She threw her arms around him and held on tightly, burying her face in his neck. “I’m so sorry.”
“Shh,” he whispered, his arms holding her close. “It’s okay.”
It was okay…now. She pulled back to kiss him when a shout behind her made her whirl in his arms just in time to see Jeremy coming at her with his makeshift weapon again. Except this time, she wasn’t in a position to stop him from hitting her or Xander with it.
She shoved Xander away, hoping she could at least protect him, but he spun her in his arms like she was a toy, yanking her to the side and blocking the length of metal with his arm. Something cracked and Xander grunted, but he shrugged off the pain from the blow, then ripped the club from Jeremy’s hand. Then he just as casually shoved her ex-boyfriend, knocking him on his ass.
Jeremy scrambled to his feet and lunged for the piece of metal again, but a deep growl from the side stopped him. Khaki looked over and saw Hale and Alex stride out from between two vehicles, gold eyes glinting, fangs flashing, and claws flexing. Then they stepped aside and made way for a huge wolf so tall he almost reached the other guys’ chests. The wolf stopped and stared at Jeremy, his eyes glowing and his lips pulled back to expose a lot of long, sharp teeth. Khaki had never seen any of the other guys in full wolf form, but the beast’s scent told her it was Cooper. She’d always thought of him as laid-back, but in wolf form he was intense.
All of them together must have been too much for Jeremy. He gave up on the piece of metal and instead took off running. Xander made a motion with his head and a moment later, Cooper, Hale, and Alex chased after Jeremy, their snarls and howls filling the night.
Sirens echoed in the distance as Xander pulled Khaki back in front of him and kissed her. She kissed him back even harder, so thankful he was okay, but then she cut the kiss short as she remembered the crack she’d heard when Jeremy hit him with that piece of metal.
“Your arm,” she said, gently cradling his forearm and carefully checking for breaks.
“It’s fine.” Xander cupped her cheek. “Are you okay?”
She grimaced. “Jeremy shot me a couple times, but it’s nothing that Alex or Trey can’t stitch up. Otherwise, I’m fine.”
Xander relaxed, but then frowned as the sounds of a struggle reached their ears from the other side of the junkyard.
“Do you think we’re going to regret letting Jeremy live?” she asked quietly.
“Probably. But it was the right thing to do.”
Khaki hoped Xander was right as they both limped their way toward the front of the junkyard and the unavoidable confrontation with Sergeant Dixon.
* * *
Xander insisted that Alex and Trey Duncan, the team’s other medic, take care of Khaki’s wounds first, but then she watched along with the rest of her squad as they dug around in Xander’s hip for the pieces of Jeremy’s .308 round that had broken up when it hit. She had no idea how the two medics did it, but it was as if they had some supernatural ability when it came to knowing where the bullet fragments were.
Mike and most of his squad were still out clearing the junkyard. Even though Jeremy was cuffed and safely tucked away in the back of one of the SWAT team’s SUVs, Mike was a stickler for procedure…and the procedure in this case was to clear the entire area before turning the scene over to the rest of the DPD.
Sergeant Dixon and Trevor were holding everyone—including Deputy Chief Mason—at the outer perimeter. That was good. If anyone saw the way Alex and Trey were digging around in Xander with forceps and scalpels, it might be a bit hard to explain. It looked more like torture than first aid.
The guys were just finishing up with Xander when the sound of fast-moving feet dragged Khaki’s attention away from Xander. Jayden ran into the clearing, carrying a big, bloody dog limply in his arms.
“Alex, get over here. Trey, you too,” the big man shouted. “This dog is still alive.”
Alex was up and running toward Jayden. Trey only waited long enough to swipe most of the blood off Xander’s hip, and then he was gone too.
Khaki helped Xander get his jeans back on; then they both gathered around with everyone else to watch as Trey and Alex administered medical attention to the dog.
Tears pricked her eyes as she realized the dog she’d thought was dead had been lying out there hurt the whole time. She’d been sure Jeremy had killed the poor dog along with his owner.
But Alex and Trey were doing their best to make sure that didn’t happen. As Trey got an IV started, Alex slid an air tube down the dog’s throat and started working the squeeze bottle. Under all the blood, it was hard to see exactly how bad the pit bull mix was injured. It looked like all three bullets that had hit the dog’s owner had hit the animal too, and she heard Alex say something about a collapsed lung. Could a dog, even one this big, survive that?
Khaki was so focused on the dog, she didn’t realize Sergeant Dixon and Deputy Chief Mason had shown up until Alex and Trey were loading the dog into one of the SWAT trucks for an emergency ride to the nearest vet.
“I’m really looking forward to reading the official report on this one, Gage.” Mason slowly surveyed the scene, then Xander’s and Khaki’s blood-soaked clothes. “As of this morning, all I knew was that Corporal Riggs would be recovering from major surgery at a private facility for several weeks. Yet, here we are twelve hours later, and I find out that Corporal Riggs was one of the first officers to respond to the scene where the man who tried to kill him was intending to murder a second SWAT officer. A man who is not only a suspended cop from Washington State, but is also Officer Blake’s ex-boyfriend.”
Gage opened his mouth to answer, but a ranting Jeremy cut him off.
“I’m telling you, they’re monsters!” he shouted. “They have claws and fangs and these glowing eyes—”
The uniformed officer didn’t even slow down as he led Jeremy from the SWAT SUV to a patrol car. “Uh-huh. Tell it to your lawyer.”
“A suspended cop who is apparently going for an insanity defense,” Mason added.
