Sam moved quickly, waking up the sleeping monitor and clicking buttons as fast as his big hands would allow him to do.
“Gladewater. What and who the fuck is in Gladewater?” He muttered.
“Lennox,” I said instantly. “Lennox is in Gladewater.” I swallowed thickly. “And she has Reagan with her.”
“There’s been an accident on eighty that she was involved in. Let’s move. Cheyenne!” Sam yelled. “Call Jack and tell him I need him. We’re gone!”
I wasn’t listening for the rest. Instead, I ran to my truck, hopped in, and accelerated out of the parking lot.
Thankful that I’d backed in like I always did for expedience.
An ingrained instinct that always had me doing it even if it was harder to do initially.
A quick getaway was always the way to go.
Sam followed behind me, but I didn’t spare him another glance as I roared through the streets of Kilgore, and straight to 42 that’d take me to 80 in about ten minutes.
It took me seven, thanks to my emergency lights that I had in my dash.
Something I had because I was always being called out for SWAT situations, and I needed to get there fast.
I was grateful that the traffic was cooperating with me, unlike how it usually did.
My heart, though, wasn’t being very cooperative.
It was trying to hammer its way out of my chest as I thought about my daughter and girlfriend being in an accident without me there to ascertain that it was no big deal.
My phone rang and I answered it immediately. “Lennox?”
“It’s me. I got in an accident with another motorist,” she said shakily.
“I know, honey. I’ll be there in about two minutes. Hang tight,” I told her softly.
She breathed a sigh of relief that I felt all the way through the phone line.
“Thanks. Just…hurry. Everyone’s okay, though,” she assured me hurriedly.
“Okay, baby. I’ll be there soon. I fucking love you,” I whispered fiercely.
She giggled a tad manically. “I fucking love you, too,” she whispered back.
Two long minutes later, I pulled up to the scene of a fucking mess, and none other than the bane of my existence in the middle of it all.
“What the fuck,” I breathed as I unlatched the door and hopped out, slamming the door as I hauled ass across the pavement to my little girl.
Lennox had her wrapped up in her arms, and they were both looking at what was left of Lennox’s car.
“What happened?” I asked in alarm.
Lennox, having not seen me pull up, jumped and turned to me, eyes wide.
Then, once realizing who it was, relaxed.
“Bennett,” she breathed.
“Daddy!” Reagan said, throwing herself at me.
“Sir,” a male said from behind me.
I turned to find a uniformed cop behind me.
He was surveying me, and my uniform that I’d yet to take off, as well as the badge at my hip. He wasn’t close enough to read the badge, though, which was why he asked what he did next.
“What department?” He inquired.
I didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Kilgore PD.”
He nodded.
“This woman,” he said, pointing at Corrinne who was now glaring daggers at the four of us. “Is saying that this woman,” he pointed at Lennox. “Kidnapped her child, and had to wreck the car to get her to stop.”
My mouth dropped open. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
The officer shook his head. “Nope.”
Lennox was visibly shaken, and I knew with every cell of my being that she wanted to beat the hell out of Corrinne.
Motherfucker, but I wanted to do that, too!
I’m a fucking cop. Cops shouldn’t have those types of thoughts, but damned if I wasn’t feeling homicidal right then.
Then the chickens started to dawn on my mind, and I looked around in horror.
“What the fuck?” I asked in surprise.
There were literally chickens everywhere. Thousands of them.
A tractor trailer that’d been carrying the birds was on its side, the wooden crates that’d been holding the chickens broken to pieces.
People were out of their cars herding the chickens into a makeshift barrier of sorts made out of orange construction mesh and construction cones.
Police were questioning drivers, and the driver of, I assumed, the truck was pointing at the car that I assumed was Corrinne’s and then gesturing wildly.
“What happened?” I asked Lennox.
Lennox pointed to Corrinne.
“She got right up on the bumper of my car and then rammed me. And not just a little tap, either. A major one. One that had me spinning out of control. Which was actually lucky for me because I hadn’t realized just how fast we’d been going to get the hell away from her crazy…butt. I spun out that way,” she gestured to where her car sat on the side of the road. “And Corrinne kept going through the intersection. Which had turned red. When she ran the light, she hit the chicken truck with such force that the whole thing fell over.”
Somewhat appeased, I dropped down to my haunches in front of Reagan.
“Is that what happened, baby?” I asked her.
She nodded. “That woman was screaming at Lennox like she was going to kill her. I was really scared, daddy.”
I leaned forward and tried to gather her into my arms, but she wouldn’t let Lennox go, so I ended up hugging Lennox with Reagan smashed in between us.
Lennox ran her hands along the back of my neck as she looked down on us, but I was too busy relearning to breathe now that I knew they were both alright.
“We have a video pulled up on what happened if you want to see it,” Sam rumbled from behind me.
I moved backwards until I could see Sam handing something over to the cop that was still right there watching our surroundings.
The cop took it, played the video, and watched it.
His eyes widened with each second that passed, and by the end of it, he was looking at Corrinne with such distaste that I almost felt bad for her.
Almost.
I stood, dropped a kiss on Reagan’s head, followed by Lennox’s, before I turned around and held my hand out for the phone.
Sam handed it to me without a word and I watched as Corrinne’s black sedan barreled at the back of Lennox’s car and rammed it with such force that the car turned sideways in a matter of seconds.