I punched my hands into my hair, tugging on the long, beachy golden waves until they were hanging off my now heated neck.
“This is unbelievable! The absolute worst day of my entire life. And my parents died in a fire! At the same time! And I had to go to foster care with my sister. And this day, oh my God. Sonia! My sister…no, Officer, you cannot arrest me. You do not understand what this will do to my sister. She’s the…”
“Ma’am! Get over here now!” The officer grated through a super scary rumble pushing me into immediate action.
When I got closer, he latched onto my wrist and tugged me close to his body. My chest slammed against his and I placed my hands to his muscular biceps. I stared up into the darkest set of eyes I’d ever seen. Like a black cup of coffee, yet with little golden-brown flecks at the center. His skin was an olive tone, his jaw cut square, framed by cheekbones that were sharp slashes as though chiseled into fine marble. He had dark brown hair that was longer on top and shorter at the sides. If I had to guess, I’d put him in the dark Italian stallion category or Greek god.
He was beautiful.
One of his hands moved to my waist where he squeezed, and he dipped his head so close to my ear I could feel his warm breath against my cheek. “We received a report that someone crawled into the back of a blonde woman’s red old-model four-door Honda Civic at a gas station. First two letters of the license plate are A2.”
“W-what?”
“I need to check your car. Fast. If it’s not you, another woman could get hurt.”
“Oh my god! I did get gas.” I held onto his biceps so hard I may have left nail imprints.
“It’s okay, you’re safe now,” he murmured, and I closed my eyes, taking in his woodsy and fresh linens scent. It helped calm me instantly.
Until we both heard the familiar metal creaking sound against the quiet of the cool night.
I whirled around and saw a thin, tall man standing next to my car, a full ski mask covering most of his face aside from cutouts around the eyes and mouth.
Before I could do or say anything, I was grabbed around the waist and spun behind the cop as the guy in a mask lifted his arm, pointed a gun, and fired off two shots.
The officer took two to the chest as I screamed. He fell back against me as two more shots were fired. One must have whizzed past him because a blooming round of fire ripped through the side of my bicep on the arm that I’d placed around the officer to hold him up.
He fell backward and I went down with him.
I screeched in pain as I slammed into the asphalt, my hip smarting while taking the brunt of our combined weight. My hand scraped along the rough black surface, abrading the skin, but I didn’t care about that. As soon as we fell to the ground, I looked up to see the criminal slam the driver’s side door and take off in my car, tires squealing.
Focusing on the officer, I checked for a pulse and found a steady beat.
Okay, okay, okay. You can do this, Simone. I felt the officer’s cheeks and patted them a few times. “Wake up, wake up. Please. He’s gone! Wake up.”
Nothing happened. I stood up and looked around. There was no one to speak to and I couldn’t leave him lying in the road to get run over while I searched out help.
My phone was in my purse in the car that was now a getaway vehicle for a bad guy I did not want to think about.
I settled the officer on his side and rushed over to his vehicle. I saw something that looked like a laptop and panel of electronic things that I had absolutely no idea how to work. Except one item looked like a walkie talkie on a cord with a button like regular cops had. I picked it up and pressed the button.
“Help me. Help me, please. My name is Simone Wright-Kerrighan. The officer that pulled me over has been shot. Send help, please!” I said on a rush and let go of the button.
Instantly a female voice came through the car’s interior. “Ma’am, you’ve got dispatch. I’m sending a unit and an ambulance. Are you hurt?”