Page 42 of Tasting Fire
“You didn’t show up at my place for a social visit, did you?”
“Do you want me to make social visits?” Because as much as he wanted to deny it, he wanted to get way more than social with her. And based on their kiss the other night, she wanted the same thing.
“I…It could be seen as a conflict of interest.”
“Only if you give me some type of special treatment on the team. Which you definitely haven’t done.”
“It could complicate things.”
Hell, things were already complicated for him.
“Don’t you need someone to work that strategic fun plan with you?”
“And who better than Cash Kingston?”
“Hey, you said it. Not me.” As much as he appreciated seeing her smile, he was about to destroy her good mood. “But there is something you should know.”
She stopped immediately and her expression sobered. “What?”
Cash’s cell dinged, and he was reaching for it when a buzzing sound came from the vicinity of Emmy’s chest. He didn’t look away as she reached inside the neck of her tank top to fish for her phone.
She took a quick glance at the screen and immediately turned back toward downtown. “Don’t bother to read yours. We have to go. The sheriff’s department was serving a supposedly routine warrant, but they need SWAT backup. The suspect is threatening to shoot everyone in the house, including himself.” She gave him the incident and staging addresses.
“Is this a training exercise?” he asked.
“If it is, it isn’t one I scheduled or one the captain let me know about.”
They ran like hell back to Main Street. Emmy jumped into a Mercedes SUV parked out front, and Cash dove into his truck because they each needed their own gear.
They made good time, and the rest of the tac team was still assembling when he and Emmy arrived across the street from a shotgun-style house.
Within a few minutes, everyone was on-site and the captain began briefing the group. But before she could provide the full picture, a sound of gunshot split through the air and a high-pitched scream came from inside the house.
“We need to get in there now,” Emmy said.
“You two wait outside until we have the scene secure and then—”
“That scream was the sound of someone being shot, and that person could be bleeding out right now,” Cash said. “We have to get inside the house.”
“Get in the stack,” the captain instructed.
He and Emmy queued up behind the other SWAT team members and carefully made their way toward the side of the house at an angle. The point SWAT operator called out, “Police. Put down your weapons and come out with your hands up.”
The immediate response was another gunshot. Another scream.
Cash’s heart was thumping like the beat to a rap song. He needed to slow his breathing. He knew that. But it didn’t keep his body from reacting naturally to the imminent threat of danger. To himself. To others. To Emmy.
One of the SWAT team members duckwalked around to the corner and was out of sight for what seemed like a flash. Then a boom sounded from the front of the house, and the stack was on the move. Smoke was still pouring from the explosive breach, but the point tossed a flash bang inside as well.
“Police,” the operator yelled. “Everyone on the ground!”
Although the smoke was still clearing, from the doorway, Cash could see two people on the floor. They’d been shot. This call-out was way too much like the training scenario with Shep and the others. Except these were real injuries with real blood.
No corn syrup here.
“Fuck,” Cash breathed. He broke left and Emmy went right.
Cash’s patient was a white female about twenty years old. She’d taken what looked like a graze shot to the calf, and she was trying like hell to get to her feet. “He’ll come back!”
