Putting Everything on the Line Read online

  About the author

  Kathryn is a single mum of two boys, originally from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, but now lives in a small town in Lancashire. As well as writing, Kathryn loves everything creative, especially cross stitching; she owns a small arts and crafts business which she runs from the local indoor market. She loves to watch sports including Formula One and football, which her eldest son plays. She also loves to travel and explore cultural places; she lived in Greece for five years and also worked in the US for a summer season.

  Putting Everything on the Line

  Kathryn Pana

  Putting Everything on the Line

  Vanguard Press

  VANGUARD PAPERBACK

  © Copyright 2019

  Kathryn Pana

  The right of Kathryn Pana to be identified as author of

  this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All Rights Reserved

  No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication

  may be made without written permission.

  No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,

  copied or transmitted save with the written permission of the publisher, or in accordance with the provisions

  of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).

  Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to

  this publication may be liable to criminal

  prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is

  available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978 1 784655 15 0

  Vanguard Press is an imprint of

  Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie Publishers Ltd.

  www.pegasuspublishers.com

  First Published in 2019

  Vanguard Press

  Sheraton House, Castle Park

  Cambridge, England

  Printed & Bound in Great Britain

  Dedication

  For my boys, who are my world.

  For my friends, who have supported my journey.

  For Elly, who has been an inspiration.

  Prologue

  Six Years Earlier

  It was a quiet day for the alpha team in the New York SWAT unit. Sergeant Will Falco and his team were training down on the indoor range. Will had only had the team for two years and he had put together the best shooters in the unit. His oldest and best friend, Tom Hargreaves, had just joined him on Team Alpha after some negotiation with the captain. Will had found being a team leader harder than he expected and he needed some support.

  Some of his team were new to SWAT so they needed training. Will wanted his team to keep their Alpha status and perfect all their skills.

  ‘Sergeant, is that better?’ asked Turner, his newest member.

  ‘Yeah, better than before but you still have a couple of strays,’ Will said, looking at the target.

  Will had always been a near perfect shot – many said it was a gift, a natural talent. He was one of the youngest to ever join the unit. He was pushed to take his Sergeant’s exam and to lead his own team before he was thirty.

  As they were setting up their new targets, their beepers went.

  ‘OK, let’s go, guys,’ Will said, and they all followed him out to the truck, collecting their weapons as they went.

  ***

  They arrived at a police cordon. It was a quiet street and there wasn’t any big stores, just small businesses and residential properties. Will got out and went over to the officer in charge as the truck was waved through the tape and stopped. They had a brief conversation about the situation while his team got out and got suited up. Will was looking around at the surrounding buildings as he went back to his team, he started getting ready as he briefed them.

  ‘OK, we have a group of armed assailants in a small jewellery store down here on the right-hand side of the road. Now me and Hargreaves will be on the roof exactly opposite. The building is a perfect height, so we should get a good view of the inside and what’s going on in there. Turner and Harvey, I want you on this building. You need to look out for any escape routes and vehicles and be ready to stop those on command. Barker and O’Neill, I need you two down on the ground to cover the officers and residents. If this goes south, I need you to be on your game. Now they have several hostages, there is the owner and staff, the rest are customers. We need to be at our best with this one. There are a lot of lives on the line here.’

  They all got their appropriate rifles from the truck and headed to their positions as quickly as they could.

  ‘So, what do you have planned for your birthday? Are you heading to your parents at all?’ Tom asked Will as they headed off to their position.

  ‘Yeah, probably, but we will be going out for some beers one night, too.’

  ‘What, no date with your lovely other? Or is she going to your parents with you?’

  ‘No, she is having some issues with my mum, so she is staying away.’

  They started heading up the stairs to the roof.

  ‘Not like your parents? We are talking about the same people, aren’t we? The lovely couple that have treated me so amazing since we were kids. The ones who get me a Christmas and birthday present every year without fail and got me an awesome wedding present. Why does she not like them? I wish they were my parents.’

  ‘Well, you aren’t my fiancée. They are insisting on a pre-nup and said there won’t be a wedding without one. She has gone crazy about it, saying if I make her sign it then I don’t trust her, but my parents are saying if she doesn’t sign it, then she is just after the money and will probably disappear within the first year.’ He opened the door to the roof. ‘I really don’t know what to do.’

  They walked slowly to the edge and got their rifles ready. The wall around the edge provided perfect cover while they did this. So many buildings in New York had these and because the roof was so accessible, they were always useful for the SWAT teams on sniper detail.

  Tom was ready and looked through his scope to get focussed and aimed in on the store. He froze and moved away from the scope.

  Will looked at him, puzzled.

