Bob’s battered pearl-white Land Cruiser speared out of the garage and accelerated hard up the driveway.
“Shit!” I planted my feet, raised my weapon two-handed, and fired at the rear tires.
He didn’t slow down.
I squeezed off three more rounds at the back of the car as it hit the street.
The rear window exploded inward in a starburst of glass.
The Land Cruiser fishtailed onto the road, straightened, and Bob floored it.
“Shit!” I bolted up the driveway, but by the time I reached the street, the taillights were nothing but two red dots in the distance. The brake lights flared once at the corner, then he turned and was gone.
Dust hung in the empty road.
“Goddammit.” I stood there on the road with my sidearm by my thigh, breathing damn hard.
Kayden stood at my side. He didn’t say anything. He just put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me into his chest.
I meant to hold it together. I genuinely did. But when he wrapped his good arm around me, I pressed my forehead against his chest and fought the knot climbing my throat.
Four years of taking Bob’s word as gospel. Four years of telling myself he was one of the good ones. I’d believed he was a brilliant police officer, but now, I had proof he was a crooked cop. Not just crooked. He’s a murderer, for God’s sake.
And I’d never once suspected him.
Was I that blind? Or had he just been that good?
Kayden’s chin came to rest on the top of my head, and his hand moved slowly up my back.
Pull yourself together, Delaney. You have work to do.
I straightened, eased back, and swiped at my face before he could see my stupid emotions.
Kayden’s face was drawn and gray in the fading sunlight. A smear of his own blood was drying along his jaw, and although he held his arm loosely at his side, he acted like he was fine.
“You okay?” I reached for his arm.
“Yes, but what do we do now?”
My mind was a mess as I tried to pull a plan together. Across the road, a lace curtain shifted in a front window.
“Shit.” I nodded toward it. “Won’t be long before someone calls the police.”
“Then we need to get out of here before Bob sends someone to finish the job.” Kayden’s voice was flat and certain. “Sapphire ...” He squeezed my hand. “You can’t trust anyone. You hear me? You don’t know who Bob’s got his claws into.”
He was right.
“Okay. But I need to see what Bob did inside, and I need to photograph that crime scene before it gets any more contaminated.”
“Then do it quickly.”
We took off, and as we sprinted down the driveway, I calculated we had maybe twenty minutes. Thirty at the most.
If we were lucky.
Chapter 10
Frank