Justice for Boone: Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes, Book 6 (18 page)

B
oone came awake slowly
, not understanding what he was hearing.

“Stay here, Boone. I mean it,” Hayden ordered in a hiss. “Call nine-one-one and ask for a sheriff’s deputy to be sent out. I’d rather deal with my colleagues than the SAPD. Not that I think my friend Quint’s people are bad cops, but since the sheriff knows the details, I want his people here.”

Boone was wide awake now. “What’s going on?”

“If I’m not mistaken, Dana wants that confrontation right this second.”

Boone heard it now. Yelling coming from his front yard. Fuck. “I’m coming with you.”

“Bad idea, Boone. She wants you there. If you give her that, you’re giving her power.”

“I’m not hiding up here like a coward while you deal with her.”

Hayden sighed. “Fuck. Okay. Can you at least call nine-one-one first?”

They both winced at the increasing cacophony of noise coming from the front yard.

“Yeah, I can do that.” Boone wasn’t sure if he was glad or pissed that the ranch hands who lived on the property were housed back behind the barn. There was a chance they might not even hear the ruckus, which on one hand would be good, but on the other hand, Boone figured the more witnesses to Dana’s crazy, the better.

Hayden leaned over and kissed Boone hard. He noticed she was already dressed and had stuffed her service pistol in the back of her waistband. He wanted to give her crap about that, remembering when they’d watched a television show one night and she’d complained that no “real” cop ever put his pistol in the back of his pants. It simply wasn’t safe. “Be smart, Boone. And remember, I’m trained for this kind of situation and know what I’m doing.”

Boone kissed Hayden back then nodded. She strode purposefully and confidently out of the room. He quickly dialed emergency services and explained the situation in as few words as possible to the operator. She advised him to stay put, to let the deputy on scene handle the disturbance, but there was no way in hell Boone was following her advice.

He’d heard what Hayden had told him earlier that night. This was what she did, what she was good at, and he’d let her do it—but maybe if he gave Dana some of what she wanted, this could end tonight rather than be dragged out even longer. And there was no way he was going to hide in the house while his girlfriend confronted his ex. No way in hell. That wasn’t the kind of man he was, and would never
be
that kind of man.

He hung up, against the operator’s wishes, and hurried to put some clothes on. The noise on his front lawn had ceased, but he knew Dana probably hadn’t left. They weren’t that lucky.

Boone made his way through the dark house to the back door. He opened it and eased out into the yard and made his way silently around the house, wanting to see what was going on but not bust right into whatever might be happening. The last thing he wanted to do was make Hayden’s job more difficult. Easing around the corner, he sized up the situation. Hayden was standing at the bottom of the three stairs that led up onto the porch, Dana facing off with her.

His ex looked awful. One of the things he’d been amazed at while they were dating was that she always looked completely put together. Hair done, makeup on, clothes immaculate. The only time he ever saw her without makeup was the few times he shared a bed with her, and even then she made sure to keep the lights dim.

Now, there was absolutely no sign of the put-together woman he’d been dating. Her blonde hair looked as though it hadn’t been washed in a couple of days, hanging limp and greasy around her face. She had on a nice blouse, but it was dirty and hanging outside the white pants she was wearing. Actually, those pants
might’ve
been white at one time, but currently they were almost tan with dirt, and there were grass stains on both knees. She was also only wearing one shoe. Boone had no idea where the other one was.

The car she’d driven to his house was parked haphazardly in his front yard, the engine still running. The front bumper was gone and there was a large dent on the front passenger side. Boone took a second to hope whatever, or whoever, she hit was all right before the words she started screeching rang out through the humid night.

“Move, you fucking bitch! There’s no way I’m letting you get your dyke claws into
my
boyfriend. I don’t even know what the fuck you’re doing in my house. Get out of my way!”

Dana’s words seemed to have no discernible effect on Hayden. She was in her deputy mode, unmoving and strong as a concrete pillar. She stood on the grass in front of the stairs with her hands open at her sides, showing Dana she was unarmed. If he hadn’t been so concerned about her safety, Boone might’ve gotten turned on by this side of her.

“Dana, it’s the middle of the night and you’re violating the restraining order against you. You aren’t allowed within two hundred feet of Boone or any of his property,” Hayden said in a calm but forceful tone.

