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  Two hours of sleep was not enough. Grace rubbed her eyes and drank her third cup of coffee that day, grateful Amya had made the first two since she was much more adept at it. She shuffled her feet along the floor in her office, waiting for Kline to show up so they could get started on the case again.

  As soon as she sat down, Kline joined her and slid her phone onto Grace’s desk with a picture on it. “That’s what he’s after.”

  “What is it?” Grace picked it up and narrowed her eyes at it, trying to read the title.

  “It’s the new game coming on the market. Limited quantity drop, available only at one store in town. Drops at midnight tonight.”

  Grace turned her cheek to look up at Kline. “How’d you figure that out?”

  Kline shrugged. “My son is in his mid-twenties and loves gaming. I called him this morning and asked.”

  “You’ve been holding out on me!” Grace made the image on the phone bigger.

  Chuckling, Kline bent over the desk like she was sharing a secret. “It was a bit fun to watch you try and ask gaming questions.”

  Rolling her eyes, Grace handed the phone back. “What store?”

  “Box store over in the old strip mall across town. They’re a specialty gaming place.”

  “Figures. I’d never go near there. I do not do technology most of the time.”

  “You’ve got a fancy smart phone.”

  “Yeah. That’s my limit and my son would probably tell me I massively underutilize it.”

  “Son? You never mentioned a son.”

  Grace paused. She had said that, hadn’t she. With a deep breath, Grace shook her head. “Biologically no, but he lives with us and is as much ours as we are his. I mentioned him yesterday, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah, I do.”

  “Anyway, he games sometimes, but mostly on his computer.”

  “This is a PC game.”

  “Okay. I’ll take your word for that. Do you know if they got the trace on his phone?”

  Kline shook her head. “They did, but didn’t get very far with it. Phone is off.”

  “Wonder if the battery died. I mean, if he’s standing in a line, then surely he wouldn’t be able to charge his phone.” Grace bit her lip and glanced at the clock. It was still super early in the morning for any store to be open. “Want to do a drive by?”

  “Sure, you driving?”

  “Yes.”

  “Figures.”

  Grace smirked and finished her coffee. She desperately wanted another cup, but if they were going out, she didn’t want to be searching for a bathroom all day either. She grabbed her keys, her gun, and her badge and stood up. “Come on, let’s get going. I want to find this kid so I can go home and sleep.”

  “Rough night last night?”

  Shooting Kline a glare, Grace grimaced. “You’re a night owl, aren’t you?”

  “I am.”

  “I am not. Give me five in the morning any day of the week to begin my day. Staying up past ten is rough.” They made it out to the cruiser and slid inside. Grace drove toward the gaming store she had only seen once or twice in her life.

  When they got to the parking lot, Grace was shocked to see the line of people nearly wrapping around the building. “You’re shitting me.”

  “What?” Kline asked.

  “Who would have thought a damn game would be this popular?”

  Kline didn’t answer. Grace drove down the line of people standing and waiting, most of whom didn’t even bother to look up at her. The line went from six feet from the door to the gaming store, down the entire row of other outlet stores and around the corner. Sighing, she turned her cruiser around in the back of the buildings and drove by again.

  “See him?”

  “No.”

  “I’ll do one more drive by, and then we can get out and walk it.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Creeping her cruiser along, Grace craned her neck to see over Kline’s head and out the window. No one jumped out at her as being Lucas. She wished she knew if he was there or not. It would make searching a whole lot easier.

  “Did they get a last known location off that phone?”

  “Yeah, but it wasn’t near here. I’m betting he is here though, just hiding.”

  “Why would he hide? He doesn’t know we’re looking for him.” Grace twisted the wheel in her hands and parked her cruiser in front of the gaming store. They were going to have to get out and walk the line.

  Kline was out the door first, and Grace followed. They walked to the front door of the gaming store and stepped inside. Grace went straight to the front desk and asked for a manager after flashing her badge. Kline wandered around the near empty store. There was only one other customer in there.

