AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He looped it over his shoulder, tucked it beneath his arm and opened the door. Sierra followed him out of the building, but she huddled beneath the overhang, protected from the rain. The rain had slowed momentarily, so he slid her keys out of his pocket, put his head down and ran.
He glanced back at Sierra, but the rain had picked up again. It beat against him so hard that she was only a dark shadow beneath the overhang.
As he neared the car, the rain drummed against its roof, making so much noise he wouldn’t have been able to hear her if she called for him.
He looked over his shoulder. It had been a mistake to leave her alone. He hadn’t realized how bad the storm was until he’d run into it.
They should have waited together beneath the overhang until the rain eased. These sheets of rain would be perfect for an ambush.
Where the hell was she? He couldn’t see her at all.
He turned and began running toward everything he needed in his life, but his legs were too slow. Too heavy. Like he was running through mud.
As he got closer, he saw two figures beneath the overhang. A man with a gun stood in front of Sierra, the gun pointed steadily at her center mass.
Chapter 20
Sierra stood on the stoop of her office building, watching the slightly darker shadow that was Cody dash through the rain to her car. The lights flashed when he pressed the key fob. But he didn’t slide in. He stood frozen for a moment. Why was he standing in the downpour?
Something moved in her peripheral vision on the right, and she looked toward the motion. A man stood at the other end of the stoop, a black gun in his hand. She instinctively reached for her bag and the gun she always had, but it wasn’t there. Cody had taken it.
She took an involuntary step backward. Bumped into the window as she stared at the man with the gun. He wore a dark uniform and looked familiar. “Who are you?” she asked. “What do you want?”
His flat stare unnerved her. Finally he tapped the badge and name tag on his chest, but she was too far away to read it in the dim light. “Evanston PD. You need to come with me.”
Her gaze flew to his chin. The light shone on his face, and there it was. A small scar at the corner of his mouth. This was the guy who’d pulled her over the night before Cody showed up. “Why? What do you want?”
He glanced around. His eyes narrowed. “We’ll discuss it at the station.”
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll go directly to the police station. You can follow me there.”
His hand tightened on the gun. “Hell, no. I’m putting cuffs on you and transporting you in my car. Department regulations.”
“Then you need to tell me why you’re arresting me.”
His face hardened. “Give me your wrists.”
“I don’t think so. I know the rules, Officer…” She squinted at his name badge. “Officer Smith.” She didn’t believe for a moment that was his name. “If you want to cuff me and put me in your squad car, you have to tell me why you’re arresting me.”
In her peripheral vision, she saw Cody running up behind Smith, his footsteps muffled by the still-falling rain. She kept her gaze on Smith and didn’t look at Cody.
“The hell I do,” Smith said. He pointed the gun at her head. “You coming with me, or am I going to blow your brains out?”
“Neither,” Sierra said immediately. “If you just wanted to kill me, I’d be dead already. So I vote for neither option.”
“I vote for option C,” Cody said, shoving his gun into the back of Smith’s head. The cop stumbled forward with the impact and Cody said, “Lower your hand. Set the gun on the ground. Take five steps backward.”
Smith hesitated, and Cody said, “You have until the count of three. If I get to three and you’re still holding that gun, I’ll drop you.”
Smith warned, “I’ll shoot the bitch.” But his hand skewed to the side, as if the gun was suddenly heavy.
“No, you won’t,” Cody said. “Because if I see you raise that gun an inch, you’re a dead man.”
The man froze. But he didn’t drop the gun.
“One,” Cody said, his voice flat. Terrifying in his lack of emotion. “Two.”
Smith didn’t move. A sharp click told Sierra Cody had taken off his gun’s safety.
