Jacked (Trent Brothers #1)(175)

“Hang up,” she ordered low, jabbing me with the barrel of the gun.

I tried to back away, refusing to end my only connection to Adam. She grabbed for my phone; playing keep-away wasn’t the smartest idea, but f*ck her, I wouldn’t go down without some sort of fight. I aimed for her face, shoving her back a step.

“Hang up!” she ordered louder, swinging violently at me. She smacked the phone out of my hand; it flew through the air, sliding after it hit the kitchen floor.

I thought about diving for it.

I thought about hitting her.

I thought about wrestling her for the weapon.

But all of those thoughts ended when she pulled the trigger.





“TEXTING?”

It had to be another clue of some sort but it didn’t make sense. Erin and I texted all the time, every day, every time we were apart. My mind was so consumed with getting to her that deciphering the details was becoming muddled.

“Hang up!” I heard a crazed female voice order in the background between Erin’s petrified breathing. I tried to concentrate on the voice above our sirens, but it was so brief that I couldn’t identify it.

“Baby, I’m on the way. I’m coming. Stay on the line with me.” I was praying, clinging to each one of Erin’s sounds with a level of desperation I’d never felt before. Each passing second that it took to reach her was sheer agony.

“Hang up!” the female ordered again. This time I could tell she was much closer and yet I still could not place the voice.

Agony turned into utter helplessness, hearing a tousle, hearing Erin’s grunts and groans as she struggled.

A loud thud cracked in my ear. “No! Erin!”

Everything accelerated—time, space, the forward momentum.

I gripped the handle bolted to the ceiling as Marcus drove faster. The scenery outside the windshield blurred into streaks of random shades of light and dark, pulling me under the confusion of adrenaline overload. If I could have beamed myself through the phone, I would have.

“Erin!”

My world shattered when I heard the gunshot.

“Erin!” I screamed. “No, baby, NO! ERIN!”

Marcus took us sideways through an intersection, slamming my side into the door.

“Erin? ERIN! Oh God, baby. Please no.” I squeezed my cell so hard the plastic creaked. The sharp pain in my chest took my breath away. My partner shook me. When I met his glance, one word trembled out. “Gunshot.” There was a final rustle and then nothing.

Marcus growled and used his mic. “Romeo Seven to control. Shots fired. I repeat. Shots fired inside the residence.” His hand landed on my shoulder, grabbing and shaking the strap of my Kevlar. “Stay with me, brother. Get your shit together and focus. Other units are just about there. You keep positive and strong now. You do that for your woman. You hear me?”

I couldn’t hear anything beyond the dead silence. We’d been disconnected. My calls went unanswered.

Several units surrounded my house, turning my nightmare into a sickening reality.

A uniform stopped me halfway up my driveway. I shoved him back. “Get out of my way!”

Marcus’s arm came across my chest, putting me into a restrained chokehold. “Calm down.” I struggled but he lifted and spun me like a ragdoll when I tried to escape. “Calm the f*ck down! You can’t just barge in there, dude. Settle.” He plastered me against a squad car.

“Erin is in there! That’s my woman!”

“I know, man. I know.” Marcus grabbed my coat in both hands and shook, showing me his seriousness. “You need to pull your shit together, right now. You hear me? Pull, your, shit, together.”

I’d never been this terrified.

Marcus gave me a final shove and released me. “Now think. You see a familiar car out here? Recognize the suspect’s voice? Anything that can help.”

I glanced around the street, momentarily blinded by all of the red and blue flashes. Random cars dotted the street, but nothing looked familiar.

Another officer trotted over to me and introduced himself. “We have a perimeter set. This your residence?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, refocusing. “My girlfriend is in there. Don’t know if she’s wounded. I heard a single shot before we were disconnected. I don’t know who has her at gunpoint. Only way into the first floor is either through the rear door to the garage and in through the kitchen door or the front door. My woman is about five foot six, a hundred thirty pounds. Long blonde hair.”

My cell rang in my hand, showing a number that I’d become quite familiar with. Texting… that’s what she’d meant.

I tried not to lose my patience when I accepted the call. “Hello?”

“Adam?”

My grip tightened, hearing a female voice that wasn’t Erin’s. “Who is this?”

“Make all the cops go away.”

She was lucky I wasn’t busting my front door down at that very second. “Can’t do that. Not until you tell me your name.” I waved Marcus over, letting him know I had the suspect on the line.

“It’s me,” she said. “Make them leave or I’ll kill her.”

“Do you know who—?” Marcus mouthed.

I had no f*cking clue. “Is Erin okay? Let me talk to her.”