The betrayal of my ex-fiancée and my former partner doesn’t seem as important anymore.
At the time, it was the worst hurt I could have imagined. The woman I thought I loved, thought I’d spend my future with, cheating on me with my own partner. And I’d worked with Darren for years. I trusted him to have my back. But after one devastating mis-text, I discovered the truth. They’d both been betraying me for months.
What made it even worse? Some of the other cops knew, too. And they never thought to tell me about it. Their loyalties lay with Darren instead.
That’swhy I left. Why I threw away the job I’d worked so hard to get. I couldn’t face the humiliation of walking into the station every day with everyone knowing. With Darren still there, still sleeping with my ex.
I could have found a job with another police department. But then I saw the posting for a fire marshall in Sleepy Hollow and remembered how much I’d enjoyed working as a volunteerfirefighter back in college. I thought,maybe this is the fresh start I need.
And it was. I found almost everything I’d always wanted.
As crazy as it sounds, now that I’ve met Hollis, I think she just might be the missing piece.
“What are you staring at?” yells the gunman, this time pointing his gun at the older man in the corner. “Throw your damn phone on the ground. Now!”
“I don’t have a phone,” the other man replies shakily. “My daughter is always telling me to carry it with me. But I keep forgetting.”
“Empty your fucking pockets, then!”
“Dave,” Hollis says. Her gaze skitters to the gunman and back again. “What if… what if it’s the man at the bar? What if he came here for me? Then… it’s my fault. All these people?—”
“It’s not your fault,” I interrupt. “At all. Even if this is the same man, which we don’t know, you’re not responsible for his actions.”
After a silent beat, she nods. But once again, I can tell she’s unconvinced.
“Stop talking!”
Hollis lets out a tiny yelp of fright as the gunman advances on us.
“What are you fucking talking about?” he roars. “Plotting against me?”
As he gets closer, more of his face catches the light. Just his chin is exposed for now, but if I could just see a little more…
Hollis shakes her head quickly. Her voice quivers as she replies, “We’re not. I promise.”
“Yes, youare!” The gun levels at Hollis as the man steps even closer, now less than ten feet away from our table.
For a moment, my confidence wanes.
I’ve been in similar situations before, back when I was a lieutenant with the Utica Police Department. Not often, thankfully, but this isn’t the first time I’ve been on the wrong end of a gun, and I’m trained to know how to handle it.
With Hollis here, it’s an uncontrolled variable.
My instincts tell me that if he were going to shoot Hollis, he would have done it right away. That this is all part of an act—using the threat to her as leverage over me.
But I don’t know for sure. This could be the man who hit her. Or he could be on drugs. He’s twitchy enough for it. I can’t see his eyes, but there’s definitely a hint of alcohol on his breath. And the way his hand trembles just the tiniest bit as he holds the gun…
“I’ll give you money,” the owner calls over from the kitchen. “It’s not a lot; I make a deposit every day. But I can give you what I have. Just…” His gaze flickers to his discarded phone on the floor. “Just leave us alone,” he adds somewhat desperately. “Leaveheralone.”
“Shut up!” the gunman snaps. He cocks the trigger. “Unless you want me to shootyoufirst.”
Hollis glances at me, barely-banked fear darkening her gaze. Though she doesn’t say anything, I can read her expression as clear as day.
We need to do something.
My fingers twitch towards the phone still in my pocket. I could use the emergency SOS feature to call 911. And based on our proximity to the nearest police station, they would probably arrive in under ten minutes.
But.
