Last Girls Alive (Detective Katie Scott #4) - Jennifer Chase Page 0,47

if she was going to survive the army.

The long beard of the patron almost touched her face as he stared down at her. His mistake. The repulsive gray and white hairs almost touched her, so she took the opportunity to kick him in the groin where he dropped next to her, moaning and groaning in a fetal position.

Katie scrabbled to get to a standing position—that’s when she felt a surge of pain radiating through her back.

Keller lunged at her like a bear. He ran directly for her, grabbing her in a tight hug and lifting her up like she weighed less than a bottle of whiskey. Pushing her onto the bar, she didn’t struggle; instead, she was able to bring her arms and fists together, breaking his grip. She rolled, jumped down behind the bar and skirted to the inventory room. It seemed her best choice even though she had never been in the room and wasn’t sure if there was a back door to the place.

There had been a recent delivery and the stacked bottles of booze provided an excellent cover for her. Katie tucked behind them, pulled her gun, and readied herself. She searched for a way out, finding a sliding wooden door leading to the back of the parking lot.

“Scott!” Keller yelled.

Steadying her grip on the gun, she stepped out from behind the stacked boxes.

“Stay right there!” she commanded.

Keller laughed. “What are you going to do?”

Katie readied the gun. “Take one more step and you’ll find out.”

Even though Keller thought he was a tough guy, he was smart enough not to tempt fate.

Two more men burst through the door behind Keller.

“Stay back!”

The men stopped instantly when they saw the gun she had targeted on Keller.

“You know, Keller, we could have done this the easy way and answered a few questions, but no, you have to go commando and, guess what? You’re going to jail.”

Katie heard commotion from the bar area.

“Katie!” a voice yelled.

McGaven pushed his way past the men at the door with his weapon trained out in front. “What’s going on?” he demanded. Glancing at Katie, he said, “You okay?”

“Fine,” she said, gritting her teeth. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Alright, everybody, back into the bar,” McGaven said. “Now!” Turning back around, “Well, well,” he said to Keller. “We meet again. I knew you would crawl out from under a rock someday.”

“McGaven,” Keller grumbled.

McGaven lowered his weapon and put handcuffs on Keller.

“What am I being arrested for?”

“Simple assault, assault on a police officer, impeding a murder investigation, and oh, I’m sure there will be a whole host of other charges.”

Katie lowered her gun and returned it to the holster underneath her sweatshirt. Her heightened pulse began to stabilize.

“The Well, 267 Second Avenue, one for pick up… ten-four…” McGaven instructed to dispatch from his cell phone. To Hugh Keller, “Sit down here and wait quietly.” Keller obliged but kept a bitter expression. McGaven steered Katie through the storeroom and then outside just near the back door.

“You okay?” he said quietly.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

McGaven touched her face where there was a minor cut. “You’re bleeding.”

“I don’t have time to bleed, we have two homicides to solve,” she said with some humor.

“It’s not funny. Did you not hear what the sheriff told you, everyone, during that meeting? You’re essentially on probation.”

“Hey, if I have to receive a few black spots in my file for stepping out of line to get a killer off the street, I’ll do it every time.” She stared hard at McGaven and then softened. “I’m sorry. You’re the last person I should be snapping at, but I didn’t do anything out of line here. I defended myself. This guy is full of rage and has a serious lack of impulse control.”

“I know. Why didn’t you wait for me?”

“I did. I thought I would do some intel first… until you got here.”

“So what happened?”

“I walked in, got his attention, identified myself, and then he came after me. Some weird wizard-looking guy threw a chair at me and knocked me down. I did what I had to do. Kneed the guy, fought off Keller. He slammed me on the bar—I got away from him and managed to get back here. Got the drop on him at gunpoint.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t look at me like that—I’ve been through more firefights in Afghanistan that make this scuffle look like a paper cut.”

McGaven sighed.

Two patrol cars zoomed into the bar parking lot.

“I read all the reports from the Elm Hill Mansion

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