Center Mass (Code 11-KPD SWAT 1)

“When I first got Radar, he was a puppy. He had no training whatsoever. At the time, I’d thought that I’d taken on a Herculean task, trying to train him. However, the joke was on me. He was eager to learn and eager to please. It was me who’d had to do all the learning. And learn I did. I learned that he snored. I learned that he got overly excited when I got up in the morning, and if I valued my toes, I best be putting shoes on. I learned that his tail hurt when it was wagging at a hundred wags a minute. I learned that he was as warm as a heating blanket when he was draped over you at night. And he was worse than the kids when it came to stealing the covers. I also learned what it was like to love someone so much it hurts. Because right now, it hurts so bad,” he said, pressing his palm down over his chest.

Trance looked down. “My wife took about eighteen million pictures of Radar hopping into the bath with our son last week. What eleven year old dog do you know that would play in bubbles as if he were a puppy?”

I smiled warmly, thinking about our childhood dog that used to do much the same.

“My wife’s life was in danger a few years ago, and Radar saved her. I owe him my whole life for that one act, because if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have Viddy. And I wouldn’t have my children. And for that, I’ll forever owe him. I hope when I pass on from this life, that he’s there waiting for me. It breaks my heart to know he’s not here anymore, but I knew he died doing what he loved. Serving and protecting. He’ll be missed by everyone, but no one more so than me. I love you, Radar; wait for me.”

My throat felt like a ball had been caught in it, and I leaned my head against Luke’s shoulder.

My other hand was taken up by my sister, who sat on the other side of me.

I clutched her hand tightly as we watched Trance walk down the stage’s steps and take a seat next to his weeping wife.

She curled into his arms, and my eyes closed, not wanting to witness the devastation in her sobbing form. It felt like the moment was too intimate, as if I wasn’t meant to watch it.

Luke’s lips touched my forehead gently, and my eyes opened again.

With that one touch, I was okay.

My hair shifted off my shoulder as I looked up to him and smiled. He didn’t look down, but there was a small smile at the corner of his mouth, acknowledging me.

I settled back into my seat as one by one, officers from all over the Ark-La-Tex said their final goodbyes.

Kosher held up vigil at the base of the doggie sized coffin at the front of the room, a soldier protecting the fallen until he was laid to rest.

Soon, it was our row’s turn, and we followed the wave of people.

I said a silent prayer when I got up to the coffin, and also thanked Radar for his sacrifice.

If he hadn’t done what he’d done, I might not have the man that I love at my side, and I’d forever be thankful to Radar for the sacrifice he made.Chapter 25Do all things with kindness, you fuckers.

-Coffee Cup

Luke

My eyes lingered on Reese’s ass as she walked out of the house with the girls two weeks later.

She was going to school and taking the girls as she went.

She was taking my truck because I was putting the finishing touches on repairing her car before I took it to get painted later in the day.

I was meeting her father in less than two hours, so as soon as she waved and pulled out of the driveway, I locked the front door and headed to the garage.

She’d been using my truck for two weeks now, much to my consternation. She wouldn’t have had to if she hadn’t moved back home.

I’d tried talking with her until I was blue in the face, but she wasn’t having it. She wouldn’t even listen to a word I had to say.

Although we spent most nights together, either her place or mine, it wasn’t enough. I wanted her here with me permanently. Which was the most shocking.

I wasn’t usually so needy when it came to women, but Reese really had a way about her that called to some deep, dark place inside of me.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I answered it before I looked at the caller ID.

Because if I had, I wouldn’t have answered it.

And I would’ve died.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Luke, don’t hang up,” Lydia pleaded.

There was a certain amount of desperation in her tone that really kept me from hanging up.

I squeezed my eyes shut. “What do you want?”

“I need to talk to you. The other day…when the dog died…it wasn’t random. It was meant for you.”***Reese

The plan worked out perfectly.

Luke fell for the entire charade: hook, line, and sinker. All I had to do now was surprise him.

I pulled his truck to the side of the road about a quarter mile away from his house before I shut it off and got out.

I slammed the door shut and started walking quickly to Luke’s house.

All sorts of scenarios were playing through my head as I rounded the corner of Luke’s driveway on how we’d spend our day off. What I hadn’t planned on was finding someone there when I arrived. I mean, geez, but it’d only been less than thirty minutes since I’d left!

A ball of worry started to take root in my belly, and my fears were confirmed as I walked up to the open garage door.

I stopped outside the opening, listening.

“She needs me. You don’t. It’s nice to have a woman whose father doesn’t emasculate me around every corner,” Luke said to somebody.

That somebody being Lydia.