Page 12 of Target Acquired
Grandma Betsy had finally decided it was time to move to an assisted-living home and signed her house over to Kenzie. “Lock, stock, and barrel, it’s yours,” she’d said and handed her the keys. No one had been more surprised than Kenzie, but she’d been beyond grateful and had moved in as soon as possible.
Not that she didn’t love her three brothers and her father, but there came a point when a girl needed her own space. And she’d been way overdue.
Her father.
Now there was a subject worthy of a multitude of therapy sessions. A former chief of police, he’d been known as The Dictator. TD for short. And then the accident—
But no . . . she wouldn’t think about that. Not tonight.
Shortly after her two older brothers, Paul and Kash, had moved out of the family home, she did the same. Her youngest sibling, Logan, still lived with their dad. Their mother was dead.
As always, the arc of pain swept through her when she thought about her mother. It had been twenty years, but some days it seemed like yesterday.
Kenzie placed her weapon and purse on the counter, then headed to her bedroom while she dialed Lainie’s cell.
“Hello?”
Lainie’s sweet voice was a balm to Kenzie’s battered nerves. “Hey, are you still at work?”
“Still here for the next five minutes or so.”
“I just wanted to check on Cowboy.”
“Your SWAT buddy.”
Kenzie smiled. “Yeah. His last name is McEntire, but everyone calls him Cowboy because of his Texas accent and penchant for boots and Stetsons when he’s off duty.” She paused. “And the fact that no one knows his first name.”
“I did notice the accent. And he’s doing all right. Last time I looked in on him, he was sleeping.”
“Sleep is good. You going to bust him out of there tomorrow?”
“As long as nothing changes overnight, that’s the plan. And I’m only telling you that because he cleared me talking to anyone on the SWAT team who called and asked.”
“Good to know. You don’t happen to have his first name on the chart, do you?”
“Um . . . says Cowboy.”
“What does his driver’s license say?”
Lainie laughed. “You’ll have to ask him that.”
Near her window, a shadow caught Kenzie’s attention and she walked closer. The blinds were open to filter the last rays of the sun before it sank below the horizon. However, she had some time before sunset. She peered out the window. A glance to the left and right didn’t reveal anything to cause alarm, but she shut the blinds anyway.
“Kenz?”
“I’m here. Sorry, got distracted.”
“You okay?”
“Sure. Fine. It’s been a long day, so I think I’m going to crawl into a hot bubble bath, binge a few episodes of something, and crash.”
“You’re coming to the lake house Friday, right?”
“Uh . . . this Friday? I thought that was tomorrow. Thursday night.”
“And if you scroll down the text messages, you’ll see we had to change it to Friday. Stephanie has to host an emergency baby shower for a friend there tomorrow night. The other hostess came down with the flu or something.”
“Okay. So Friday. This Friday.” Which Friday had she inadvertently promised to attend Amelia and Kash’s shindig? Next Friday, right? Or—“Cole mentioned something about it, but . . .”