Razor's Edge (Underworld Kings)

“Have you heard back from dad,” I asked, turning to Mom. She’d been trying to call my father ever since we heard the first siren. I wanted to run to the house and make sure that Calvin was okay, but my mother held me back.

“Fox and especially Calvin always stay out of it, sweetie. Just let it blow over and Cal will come to you like he always does.

But the depths of my gut were telling me otherwise. Something was off and even though I couldn’t put my finger on it, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

“I’m worried,” I told my mom.

“Hopefully it’s not a seizure coming on. Make sure you have your inhaler.”

Every once in a while, I had a sixth sense for my seizures, like a weird unexplainable feeling that signaled one was coming.

When two ambulances pulled up, I got antsy and opened the front door. I was going out of my mind not knowing what was going on.

“I texted Cal, but he hasn’t responded. It’s not like him.”

“Maybe he’s in the shower,” my mom said. She was spritzing the plants with her misting bottle, but I could see the creases in her forehead, which meant she wasn’t convinced by her own words.

“Who’s going to shower with that kind of commotion? Can’t I just go over, like what could happen to me with all those cops there—probably all of them are Dad’s colleagues?”

“Ellie, you’re not going over there. With an emergency response like this, something serious definitely went down over there and I’m not about to let my only child walk into the middle of an active police investigation. Have you tried calling Cal?”

I glanced down at my phone willing it to ring with a call or a text. “I’ve called a bunch of times and left ten texts. Nothing.”

“Let’s wait until we hear from your father,” my mom repeated.

I stared out the window and watched as the EMT’s removed a stretcher from the back of the ambulance. While I wanted to obey my mother, my feet had a mind of their own and before I could process what was happening, the doorknob was in my hand and I stepped out into the dimming twilight. As soon as my feet hit the grass, I was running with Calvin on my mind and in my heart as I completely ignored my mother’s shouts from behind me.

I was overcome with fear as I moved closer to the chaos. The scene reminded me of the night Adler died and the blue and red spinning lights lit up the night sky. Panic closed in on me and my body moved independent of my mind through a flashback of finding out the person you loved the most has gone from this world. That eternal loss hit me hard and I over-focused, willing myself not to seize.

“Miss, you can’t go in there,” one of the uniformed officers said, blocking my path. A line of uniformed officers stood sentinel outside and the stairs up to the Montgomerys’ was blocked off with yellow caution tape.

“Please,” I begged, “my boyfriend lives here. What’s going on?”

The two men passed a look between each other.

“I’m Ellison Kraft, Chief Kraft’s daughter. Please tell me what’s going on.”

“We can’t release any information as of yet, Ma’am. Officer Kraft is on the scene. I can call him down if it’s an emergency.

“I don’t know, you tell me. Is it an emergency?” I asked them. My calm was waning.

The younger officer radioed my father and I stared at the house, not blinking, willing my eyes to see through the walls. Trying to connect my heart to Calvin’s to assure myself he was still in this world.

“Assailant.”

I heard the word come through clearly on the cop’s hip radio. I erased it from my head, trying to physically shake it off like an unwanted truth. I wanted time to stop before I had to feel heartbreak all over again.

Daddy.

I saw my father, he looked tired as he exited the house, his hair disheveled, his suit uniform crumpled, his eyes red-rimmed like he’d been holding back tears.

I’d only seen him look like this once before. It was when we lost Adler and all of our lives changed forever. I didn’t want to relive that pain again.

I couldn’t speak, I was barely able to breathe as something snapped inside me. I was sure it was Calvin, and my father’s face all but confirmed my worst fears. I didn’t know how I was going to survive without him—I didn’t want to live if I didn’t have Calvin by my side. I watched in stunned paralysis like I was stuck in a bad dream as another two cops walked out behind my dad flanking Calvin in handcuffs between them.

“Cal!” I shouted. Breaking free from the officer’s makeshift line, I stepped over the tape and ran to him. I knew it was grave when my dad made no attempt to send me back home, just looked at me with defeat and sorrow in his eyes.