Page 79 (1/1)

Chapter 1

RUNNING

All our interactions with suspects ended the same way I would say, hey, let’s wait for backup or a warrant I’d mention we didn’t have probable cause, and soo so far as to point out eren’t armed because it was our damn day off! Not that he ever listened The chase was always on seconds after I spoke The fact that he even stopped to listen tostunned most people who knew us

“Please,” I would beg him “Just this once”

And then I’d get the head tip or the shrug or the grin that crinkled his pale blue eyes in half before he’d explode into action, the velocity ofhi hi fists Since I’d become his partner, the number of scars on my body had doubled

I considered it a win if I got Ian Doyle to put on a Kevlar vest before he kicked down a door or charged headfirst into the unknown I saw the looks we got from the other marshals e returned with bloodied suspects, recaptured felons, or secured witnesses, and over the years they had changed from respect for Ian to sympathy for me

When I was first partnered with him, some of the otherpartnered with the ex-Special Forces soldier, the Green Beret? How did that e and that getting hi the lottery I was the newest marshal, low man on the totem pole, so how did I rate Captain America?

What everyone round like most of us He came from the military and wasn’t versed in proper police procedure or adherence to the letter of the law As the newest marshal on the team, I was the one who had the book ned me to him It actually made sense

Lucky me

Doyle was a nightmare And while I wasn’t a Boy Scout, in comparison to my “shoot first, ask questions later” partner, I came off as calm and rational

After the first sixaton three years,me an ice pack, pass me whatever pharmaceuticals they had in their desks, and even occasionally offer advice It was always the same

“For crissakes, Jones, you need to talk to the boss about him”

My boss, Supervisory Deputy Sae, recently called me into his office and asked me flat out if there was any truth to the rue of partner? The blank stare I gave him hopefully conveyed my confusion So it was no one’s fault butsnon the forty-seven hundred block of Ninety-Fifth Street in Oak Lawn at ten on a cold Tuesdayin mid-January

Ar, Glock 20 in my hand, I saw Ian arbage can as I headed into an alley I should have been the one on the street;up walls like a ninja Even though I was younger than his thirty-six by five years, at six two and 185 pounds, he was in much better shape than ht-pack abs and arms that made women itch to touch, I was built heavier at five eleven, with bulky muscle and wide shoulders, more bull than panther Ian had a sleek, fluid way about hiles and herky-jerky h people often co way of carrying ourselves when together, an un that, if I puffed up when I walked beside ered and didn’t notice

The second I eed froht train of a man and smashed onto the pavement under him

“Oh!” I heard asp of air in my body was trounced out of my frame “Nice block, M!”

The escaped convict tried to lever up offhim down on the sidewalk beside me with a boot on his collarbone I would have told hi—I took it uponthe course of a nor All I could do was lie on the cold, clammy cement and wonder how many of my ribs were broken