Page 57 of Cherished By the Sinners

Only the young officer answered.“May you what?”

“Show you.”

Several officers nodded and a few said, “Yeah, sure, go ahead.”

Mason got to his feet and took off his jacket.

His audience took a step back.

He held it up so the damage made by the bullets was clearly visible.“Look closely at the fabric,” Mason said, jiggling the jacket a bit.“See how the holes don’t go all the way through?The outer layer of nanofibers is broken, but the inner isn’t.”

The officers in the front row bent closer and a couple reached out to lift the front panels of the front of the jacket.They turned them this way and that.

“Huh.You’re right,” the young officer said.“The holes don’t go all the way through.”

Mason lowered his jacket.“You can see that there are marks on my dress shirt, but no penetration at all.”

The whole group moved a little closer to look at Mason’s chest.Black marks, but that was all.

“Must cost a lot,” a different officer said.

“Several thousand dollars, four fittings, and three months.”

The group shifted, some in the back moved to the front so they could see.

“Where did you get it?”Another uniformed officer asked.

“A company out of Toronto, Canada,” Mason replied.“They do excellent work.”

“How many shots did it stop?”someone else asked.

“Seventeen.”

A low whistle came out of more than one man in the group.

“Get out of the way,” a female voice demanded.The group parted and Nika strode through them.“Mason, you’re with me,” she said, her face a blank expression first responders get when things go wrong.“Darlene was taken.”

Her words froze him in place for a moment.When what she said sunk in, a bomb went off in the back of his head.It triggered a firestorm that swept through his body, breaking him out of the ice so fast he was surprised when he didn’t shatter into a billion pieces.

“Where?”he asked Nika.

“Come with me,” she said, turning and striding away.Cops scattered in front of her as if she were a wild predator in their midst.

He followed in her wake.

“Your jacket,” the young officer shouted behind him.

Mason turned and, walking backward, held up his hand.The officer tossed the jacket at him, and he caught it.

He followed Nika out, down the hall, and out of the precinct door.They crossed the parking lot and got into her car.

“Tell me everything,” Mason said.

She glanced at him as she guided the vehicle into the street.“I will on one condition.”

He didn’t want to hear about conditions, he wanted to rend and tear who’d ever touched Darlene with his bare hands.

“See that,” she pointed at his clenched fists.They were shaking.“That’s why the condition.I can’t have you killing everyone untilafterI’ve had a chance to interview them.”