“Step away. Step away now!”
I barely hear them, my stare locked on Curran as the blue and red strobe lights smack repeatedly against my face. He stalks forward, through the throng of law enforcement arched around me, his stance rigid and his focus trained on the man holding me.
He’s alive. Somehow, Curran survived.
“One more step and I’ll kill her,” my captor warns. His voice is that of a desperate man, out of options and outgunned.
Curran freezes, the gun in his hand steady. He should appear torn, yet he’s not.
He makes his decision and carries it through.
The air explodes around me as the grip to my hair loosens and I collapse to the ground.
Curran
I recognize that look, the one that shifts in a perp’s face. It’s the same one that kid had right before he reached for his gun and shot Joey full of holes. This perp, like that teen, knows there’s no going back, not after what he’s done.
He’s going to kill Tess, the mother of my child, my soon-to-be wife, and the woman I promised forever. There’s no doubt in my mind.
He makes his choice.
And I make mine.
My target is his left eye, and that’s precisely where my bullet strikes.
I bolt to Tess’s side when his body buckles and her knees give out. From one blink to the next, she’s in my arms. I wrench her to her feet and drag her away, over to where McMullen and two others are seeing to Lu.
“You all right?” I ask Tess. “You hurt?”
She points in the direction of the perp with one eye and a busted skull. I think she means to say something about him, but instead asks, “How did you find me?”
My hold on her tightens as I remember the call. “Lu saw them take you. She phoned me and half the precinct. With all the traffic this time of night—and festivals going on down at Penn’s Landing—no one could get to you fast enough. For the time being, we knew we were on our own. So we formed a plan as soon as we got a handle on where you were headed, and moved in.” I motion ahead to our left. “I parked on the block before this one. Snuck through that small alley and stuck to the shadows. Lu took her time pulling up behind you and getting out, giving me time to get in position. It worked. Perps never saw me coming.”
“I see,” she says, two seconds before she almost collapses. I ease her down on the curb. “Your job sucks,” she stammers, breathing hard and clinging to my shirt with white knuckles.
Maybe, but it’s what I’m meant to do.
I kiss her forehead, because that’s all I can do right now. What I want to do is snatch her to me and never let her go. She almost died—Christ Almighty, my girl, my kid, I almost lost them, just like that.
I kiss her again, this time a little lower. Her glasses are crooked. I try to fix them, but they’re bent from the throw-down. “They thought I was Declan’s girlfriend,” she says, her voice continuing to tremble.
“Then my guess is Montenegro’s wife put a hit on you.” I shrug to make like everything’s fine, and that I’m not freaking the fuck out over her being kidnapped and held at gunpoint at twelve goddamn weeks pregnant. “Women are funny when it comes to their men.”
I don’t mean to make her tear up, but that’s what she does. She clutches the front of my shirt and loses it, crying so hard I can barely understand her. “I thought you were dead. You were outnumbered; Lu was hurt. D-did you kill them—all of them?”
I nod, anger reverting me to cop mode.
Police officers are taught to protect, and to do so, that means we’re also taught to kill. I’m not immune to taking a life. I felt the impact with each one I ended tonight. But I also know I didn’t have a choice. Not this time. Not if it meant saving the woman I love and the baby she’s carrying inside her.