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Jack grabbed a bulletproof vest from his trunk and said, “Here, put this on.”
It didn’t seem like the time to bring up that J.D. seemed to excel at head shots, but I did as I was told and put on the vest. Martinez and Cole were on scene and everyone was getting prepped in case there was heavy fire. This was the part of the job I hated. Knowing that Jack time and time again would go into situations like this one. And one day he might not come out again.
“J.D. Street,” Jack said, through the megaphone. “We’ve got the house surrounded. Come out with your hands up.”
We waited for any signs of life inside the house, but there was no flutter of curtains or crack of a door. Jack motioned for Martinez and Cole to go around to the back, and they each peeled off in separate directions around the house.
“Captain Street,” Jack repeated. “Come out with your hands up, soldier.”
Cops were positioned behind their cars, using them as shields with their weapons drawn. Jack signaled for his cops to start moving two by two to the front and sides of the house. Jack had spent too many years in SWAT for him to let any man go in alone.
“Wait here,” he said, giving me the megaphone and taking out his weapon. “I mean it. Stay down behind the Tahoe. I’ll call you if we find a body.”
And just that fast he was gone with the others, and they were moving through the front, side and back. Waiting wasn’t my strong suit. I could hear yells as they cleared the areas, but then there was silence. A minute turned to two. And two minutes to five. Sweat trickled down my back and my hand cramped from how tight I was holding the megaphone.
I looked around, noticing Jack hadn’t left me alone. There were others who’d been forced to endure the torture of waiting. Wachowski was a few feet away from me. I hadn’t even had a chance to visit Plank since he’d been shot the day before. I couldn’t imagine what she’d been going through since she’d gotten the news of Plank. Loving a cop was hard. Not everyone could do it.
“Why is it so quiet?” I whispered as I crept closer to her.
She was a small woman with flaming red hair that never stayed within the elastic band she habitually kept tied around it.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But I don’t like it. And I don’t like that I got stuck out here with all the rookies.”
I looked around at the other fresh-faced cops and grimaced. “You’ve got a lot going on with Plank. It’s probably best you both don’t get shot. One of you needs to be mobile in case he ever figures out what it means to have game.”
“Oh, he’s got game,” Wachowski said. “You’d be surprised what lies dormant behind that choirboy face.”
“I’m disturbed and fascinated,” I said.
“You should try sleeping with him.”
“Hard pass,” I told her, and she snorted out a laugh. I felt some of the tension drain away.
A couple more minutes of silence passed and Wachowski and I looked at each other worriedly. All the cops who’d been left on the outside looked around. What were we missing? What was happening?”
Even as I had the thought, the front door opened and stoic-faced cops marched out. Then there was Martinez, followed by Cole who was holding a rifle in his hands. But there was no Jack. And there was no J.D.
I left the megaphone on the ground and got to my feet as Cole approached.
“Where’s Jack?” I asked, trying not to let the panic creep out in my voice. “What’s going on?”
“Jack’s still in there with J.D.,” Cole said. But there was something in the tone of his voice that had me pressing further.
“Why didn’t he come out?” I asked. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“When we breached the house J.D. was waiting for us inside,” he said.
“I didn’t hear any gunfire,” I said, wiping my sweaty palms on my slacks.
“No,” Cole said, glancing toward Martinez for backup. “He’s strapped up with explosives. He wanted all of us to come in and get him so he could detonate.”
I felt the air go out of my lungs and tiny black spots danced before my eyes. “Why is Jack still in there?” I could barely get the words out.
“Because Jack is a trained negotiator,” Martinez said. “He’s a psychologist. He got J.D. to let the rest of us go before things could escalate too quickly.”
“You left him there!” I asked, moving in close to Cole. “How could you leave him? He would have never left you. Never.”
The look on Cole’s face was pained, but he said, “He ordered us to leave, Jaye. And if we didn’t we could have undone everything he’d been working toward. All we can do is wait for this to play out.”
