Center Mass (Code 11-KPD SWAT 1)

I’d liked that one, too.

In Texas, paramedics weren’t allowed to pronounce someone ‘dead.’ They had to have the Justice of The Peace come out and pronounce the person dead. From there, he’d take them to the mortuary, or morgue.

Paramedics, although capable, weren’t supposed to pronounce death.

They could say that the patient had injuries ‘incompatible with life,’ but they couldn’t do the actual pronouncing.

Drew snorted. “My favorite part was where she asked why there wasn’t any EMS on scene. How many times has the chief drilled into our heads, ‘scene safety?’ It’s at least every other shift.”

They also wouldn’t stay on scene if they were of no use.

They couldn’t do anything. Not if they wanted to uphold the integrity of the crime scene.

Downy rumbled his agreement, but I left, not really wanting to be around anyone at that moment.

I knew I was about to be put on administrative leave pending investigation. I also knew an appointment with the force’s psychiatrist was on the agenda, too.

It’d at least be paid leave, if nothing else.

When Drew and Dillon hung a left out the front doors of the station, Downy followed me to my office, and sat in the chair across from my desk.

He didn’t say anything, and I was grateful.

An hour later, I was dotting my last ‘i’ on the report when I realized that it was nearly thirty minutes after school let out.

“Fuck!” I said, standing up and rounding the desk. “I forgot Katerina.”

Downy stood at my uttered oath, and he nodded. “I’ll tell the chief what you’re doing.”

“Thank you,” I said hastily, practically running out the door.

Why hadn’t they called?

My question was answered minutes later when I pulled up in front of the school, parking in the fire lane, and found my girl playing hop-scotch with a smaller brown haired girl that looked exactly like her mother in the fenced off playground.

Reese was sitting on the bench in the playground, watching her two charges with a small smile on her face.

A little bit of my anxiety over the day seemed to release at the sight of the two innocent girls. Their outlook on life. How a simple game of hop-scotch made them so happy.

I walked slowly up the chain link fence, stopping slightly to the side of the bench Reese was on, and leaned my elbows against the metal bar. Grasping the chain link with both hands.

“Thank you,” I said.

I sounded tired, even to myself.

She smiled over her shoulder at me, her pretty, wavy hair falling over her shoulder and brushing the back of the bench.

“She’s good with Rowen. Rowen’s a little hellion, but Katerina handles her perfectly,” Reese said

I nodded. “Katy plays well with everyone. She’s got a vast range of kids she plays with. My friends all have kids varying in ages. How old is Rowen?”

“Five. She started kindergarten this year,” she said, laughing at Rowen when she missed two boxes, skipping over them completely in her quest to get through the game as fast as Katy could.

I found myself smiling, too.

“My sister’s got a six year old boy, and a three year old little girl. A couple of my friends have five year olds. She’s a social girl,” I said, shaking my head. “I have no idea where she gets it, because I’m not.”

She grinned at me. “I can tell. But you’ve done well raising her. She’s got impeccable manners.”

I raised my brows. “Damn straight. I’d not tolerate anything less from her.”

She stood and came to stand by the fence.

Today she was in Spiderman scrubs.

“Do you have a thing for Superheroes?” I asked.

She placed her hands in her pockets and looked down at her shirt. “Yeah, kind of. I used to work in cardiology at Christus Health in Shreveport. They allowed us to wear what we wanted, and I generally gravitated to these because they were uplifting. That floor was a killer.”

I’m sure it was. It didn’t sound like a fun floor to me.

Then she did something unexpected.

Moving fully into my vision, she stared into my eyes as she wrapped her hands around mine, as much as the chain link allowed.

“Are you okay?” She whispered.

I blinked, surprised at the emotion that was welling in my chest.

Her hands warmed mine.

I hadn’t even realized that they were cold. That I was cold.

Her eyes were full of pain.

For me.

She’d heard about my day.

“I’m okay,” I rasped.

She gave me a wry look.

“I’ll be okay. How’s that?” I asked.

She looked at me, studying my face with her green eyes. She was exceptionally observant.

She was also stunning, and in that moment, I wanted to kiss her more than I’d ever wanted anything.

Badly.

Which, of course, was when my daughter squirmed her way between the fence and Reese, smiling up at me with a devious scowl on her face.

“You forgot me,” she growled.

It took everything I had not to burst out laughing.

“No, baby. I’d never forget about you,” I told her, even if it was a tiny white lie.

She raised one eyebrow at me, exactly like my own mother still did on occasion, and sniffed. “You’re so full of it.”

It would be Reese’s peel of laughter, the pure joy on her face that got me through the night. Through the nightmare of replaying that one event of the day over and over again through my mind. Seeing the man’s body jerk as the bullet tore through his chest. Seeing him fall lifelessly to the ground in a heap.

It would be her laughter that pulled me out of the nightmare that kept repeating through my head, tearing through my thoughts like an unwelcome parasite.

That’s when I truly knew. Knew that I wouldn’t be able to stay away from her.

She’d be mine. Soon.Chapter 7Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be there.

-Truth

Reese

“Yes, hoe, I got the freakin’ cake. And the decorations. What’d you get again?” I asked suspiciously.

I heard Tru’s dark chuckle. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I wouldn’t have asked, if I didn’t want to know, bitch,” I quipped as I pulled into the driveway.