  When the manager came out, Grace showed her badge. “We’re looking for a missing kid, and we think he might have visited here recently or will visit here shortly.”

  “A lot of people come in and out of here, and a lot more will by the end of day tomorrow.”

  “I assumed as much.” Grace flashed him a smile. “This kid is about five foot eight, he’s darker-skinned, dark black hair. He’s seventeen-years-old.”

  “Do you have a picture?”

  Grace pulled one up on her phone and showed it to the manager. After staring at the picture for a few seconds, he stepped back and shook his head. “I haven’t seen that kid around here, but you might want to check the line outside.”

  “Plan on it. If you see him come in, call me, please.” Grace handed her card over. “He’s not in trouble, just missing.”

  “You got it.”

  Grace caught Kline’s attention and nodded toward the door. The two of them left and started walking the long line outside. They made it seven people down when Grace stopped and smirked. There he was. Lucas. Hunched with a hood over his head, his hands in his pockets, and his face to the ground, no doubt trying to not be seen, and he’d done a damn good job of it until then.

  “Lucas?” Grace asked.

  His face jerked up at her. Grace’s voice had caught Kline’s attention who came over to join her.

  “Lucas.” Grace said. “We have been looking for you. I’m Detective Halling, this is Detective Kline with the Sheriff’s Department. Your mom is worried.”

  He rolled his dark eyes and shifted his stance. “She probably didn’t even notice I was missing for the entire day.”

  “Well, I spent hours with her yesterday, and trust me, she’s worried. What are you doing here, anyway?”

  “Game drops at midnight. I needed to get it so I can make money, and she wouldn’t let me come because it’s overnight, but I couldn’t wait. I needed one of the first copies.”

  Grace sighed. “Well, I’m sorry to say that you won’t be getting one of those first copies.”

  His lips thinned.

  “Come on, get your stuff and let’s go.” Grace turned her body to face the front of the line and caught sight of a man moving awkwardly down the sidewalk.

  The hair on Grace’s arms stood straight up. Kline was talking to Lucas, but Grace’s entire body was focused on this man. He walked with confidence, one foot in front of the other but like he had a hundred pounds he was carrying around each ankle. When he reached behind him, her shoulders tensed. Her jaw clenched. The ringing in her ears started.

  When his hand came back around, Grace reached for her weapon at her left hip and pulled it out of its holster. The man had a hand gun neatly fitted into his palm. He drew it up and pointed, aiming directly at the first person in the line.

  Grace barreled forward, her heart racing in her chest and moving up to her throat. When she yelled, her voice was loud and firm. “Put the gun down!”

  Kline followed her rapidly, arms out in the same position. Grace kept her eyes on the man in front of her, aiming her weapon dead center of his chest. He turned to look at her, surprise etching on his face.

  “Put the weapon down. Hands in the air! Sheriff’s Department. You must comply!”

  He had a sickening smirk on his lips, the lines deep set in his cheeks moving upward as he shook his head. His finger twitched on the trigger.

  Grace didn’t hesitate. She fired. The bullet flew from her weapon and hit him straight in the shoulder of his right arm, the one holding the gun. He jerked back.

  “Put the weapon down!” she shouted again, Kline echoing her and flanking her as she moved out into the parking lot to get a different angle.

  The man raised the weapon again, this time aiming it at her. Grace let out a breath, keeping her eye on him and making sure she was ready to fire once more. Her heart trampled over itself as she tried to find a better way to get out of the situation than shooting and killing him, but he wasn’t leaving her much choice. She didn’t even know who he was or what he was there for.

  “Hands in the air!” Kline shouted.

  Grace swallowed as he swerved the gun to Kline. His step was unsteady, no doubt from the first bullet wound finally making some effect in his addled brain and body.

  “Put the gun down!” Grace screamed again, hoping he would listen this time.

