PROTECTING NEAL (#1 in the Odd Billionaire series)

TWO

Radio silence met the commander's question. Dorothy eyed her surroundings. She was stationed at the exit of the building along with four others, two on her left and right. A Series of gunshots could be heard inside the already damaged building and her heart slammed harder in her rib cage.

This was it. This was why she had joined the police academy. Why she had become a cop? Oh, she wished she could whip out her phone and take a selfie. Her shoulders shook in laughter as she imagined the shocked look on her parents' faces.

"Charles was. right. You're a freaking weirdo." The cop closest to her said and she gave him a stink eye.

The world was a bitter place from Dorothy Lane's point of view. No, she hadn't always seen it that way. Heck, she hadn't cared one tiny bit about the world when she was younger. But as you grow, you learn the hard way.

And Dorothy learned that when you had a 36-inch waist and your hips spanned close to 50 inches, you're NOT supposed to be a detective. If her parents had anything to do about it, they would've stashed her behind a counter in a library.  And if her superiors had anything to do about it, she'd be their personal Ashley Graham.

Steeling herself against his remark and all the other remarks that lived on in her head over the years, she peered into the building.

It was hard to see underneath the dust and rubble in the large rectangular hall. She flitted her eyes around.

An older woman crouched to the ground in a corner, holding onto her three grandchildren. Fear. Dorothy thought and gnawed her lip in anger. Whoever was responsible for this deserved a helluva beating.

"There are a couple of civilians huddled in the back. Everyone seems shaken sir. But I don't see any terrorist in sight." She said into her earpiece.

The commander mulled over it for a while. Chief Davis, the head of the Belmont police department ordered that his subordinates call him commander not chief because he had wanted to be a soldier, but his height failed him. Yeah, that was the kind of man he was. He also didn't like Dorothy much but she was fairly certain it was because he was a bit of a misogynist. Having female police under his command to him was like having an ugly baby foisted upon you by his mother.

"Fine." He said spitefully and she grinned. "Dutch, Lane, move in. All of you on the right-wing, cover them. Getting those civilians out is the priority."

"Copy that." She muttered and swooped into the building, clutching her gun while eyeing the area for any sudden movement. Charles dashed in front of her, grinning widely at Grandmother and three grandkids.

"Aren't you a bit old to be attending these events, ma'am?" He teased as he helped her stand up. Her frail body trembled in his arms.

Dorothy rolled her eyes. Of course, Charles wanted to play the hero. She'd bet her horses that were why he had joined the police force. To save the day, and get the women.

Scruffling in the hall drew her attention and she whipped around to face it. A man. He ran towards them rather blindly and her fight and flight instincts kicked in.

She strengthened her stance, cocked her gun and aimed at the attacker.

"Stand down, your hands in the air. Now!" She ordered.

The man immediately threw his hands up and Dorothy grinned. Oh, it felt so good to finally say that! All she had done in the past two years was sitting by a desk, handling complaints from snotty suburban women, most of which were her parent's neighbours. And sitting by the roadside, waiting for someone to break the speed limit.

It had been boring, tiring and she gained two pounds. Because all she did was sit, sit and sit some more. It wasn't like her body weight was a problem! She could quite handle herself. She was nimble, heck she was pointing a gun at a supposed terrorist! While the rest of her skinny team cowered behind. No one had the right to tell her she wasn't cut out to be a cop.

"Don't shoot!" The supposed terrorist yelled, taking slow steps forward. "I'm a victim here!"

"Yeah right!" Dorothy yelled in return, balancing her pointy finger on the trigger. "Take one more step and the last thing you'll hear is a kaboom."

"You don't freaking understand! Dammit!" The culprit yelled. She noticed he was wearing a shirt all buttoned up, looking rather corporate for a terrorist. That was a thing now wasn't it? Terrorists dressed like office workers, hiding their evilness from the world.

"He... He..."  The man trailed off glancing behind him. She watched his shoulders tense and knew he was going to run and so she fired.

And throughout her stay in the police academy, Dorothy never missed.

****

She shot at him!

The crazy woman police had shot at him! And if her colleague hadn't shoved her hand at the last minute, Neal would be hearing angels sing. As comforting as that sounded, he didn't want to hear them anytime soon.

The policewoman who had pinned him down clobbered and swore underneath her colleague, yelling profanities about a certain part of the poor man's anatomy. She was quite an interesting fellow, but too bad his life was in danger and he needed to bail.

Running towards the group of police that trooped into the scene, one after the other, he saw one of them grin and turn to the others.

"Hey! It's the stuttering guy!" He announced, taking off his helmet. And as if he had just made a really funny joke, they laughed.

The police freaking laughed. They stood before the exit of the building, with women and children stuck in the building, huddling for their life. With a freaking madman on the loose, aiming for Neal's heart, and all they did was laugh.

"Shitheads!" Neal spat. "They're... They're... In d-danger!"

Oh good, that made them laugh harder Neal, good going.

"Oh Goodness Gracious," he heard someone say and turned to see the policewoman pick herself off the floor, after shoving aside the ass that had decidedly remained on her.

She slid the glass on her helmet upward, exposing her face and squinted to look up at him. "Neal?"