The Enforcer - Kelli Callahan Page 0,9

before releasing my arm.

“Sorry,” he puts his hands in his pockets.

“I apologize, Chief, but I cannot risk losing these things,” I say, stepping across the singed hardwood, and covering my nose to suppress the smell of the melted carpet.

Heels clicking across the floor, I step carefully over debris, not even bothering to wonder what they were originally.

I have one goal. I won’t let anything distract me. I find that when I am emotional, I tend to shut down, and I can’t do that right now. There’s too much going on.

Hearing the chief behind me, I turn into the study, a little saddened by all those books ruined by fire and water.

“You had quite the collection, didn’t you?” he asks.

“Yes,” I agree, not bothering to look behind me, as I reached the safe and began setting the dial.

The chief stands close behind me as I whisper, “02-06-02.” The lock clicks, and the safe springs open.

“Do those numbers have any significance?”

“Holly’s birthday,” I whisper, as I’m filled with immense relief at the sight before me. They weren’t touched by smoke, fire, or water. Instead, there lay a neat stack of photographs, a hard drive full of family photos, and several boxes of jewelry. At the back, the most precious item here: A single faded picture of myself and my baby in a hospital bed.

“You look so young,” he says over my shoulder.

“Yes, I was 18 when I had her,” Placing the belongings in my large tote purse, I turn to face him.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, taking in the frown lines and the hard set of his jaw.

“It’s just that...” he says trailing. “Get down,” he growls. He grabs me, slamming my head down to the floor while throwing his body on top of mine.

I’m crushed under the weight of him and choke in ash as a flashback appears before my eyes. I’m choking, gasping on the bathroom floor, fire flicking up under the door, dust clogging my lungs.

“Diana. Are you okay?” he pulls me from the traumatic memory.

“Yes,” I respond, trying to get up.

“No,” he says. “Stay down.”

“What happened?” I ask.

“Shots fired,” he says, pulling out a walkie-talkie. “Hello? I need backup at the former mayor’s home. Shots fired, shots fired.”

I scream as a bullet strikes the bookshelf, and another ricochets, bouncing off the safe right where I stood seconds before.

The chief creeps forward; crouching, looking over the remains of Michael’s desk, and holding a gun.

“Police! Drop your weapon,” he shouts before another bullet pierces the air, striking him in the shoulder. He cries out in pain and fires twice. The shots echo, the sound hanging in the air.

“Chief, are you okay?” I ask, rising to look at the wound, as he shoves me back to the ground, seeming not to feel the weird, metal-torn flesh and blood.

Yanking up the walkie-talkie, he cries. “Officer injured. Send an ambulance,”

We sit in silence, a moment longer as the voices boom over the walkie-talkie, confirming that an ambulance and more officers are on the way.

“Do you see him?” I whisper, not wanting to interrupt his focus while also being unable to sit in silence any longer.

“No,” he responds, crouching down. He creeps forward around the desk, gesturing for me to lay low.

“Stay here,” he says, moving slowly around the frame of what was once a large oak door, disappearing out of my sight.

I push myself up onto my knees, coughing the ash out of my throat. My heart beats painfully in my chest. Filling with relief when I hear the sound of sirens approaching.

Chapter Five

Jake

“What do you mean, ‘she was attacked?’” I demand, rising from the table at Noah and Charlie’s home.

“Just that. All I know so far is what I’ve heard from Lucy. And Charlie, of course.”

“No, this… It’s―” I fumble for the words to say, turning to the chief’s daughter and her fiancé. Unable to think of words, I sit down in the chair, running my hands through my hair. I try not to imagine what it must have been like for her. She was attached in the midst of all the rubble of the home she was trying to rebuild. It’s only been a week since it burned down. I just got out of the hospital. They held me until my vision came back all the way.

“Why did she go there?” I ask. “That’s stupid. Someone tried to kill her, and she goes out in the open like that,” I say, scowling. “Women.”

“Well,” Charlie says, glancing at Noah, “I kind of see