Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
That was when I heard a shotgun blast, somewhat close, but also somewhat far away.
Fuck!
What was happening?
Once the dogs and I were in the bathroom, I closed and locked that door too, hit go on Harry and put the phone to my ear.
I wasn’t even sure it rang before I heard a curt, “Lill.”
“Karl Abernathy—”
“I know,” he said, and I could tell he was running.
Oh my God.
He was probably running to me.
“Where are you?” he bit off.
“Locked in the bathroom.”
“Stay there. I’m coming.”
He disconnected.
Oh God.
He was coming.
And people were shooting.
And Karl Abernathy was there.
Oh God.
Harry
Harry burst through the front door and slammed it shut behind him, shouting, “Lillian!”
She and the dogs came out of the bathroom, dashing to him.
She threw her arms around him.
He gave her half a beat to hug him then he set her away, scanning her head to toe as the dogs clamored around them.
“You good?” he asked.
“I’m good. The dogs are okay. It’s a miracle. He shot at Smokey, but somehow, he missed,” she stated breathlessly.
That fuck shot at his dog.
Harry tamped down the fury that threatened to consume him, something, right along with paralyzing fear, he’d been doing since dispatch called his office to report shots fired and Abernathy was sighted in his own fucking backyard.
“Stay here,” he said and ran to the curtains.
He was closing the ones behind the couch when the front door opened.
He whirled.
“It’s us, just us,” George said as he and Ronetta hurried in.
George shut the door behind him. He had a gun in his hand.
Ronetta hastened to Lillian.
George saw what Harry was doing and ran to lower the kitchen blinds.
Harry returned to Lillian.
“I nicked him,” George was saying. “I think I nicked him, Harry. And Allen got him in the back with his shotgun in the alley.”
“He down?” Harry asked.
“Man took the hit, got up and kept on running,” George told him, finishing with the blinds and joining them.
“Which way did he run?”
“Toward Main.”
Fuck!
People.
Lots of fucking people.
“You stay with her. Doors locked. You do not open to anyone but me, Rus, or one of my deputies,” Harry ordered.
George nodded.
He turned to Lillian. “I’ll be back.”
She swallowed and nodded.
But her heart was in her eyes.
His heart, because hers belonged to him, as his did to her.
“I love you too,” he said.
No matter all that was happening, her lips curled up in a sweet smile and tears filled those gorgeous green eyes.
Memorizing that expression, Harry sprinted out the front door to the cruiser he’d parked in Lillian’s drive.
He got in, started her up, and the radio was going berserk.
“Suspect sighted. Cinema,” dispatch said.
“In foot pursuit,” Rus’s voice panted.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Harry chanted, slammed the cruiser in reverse and hightailed out.
He turned on his lights and siren, and on a screech of tires, he tore down the street.
“Alley, behind the cinema,” Sean was saying. “Headed east.”
Harry turned right at the end of the street, grabbed the mic of his radio and pushed the button.
“Do not shoot,” he commanded. “I want him subdued and brought in.”
“Copy that,” Rus said.
“Copy,” Sean said.
“Copy,” Wade said.
He had four more copies before he ordered, “Shut down Main. I want our civilians inside with doors locked.”
He heard dispatch sending out the call to units to fulfill his order as he swung a left off Main and then another quick left down the back alley.
And there he was, a block and a half ahead.
Karl Abernathy.
Harry could see he was leaking blood at his shoulder, but that’s all he took in when Abernathy cut down a side alley and Harry lost sight.
Rus and Sean were in foot pursuit half a block away. Harry raced down the back alley and into the side one just as Abernathy darted out of it.
Harry made the end, he could hear other sirens, and he saw Wade tearing across the street.
He also saw Abernathy doing the same.
Harry threw the cruiser into park, powered down and shot out of it just as Abernathy ducked into Kimmy’s shop.
“Shit, shit, shit,” he bit out as he sprinted across the road, all traffic had stopped, cruisers were angling, deputies were everywhere.
A gun blast came from Kimmy’s shop.
Shit!
Harry raced up the sidewalk, unclipping and unholstering his weapon, just as Abernathy reeled out of Kimmy’s shop.
He saw Harry, raised his gun and shot wild.
People screamed.
“Down!” Harry yelled, his command mingling with the same one from Rus, Sean and Wade. “Everyone down!”
Abernathy had turned to run from Harry, but he stopped dead as Pete, Polly’s husband, and the owner of the Double D, came out of the diner, the butt of a shotgun to his shoulder, his eye squinted at the sight, the barrel aimed at Abernathy.
Harry raised his own gun and slowed to a creeping gait, ordering, “Karl, drop your weapon and put your hands behind your head.”
Harry could see the wet stains on the back of his dark sweater, many of them, clustered around his left shoulder.