Page 2 of Full of Wrath

The sound of gunshots in the distance makes me worry about Sadie enough to stop. Then the tree next to my face takes a bullet, and my ass is booking it again! I say a prayer that she is alright and streak through the woods trying to outrun the bullets with my name on them. The cacophony of gunshots back at the house goes silent even as the guy chasing me keeps on coming.

Branches tear at my clothes and skin, but adrenaline masks the pain. All that’s going through my head is making it out of this alive. I fall but jerk right back up again. The guy chasing me isn’t shooting at me anymore, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still chasing me. A roaring in my ears drowns out everything else, so I can’t hear his footsteps behind me or his shouts any longer. All I can focus on is my pounding heart and keeping it in its current state -alive!

I come out of the woods into a clearing and cuss, or I would if I had any breath to form words. I sprint across the field hoping to find safe haven just as something hot burns through my arm.

I felt that! And mother fucker did it hurt! Like laying a hot poker on my skin.

It also knocks me off my feet, causing me to pitch forward just as I realize there’s nowhere else to run. Before I can stop my forward momentum, I am falling and then rolling. I try to catch myself but only end up hurting my wrist. I unceremoniously hit the bottom and find the only fucking rock down below…with my head.

Headlights fall across me and give me a good view of the shadow at the top of the hill I just rolled down. This is it! As hard as I ran, as much as I fought to live, this is where and how I die. And I can’t even move to fight anymore.

For all I know, the headlights could belong to his associate who ordered him to kill me, and now both of them are going to shoot me. My vision goes blurry for a moment, causing the image of the man on the hill to waver and shimmer in the moonlight that’s backlighting him. I close my eyes when I hear gunshots and pray the end will come quickly and I won’t linger in agony.

My eyes snap back open as I’m being half carried, half dragged by a second shadow. I begin to fight with what is left of my strength when I realize the man who has me isn’t shooting at me but up at the man on the hill. I’m shoved down between a big body and a car as they continue to exchange fire, and then silence falls all around us.

The roaring is still in my ears so I can’t really hear what the guy is saying to me, but I do get a good look at his eyes. Midnight blue. Eyes that burn into me and make me question if my heart is still beating so fucking hard because I just had to run for my life or if it just might be because those eyes are staring down at me.

Before I can find out, everything goes dark, and I sink into it, so I don’t have to face the pain any longer.

Chapter Three

Memphis

Ilook down at the woman I’m sheltering in my arms. I recognize her! She’s friends with my brother’s crush and has classes with my little sister. Damn it!

I reach up and key my mic to radio this in. I got a call from my brother telling me he was at a party when he started hearing gunfire moments before I got the call from the dispatcher telling all units to respond to the address of the party he was at. Of course I was going to go to him.

I saw someone fall and start to roll down the hill, but I couldn’t tell who it was. A part of me was hoping it wasn’t Boston. Then my heart stopped as I realized someone was standing on the hill pointing what looked a lot like a gun down at the injured person. Instinct kicked in and I realized I had to get to whoever it was.

Fuck! She’s young. She’s in college, so she has to be eighteen, nineteen at least. She looks like trouble, and I can’t help brushing her hair back from her face, which is streaked with dirt and leaves. She’s…beautiful.

Her dark hair may be tangled, and she may have a bruise forming on her cheek, but it doesn’t take away from her striking looks.

“Way to go, creep.” Noticing an injured woman’s beauty probably isn’t in any of the handbooks I’ve gotten over the years of my career in law enforcement…but damn, she is strikingly mesmerizing.

Even though it’s wrong, I can’t help but run my thumb over her soft bottom lip. She starts to fight me, but I cup her cheek and talk to her softly…well, as soft as I can since my voice comes out gruff and growly like I just gargled rocks.

“Shh, it’s okay. You’re safe. Everything is going to be okay now. I’ll keep you safe, sweetheart.”

Wide hazel green eyes open for me and hold me breathless as we look at one another for a heartbeat before she closes them again. Those eyes…they capture a man and make him want to be a better person. They remind me of the forest behind my mom and dad’s house where I spent hours of my childhood. Happy memories of sun-dappled moss and cool evenings spent exploring before fireflies came out to play with me rush through my mind with just one look.

She’s small and bleeding, but there’s still enough fire in her that she was trying to fight with me when she didn’t realize I was going to be the one to take care of her and keep her safe.

“You rest, sweetheart. I’m here now, and I won’t let anything hurt you. I promise.”

I pull her closer to me and sit with her until my boss and an ambulance come up beside us.

“Wrath, where the hell are you?” The voice is deep and grumpy, and I'd recognize it anywhere. It's my boss, Chief Sinclare.

“Over here, Chief.”

He walks around the car and finds me still holding her in my arms.

“Well, son of a bitch!” He takes both of us in and pushes his fingers through his hair.

“My brother?”

“He’s alright, looking for you. He was one of the first kids to call it in.”