Forgotten Dawn (Forgotten Book 2)

Chapter 24

The screaming was deafening. Chad worked quickly to arrange the tourniquet to stop the gushing blood. As he pulled it tight, the screaming stopped. Justin's head fell to the side, sand clinging to his pale face. Chad quickly checked for a pulse and was relieved when he found one. He worked to cut away the uniform pant leg to assess the extent of the damage. As soon as he pulled back the fabric, he knew there would be no saving the mangled mess.

He looked up to find Xena making her way toward him, and like the thousands of times before, he watched in horror as the shell sailed through the air toward them. A guttural cry ripped from his mouth, and he startled awake in a tangle of sweaty sheets. Before he could even clear the images of the dream from his mind, the phone on the nightstand rang.

Chad let out an exasperated breath before answering, "Hello."

"Sir, this is the front desk," said a cool clipped voice. "We have had another noise complaint from your room. I see noted in your account that you have requested to extend your stay. I'm afraid due to the noise complaints and damage to the room, we are going to be unable to honor that request and will need you to check out by 11 a.m."

Chad simply stated, "I understand," and set the phone on the receiver. He rubbed his hands over his face as he sat on the edge of the bed. This wasn't the first time this had happened, and it likely wouldn't be the last. It's why he preferred to camp when he was out on a job.

The numbers on the bedside clock told him it was only eight. He had managed to get two hours of sleep. There was no way he would be able to get back to sleep after the nightmare, so Chad grabbed a pair of jeans, t-shirt, and boxers from his bag. A cold shower washed away the sweat from the nightmares, and he was ready to face the day.

When he emerged from the bathroom, he checked his phone to see he had a missed call from Justin and a voicemail. Placing the phone on speaker, he let the voicemail play while he rummaged in his bag for a clean pair of socks.

"Hey, it's Justin. I just wanted to let you know that I just got off the phone with the chief. The detective that was assigned to the case was just going to call your girl later today. I had the chief ask him to hold off until he talks to you. I hope that was okay. I thought it would be better for her to get all the news at once if what you have to turn over is any help. Anyway, he said to meet him at the headquarters at 10:30. He'll have the detective meet you there as well. Good luck, and let me know if you need anything. I can set up a security system for her if you want. Free of charge, you'd just need to pay the monthly monitoring fee."

The phone beeped as the recording ended. His girl? He felt like Anna was his girl, but that was the furthest thing from the truth. He pulled up directions to the headquarters to see how far away it was. Thankfully it was close. There would be enough time to go take care of his tires. The closest tire shop was about two miles from the club, so he called there. He wanted to just take the tires to the shop himself, but realized it wouldn't be feasible to put the old ones in Anna's car. After a quick phone call to the shop, they agreed to meet him at the club.

Two hours later, Chad was pulling into a parking spot at the Denver Police Headquarters. It had taken longer than expected to get the tires changed, so he was still driving Anna's car. He popped the trunk and removed the gift bag from where it sat beside all of his bags after checking out of the hotel. He was greeted in the front lobby by a plain clothed detective.

"Detective Swanson," the man said, holding out a hand.

Chad shook the detective's hand in greeting. "Chad Crawford. Nice to meet you. Are you on Anna Bishop's stalker case?"

"What little case there is. I'll fill you in." The man led the way through the lobby to the elevator.

Their destination was a large conference room where the chief of police was already waiting. Chad didn't know what he had expected for the chief of police in a large city, but it wasn't the man who sat at the head of the table. He couldn't have been older than thirty. He would have thought the chief would have had a lot more experience and closer to the end of his career than the beginning.