Revenge on the Reagans

Chapter 9 continued

Erin sat on the last two steps of the staircase watching the madness unfold before her eyes. She watched as officers walked the intruder out of the house in handcuffs while her father gave his orders to the officers. She then found herself shifting her gaze from her father to the floor as he began to make his way over to her. His face was emotionless. But Erin could get a sense of what he was feeling. Frustration. Another Reagan had been attacked in his city, and to make things worse, in his own home. And it was still far from over. Something told her that this was only one piece to an a thousand piece puzzle. He was probably worried too. Worried about his family and the well-being of his children. Worried that this wasn't the end to the long list of accomplices behind these attacks. There was something else. Something else that he was hiding pretty well. Anger. Probably at the officers who let this woman slip by and into his home. But he couldn't show that. He couldn't let those emotions take over, and Erin knew that. But she had no problem in letting her anger fuel her. She was angry at the world. Why Danny? Why Jaime? Why her family? It could have been anyone else. But it had to be them. She wanted to yell and scream, assign blame, but she didn't know to who. Maybe even the slightest bit of anger was directed towards herself. She carelessly walked right into harms way. She walked herself into what could have been her own murder. But there was still some left over that she had no problem directing towards the department.

"How you holding up?" he asked her, sitting right next to her.

"This is insane," she told him, "that's not even one of the attackers you ID'd is it?" She watched her father shake his head no, and her blood began to boil. After all, her older brother almost died in that explosion, she was the first to find Jaime after he was attacked, and now she was attacked in her own parent's home. It seemed as if there was no progress being made at all.

"Is anybody doing anything?" she asked with her frustration more evident than before, "I mean we have patrol cars parked outside and this person still got in the house. It's like this investigation is going around in circles." She sat there trying to bottle up her anger and not center her frustrations on her father and the department. But it was hard for her not to be mad. What was it going to take for this all to end?

"I know this is hard on you," Frank tried to reason with her, "but we are doing everything we can. With this woman in custody we can get some answers and end this sooner. I promise you, we'll get this guy." She nodded, but still there was some doubt. As her father walked back over to his officers, Erin went back upstairs to find the rest of the family awake.

"What's going on?" Linda asked.

"Let's just say the patrol outside isn't as effective as we thought," she commented leaving them shocked.

"They know where we live?" Henry said surprised, with his anger and frustration coming out in every word.

"Yeah they do," she continued, "dad's planning on doubling patrol outside the house and at the hospital. They've made one arrest and they're hoping at can lead to the other two."

"Other two?!" Linda said horrified.

"Yeah. Each one different from the last," she responded.

"This can't be happening," Linda commented as she walked back to her temporary bedroom.

"What are you going to do?" Nicky chimed in.

"I'm going to try and get some rest," Erin told her, "there's nothing I can do about this."

"Mom you can't just do nothing," Nicky fired back.

"You sound like your uncle Danny," she joked, "truthfully I don't like this more than you do. But there really isn't much I can do right now."

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Meanwhile, Frank had left the house and was following the patrol car containing their suspect. They were taking her to 1PP and he wanted to be the first one to take a crack at her. He began to reminisce on what it was like for him to see that woman with Erin. Holding that knife. Ready to stab her or even slit her throat. It angered him. He kind of wished that the intruder hadn't given up so quickly, 'cause then he would have gotten some rounds off. But thinking like that was wrong and he knew it. All he could think about was his children, and how much damage these monsters have caused. Aaron Palmari setting off the bomb that could've killed his oldest, and left him lying in the hospital. With that broken leg, he'll be away from his desk for weeks. Lucas Miller drugged his youngest and mocked Frank by showing him what he could have done to Jaime. Now both Danny and Jaime were spending the night at St. Victor's guarded by patrol and away from their family. And now Erin. And those men were still in the wind. Plus, there was the possibility that this woman wouldn't tell them anything and that she would ask for a lawyer before they got anything solid. There was also the possibility that it was a random attack, but part of him knew that theory was a stretch. Finally, they reached 1PP and Frank got out of his car and watched as they brought her in. There was a moment when she stopped and looked at him. When their eyes connected, his thoughts about shooting her resurfaced. He looked at her, and as she looked back at him, her eyes sharpened and a smile spread across her face. A smile that said, "I hope you're enjoying this game commissioner, 'cause it's far from over." That made his blood boil. She wasn't sorry at all for what she did. She could've killed Erin and walked away without an ounce of remorse. No. He wasn't going to let that fly. These people needed to pay for what had been done to his family. Justice had to be served.