to now, at the police station, frantic.
The first person I saw when I walked in was Luke, and he was holding my daughter, who was asleep on his massive shoulder.
If this situation were different, I might stop and reflect on how hot he looked holding a baby, but I wasn’t in the least happy with him right now.
Especially since I’d found out that he’d not only known Troy was out—which I might add that he shouldn’t be, but he’d also arrested my fiancé for shooting the man who’d never made it a secret that he was a creepy motherfucker willing to kill.
“You!” I snapped. “Give me my baby, you jerk.”
I wasn’t sure that was appropriate behavior to use around the chief of police, but I couldn’t seem to control my mouth, or my temper, at the moment.
In fact, he was lucky I wasn’t going all Chuck Norris on his ass.
He turned, and immediately handed Elise over to me, being careful not to jolt my baby awake while he was at it.
I would not be swayed by his baby skills!
“I’m not very happy with you,” I informed him. “In fact, I am about a minute away from calling the press and telling them everything that happened to me.”
Luke sighed.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked tiredly.
I narrowed my eyes. “I want you to let my fiancé go, and I want you to leave us the hell alone.”
“Your fiancé,” Luke’s lips tipped up, his eyes flicking over my head at something that was behind me. “Isn’t being held on anything. He’s been free to go for an hour now.”
“Then where the hell is he?” I snapped.
“Here.”
I turned to find Bowe directly behind me. His hair was a wild mess, and his jaw was clenched tightly.
“He didn’t die,” I informed him. “He also will likely be paralyzed from the mid belly down.”
I couldn’t keep the smile from forming on my face.
I was likely going to hell, but I couldn’t stop the happiness that poured through me.
“Here,” I handed Elise back over to Luke. “Hold her for me.”
“Sure,” Luke took her, a hint of laughter tinging his voice. “I’ll just be in my office.”
I threw myself at Bowe, who caught me with ease.
“God,” I whispered. “Today, two of the people who make my life worth living could’ve been taken away from me. If not for your quick thinking, that is.” I looked up at him. “And they tried to force me to work on him and I wouldn’t. I’m not sure if I even have a job anymore.”
Bowe hugged me tighter.
When he still didn’t say anything, I lifted my head from his chest and stared into his sorrow-filled eyes.
“It was the right thing to do.”
He didn’t say anything.
“He could’ve taken Elise. Done so many things to her that it scares me with the possibilities.”