Page 83 of Love in the Storm

The muffled voice of a man silenced. Asa banged a hand against the door again. “Blackwater PD!”

He turned the old doorknob and pushedagainst the door. It wasn’t locked or latched, but there was resistance as he pressed his weight against it. The scratching of wood sounded on the other side, and shuffling noises came from farther inside.

The house didn’t have electricity, but a light emanating from an interior room drew Asa inside as soon as he breached the entrance. “Blackwater PD!”

Curses came from the room with the light, and shadows jerked over the wall opposite the open door. Asa picked up the pace and pressed his back against the wall beside the open door. “Blackwater PD. Come out with your hands in the air.”

Wood scraped against wood, but no one emerged from the room.

So, it was going to be the hard way. Asa inhaled a deep breath of damp, musty air and rounded the corner with a firm grip on his weapon.

A lantern in the corner of the room cast three bodies in shadows. Two men scuffled by a window, and a woman was tied to a wooden chair in front of them.

Trespassing was one thing, but the woman was clearly restrained against her will. She’d probably been abducted too, which meant these two were racking up more offenses by the second.

Dawson quietly radioed to dispatch from behind Asa using the police code for officers needing urgent backup, adding in the code for hostage.

“Stop it!” one of the men shouted, no longer trying to keep quiet.

Oh no. Asa knew that voice. Despite the darkness, he could pinpoint Bobby Wilson any day. The other guy had to be his brother, Zach.

Repeat offenders had at least one disadvantage: they were easy to identify.

The Wilson brothers had been the bane of Asa’s existence since grade school, and he hadn’t been a fan of the run-ins with them. They’d been raised to take what they wanted, to con their way out of anything, and to hate the cops.

Tonight, it seemed their plan was to test all three of those lessons.

“Put your hands where I can see them,” Asa ordered.

The brothers continued to push and shove each other until Bobby, the bigger of the two, landed a shove to Zach’s shoulder that knocked him off-balance. He stumbled into the wall and immediately popped right back up.

“I said no!” Zach yelled.

Bobby, the eldest brother, was usually the leader, but it seemed Zach had a dog in the fight tonight.

The woman in the chair whimpered. Her hair was messy and hung over her face. Pulling at the ties on her hands and shifting from side to side, she continued screaming behind the strap covering her mouth.

Bobby straightened and pulled a gun from his waist in one quick movement, leveling it at the woman’s head. “Nobody move or she dies!”

A sinking chill ran from Asa’s head to his toes. Bobby stood right behind the woman, and neither officer had a clear shot at him.

Don’t do it. Don’t do it.

Zach lunged for the gun in Bobby’s hand, and the shot rang out in the small room just as a strong force pushed Asa backward. He hit the ground on his side and lost his grip on his weapon.

One of the brothers cursed as Dawson radioed to dispatch. “Officer down!”

The fire in Asa’s shoulder spread to his chest and arm. Gritting his teeth against the building pressure, he raised his head and sucked in deep breaths through his nose.

Bobby shouted at Zach and busted the window with the butt of his gun.

“Stop and drop your weapons!” Dawson yelled as he moved to stand over Asa.

The pressure in his shoulder was morphing into a sharp pain. The initial shock was waning, but the adrenaline pumping in his system reminded him to get up.

Pressing the heel of his hand into the wound in his shoulder, he ignored the wetness and pushed to sit up. He stumbled once getting his feet under him, but he kept his focus on Bobby and the woman.

Bobby kept his gun pointed at Dawson until the second he turned and dove out of the broken window.

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