Page 166 of A Dirty Business
“What are you doing here?”
He shook his head, shock still on his face. He was holding my mom, his gaze going from her to me to the man on the floor. “I—I was coming over and heard a call go over the scanner. Recognized the address. Front door was open.”
Everything was coming at me at once.
The glass. A break-in. My mom. My gun. The window. The closet. The crawl space. Where I decided my stance would be. I would’ve given my life for my mom. I’d been fully prepared to engage in a gun battle. It was my job to protect her, and not because she was my mother. Because she was a civilian.
It was my job, but now the shakes were coming in, and I had to sit down for a moment. Just a moment.
“Jess. Jesus. Okay.”
I waved him off, going back and standing over the fallen man. Job. My job. I would do my job. Didn’t matter that this happened in my house.
“Jess. I got it.” He motioned toward my mom, who was huddling in the doorway. “Get her out of here and sit tight.”
“I need to finish my call.”
“What?”
He had his gun drawn, aimed at the guy in case he moved.
I holstered mine and pulled my phone out of my back pocket. I put it to my ear. “This is Officer Montell.” I gave them my badge number and where I worked and told them my location.
The operator replied, “We got other calls as well. Your address was pulled up, and you should have squad units showing up right now.” As she finished talking, red and blue lights filled the air outside the window. I went over and saw two squad units parked. Four officers were heading for the house.
I began going for the hallway to wave them in and upstairs.
“Jess. No pulse.”
I stopped, turned back.
Leo was kneeling at the guy’s head, his hand down where I couldn’t see.
“Hello! This is the police. Anyone in the premises?”
“Jess, I want to know.”
I frowned, but as they began clearing the house on the first floor, Leo pulled off the guy’s ski mask.
My mom screamed.
Leo cursed.
And me, I had no idea how I reacted becausenowI was in shock.
It was Bear.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE
JESS
I ...
... Bear.
I killed Bear.
It’d been Bear ...
