UnderFire Read Online Free Page B

standing up.
    Jake’s phone received a text. “Rick just texted me that
S.W.A.T. is on the move. Should have us out in no time.”
    Suddenly from the front, Blowhard started calling out, “We’re
in here! Here!”
    Jake grimaced and cursed under his breath. “Shit.”
    Kathleen, Mike and Charity followed Jake as they left the
back area and approached the front.
    “Hey, dude, the authorities know where we’re at. They’ll get
to us.” Mike’s voice was filled with exasperation.
    Not much longer and S.W.A.T. contacted them by shouting
through the blocked door.
    “Police! Anyone in there?” a man’s voice called from
outside.
    “We’re here!” Bob yelled. “Get us out of here now.”
    Kathleen took a deep breath of relief. Soon she could go
back to her hotel room in town. She didn’t know what she wanted to do at first
but then a thought came to mind. Maybe she needed to get Jake Frasier out of
her system once and for all. She thought maybe she knew how to do that.

Chapter Three
     
    Snow fell steadily as Jake stood with his brothers Matt and
Rick outside the mall. Despite the hum of police activity, Jake’s adrenaline
still ran high. He’d tackled situations in the desert during war that had
rattled him and he’d dealt with them as best he could. You didn’t handle the
mall situation as well as you could, Frasier. Not well at all. He knew why.
    Kathleen McSwain had turned him upside down this week. When
bullets started to fly, his first thought was to reach Kathleen and protect
her. His first and only thought. Hell, it didn’t make any damn sense. Sure, he’d
want to protect a woman in danger, or anyone for that matter. With Kathleen the
drive had been almost painfully acute. He hadn’t seen her in years. He’d been
in the army since he was eighteen, with no time to mull over his teen years. He
gritted his teeth. He’d made serious mistakes when they were adolescents and he
didn’t care for how he’d handled meeting her again at Danelle and Patrick’s
party last weekend. Seeing her hammered one reality home—she made his blood run
hot. She’d been a tomboy with short russet-brown hair, thin and gangly with
gorgeous blue eyes filled with challenge. He wanted to sink his hands into the
mass of curly hair that hung to her mid-back. He wanted to touch her smooth
skin and gather her slim but curvy body against his. Christ, he wanted to kiss
her. If not tonight, sometime before he returned to work, he’d get that kiss.
    He shoved aside thoughts of tasting Kathleen’s pretty mouth
and paid attention to current events. S.W.A.T. had arrested Teddy Xavier as the
single shooter. Xavier had shot up the place because he was pissed that he hadn’t
been hired for a security job. He’d wounded his ex-girlfriend but she’d
survived. Trapped in a unisex bathroom, Matt, Melanie and the shooter’s ex-girlfriend
had stayed safe. Lena and Rick had kept a vigil outside the mall. Police
questioned everyone separately over a two-hour period. The crime scene wasn’t
wrapping up but the police had told them they could leave a couple of minutes before.
    Jake’s brothers looked different but he couldn’t say why. He
knew the mall shooting had affected him but not in the way he’d expected. He
didn’t want to feel watchful and worried for Kathleen but when he’d put his arm
around her numerous times during the ordeal, she’d leaned into his touch.
Regardless of what had happened between them in high school, her acceptance
made his desire to protect her even stronger. He was disturbed as much by her
capitulation as he was by his willingness to give comfort.
    His gaze found Kathleen as she stood with Lena and Melanie.
Lena sat on the tailgate of Rick’s truck. Her sprained ankle was wrapped with
an elastic bandage. Charity’s boyfriend Shane had come to the mall and picked
her up, and Bible-thumping Bob had left a minute ago.
    “Who the hell was that guy in the suit again?” Rick asked.
    “Mr. Obnoxious.”