Page 50 of Justice for Aleta

“Unit eight, roger that, trooper.”

Jack turned the radio’s dial back to the dispatch channel. He couldn’t just sit there and stare at the radio. Phone in hand, he called the post and was informed that Cappy was in a meeting, but that his input was requested at fifteen hundred hours. He knew what that meant. His laptop had to be powered up, because they’d be placing an online call to pull him in via video conferencing. He’d be ready.

At that point, Jack did the one thing he’d hoped he wouldn’t have to do. “Aleta?” he called out.

“Yeah, babe?”

“Could you come in the bedroom, please?” He could hear her moving through the house before she appeared in the doorway.

She stopped cold. “I don’t like the look on your face.”

“We have to do this. We don’t have a choice now.” He was already moving to the closet, and when he straightened, Aleta’s face paled.

“No. I don’t?”

“You’ve proven to me that you can handle it. You have to take this, and you have to be ready to use it.” He grasped the Glock by the barrel and held it out to her. “Take this. And be ready.”

Jaw set, she folded her arms across her chest. “No. I’m not doing that.”

“Yes. You will. Anything could happen at this point, and I want you to be ready.” He waited and eventually her hand reached out and she took the gun gingerly by the stock. “Don’t be afraid. You need to be in the mindset that this thing can save your life. It may be all that’s between you and a person who wants to hurt you.”

“But what about you?”

“Don’t worry about me, but don’t depend on me to keep you safe. Depend on yourself.” The frown on her face told him that wasn’t what she’d thought was going to happen, but he remembered something important. “You told me you weren’t using Joshua’s insurance money because you wanted to prove to yourself and everybody else that you were self-sufficient and strong and capable. Remember that?”

She sighed and seemed to deflate before his eyes, shoulders drooping to match the corners of her mouth. “Yeah.”

“This is your chance. You can do this. I have faith in you. I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe, but I can only do so much. This is your time to take responsibility for your own safety, Aleta, and I believe you can do it.”

“So what do I do? Wait for him to stop in front of me like a target so I can shoot him? Because I?”

Hands gripping her shoulders, Jack bent to her level and stared into her eyes. “You see Moss, you shoot. I don’t care who’s between you and him. I don’t care what he’s doing. I don’t care if he’s near or far. You see him, you shoot, and don’t shoot to hurt him. Shoot to kill him, because he’s damn sure going to shoot to kill you.” The realization was settling in. He could see it on her face, the slackness of her cheeks, the terrified whites of her eyes. “Aleta, keep your head, but this guy? He’s not coming for me. He’s coming for you, and you’ve got to be prepared.”

The resolve on her face was surprising when her head snapped around and their eyes locked. “Can we try something I read in one of those books?”

You have GOT to be kidding me, Jack thought. A romance novel? How ridiculous.Her life is in danger. Humor her, Fletcher, a tiny voice told him. “Sure. Why not? At this point, I guess anything’s worth a try.”

“Okay. Um, come over here.” She placed the Glock gently on the dresser’s surface. “Now, come around behind me and grab me around the neck or shoulders. Use your hand to make like a gun.” He was pretty sure of what she was doing, but he wasn’t going to ask, just let it play out so she could see for herself how it wouldn’t work. As soon as his arm was around her, she said, “Now make your hand like it’s a gun and point it at me, anywhere on me.” Jack splayed out his index finger and thumb and put it to her temple. “Okay. You’re the bad guy. You’ve just taken me. This is what I’m going to do.”

He was ready to tell her that she’d never be able to grab his arm and throw him in the familiar martial arts move when she collapsed. His natural instinct was to grasp her, but her downward weight threw his balance off, and when he stopped, his hand was a good ten inches above her head, pointed at nothing. He was stunned. “Aleta, I?”

“Don’t think it will work, right? Looks to me like it will.”

“No. I was going to say that’s fucking brilliant. If you did that, it would throw him off enough that I could get a shot off and stop him.. Wouldn’t matter if it was his head or his shoulder, it would put him out of commission long enough for you to get away.”

“You really think it will work?” There was a bit of hope in her voice that he hadn’t heard before.

“Yeah, it actually might. Of course, the idea here is to not let him get close enough for that to be an issue. But if he does, well, that’s a workable plan.” And he’d thought those romance novels were useless!

“Good. We should practice that every once in a while over the next few days. Oh, and my sign to you will be blinking three times. If I do that, you’ll know I’m going to drop.”

He nodded in agreement. “That works. Good thinking.”

“Okay then.” There was a confidence in her voice that hadn’t been there a few minutes earlier, and for the first time, Jack thought they just might come out of the whole thing alive. Unscathed, probably not, but alive, yeah.

And he could work with anything other than dead.

Lunch was over and his laptop was set up. At two minutes before three, his messaging account started to ring, and when he accepted the call, he was looking straight into Morgan’s face. “Hello, Cappy,” he answered.

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