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He walked, shirtless from the room, and Talia gave a deep, girly sigh over the man’s glorious back muscles. Evidence of his bouldering sessions was apparent in his enormous deltoids, traps, and lats.Uh, hell yes. Talia wanted an opportunity to lick each and every one.
But soup in bed? Not such a great idea. She removed her shirt as she arose, and grabbed her robe from the back of her closet, slipping it on and cinching the belt up tight. If Fleet wanted to apply his mouth to her skin again, it wouldn’t be for lunch.
She was just entering the kitchen when her phone rang with a SWAT alert.
“Shit,” she swore. “Looks like food might be out for me.”
Fleet stood still, ladle poised aloft as she picked up.
“Spires,” she barked.
“Notify your squad,” Mason snapped. “We have an active shooter situation.”
“Address?” Talia wasted no time, sprinting back to her bedroom to throw on clothes and grab her go-bag.
He spouted an address that sounded damned familiar, and when he added the name of her home town, Skowhegan, Talia’s blood ran cold. “That’s the elementary school.”
“It is,” Mason confirmed.
Talia swallowed down bile and tried to concentrate on what she was required to say. “Uh… ETA just under an hour, Mase.”Dammit.That trip normally took her an hour and a quarter, but she’d be flashing her blues all the way this time. Her sister, Pixie, taught at that school.
Talia immediately sent out the call to her entire squad while pulling on her BDU’s and lacing her boots. The only one who didn’t respond immediately was Doug, who was off back-woods-ing, but if he was following protocol, he’d have scouted out a spot where he’d have cell coverage, and would be checking his messages every hour.
Once her team had been notified, she drew in a sharp breath and attempted to call her sister. It rang once and went to voice mail. That wasn’t good.
Talia gave Fleet a quick, distracted kiss goodbye, but couldn’t work up the spit in her mouth to tell him why she was so wired. Luckily, he took it all in stride. He’d probably been with Everlee when she’d been notified in the past. Hopefully by the time Talia was able to explain things to him, the entire episode would be behind her.
Talia was almost to her car when her phone chimed. She picked up, hoping it was Pixie, but… It was Doug responding. Twenty minutes north of location. Heading out now. I’ll be on site in fifteen.
Yes.Clearly, he’d be first of their team to arrive, and it took only a moment of internal debate before Talia rang Doug up.
“Lumous,” he barked.
“Doug, I…” Talia choked up, which wasn’t like her at all, but dammit, this operation was going to be beyond personal. “My sister is a teacher at that school. Room 418. She…has some pretty horrendous memories of something similar happening like this once, so she’ll be a mess. She’s not answering her phone. Can you let me know if she’s okay, and what the situation is as soon as you arrive?”
She hated asking a favor of a man who was still on their suspect list, but Pixie’s wellbeing overrode any hesitation she might have had. Hopefully her sister had managed to get out of the building, and was safely behind police lines.
“Will do, LT,” he clipped back. “If I can ascertain her location and she’s still inside, should I try for a targeted extraction?”
As much as it pained her, she had to deny his request. “Negative, Doug. It’s safer to wait for the team.”
“I knew you’d say that,” he growled.
“Thanks anyway,” she told him sincerely. “I appreciate it.”
He huffed. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I’m local.”
“Spires, out.” She hung up, then got in her car and drove like a bat out of hell.
Ten minutes later she was just passing Herman Pond when her phone rang again. Seeing it was Doug, her heart leapt into her throat as she answered.
“Yeah, Doug?”
“The situation is all kinds of fucked up, LT,” he clipped. “Nobody has made it out of the building, and the local PD isn’t equipped or well-staffed enough to go in. They’ve had some bug running through their department, and half their officers are out, so they’re waiting on us.”
And rightly so. Without the proper workforce, things could go sideways very easily.
Talia was familiar with the police chief in town, and knew him to be highly capable and smart. Without the man-power behind him, he’d be frustrated as hell to hold off. She knew it probably was killing him to wait.
