Mine to Take (Mine 1)

Carol’s breathing wasn’t quite so loud.

Her gaze darted over his shoulder again.

“He ran that way?”

Her lips parted. She tried to speak.

“Carol?” Skye cried. “Carol?”

Carol’s eyes were still open. Still looking over Trace’s shoulder.

But the officer was dead.

In the distance, an ambulance’s siren wailed.

Too late. Too fucking late.

He surged to his feet. Spun toward the snaking alley that Carol had been looking at in her very last moment.

You couldn’t have gone far, you SOB.

“Take this,” Trace told Skye. He shoved his gun into her hands. “Stay with the cop. Help’s not far away.”

But he wouldn’t waste any more time.

“No! You need a weapon!”

He yanked out his back-up weapon from his ankle holster. “I’ve got it covered.” Then Trace took off running down that alley even as Skye shouted his name.

Carol fired her gun. Did she hit you, asshole? Did she?

He glanced down and saw the spatter of blood drops.

She did. And I’m gonna follow your fucking trail of blood until I find you.

“Trace!” Skye yelled.

He kept running. He was ending this, before Skye was the one he found dead in a blood-soaked alley.

***

Skye stared down at Carol. The cop’s eyes were closed now. Skye had closed them. Carol’s face was chalk-white. Her lips stained red with blood.

The scent of blood filled Skye’s nose.

Carol Jones hadn’t deserved this. To die in an alley, surrounded by garbage.

To die in someone else’s place. My place.

Skye still held tight to Carol’s hand. But her gaze was on the alley. Trace was gone. He’d run after the attacker.

She didn’t want Trace dying in her place.

Not Trace.

Not Reese.

Not Carol.

“Come after me!” Skye shouted. “Stop hurting the others! You let me be the one! Don’t hurt anyone else!”

A tear leaked from her eye.

The ambulance’s siren was louder.

“Let me be the one!” She called out again. “Don’t hurt anyone else!”

Doors slammed. Footsteps rushed toward her. She looked up and saw Alex rushing her way. Behind him, she could see EMTs. More cops.

Alex blanched when he saw Carol.

“I’m so sorry,” Skye whispered.

The EMTs pushed her out of the way.

They tried to work on Carol.

You can’t save the dead.

Carol’s death was on her.

Skye looked back into the alley. No sign of Trace. What would she do if her stalker turned his attention on Trace?

“Skye.”

She blinked and realized that Alex was standing right in front of her. A muscle flexed in his jaw as he said, “I want you to come with me. Come with me, now.”

“Trace went chasing after the attacker. We-we didn’t see anyone, but Trace ran down the alley—”

“I’ll have men look for him.” His eyes…they burned with emotion. Pain. Grief. Fury. “But it’s not safe for you to be out here. Come on.” He took the gun from her hand. Led her to a patrol car.

“I-I’m so sorry about Carol.” Tears wanted to choke her.

Alex nodded. The pain in his eyes deepened. “So the fuck am I. She was only twenty-two. Twenty damn two.”

The EMTs weren’t trying to save Carol any more.

She saw the way the other cops were acting. Saw the way they were marking the area. This wasn’t about saving a life for them.

It’s a crime scene now.

***