Page 59 of Flynn

So where was he?

A flash of movement from behind the garage caught his eye. He quickly turned in that direction in time to see a dark shape lift what appeared to be a gun.

“Stop! Police!” He hoped the guy would drop the gun, but he didn’t. Even worse, the tip of the muzzle turned toward him. He was about to shout no when the guy fired at him.

Flynn dove to the ground, rolled over, and returned fire. He sent three rounds toward the perp; at least two of them appeared to strike the guy center mass.

The dark shape fell back against the garage, then slid to the ground. Flynn quickly raced forward, silently praying he hadn’t killed him.

Partially because he’d never been forced to take a life, but even more so because they needed answers. He desperately wanted to know who had hired him to kill Taylor and why!

As he approached the fallen man, he noticed the guy was larger than he’d anticipated. Thicker around the middle than the stats he’d read on the mug shot of Nickoli Yurgis.

Kicking the gun away from the man’s outstretched hand, Flynn lowered himself to a crouch beside the victim. With caution, in case the guy was going to make a move for the gun, he felt for a pulse.

To his surprise, he clearly felt the beat of the perp’s heart beneath his fingertips. He was alive!

He was about to reach for his phone when Cassidy ran toward him, her weapon in hand. “What happened?”

“He shot at me, so I returned fire.” He glanced up at her. “Did you tell Taylor to call 911?”

“Yes.” Cassidy’s attention was focused on the victim. “You have a pulse?”

“Yeah.” He holstered his weapon and pulled off his coat. He balled it up and pressed it against the guy’s chest where the bullets had struck him. “I’ll hold pressure; you take his mask off.”

“I don’t see any blood,” Cassidy said as she crouched beside him. “Are you sure you hit him? Maybe he was just grazed enough to be rendered unconscious.”

“Positive.” Although now that she mentioned it, he didn’t see any blood either. The man groaned. “Hey, wake up! Are you hit? Wake up?”

The guy didn’t respond.

Flynn felt along the front of the man’s coat until his fingers found the holes in the coat made by the bullets he’d fired. But he also felt something else.

A thick layer of Kevlar.

“He’s wearing a vest!” A sinking feeling hit hard as Flynn grabbed the lower edge of the man’s black face mask, pulling it up and off in one smooth movement.

His jaw went slack when he recognized the shooter’s face.Taylor’s dream was half right, he thought grimly.

The bad guy wasn’t Detective Irving, but the larger and more affable Detective Klem.

He’d shot a fellow cop.

ChapterFourteen

The sound of gunfire had been all too familiar. Taylor had jumped to her feet and dialed 911 as she ran to wake Cassidy. Cassidy was already up and reaching for her weapon when Taylor burst into her room.

“Flynn’s in trouble!” At that moment, the 911 operator answered the call. “Shots fired in Greenland, um, we’re across the street from Greenland Park.”

“Do you have the address?” the operator asked.

Cassidy must have heard because she rattled it off as she jammed her feet into her shoes. Taylor repeated it for the operator’s benefit.

“Stay inside, ma’am, officers are on the way.”

“There are officers here too. We’re in danger so please hurry!” Taylor quickly ended the call, following Cassidy toward the back door.

“Stay inside,” Cassidy said. “And keep away from the windows.” With that, she’d slipped into the darkness.

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