Read Online In the Line of Duty: First Responders, Book 2 by Donna Alward - Free Book Online Page B

in front of his counter. He went to the cupboard and took out a shot glass and a bottle of Jack. It was half full, exactly where he’d left it months ago. Every now and again he took it out and looked at it, remembered and put it back. He could handle it. She couldn’t. Tonight it would be a sacrifice but one he was willing to make.
    For her. Go figure.
    Wordlessly, he put down the shot glass, poured. Then just as her fingers started to slide across the counter for it, he picked it up and tossed it back.
    The liquor burned down the back of his throat, lighting a well-remembered fire clear to his belly. It wasn’t a bad sensation, but it wasn’t the salvation he’d come to expect from it either. He was grateful for that.
    “Hey!” Kendra’s brows knit together. “What are you doing?”
    “You can’t do this,” he stated calmly. “You will hate yourself if you do. It’ll destroy you.”
    He poured another shot. Saluted her with the glass and drank it down in one swallow.
    “Jake!” Her voice was distressed now and she ran a hand over her braid, making little pieces fray around her face. “Don’t do this. You can’t. Not after all you’ve…”
    Tears filled her eyes and Jake hesitated. She was going to break soon, and he could handle one more easily. He’d handled far worse in his day, and while the warmth of the whiskey spread through his belly, his head was perfectly clear. He poured one more shot. Lifted it. Met her eyes. Drank it while holding her gaze. Put the glass back down on the counter.
    “I can’t watch you do this to yourself,” she whispered, an edge of desperation in her voice. “Please, Jake. Please stop.”
    He put his hand on the shot glass. He wasn’t going to pour anymore, but it wouldn’t hurt for her to wonder. “If you can’t bear to watch me, why on earth would you think that I would be able to watch you? Not just watch, but enable you by pouring it?”
    “I just… It was so…”
    “Tell me.”
    Her eyes were wide and shimmering with tears, break-your-heart blue and broken. “She died, Jake.”
    The words came out so tragically he half-expected her to crumple in a heap. She didn’t though. She sat tall on her chair, and her fingers gripped the edge of the countertop like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
    “Who died?” he asked gently.
    Kendra shook her head, releasing more hair from her braid. It really was quite an unruly mess now. “A student from the university hydroplaned on the highway. She was maybe twenty years old. She died before we even had a chance to try to save her. And I had to phone her parents halfway across the country.” She looked away. “There is no good way to deliver that sort of news.” A tear slipped over her cheek. “She was beautiful, Jake. Young and beautiful and full of potential. What a waste. What a stupid waste.”
    Jake put the glass in the sink, the bottle back in the cupboard where it belonged, and went around the counter. “Come here,” he said gently, and vest, equipment, gun and all, he folded her into his arms.
    Her face crumpled and she pressed her cheek to his chest, right at the curve of his shoulder. She trembled against him as the sobs started. But he stood strong and held her, tightening his arms and resting his chin on the top of her head.
    Sometimes you couldn’t save everyone. And it could eat you up from the inside out.
     
     
    She clung to him as the tears she’d been holding in came rushing out, wetting his shirt front. She cried for the girl in the car, for the devastated parents, for the loss of an innocent, young life, and even for herself. She hated feeling helpless, powerless. She’d become a cop for that very reason. But tonight she’d been cruelly reminded that she was indeed helpless and powerless. That bad things happened to good people who were just driving home from work. No one had been talking on a phone or driving under the influence or speeding. All they were guilty of was getting