The Perfect Shot (Book 3) ✓

34 - Gotcha

Cleo

"So, any new news?" I wasn't interested at all, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do while Hannah talked with her parents on the other side of the door.

"Well, we do have some news, but we don't know what to make out of them." I looked confused at Luke, who was the one who decided to answer me.

"What do you mean by that?"

"That I think we have good and bad news at the same time."

"How so?"

"Well, the good is that we didn't have a sniper attack while you were out of town, which means that this is the first time he didn't follow his own schedule. The bad is – we don't know what made him miss the day. Was it on purpose or something happened with him. Is he going to attack later, another day...the unknown is even bigger now than it was before."

"He could plan even bigger event and that could be the reason for missing the day." That was Ralph's input on the matter, and, to be honest, I don't like that it sounded really plausible. The last we needed was an even bigger attack with more victims. If it happened, we'll have to ask for help on the national level, because it looks, we won't be able to deal with him on our own.

"What about if he was just busy with something and couldn't make it?" Ollie's question made something at the back on my mind to start itching, like I knew something about that, but at the same time, couldn't figure out what it was. I was still trying to figure out what I was missing when the door to Hannah's room opened and her father quickly left, followed by his wife. They didn't stop at all but tried to leave the place as quickly as possible. It looked like whatever they talked in there, the chief wasn't happy about it.

"Go see your woman, kiddo." Max was the one who pushed me towards the door. When I stepped a foot in the room, I found Hannah sitting on the bed, her legs barely touching the floor. She was looking at her hands that were resting on her lap and was deep in thoughts. I really didn't like the sadness on her face. I slowly moved in her direction and stopped when I was staying right in front of her. Her knees were brushing my thighs.

"Hey, Goldie." The corner of her lips lifted a little bit, just like it did every time I use that nickname.

"Hey."

"You okay?"

"Sure." I pulled her in my arms, holding her close to me. "I'm glad you are here, Cleo."

"I'm glad I'm here, too." There was a long pause between us while I was trying silently to reassure her that everything would be fine without saying the words. "You wanna talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about. I asked my parents to stop acting the way they do towards you, they declined...I told them that I'm done with them...and that's about it." I could feel there's more to it, but I decided not to say I thing right now. Later, when we were at home, I would try to get a little bit more information. I was going to ask her about the crash, but a doctor came to the room to explain her results. Luckily everything was fine and she was free to go.

We were just leaving the hospital, my whole team right by us when the loud sound filled the silence around us.

"For fuck's sake!" All of us men looked at our phones reading the SWAT call address and the situation we were called for. "Another sniper shooting. What the hell? Why now?" We didn't waste time to come with ideas, but got to our cars and drove to the scene. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to let the girls to someplace safer, so Hannah, Ali, and Lily all came with us to the shooting scene. We gathered them all in my car and I gave Lily the keys to it.

"Get out of here. Don't try to stay close. Don't try to play hero. Don't make us worry about all of you when we need to be focused elsewhere. Drive safely and message us when you are safe in someone's house. I'd prefer it if it's mine so Hannah will be able to relax a little bit more, but it's up to all of you to decide that. We don't care. Just go somewhere safe." I pulled my sniper riffle from the back of my car, my Kevlar vest that was always in there for cases like that followed, and I quickly put it on. "Go, now." I gave Hannah a quick kiss while Dax and Ralph did the same with their women, and we all watched as they drove away from us. "Let's fucking catch that bastard." I looked around us, searching for the best places, then change my point of view and started looking at the buildings that were more for a bragging shot, not for comfort ones. Doing this increased that itching at the back of my head. I knew I was close to solving the mystery, but again, I couldn't understand what I was missing.