Legend (Arizona Vengeance 3)

When I reach my purse, I flop down beside it and roll to my back. I reach inside with a bloody hand and manage to retrieve my phone on the first try. This never happens to me in real life when I’m trying to find my phone among all the other crap that’s in there and I take it as a good, karmic sign.

I leave little bloody fingerprints on my screen as I manage to dial 9-1-1.

When the call connects, I lay my head on the floor as the effort to hold it up is too much. It’s almost too much to press the phone to my ear.

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” a man’s voice comes across crisp and professional.

“I’ve been shot,” I say. “In my home.”

The man’s tone stays calm. “And your address?”

I give it to him, but my words get progressively weaker. My hands feel really cold and I have a hard time holding onto the phone.

“Ma’am, I’ve dispatched police and an ambulance. Is there an active shooter still in your home?”

“No,” I whisper. “She’s got Lucy and Charlie, though.”

“What was that?” the man asks but he sounds so far away.

I tell him again that Lida’s got Lucy and Charlie, but I’m actually not even sure the words really come out. I could be thinking them.

Dizziness hits me and I feel the room spinning a bit. I close my eyes and try to tell him once more about Lida, but I realize the phone isn’t in my hand anymore.

I must have dropped it.

But I can’t move. My brain tells my hand to move, to find the phone, but I. Can’t. Move.

The dizziness is making me feel like I have to puke so I close my eyes for a moment.

Just a moment.

To gather my strength then I can find the phone and tell them about Lucy and Charlie.

Lucy and Charlie.

Their names reverberate through me and I scream at myself to open my eyes. But they won’t and then it becomes too tiring to even tell myself to do it anymore.

The silent black is calling me and I decide to just give in to it.Chapter 29LegendMy workout was great this morning but our team practice was stilted and off-kilter. I’m not sure we all appreciated Tacker’s leadership on the ice until he was gone. Sure…he’d been suspended before but that was temporary and had a defined end.

As it stands now, Tacker may never come back and as a team, we have to figure out how to function without him. Bishop has been named as captain and that was the appropriate choice in my opinion. I sure hope we get our shit together for tomorrow’s home game but as it stands, I’m ready to put that out of my mind and spend the rest of the day with my daughter. Maybe I can even talk Pepper into taking the afternoon off to hang with us.

As I turn onto my street, I sense something is wrong. There’re way too many neighbors out, standing in small pockets and talking with worried expressions on their faces. When I see the blue flashing lights two blocks down and very close to my house, nausea hits me hard. All I can think about is Charlie and making sure she’s safe. If Lida came over, they’re going to have to physically restrain me from killing her.

The closer I get I realize everything is congregated in front of Pepper’s house and confusion hits me. Multiple police cars and I know this is more than just a simple trespass by Lida.

“Jesus,” I mutter as I’m forced to pull over a hundred yards from my house because everything is blocked off with yellow tape and police officers.

I jump out of my car and tear across the neighbor’s yard, jump a hedge, clear another neighbor’s yard and sprint straight for Pepper’s front door where two police officers are walking out with grim expressions.

I hit the bottom step and the cops jolt when they see me. “Sir…you can’t come in here.”

“This is my girlfriend’s house,” I yell at them with panic pulsing through me. “What happened?”

“Sir,” one of the cops says as he takes my arm. “Let’s go over here and we’ll talk.”

“Is she in there?” I yell as I jerk away from his hold. I make it to the top step before both of them are pulling me back down.

“Sir, if you don’t calm down I’m going to cuff you,” one of them says.

I’m about to go ballistic. “Just fucking tell me is she in there?”

“No,” one of the cop says. “The victim has already been taken to the hospital by ambulance.”

“Victim?” I yell as I struggle against their hold. “Was it Pepper? What happened?”

“Sir,” I’m told again in a low voice. “If you will settle down, we will tell you what happened, but you have got to be calm.”