Page 30 of Summer Heatwave
As she leaned against the warm bricks, she remembered the last time she’d been in that exact same position.Mike had been inclined against the opposite side of the door, gun drawn.
Kam looked down at her hand and didn’t remember when she’d drawn her weapon.But there it was.That comfortable extension of herself.She’d cleared her apartment by herself most nights since someone had tried to run her down in the parking lot of the martial arts studio.It was probably just kids looking for something easy to steal and pawn.When she showed up with a gun, she’d scare the shit out of them.Maybe she’d call the cops then.
Taking a deep breath, she crouched low and slid through the smallest crack in her front door that she could.Her soft-soled boots made no noise as she took three steps to hide behind the couch.
Click.
The noise sounded like it was coming from the kitchen.
Using only the ambient light from the streetlight in front of her apartment, she silently cleared the living room and dining room.She could see where the chairs had been knocked over.The pretty candles that had stood proudly on her table since the day she moved in were on their sides and broken.From the slivers of light coming through her side windows, she could tell someone had tossed the pillows off her couch and shredded them, stuffing popping through the slices.
Her kitchen looked relatively undisturbed.With her left hand on the handle to the pantry, she heard a hissing noise from down the hall toward the two bedrooms and guest bathroom.
She slid around the corner to the doorway leading to the hall and popped her head around the corner to quickly check.
Empty.
In two long strides, she stepped into the rarely used second bathroom.
Kam forced herself to inhale quietly and slowly.She could have counted her heartbeats in her ears but needed to listen.
Hissss.Hisss.Hissssssss.Ssssssst.
“Bitch’ll get the message with that,” a man said in a satisfied whisper.
That confirmed they were miscreant children.Most likely they had been sent by Big Daddy.Kam smiled inwardly.That meant she was getting close to shutting his entire operation down once and for all.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow move at the end of the hallway near the living room.
Fuck.There are two of them.
She didn’t have to check her magazine or confirm that there was already a bullet in the chamber.Her favorite handgun held fifteen shots.Even though she’d never shot a person, she knew she could tonight.Someone had broken into her home.Someone had violated her personal space.
Glancing from her bedroom doorway to the other end of the hall, back and forth, a large man’s shadow filled the hall.From her kneeling position, Kam popped around the corner and shot twice, once to the chest and the second to the head.She watched the green dot of his night-vision goggles lens fall to the floor but not before he’d gotten off a shot in her direction.
The second man emerged from her bedroom, knees bent, hiding behind NVGs.His weapon in front of him, he scanned first down the hallway and his gaze held on his fallen comrade.
Big mistake.
Kam pulled the trigger twice and the man crumpled to the ground.She immediately stood and flipped on the lights.If she hadn’t killed them clean, at least they were blinded.
Unsure of her second shot on the first man, she trained her weapon on him until she checked him for a pulse.Dead.
She quickly moved to her bedroom doorway and checked the second man.He was also dead.
Inhaling a deep breath, she stepped over him and flipped on the light in her bedroom.Spray-painted on the wall, still dripping long red streaks, was a warning—stop or die.B.D.
Kam tried to swallow but her mouth was so dry her tongue stuck to its roof.Had these men been sent to simply scare her or actually kill her?She glanced down at the body two feet away.She’d never know now.
One last glance around her bedroom told her he’d spent some time there.The beachy glass lamp she’d bought when she first moved to San Diego lay in pieces on the floor, sand and seashells scattered across the blue rug.Her favorite lacy panties were strewn all over the room, one pair dangling from the ceiling fan.He’d obviously had fun by hooking one of her bras over a different paddle.
As she trudged back through her home, she made mental notes of the damage.Leaving her door open, Kam sat on the top step of her porch and dialed 911.Identifying herself as a federal agent, she told the emergency operator that she had just killed two intruders.She also informed the woman that she was sitting in front of her home still armed with the weapon used in the shooting.Although the woman wanted her to stay on the line, she hung up.
Her next call was to Mike.
“Kam, are you all right?”Just hearing his deep calm voice smoothed her sharpened nerves.“Kam?Are you there?”
“Yeah,” was all she could manage.The adrenaline was pushing every emotion to the surface.She wanted to scream.She wanted to cry.She wanted to puke.
