out again in front of me, knowing how the last situation like this—just like this—ended, made my heart race.
“Shepard, you don’t want to do this,” Ethan called out.
Jeff’s body jerked at the same time he turned his glare to Ethan and the gun in his hand pressed deeper into his daughter’s side. Even from the distance I was I heard the girl’s whimper.
“Easy, Sunny,” Gordy murmured.
I felt his hand on my shoulder halting my forward progress.
“He’s gonna shoot her,” I returned.
“Give Ethan time.” That was Luke, in my ear on the radio.
What the hell?
“Lenox, you have two minutes to talk him down,” Cap ordered.
This was because behind Jeff Shepard and his daughter, his ex-wife lay bleeding out on her front porch and had been for some time considering she was that way when we arrived ten minutes ago.
“You don’t want Laurie to die,” Ethan continued.
Wrong thing to say.
“That lying, cheating bitch is lucky I let her live as long as I did!” Jeff shouted. “Cheating, cheating bitch.”
“There’s still time. We can work something out.”
Jeff’s face twisted into an ugly snarl and he jerked his daughter’s head back and forth. The poor girl cried out in pain and tried to lurch away.
Not good.
“Stephanie, right?” Her tear-filled eyes came to me. “Stay still, honey.”
“Don’t talk to her!” Jeff yelled. “No more talking. Everyone move back.”
No one moved and Ethan continued to try to talk Jeff down.
“We know you don’t want to hurt your daughter. Let her go and we’ll move back. You can get into your car and leave.”
“Bullshit,” Jeff spat. “Bull-fucking-shit. Everything was fine. Everything was the way it should be then that bitch took my daughter. Lying bitches, all of them. They all think we’re suckers. They think they can take our money, our houses, our kids. Stupid bitches. I gave that one time, hers had to be the worst.”
“I’ve got a clear shot.” Luke’s voice came over the radio.
Without moving my head my eyes scanned the area. I couldn’t see Luke anywhere.
“Mine’s uncertain with the girl moving around.” That was Soloman. He was perched across the street on a neighbor’s roof.
“Does anyone else have a clear shot?” Cap asked.
“Best I got is thigh or shoulder,” I radioed back.
The rest of the team called in their positions. None of them had a clear shot for a takedown.
I heard my captain mutter something under his breath then he begrudgingly ordered, “Marcou, you have the go-ahead on my command. Kent, standby.”
“Copy,” I returned.
“Lenox, calm him down now or we’re ending this before that girl gets dead.”
“Tell me about it.” Ethan changed tactics. “I got a daughter, too. Bitch of a mother tried that with me.”
That was a lie. Not Ethan having a daughter, he did. Carson was a sweet little thing. But her mother hadn’t tried to take her. The opposite was true. Carson’s mother had signed over her parental rights to Ethan before he’d taken his daughter home from the hospital. Everyone knew he’d gotten his high school girlfriend pregnant. It was no secret he’d stepped up and raised her as a single, teenaged father.
“That stupid bitch was fucking her brother-in-law. Didn’t even care I was in the house working. She just waited for Mac to go to work and Becca to get on the bus.”
Mac Harper. Oh shit, Patricia Harper was having an affair.
“Just like that one over there.” Shepard jerked his head in the direction of his ex-wife’s prone body. “Cheating bitch took my money then turned my daughter against me. Now this one’s gonna grow up thinking she can fuck around on her husband.” Jeff shook his daughter again and I gritted my teeth when her head snapped to the side. “Now she’s gonna know what it’s like to lose just like the other one.”
From there everything happened fast but at the same time, everything slowed. Jeff spun Stephanie around in front of him, lifted his gun, and Luke’s voice echoed in my ear for me to take the shot.
Penelope’s face flashed. Her father’s wail sounded in my head.
I blinked to rid myself of the vision.
I blinked again. Drew in a breath. Exhaled and slowly pressed the trigger.
Jeff’s torso jerked, his body pitched to the side, and he fell.
Gordy, Guzman, and Watson were on top of Jeff, rolling him over before I lowered my rifle. McCarthy rushed Stephanie, swung her up in his arms, and ran her to safety. Mereno and Jim hit the porch to help the mother and a dozen officers were skirting the woman’s prone