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“Tavers.”
“Need you at my place. Put a call in to dispatch. Second time tonight someone’s set my dog off and I’m not letting him get away this time.”
Tavers swears quietly, probably in an attempt not to wake his wife and child. I grab my loaded gun from the nightstand and check the hall. Clear.
“I’m on my way. Maybe you should wait for backup.”
My jaw clenches at his disapproving tone. “I’m not letting him disappear again. I don’t like being fucked with.”
That’s when I hear them. Gunshots.
Two. Three. Four. The pop so loud it sounds as if they’re right outside my goddamned house.
I drop back into the hall and crouch down as Tavers’ anxious voice fires off in my ear.
“Goddammit, Niko, talk to me. What’s happening over there?”
I can hear him rushing around, but all it does is serve as a distraction. Someone’s out shooting in my yard; the last thing I’m going to do is sit around and wait for them to finish or try to break in.
“Get here as soon as you can,” I bark into the phone before hanging up and tucking it into my pocket. I trust him to do exactly as I’d do if the situation was reversed.
As I creep into the open area of the house, headlights pool directly into my front window. The
shades are pulled, dimming the muted yellow, but the direction looks as if someone is parked in my front yard.
I don’t realize how bad my hands are shaking until I reach for the sliding glass patio door to unlock it and sneak out the back. This has nothing to do with the current situation—I’ve been a cop for a long time and remaining calm under pressure has always been my forte. What this has to do with is that I’m in this house, in this fucking neighborhood, hearing gunshots go off in the middle of the night again. Something I haven’t dealt with in many years. Something I used to deal with at least once a week as a kid. With that thought, my mind immediately turns to my family, and the screaming need to run down the hall to make sure everyone is safe consumes me. Except my family isn’t here because I’m no longer a kid and this is now a safe neighborhood.
My stomach cramps painfully as I swallow dryly and step out into the black night. “Down,” I mutter low to Betsy who tries to follow. At my command, she drops to her belly directly in front of the patio door. Not where I want her, but it’ll do. I close the door behind me on the way out to keep her inside.
Centering my focus, I press my back along the siding of my house and scan the area in front of me. Just like earlier, there’s an eerie silence and nothing else. No movement. Not the snap of a twig or the twitch of a shadow. I direct my gaze to the windows of Aislin’s old house, but after a moment, it’s clear there’s no obvious movement there either.
Confident that the real threat is on my front lawn, I slowly creep along the back wall to the side of my house. Just as I start to peek around the corner, Betsy starts up a series of barks from inside. I can hear her jumping against the glass patio door. Her sudden noise startles me, and I trip farther out into the open than I mean to. The headlights from the car on my lawn bathe me in their yellow glow, and it feels like I’m the criminal here. Fuck! I know the second the driver spots me even though I can’t see a damn thing. Tires spin and chunks of my front lawn fly in the air. They peel out into the road, and without a second of hesitation, they’re gone.
I don’t wait any longer either and sprint to the back of my house. My lungs burn with the sudden movement, the adrenaline, and the intensity of the situation. I keep running to the other side, checking the area between Aislin’s old house and mine.
Empty.
Betsy’s barking stops, but I can hear her low growl coming from inside. When I round the corner again, she’s sitting in front of the patio door, staring into the wooded area behind my house. I start in that direction, straining my eyes and ears to pick up movement. Each step farther away from my house brings a new wave of paranoia. The sound of gunshots echoes in my head. My skin feels tight, and the area just below my right ear tingles. I roll my ear to my shoulder and pinch the muscles together to try to alleviate the sensation. A cold sweat starts to bead along my brow. My vision blackens along the edges and suddenly, the sound of my blood rushing fills my ears.
“Niko, hey. Hey!”
A heavy hand lands on my shoulder, and I nearly jump out of my fucking skin. Somehow, Tavers managed to walk up right behind me, and I had no idea.
“Are you okay? We checked the front of the house, inside, outside, fuck, you were—I didn’t know where you’d gone off to. What the fuck, man?”
I spin around to see him inspecting me. “Christ, man, a little warning next time,” I bit out irately. I realize I’m still holding my weapon, so I click on the safety and tuck it into my waistband.
His brows crease in confusion. “I was calling your name. As soon as the place was cleared, I set out looking for you. Yelling for you. I come around the back of the house, and you’re standing here staring into the fucking trees. You weren’t even moving. Thank fuck you were standing or else I would have thought...” He lets whatever he was thinking trail off into the quiet.
I was moving, wasn’t I? I look around my location, and realize that I somehow stopped just along the tree line between my two houses. The fuck?
He steps up beside me, looking through the trees. “You sure you’re all right? I know work’s been a series of dead ends, but now this shit’s coming to your house... maybe you should take a few days off?”
“No,” I clip.
“Niko—?
I level him with a steady glare—the only thing about me that seems steady at this moment. For some reason I can’t fathom, this is messing with my head.
