Page 20 of Shadow of Fear
She took a few deep breaths and nodded. “Let’s do this.”
He squeezed her shoulder and waited for her to take the lead. She started out confidently, and he didn’t leave even a foot’s length between them as they quickly duck-walked to the door and got it open. Inside the sweet shop, the mouthwatering smells he’d recently enjoyed now seemed cloying and sickening. He swallowed and stayed low with Jada.
He found the store associate on her knees behind the counter filled with trays of colorful treats. “Do you have a back door?”
“Y-y-yes.” Tears clung to the older woman’s eyes.
“Stay down,” he said. “The police are on their way and everything will be fine.”
“What do you want me to do?” Jada asked.
“Call Colin and tell him we need a ride from the alley and to get over here like yesterday. I’ll take a look out back. Depending on what I see, I’ll have you come with me or stay here.” Dev crept down a dark hallway to the rear of the shop. He flung the door open and took cover behind the solid metal.
He glanced up and down the short alley. Thankfully, the throat-irritating haze didn’t obscure his view.
The back wall of stores on the adjacent street faced him, and a small dumpster sat outside each building. No sign of a shooter, but he couldn’t be too careful.
He stepped out on the blacktop and jerked back behind the door, trying to take fire if their shooter had moved to this location. He was greeted with silence, save a couple of birds he’d scared into flight. He did it again and again, gradually lengthening the time out in the alley.
No gunfire. If the shooter hadn’t moved back here, Dev and Jada could take cover behind the metal dumpsters to make their way to the T-shirt shop. He called out for her to join him.
Her footsteps moved rapidly down the hallway. “What do we have?”
“Seems to be all clear,” Dev said. “I can’t be one hundred percent positive, but if you’re willing to risk it, we can move one dumpster at a time and take cover. If not, you can stay here to wait for the chief, and I’ll go check on Kinsley alone.”
“I’m in.” Her shoulders lifted in a hard line. “I need to make sure my best friend is okay too.”
One thing was for certain. The Graham family members were a fiercely loyal bunch. “Then I’ll go first to take any fire. If Iamfired on, you stay put at the dumpster you’re behind at the time. Got it?”
“Got it.”
He drew his weapon. “Then let’s move.”
He took off for the first dumpster next to the Chinese restaurant. The rusty metal oozed liquid onto the ground and emitted a fermenting cabbage odor. Dev wanted to hurl, but he forced himself to slide behind it and wait for Jada to join him.
He held his breath. No bullets fired. The only sound was Jada gagging. He nodded at the alleyway and started for the next dumpster. The police sirens screamed closer now, sounding from Main Street and stilling.
Perfect.Chief Gibson would secure the scene out front, and if the shooter was still hunkered down in his stand, Gibson would hopefully arrest him.
Dev charged down the alleyway, picking up his pace now. One dumpster after the next. Jada matched his pace. No one fired on them.
He reached the T-shirt shop and burst through the door. He took a look around. Everything was as he’d left it. His heart said to race to the office to make sure Kinsley was okay, but he forced himself to wait for his sister just inside the building.
She entered and took a deep breath, then slowly eased it out and looked up at him. “We made it.”
He gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Let’s get to Kinsley and make sure she’s all right.”
He guided his sister down the hallway ahead of him and stopped at the office door. Keeping one eye on the hallway, he knocked. “Kinsley, it’s me. Are you all right?”
“We’re fine.” A tremor in her voice spoke to her concern. “No trouble here at all.”
He wanted to unlock the door and whip it open. Race in, grab her in a hug, and pull her into his arms until he felt certain she was unharmed. But he needed to employ a little more self-restraint. Hugging her wasn’t the safest thing to do right now. He would have to control his urge to hold her in the same way he’d done for years.
He hissed out a breath between his teeth. “The police have arrived. It looks like the shooter’s gone, but stay in there until I’m certain. Okay?”
“Anything you say.” Her soft, almost timid voice was nearly his undoing.
If anything other than the anxious tone of her voice told him she was scared, her easy acquiescence and compliance with his instructions gave her away.
