Vanished. Elizabeth Heiter

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       Five

      Gabe slammed on the brakes, getting their rental car close to the rioting crowd in front of the Rose Bay PD, and wrenching Kyle against his seat belt. He’d unbuckled and opened his door before Gabe had the car in Park.

      Kyle stepped outside and pepper spray stung his eyes, burned in his nose and throat. Instead of wading immediately into the crowd, he hopped on top of the rental car for a better view.

      More reinforcements were right behind them. He’d heard the call come over the radios at the search party, drawing the cops and FBI agents back to the station. Since Gabe had spent extra time on the FBI’s defensive driving course, he’d driven. At every turn, Kyle had urged him to go faster, so they’d beaten everyone else back to the station.

      Whatever got them to Evelyn the fastest.

      But where was she? Kyle peered through the crowd, assessing. Residents fleeing the pepper spray, fighting with the cops, pushing a handcuffed man toward a truck. Two cops down by a patrol car. Two more standing back-to-back, holding shields to protect themselves as the crowd jostled them. The police chief ducking as a resident threw a punch. And there, by the side of the station... Kyle squinted. Was that Evelyn?

      The crowd shifted and, oh, shit, it was. She was down, and in real danger of being trampled.

      He had to get to her now. Kyle jumped down next to Gabe and pointed. “She’s over there.”

      “Let’s go.”

      They’d been partners for three years, so he and Gabe didn’t need to talk. They spent hundreds of hours each year training with live rounds, when knowing exactly where your partner was meant the difference between a successful training exercise and a real death.

      They’d also been friends for three years, so Gabe knew how deep his feelings for Evelyn ran, how complicated they’d become. Gabe would understand that, right now, he was feeling pretty damn desperate.

      Kyle waded into the crowd, sticking to the side, where he’d encounter less resistance. Gabe tracked along beside him, far enough away to allow room to maneuver, but close enough to provide assistance.

      Kyle felt his eyelids swelling as he skirted the back of the cop car, close to where the pepper spray must have been dispersed. Residents—a few women but mostly men—rushed past him, heading in both directions, not seeming to know whether to flee or fight. Someone took a swing at him, and Kyle sidestepped it, twisting the man around and down onto the trunk of the squad car without breaking stride.

      From the corner of his eye, he saw Gabe dodge a pair of men running full out for the street.

      The crowd was dangerous, but it was relatively small. And he and Gabe had helped break up a prison riot last summer, so in comparison this was a piece of cake. At least here no one was trying to shank him.

      As he closed in on Evelyn’s position, he saw her roll away from a guy in a suit who’d stepped back to kick her.

      Kyle put on a burst of speed and tackled the man before he could try again, throwing him off to the side.

      Gabe came up beside him as Kyle yanked Evelyn up and over his shoulder. He felt a surge of relief the second he had her off the ground where he could protect her.

      He heard more cars coming in, sirens blaring, as he rushed for the station door. The crowd scattered, moving faster; most of them had obviously abandoned thoughts of fighting.

      But the man Kyle had tossed aside had gotten to his feet—Kyle hadn’t thrown him hard enough to knock him out, hadn’t wanted him to get trampled by the crowd. And instead of running away, he was coming back for more, fury on his face and a police baton in his hand, up and ready to swing.

      Kyle just kept going, stepping over a bullhorn, and taking Evelyn farther away from the rushing man. Gabe moved in front of them fast, as Kyle had known he would, using the man’s own momentum to push him against the brick of the station wall. Instead of forcing him onto the ground, Gabe twisted his arm behind his back, making him drop the baton, then pushed him inside the station alongside Kyle.

      Kyle lowered Evelyn off his shoulder, steadying her as she swayed. He pushed her into a chair as she pressed a hand to a bump swelling her forehead. Tilting her head back to check her pupils, Kyle stared into her eyes. They were clear, the pupils normal-size and tracking. She looked a little dazed, but she was okay. Damn, when he’d seen her on the ground, he’d wanted to forget strategy and just plow straight through the center of the crowd.

      He glanced back at Gabe. His partner had the man he’d brought inside cuffed to a metal bar on the station wall. When he caught Kyle’s gaze, he nodded toward the door.

      “Stay here,” Kyle told Evelyn. “I’ll be right back.” Then he followed Gabe outside.

      The mob was pretty much under control now. Most of the residents were long gone. A few were on the ground, being cuffed by the additional officers and FBI agents who’d arrived. The police chief was helping the cops near the squad car to their feet. A gruff-looking veteran officer set down his shield and grabbed a Glock from the ground, tucking it beside his own weapon.

      “Where’s the profiler?” the veteran cop asked, scanning the ground as if he’d seen her go down.

      “She’s in the station,” Gabe said. “She’s okay.”

      The cop scowled. “She shouldn’t have been out here. She shouldn’t be here at all.” He spun away from them and handed the weapon he’d picked up to one of the newbies by the squad car.

      Kyle looked at Gabe and pointed back to the station, and his partner followed him inside.

      Evelyn got to her feet as they came in the door. The bump on her forehead was nasty and her eyelids were almost swollen shut from the pepper spray. Her suit was torn at the knee and shoulder, and from the way she hobbled when she walked toward them, he guessed a heel had come off her shoe.

      But it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

      “Is anyone hurt?” she asked. “I heard a gunshot.”

      “It didn’t look like anyone was shot,” Gabe said.

      “Good.” Evelyn bent down and took her shoes off, then peered up at them. “What are you guys doing here?”

      “What do you think?” Kyle asked, a little more harshly than he’d intended. He took a deep breath. It wasn’t Evelyn’s fault things had gotten dangerous. And it wasn’t her fault his emotions took over wherever she was concerned.

      He didn’t quite know how it had happened. But sometime between a year ago, when he’d first seen her in the BAU office, and now, everything СКАЧАТЬ