King's Sword

Rude Awakening

VANCE

I gasp awake at the smell of salts, coughing as Morgan pats my leg gently. The door opens as I rub my eyes tiredly.

"Morgan, you're next." Collin says as he walks further into the room. "Hill made it to the precinct before them."

"Precinct?" I groan as I stumble out of the bed. "Where is Adelaide?" Collin glances at Morgan doubtfully as Julianna rushes in and her eyes widen at me. "Where the fuck is my wife?" I snap at all of them as I shoot for the door with a pounding headache.

"She killed Christopher and Raphael." Morgan says behind me. I hold on to the rails as I go down the stairs quickly, ignoring the police that swarms the entrance as I move towards the study. "Vance, there's nothing we can do now."

I reach the study where police bag my gun and a letter opener as they turn to me curiously. There's blood everywhere, on her desk, the carpet, the curtains. The office reeks of vomit.

"Take me to the precinct." I say, shaking my head as I dart to the kitchen to grab my keys.

"Sir, no one can leave until we get everyone's statement." A cop says with his hands before him.

"She's my wife, take me to the fucking precinct!" I yell at him with a finger pointed to the door. "Where the hell is Arthur?"

"He followed them out, he's with her." Rosie cries on the other side of the kitchen island.

The radios on the police vests begin to go off like a frenzy. "This is Whiskey-Two Four One, we have an Eleven Eighty, two officers down, requesting emergency services on  I-Five, exit five!"

"I got it, Connell." A man says to the cop in front of me and runs out with three other officers.

"You're her husband?" Connell says while signaling to the police officers at the door. "Shaw, that's her husband, take him with you." I follow them out barefoot, listening to them speak as I climb in the back of their squad car.

"Yeah, she was inbound, what do you mean she's not there?" The cop in the passenger seat asks with a worried glance back at me.

"She as in Adelaide?" I ask them, my anxiety rising like a ticking bomb. "Could you drive any fucking slower!"

"Sir, please calm down. I'm sure she..." the man stops to listen to something on the line as the driver turns their lights and sirens on to weave through traffic. "Well did you check the hospitals?" Hospitals?

What happened to my little sinner?

"She wouldn't have been able to run if her head was split opened." The cop on the phone says casually.

"Drive!" I yell at them before pulling my phone out of my pocket and cursing under my breath when it's off. Once it comes on, I see Arthur's and Julianna's missed calls, but among them, I see a text from Tommy.

Please be smart and let Adelaide speak with Callahan.

"You son of a bitch." I groan down at my phone. I call him, my nerves burning as I wait for him to pick up.

"St. James." He says with a groggy voice.

"You're working with Callahan?" I growl at him.

"His sister runs the Pen, how did you think I got out of a thirty year sentence without good behavior?" Tommy says and I can hear him shuffling about in his bed. "He needed me for a smuggling gig, it has nothing to do with you."

"Then why should I let Adelaide speak with him?" I respond bitterly as the cop in the passenger seat glances back at me doubtfully.

"You haven't seen this dude when he's obsessing over something, real wacko." Tommy says as we pull up to the scene of an accident where one police car is flipped over and a black truck smokes from a bush. My eyes widen as I realize whose car that is. "I'm supposed to meet him in an hour—"