  He shook his head once more and re-focused on Grace. Then he charged. One tennis shoe digging into the gray cement after the other. He fired the gun, the bullet whistling as it blew past Grace’s head to land somewhere behind her—hopefully not in anyone else who was in line.

  Grace let out a short breath and braced herself to fire again. The bang echoed in her ears as the second bullet flew from her weapon and hit him in the upper arm. He didn’t even try to dodge. She pulled the trigger again, the third bullet hitting his chest.

  That one took him down. He fell face first onto the sidewalk, his cheek skimming and scraping against the smooth cement and his chin bounced. Screams echoed all around her as the ringing in her ears stopped, but Grace was focused on him and no one else. Kline still had her weapon raised as Grace ran forward and kicked the handgun out toward Kline. Grace put her knee into the center of the man’s back and grabbed one of his wrists. She shoved her gun into its holster and pulled his other hand behind his back.

  Holding him carefully, she pulled out the one pair of cuffs she still carried with her and slapped them onto his wrists tightly, double-locking them. Whoever he was, he wasn’t going to get a second chance.

  When Kline came over with his gun between her fingers, her chest rose and fell sharply. “You okay, Halling?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. He missed me.”

  “Thank the Lord!”

  Grace let out a breath, her limbs still numb from the adrenaline. “Call it in, will you? We’re going to need a lot of help for this one.”

  “Yeah.”

  Kline raced to Grace’s cruiser as she stayed leaning on the man on the ground. She eased up a bit.

  “Call a bus!” Grace shouted over the crowd to Kline. She wasn’t sure Kline heard her, but she could only hope she’d think of that.

  Once the scattered crowd calmed down, Grace looked up and saw Lucas hiding behind one of the pillars out front of the store. She shook her head at him and relaxed. At least he was okay. At least everyone else was okay, except…shit. Narrowing her gaze, she saw someone lying on the ground a hundred feet down from where they were.

  “Kline!” Grace shouted. “We’ve got wounded!”

  Kline jerked her head up, spoke rapidly into the radio as she raced down the sidewalk to check on the victim. Grace moved off the man in front of her, and she started to pat him down, looking for more weapons or a wallet with an ID or anything to tell her who he was.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  He didn’t answer with anything other than a groan of pain. She pulled out a pocket knife, a second gun from the back of his pants, two clips in his deep pockets, and a bag of meth. Jesus, he had been ready to kill a whole bunch of people.

  “What is your name?” she repeated.

  “Daniel.”

  She scrunched her nose, thinking about her mentor briefly before bending down over him again. “Do not move an inch.”

  Sirens echoed in the strip mall, and immediately a uniformed officer came over to help her. Grace left Daniel in the uniforms hands as she jumped up and ran as fast as she could to Kline and the victim on the ground. Kline held her hand over his neck as blood oozed from between her fingers. The man choked, blood coming from his mouth.

  “Where’s the bus?” Grace shouted at one of the officers.

  “Two minutes out!” was the only response she heard.

  The victim wasn’t going to make it. No way would he have enough blood left by the time someone got there to help. She pressed her hand against Kline’s, increasing the pressure as much as she could. She wasn’t going to give up so long as there was a chance.

  “Hey,” she bent down to the man, getting up in his face. “You’re going to be fine. We’ve got you, and an ambulance is coming. We’ve got you.”

  She wasn’t sure he understood anything of what she was saying. His lips quivered, more blood spurting from his mouth. His body was prone against the ground. The bullet must have hit him just perfect.

  “Fuck,” Grace muttered.

  Kline shot her a dirty look, but Grace ignored her. She looked around wildly for the ambulance and heard it before she saw it. It rounded the corner at breakneck speed, coming into the parking lot and right up to them. Two paramedics jumped out, one slipping a hand under Kline’s to take over. Grace and she stepped back, and Grace wiped her hand out of habit on her pants before she cringed. The bright red stain on her tan pantsuit was obnoxious.

