Page 44 of Kane's Awakening
Thompson was another cop, and yeah, he’d tried to set me up with his cousin a few months ago, probably around November last year. I’d let the girl down easy, but she’d been shocked—and a bit pissed—at the rejection.
“Oh.”
He must’ve taken my short answer as me being nervous, because he added, “Man, I don’t give a fuck whose dick you suck or have up your ass. I don’t have an issue with you bein’ into guys, if that’s what you’re worried about. To each their own.”
Amused, I looked at him. “You really take me for a bottom?”
Harry chuckled and focused on the road. “I really don’t want to hear the details.” But then his brow narrowed and he tapped the steering wheel. “Just for curiosity’s sake, though… are you?”
I laughed and leaned toward him, waggling my brows suggestively. “Why? Wanna find out for yourself?”
Just then, the scanner went off, and the dispatcher stated there was a noise complaint in one of the neighborhoods not far from where we were. I answered and said we’d respond to the call.
A damn noise complaint, aka a waste of our time. However, it was all part of the job… one of the boring parts. It was probably some teenagers being too loud and the nosy neighbors being prudes. It wasn’t even eleven at night, but whatever.
We handled noise complaints by going to the address, and if we heard noise from outside the house, we’d knock on the door and tell them to keep it down, just giving them a warning. If we’re called back to the address after leaving,thenwe give the person a ticket. A third time meant jail, but that was rare.
Arriving at the house, Harry pulled the car over beside the curb and looked at me. “You wanna go in or do you want me to?”
I smirked. “How about we both go? If it’s a group of kids, it’d scare the hell out of them to see us both. And it might keep us from having to respond to a second call.”
“You’re such an evil asshole,” he said, chuckling as he shut off the car and got out.
I followed him up the sidewalk and listened. Yeah, there was definitely noise; some yelling and loud metal music. They must’ve been having one hell of a party. It would be a shock if they even heard us knocking.
At the door, I straightened my stance to my full, intimidating height, and Harry shook his head at me before knocking and announcing, “Police.”
The voices from the other side of the door silenced.
That’s when everything went to shit.
Shots fired from inside, coming through the window and breaking the glass. On impulse, I ducked and rolled to the side, my heart in my fucking throat.
Harry fell to the ground, holding his shoulder. Blood was already pooling from between his fingers.
I froze. No amount of training could’ve prepared me for being in that situation. Learning and experiencing were different. I was trying to wrap my head around the scene as my brain hadn’t yet caught up.
Snapping back to reality, I dove forward and grabbed Harry. “Fuck, man.” His blood coated my hands, and bullets whizzed above my head. As fast as I could, I dragged Harry to the side with me. He groaned and grabbed at his wound again.
“Keep pressure on it,” I told him. When another shot came, I unhooked my gun from my belt. With my other hand, I grabbed my shoulder mic and spoke, “This is Officer Matthews requesting backup at 482 Highland Avenue. Shots fired and officer down.”
There was no time to do anything else. More bullets blasted through the window. I was leaning against the door and rolled to the left. Just as I moved, bullets came through the door, too, cracking open the wood right where I’d previously been. I nearly threw up.
Harry was losing a lot of blood.
“Just hang on, man,” I shakily said.
Quickly, I jumped up and aimed through the shattered window, firing off two shots when I saw a man standing on the other side holding a gun. Fuck, I missed. He retaliated and fired at me again, and I ducked.
“Do not engage. A unit is on the way,” a voice came through on the radio.
When I’d looked through the window, there’d been about five men inside. I wasn’t sure how many were armed. For the first time in a long ass time, I prayed. I had no damn idea what exactly we’d walked into that night, but there was a chance I might not make it out.
I’d been told not to engage, but I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing while I was being shot at.
Bullets fired repeatedly above my head.
Put in a dangerous situation, adrenaline took over. But even so, so many thoughts ran through my head; things I hadn’t done but wished I had, regrets in my life. So many fucking regrets.
