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“Stop!” I yell. Hawk dives toward her feet as she fires again. Her body hits the floor just as Hawk reaches her.
“Call a fucking ambulance!” I yell at the waitress as I lower Avery gently to the floor.
I shove back the hood she’s wearing, letting her blonde hair spill out. I press my fingers against her neck and find her pulse strong and steady.
“She’s dead,” Hawk calls out.
I look up at him as his head turns my way, and his gaze drops to the woman lying in front of me.
“Avery? What the fuck?” He scrambles over to us, his hands roving over her body, looking for injuries.
“We need to check her back.” I swallow the bitter taste in my mouth. “She covered me.”
Between the two of us, we gently roll her. Hawk curses before ripping off his flannel and pressing it against her. “Looks like it hit her shoulder. There’s no exit wound, though, so she’s gonna need surgery to get it removed. What’s her breathing like?”
I dip my head and watch the rise and fall of her chest. “Breathing looks okay,” I tell him as I press my fingers against her pulse once more. The steady thump, thump, the only thing keeping me from losing my shit right now.
“Good. I don’t think the bullet hit her lung. What the fuck is she even doing here?”
“I don’t know, but you can be sure as shit I’ll be asking her when she wakes up,” I snarl back at him.
“I can’t be here. I need to go.”
I turn at the sound of the other man’s voice and see him staring down at what’s left of his girlfriend’s head.
“Sit your fucking ass down. You wanted to play with people’s emotions? Well, this is the fucking consequence.” He looks at me before he swallows and sits down on the floor, tugging his knees to his chest.
It seems to take a lifetime for the ambulance and police to get here. When they do, they refuse to let us leave until we’ve told them what happened.
“Look, I get that you’re just doing your job, but my wife was just fucking shot. I need to get to the hospital. So if you have anything else, call, and we’ll come down to the station,” Hawk states, crossing his arms.
“Fine, but don’t leave town,” the pissed-off cop replies.
“Nice way to speak to witnesses,” Hawk growls before stomping away.
“Asshole,” the cop mutters, making me whirl on him.
“Do you have any fucking idea who we are?” I step up to him, going toe to toe. “Apex Tactical is always willing to help the boys in blue when they need it, just like we help with search and rescue. It’d be a shame if we stopped doing that because of your piss-poor attitude. Can’t imagine your chief would be impressed to find out why either.”
His face pales as he tries to backtrack, but I hold up my hand to cut him off. “I understand you’re just doing your job, but we are not the enemy here.”
His shoulders deflate as he sighs. “I’m sorry. In my defense, I just walked into a crime scene where all the men are standing and two women have been shot, one of them fatally.”
I blow out a breath. “I’m sure you’ve seen your fair share of domestics. I get it. I’m sorry I can’t give you more, but I honestly wasn’t paying much attention to them until she pulled the gun. What I did get was that the dead woman just found out her boyfriend has a wife and kid. I’m sure he’ll leave here today and crawl back into his wife’s arms like none of this happened.”
“Be a shame then if I had to go to his house to ask some follow-up questions, huh?”
I grin and nod. “Real shame.”
My smile drops as I look to the door, where Hawk is waiting impatiently for me.
“We need to go,” I tell the cop.
“It’s fine. I have what I need. But I’ll be by the hospital later to get the victim’s statement.”
“Avery. Her name is Avery Michaels-Creed.”
His eyes move from mine to Hawk’s, registering the mix of our names, but he doesn’t ask.
