Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Leland looked at me, pale and expressionless and passed out again. I saw more blood coming through his jacket and moved it open with my forearms. Thank God it was unzipped. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I grunted out. He had been shot in the chest too, and the blood was slowly spreading, soaking his shirt underneath. I glanced back down to my mangled hands, so swollen now, they were entirely useless. I leaned over him, putting pressure on the bullet wound with my arms, closing my eyes and again, picturing the only thing that brought me true calm—the sunrise. I envisioned it coming up slowly over the horizon, bathing the world around it in yellowy light, in hope.
The world swam around me. I heard the sound of a helicopter propeller and more shots rang out, followed by more yelling and another explosion, and then finally, quiet. I looked down. My arms were now entirely drenched in Leland’s blood. Distantly, I registered that if he lost much more, he wouldn’t survive.
The helicopter landed and I heard footsteps running toward us. “Here,” I called out. “He needs a medic.” Why did I feel so damn cold and tired? Why did the SEAL kneeling down in front of me look like he was moving farther and farther back, through a long tunnel? I blinked slowly, my head feeling heavy on my shoulders. The last thing I heard was, “He’s shot too—he’s going down.” Who? Who was going down? The world went dark.
PART 3
CHAPTER 20
Grace
Present day
I walked into my boss’s office and greeted him as I took a seat in the chair sitting on the other side of his desk.
“Grace,” he said, with a smile.
Lawrence Stewart was the DA in Clark County, a robust man with kind eyes and an easy smile. He was fair and generally easy to work for, although he could be a little set in his ways. I hadn’t found any reason to go up against him yet, but I knew from observation that I should pick my battles wisely.
“How are you, Larry?” I asked. It’s what he had asked me to call him the first day we spoke, during my phone interview.
“Good, good. And you? How’s wedding planning?”
“We haven’t even set a date yet. You know, we work for a slave driver.”
He laughed, lacing his hands over his stomach. “I could probably spare you both a weekend.”
I grinned. “A whole weekend? Okay, then, we’ll get on it.”
I had initially been nervous to let people at the office know Alex and I were dating, especially since I was new. But at a company gathering, two months after I started, Larry had come up to me and smiled warmly as he said, “Alex is a good kid. I’m glad you’ve found a friend in him.”
After that, we still didn’t make a show of the fact that we were dating, but I knew it wouldn’t be frowned upon. The whole office had been happy for us when we’d announced our engagement.
It was easy to work with Alex, even though we were engaged too. We didn’t live together yet and so that probably helped, but I thought it would be fine when we saw each other both at the office and at home. Alex was easygoing and calm, very go-with-the-flow. In the courtroom, he came across as the trusted boy next door, and his win record reflected that.
Even though I’d basically scrapped my grand plan as far as it pertained to getting married, and let life play out as it may in the romance department, things had ended up working out in pretty much the exact way I’d laid out for Carson in that elevator so long ago. Carson… what would he think if he knew? Would he think he was Schmuck Number Two after all? God, I hadn’t thought about that conversation in a long time…
I snapped back to the moment as Larry sat back in his chair. “There was a murder two nights ago, Grace. The police found a young girl shot in the head, left on the side of the road near Red Rock Canyon.”
I blanched. I could picture the area. I had been there once upon a time… Speaking of Carson…
“Was there any evidence found at the scene?” I asked.
“Plenty. The police got a print off a bracelet the victim was wearing. And she was holding a rock with blood on it. They ran the print and it came back to”—he picked up a piece of paper off his desk and read the name—“Joshua Garner, twenty-eight. He was recently honorably discharged from the navy—served as a SEAL for almost ten years and had just started life as a civilian again. He moved here a couple months ago. No family in the area. When the police went to his address to arrest him, they found that he had a head wound that matched the rock the victim was holding. When they tested it, blood on the rock was a match to Mr. Garner. Not to mention, the bullet in the girl came from his gun. They arrested him yesterday for murder.”