  ‘What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

  ‘They have lined the hostages along the window so we can’t see in or get a clean shot, and that’s not all,’ he paused, not knowing how to say the words he needed to. ‘Your parents are in there.’

  Will looked through his scope and saw them stood in the window with the other hostages. His mother looked so frightened.

  ‘What the hell? I can’t believe this. What are they even doing here? They don’t shop in this area. Why today?’

  ‘Will, do you want to step back? I can take over.’

  ‘No.’ He walked up and down. ‘No, you can’t. No one knows that they are my parents, remember?’

  ‘Will, what are you going to do? You can’t pretend they aren’t down there, neither of us can.’

  ‘I have to, so I can get them out alive.’ He paused for a moment. ‘Alpha Team are in position,’ he said on the radio.

  ‘Do you have a clear shot, Alpha Team?’

  ‘Negative, they have put the hostages in the window. If we can draw them out, we will though.’

  ‘We are on the phone with them now, stand by.’

  Will looked at the window, trying to work out how he was going to get through this and get his parents out alive.

  ***

  Twenty minutes past and still no movement.

  ‘Alpha Team, we have a standoff with those inside. The order is if you can get a clear shot, then you are to take it.’

  ‘Alpha Team, received that.’

  ‘Thi
s is not good,’ Tom said. ‘These never end good. What now?’

  ‘We shoot the bastards one by one and get as many hostages out as possible.’

  ‘Hey, something’s happening. One of the hostages has moved,’ Tom exclaimed.

  ‘Yeah, I see it. I can see one of the assailants. He has a gun on a hostage. I’m taking the shot.’

  Will fired. The window broke, the assailant, shot dead, fell, hanging out of the window. Suddenly, the hostages were dragged from the windows and two more gunmen came to the windows, shooting at the police down on street level.

  ‘One each,’ Will said to Tom, while still looking through his scope.

  ‘Yeah, I got left,’ Tom answered.

  ‘1… 2… 3.’

  Two shots rang out and the assailants were down. A car came speeding round the corner and stopped right outside the store.

  ‘Harvey, he’s yours,’ Will said on the radio.

  One shot sounded, the driver was down. Will was looking through his scope, searching for anyone else in the store but he couldn’t see anyone at all. He knew there had to be another assailant or the hostages would have come out.

  Suddenly, he heard six shots coming from inside the store. Will looked over at Tom, his heart pounding. He looked back and the store door opened. Will could see his dad, there was another man behind him. He followed them as they moved down the street in desperate hope that he would show himself, that he could get him before he killed his dad. This guy was good though – not ever enough of him for long enough. He knew what he was doing. Then they disappeared round the corner.

  Police slowly started to follow. Will had started getting ready to move and then he heard another shot, he fell to the floor.

  Tom looked down at the street, police had entered the store and were heading off round the corner. Officers being ordered in all directions, then it came over the radio.

  ‘All hostages are down, the remaining assailant has gone.’

  Will felt his heart pounding. He took off his helmet and took his earpiece out. He put his head in his hands. Tears rolled down his face.

  Tom paced in disbelief, shaking his head.

  ‘Will, we have to go. You can’t stay here.’

  ‘I know,’ he answered.

  Tom pulled him up, they collected their things and started walking slowly towards the door. Will stopped for a moment and looked at Tom.

  ‘I can’t believe he just did that.’ He paused and looked back to the edge of the roof, then back at Tom. ‘He just shot them all, for what? He didn’t need to do that. He could have negotiated his way out. We didn’t have a choice, did we?’ Almost questioning what he himself had done in the line of duty.

  ‘No, he didn’t have to, but you know some guys are crazy, they don’t have normal thoughts. I can’t even imagine what you are going through right now or why this happened, but you need to go down there and do your job right now. Your parents did everything to protect you and no one down there knows who they are. You OK to do this?’

  ‘No, but you’re right, we need to move.’

  He opened the door and walked in silence down the stairs and out onto the street. Will started walking towards the store.

  Tom put his arm up to stop him and whispered, ‘You don’t want to see her like that.’

  Will nodded and headed to the truck, all the team were there waiting, stunned in silence.

  Just as Will and Tom were putting their stuff away, Will’s phone rang. His mum’s picture flashed up on the screen.

  He signalled to Tom and they moved away from the truck.

  ‘Hello?’ he answered.

  ‘William, I presume?’ came the reply.

  ‘Yeah, who is this?’

  ‘That’s not important…’ Just then, a siren went by and he heard it on the phone. Will realised he was close by, but he heard it, too.

  ‘You are here, William, you know,’ he paused with a chuckle. ‘You are a policeman, aren’t you? And you just had the privilege of watching me kill your mother and father. Wait, it gets better. You are SWAT. You are the reason I had to kill them.’

  Will spun round looking for him but he didn’t even know what he looked like.

