Aaron

27- You don't have a choice

Thea's P.O.V.

My stomach turned as I looked at the crime scene before me. A mother, tied to a chair with a bullet hole in her chest. The son laid on the floor, severely beaten and the daughter strangled on the couch.

Memories of my family flashed before me, making me dizzy.

"Thea, are you alright?" Ethan asked.

"I just need a minute." I quickly went outside. My mouth started to water as I felt the vomit start to rise. I ran over to the bushes and emptied my stomach.

"Thea?" Ethan came out and knelt down beside me until I was finished.

"I'm so sorry." Wiping my mouth, we sat back and leaned up against the house together.

"You don't need to apologize. Do you feel better?"

"Yes."

"Thank God you didn't puke all over our crime scene." He teased, handing me a piece of gum.

I started laughing as I grabbed the gum from him and put it in my mouth. "Yeah, that probably would have been frowned upon. Thank you for this."

"Normally that stuff doesn't bother you."

"All I saw was my family. I know it's stupid but I'm fine now."

"It's not stupid. I can't even imagine going through something like that. Are you sure you can go back in there?"

I nodded, "Yeah. Come on." Ethan helped me up and we went back inside.

We walked back over to the family, so we could talk with the officers. "Sorry about that. What's the family's name?"

"That is Tamara Moore, and her two children. They were 19 and 16 years old."

I shook my head. This poor family. "Is there a husband or a father?"

"Yes. Nathan Moore. He's not here and we haven't been able to reach him yet. He hasn't shown up to work in two days either."

The cop gave me a knowing look. Normally in situations like this, it's the spouse and they go on the run.

I looked around the house and at all of the pictures they had up on their walls. They seemed like a close, happy family.

"Hey Thea, you're going to want to hear this."

I followed Ethan out into the living room. "They found Nathan Moore's body."

"Where?"

"There was a shooting at a restaurant in the city an hour ago. The police identified the body as Nathan Moore."

This poor family was murdered for a reason. I looked at Ethan, "Call Maggie, tell her to do a deep search into this family. Hopefully something will lead us to their killer."

"You got it."

******
Ethan and I were heading back to the office when I noticed my phone vibrating. I looked down, seeing it was Silas calling.

"Hello?"

"Where the hell are you?"

"I'm on the way back to the office. There was a murder-"

"You weren't supposed to leave. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

Men were supposed to be following me everywhere, like they have been. This was just another day but with extra protection.

"What happened?"

"There you are. I see you pulling up. I'm in the black SUV on your right, tell him to stop just inside the parking garage. We will pull up to you."