“I don’t give a flying fuck! He’s mine! He’ll
always
be mine.”

Hayden’s voice was still hard, but she lowered it a bit, trying to get through to the distraught crazy woman in front of her. “Dana, Boone broke up with you. He’s been broken up with you for months. It’s time to move on. Find a man who loves you. He’s out there, you just have to keep looking.”

It was as if the words bounced right off of Dana. “I
did
find him, bitch. No matter how many times you shove your tongue down his throat, he’s still mine! No matter how far down your throat you take his cock, you should know that it was down
mine
first. You’ll always come second. It’s my cunt, my mouth, and my ass he’s taken and loves, not yours!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Hayden saw Boone take several steps toward Dana from the side of the house. Fuck, it really was a bad idea for him to be here.

“Boone!” Dana had finally seen him as well. “Thank God you’re here. Get your ass over here! You’re mine.”

“We broke up, Dana,” Boone said in a hard voice with none of the sympathy that Hayden had used in hers.

“No we fucking did
not
! You said you needed some space. I gave it to you. Now I’m taking it back! Get over here and stay away from her!” Dana pulled a knife out of her pocket and waved it in the air manically.

Hayden didn’t even flinch at the sight of the knife. She wasn’t worried. She’d dealt with perpetrators with knives before. She actually preferred them to guns. In order for a bad guy to use a knife, they had to be up close and personal. She could keep her distance from Dana until backup got there, she just had to keep her talking. “Dana, you need to—”

Before she could get anything else out, Hayden watched in disbelief as Boone took the few steps forward required to put himself between her and his ex, putting him way too close to Dana and the knife she was waving around.

“Boone, what the fuck are you doing? No!” For the first time, Hayden’s voice lost its take-charge, calm tone.

But it was too late. Boone was responding emotionally, rather than using his head, and putting himself in danger as a result. Hayden knew he was acting out of concern for her, wanting to protect her, but he’d inadvertently made her job twice as difficult.

Hayden immediately pulled the pistol out of the hollow of her back and pointed it toward the ground, her finger resting near the trigger, her entire body on high alert. Double fuck. This had just escalated past where it needed to. Damn Boone and his protective instincts. She could freely admit that she liked it when Boone was protective of her, but not like this. In this situation, she was way more prepared to deal with Dana than he was.

Especially since they both knew he wouldn’t hurt his ex.

As soon as Boone was close enough, Dana lunged and swiped at him with the knife.

Boone jumped back and put up his arm to block her, but he wasn’t quick enough. Hayden watched as a line of red bloomed on Boone’s arm and realized the bad situation just got worse.

“That’s enough, Dana! Put down the knife and let’s talk.” Hayden put every ounce of power behind her words. It wasn’t enough.

“Fuck you! He’s a pansy-ass, and he’s mine to do whatever I want with!” She turned to Boone. “Aren’t you? You’d never hurt me; it’s against your religion or some such fuckin’ thing. See?” Dana moved the knife to her left hand and balled up her right, swiftly taking a step toward Boone and throwing a punch at him.

Boone easily dodged the blow, but didn’t make any move on Dana.

Hayden was beyond furious. At Dana. At Boone for putting himself, and her, in this situation. This had to stop.

“I said, put down the knife, Dana. I’ll shoot you if you don’t.”

“You’ll shoot an unarmed woman? I don’t think so.” Dana dropped the knife. “You can’t shoot me. I know the law. Besides…what would the country think about another officer-involved shooting with an unarmed civilian. They’d eat that shit up and your career would be over.”

Hayden didn’t know what game she was playing now, but she wasn’t buying it. Yeah, it would suck to be crucified in the media, but if it meant keeping Dana away from Boone once and for all, she’d do whatever it took. “Turn around and kneel on the ground. Put your hands on your head.” Hayden knew she didn’t have any cuffs on her, but she could physically subdue the other woman until the deputies got there if she had to.

“You love me, don’t you, Boonie?” Dana said in a singsong voice, holding her arms out to Boone and ignoring Hayden. “You know I hit you to try to toughen you up, right? We’re good together. You love how I suck your cock. Come on, let me remind you.”