  ‘Well, come and get me. That’s if you can find me,’ and he hung up.

  Will walked back to the truck.

  ‘Let’s go,’ he said to the team, then he pulled Tom to the back of the truck. ‘He is still watching and he knows who I am.’

  ‘Shit,’ Tom responded. ‘What now?’

  ‘I find and kill the bastard,’ Will said. ‘But first I need to get back and speak to the captain to get their identity covered up before people start putting things together. I can’t go after this guy or run this team if it comes out who I am.’

  Five Years Earlier

  Kathy was home preparing dinner when Tony walked in after his shift. For once they had both been on days, and so Kathy had rushed home to prepare his dinner, he had started to get over the fact she was working for the Chicago police department, but she wasn’t sure how he would take her latest news so she had made his favourite in hope it would soften him up before telling him. For her, it was a definite step up and she wouldn’t be at ground level any more, it did mean more money too, though not that much so it wasn’t really a selling point. She knew he had being making hints of her leaving after they got married and had suggested having children several times of late. She, however, wanted to see what she could achieve professionally first though.

  ‘Hi, Hun,’ she said, smiling.

  ‘Hi, baby,’ he replied before kissing her.

  ‘Good day?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah, not too much going on today thankfully. You?’

  ‘I had an amazing day actually.’ She started serving dinner.

  Tony was getting in the way, picking off the plates before she was done.

  ‘Why, what happened?’

  ‘Well, my sergeant pulled me in his office. I thought I had done something wrong at first, because that’s why he usually does that, but he said my record was exemplary and my scores on the range are one of the best from my precinct. So, they want me to move onto the SWAT unit.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ he asked sternly.

  ‘Yeah, why?’

  ‘You want to put yourself in more danger than you do now?’

  ‘Says you that goes into burning buildings most days of the week.’

  ‘That’s different and you know it is.’ He paused and held her shoulders, looking into her eyes. ‘You know I want kids and I want you to leave the force as soon as we get married, so why do this?’

  She shrugged him off and walked to the other end of the kitchen.

  ‘Because I want to, because I am good enough and I want to be the best police officer I can be. This opportunity is rare for female officers, I can’t and I won’t turn this down.’

  Tony headed towards the door collecting his coat en-route.

  ‘Where are you going? What about dinner?’

  ‘Out.’ He opened the door. ‘I lost my appetite.’ He left, slamming the door.

  ***

  She was in bed when he came home but she couldn’t sleep, it was probably a good thing she wasn’t on shift tomorrow. She could hear him in the kitchen, he was most likely hungry after walking out on dinner. A short time later, she could hear him in the bathroom and then there was complete silence. He didn’t come to bed, he must have gone into the spare room or something. She sighed as she laid in the dark, she began thinking about the future. Why could he not see that she loved her job and wanted to be more? To achieve something and the fact that she was good at this was the reason that she needed to see what she could do and where this would take her. It took her a while to fall asleep but when she did, she slept better than she had in weeks.

  The next day when Kathy woke, the house was quiet. She got up and went into the kitchen and put on some coffee, she looked in the living room, Tony wasn’t there. She went and looked outside, his car was gone. She took
a shower and as she was coming back into the kitchen for her coffee, the phone rang.

  ‘Hello?’ she answered.

  ‘Kathy, Tony called last night, completely distraught, something about you joining the SWAT unit. Now is this true?’

  ‘Hi Mum, yeah it’s true. The sergeant wants me to take the exams. He thinks I have a good chance at passing.’

  ‘Well I don’t think so, young lady. I want grandchildren sometime soon and this is no way to go about it.’

  ‘There is plenty of time for that, Mum, and I do have to pass first. It is one of the hardest units to get into.’

  ‘Pass or not, this whole police thing has gone far enough and you should stop playing games and do what is right.’

  ‘What is right for who? You? Tony?’ Kathy paused to catch her breath, she was so angry. He had gone behind her back to her parents. ‘You don’t care what I want for my life as long as it suits you and Tony. I love my job and I am honoured to be asked to try out for SWAT, and you, quite frankly, don’t have to like it, Mum, because it is my decision.’

  ‘So, that’s it? You will throw your whole future away for this?’

  ‘I am making my future, Mum, by doing this.’ Kathy replied and then she hung up; she couldn’t take any more. She was so tired of being told what she should be doing and what was best for her. She was going to do this and she would try her very best to make it work with Tony because she did love him, but if he couldn’t handle this, then she would have to make a choice and she knew deep down what that would be.

  Three Years Earlier

  ‘Kathy, I have been thinking,’ Tony shouted as he came in. ‘We should rent out your grandmother’s house, save for the wedding, take a holiday. We could take your parents away, they said they would love to go back to Florida.’