  Holding her hands away from her body, she realized for the first time she didn’t have a vest on. It wasn’t part of her uniform. Jesus, she had walked straight into a gun fight without a vest. Amya was going to kill her. She would kill herself if positions were reversed. That was fucking stupid, but there was no one else around. Kline was in the same position she was.

  Her heart still thrummed steadily, and she knew she was going to be stuck there for hours, so was everyone else. Lucas would probably get home before she did, and she was going to be on desk duty until Alonzo’s crew could interview her and she could be cleared by the resident therapist, Kissik. Grace had been through the routine before, more than once. She hadn’t ever thought she’d end up going through it again working in Missing Persons, but it was always a possibility.

  “You okay?” Grace asked Kline as they walked toward Daniel, who was being tended to by a second ambulance crew who had shown up.

  “Yeah. You?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  “Where did he come from?” Kline sounded bewildered.

  “Who fucking knows.” Grace stopped, knowing a supervisor would be on scene soon enough to take everyone’s statements. She was going to have to call her rep and let them know she once again had fired her weapon while on duty. She would be stuck in the office with all the drama there for sure. “Fuck.”

  “What?”

  “I just realized I can’t get out of being in the office now, and I’m going to have to sit around and listen to Paige whine about this stupid IAB investigation.”

  Kline snickered. “She’s over the top with it.”

  “Beyond over the top.”

  One last cruiser pulled into the parking lot, and Grace knew it was the supervisor. Humbard would be there shortly since she and Kline were involved. Bolstering herself, she waited for the game of twenty questions to begin. She was too old for this shit.

  Explicit Interview

  Disadvantage number one to having her girlfriend be the police chaplain for the same force she worked with was what Grace knew was about to happen. As soon as Amya arrived, Grace relaxed. Their gazes connected over the supervisor’s head while Grace continued to give her statement.

  Amya checked in with Kline, touching her arm briefly as she consoled her no doubt. Amya also checked in with a couple of the witnesses who seemed particularly upset. They made eye contact quite a few times while Amya walked around the scene of the crime.

  When Grace was done, Amya came straight over and gripped Grace’s elbows. Her eyes were wide with fear as she stared into Grace’s face, those crystalline eyes watering like she was about to cry. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. At least for now. I have no idea where he came from.”

  “No one does.”

  Grace nodded. “I’m fine. Really. I didn’t kill him.”

  “You didn’t have a vest!” Amya whisper-screamed, her eyes going wide.

  “I know.” Grace let out a breath. “I don’t wear one every day. It’s not really expected I’ll need one. I’m not going into those types of situations anymore.”

  “Except you are.”

  “Don’t argue with me. I really can’t right now.” Grace bit her lip and looked around. “I’m fine. I promise you that.”

  “But you might not be.”

  “Amya, right now I am. Leave it at that. I don’t have time analyze what happened at the moment.” Grace bit back her angry tone when she glanced down into Amya’s worried gaze. Doing something she never did before, she reached down, cupped both of Amya’s cheeks and pressed their lips together, sighing into the kiss. Grace kept it short, but she gave Amya a peck when she moved away. “I’m fine.”

  “Okay, but to be honest, doing that makes me worry more.”

  “Shut up.” Grace rolled her eyes, but she had a smile on her lips. Grabbing Amya’s hand, she twined their fingers together and held still, all the while hoping Amya couldn’t feel her shaking. She had wanted to get better at showing Amya affection not only in public but in front of other officers specifically. Today was as good a day as any.

  Kline sent them a look, which Grace challenged but didn’t say anything. She stayed where she was with Amya’s hand in hers. It felt good. It felt complete in a way their relationship hadn’t been before. Amya stepped in closer and whispered into Grace’s ear, “Don’t scare me like that again, please?”

  “I’ll try, but I can’t guarantee anything. You know that.”