“Dana, we were only together a couple of times; you’ve
never
taken my dick in your mouth or your ass. You’re delusional. You need help,” Boone said in a reasonable tone, obviously knowing enough not to antagonize her any further.

Dana looked really pissed now. She put her hands on her hips.

“Boone,” Hayden said urgently, “get on the porch behind me. Get away from her.”

Not surprisingly, Boone ignored her, but he did take a step backward. It was something.

“Not sucked you off? Boone,
you’re
the delusional one. You pushed me to my knees and held my head still as you fucked my mouth. You shot off and I swallowed your come. Then you picked me up and threw me on your bed and you fucked me up the ass until I exploded!”

Boone’s voice was even and low when he replied, “I’m forty years old, Dana. First of all, there’s no way I could get it up again that fast after coming. Secondly, we’ve never been together in my bed.”

“But you’ve had
her
in your bed, haven’t you?” Dana screeched, pointing at Hayden. “She’s good enough to have you there, but not me?”

The hair on the back of Hayden’s neck rose. Oh shit. Dana was losing it, and Boone either didn’t realize it or was past caring. Where the fuck was her backup?

“Yeah, Hayden’s more than good enough for me,” Boone retorted “I’ve had her in my tub, in my bed, up against my wall, on my kitchen table and on my desk in the office. I’ll take her whenever and wherever she’ll have me. She doesn’t hit me and she doesn’t make me feel like crap whenever I’m around her. She loves me—and I love her back.”

Hayden looked on in horror when Dana’s arm moved. It was if she were watching a slow-motion training video at work, even as she vaguely heard the sirens from the cavalry screaming down Boone’s driveway.

Dana screeched in absolute fury as she pulled a pistol from somewhere; probably from the small of her back, the way Hayden had carried her own pistol into the fray. Dana took a few running steps sideways and instead of pointing the gun at Boone, she pointed it at the object of her hate.

Time seemed to slow.

Boone took quick steps toward his ex and his arm was pulling back even before the loud shot from Dana’s gun sounded in the still night.

At almost the same time, Hayden fired her own weapon. Twice in rapid succession.

Dana’s head rocked backward from the force of Boone’s fist hitting her face. She stumbled as much from his blow as she did from the two bullets from Hayden’s gun entering her body.

Blood sprayed from Dana’s hand as the first bullet hit it, making her drop the weapon she’d just fired. She was falling toward the ground as the second bullet hit its target just above her knee.

Dana seemed to bounce as she landed, and there was only a moment of silence before she started screaming.

Hayden had no idea if it was because of pain from the bullets, her obviously broken nose, which was oozing blood, or sheer frustration at not getting what she wanted—namely, Hayden out of Boone’s life once and for all.

The sound of sirens from the squad cars racing down Boone’s driveway was the most welcome sound Hayden had heard in a long time. “Step back, Boone,” she ordered unnecessarily; he’d already turned his back on Dana and was headed for her.

Hayden’s ears rang from the gunshots as the doors to the deputies’ cars opened and “hold your fire” and “put your hands up” were shouted.

Hayden didn’t take her gaze from Dana, who was still wailing as she rolled around on the ground nearby.

“I’m a sheriff’s deputy. She has an unsecured weapon,” Hayden told one of the officers who’d quickly gotten out of his car and was almost to them, gesturing with her chin to Dana.

After the other officer kicked the gun Dana had dropped out of her reach, Hayden slowly bent and placed her weapon on the ground then unsteadily rose and put her hands in the air, showing she was now unarmed. Boone ignored the instructions being shouted into the chaos around them and was frantically running his eyes over Hayden.

“Are you hurt? Did she get you?”

Hayden ignored his question, but stared at him with wide eyes. “You hit her.”

“She was trying to kill you!”

“You
hit
her,” Hayden repeated.

“Yates? That you?” Hayden heard. She turned her head to the side and saw Jimmy and Juan approaching. Thank God. “Yeah. It’s me.”

“You good?”

“Yeah, deal with Dana. Two shots fired, both made contact. She fired at me after assaulting Boone. I hit her in the hand and leg. Boone has surveillance cameras; they should’ve caught everything that happened.” She looked at Boone. “You
did
set them up to record out here, right?”