The Good and the Bad

Now Is Always Temporary

Chapter Twenty-Eight

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"You know, I thought I wasn't supposed to come back till Monday." A tired sigh escaped Scout's lips as she finished strapping on her vest, sparing a glance towards Jay and Antonio as they both did the same alongside her. While she had been excited to finally be free to come back to work that didn't mean she had been thrilled to get called out at eleven o'clock on a Sunday night.

"Hey, you got cleared, didn't you?" Jay shrugged before pulling his long gun from the trunk on his car that was parked outside the house they'd been called to. Patrol alerting them to a hostage situation in progress. "And it'll be Monday in like an hour."

"Besides, you're never against coming back early." Antonio gave her a small nudge. "Don't forget that I was the one that had to keep you back after both of your pregnancies and the ambulance accident."

"No one likes know-it-alls," Scout muttered under her breath as the trio caught sight of Voight's SUV pulling up to the scene.

"What do we got?" Voight asked as he and Erin both climbed out of the car.

"House belongs to a Dean Masters. His file was red-flagged to notify Intelligence, but he must have been before my time." Antonio briefed the sergeant as he showed them a picture of the guy on his phone. 

"Oh, yeah, him," Voight nodded, recognizing the picture. "That robbery at the art institute last year. We liked him as the fence."

"The neighbors heard a woman scream. We knocked, he yelled out that he had a gun and to leave him alone." The responding patrolman shared with the team. 

"Well let's go see if we can get a different tune." Voight glanced around at the group. The four detectives quickly fell into line behind the sergeant as he led the way up to the front door. All of them waited with their guns drawn, ready for anything to happen as Voight slammed his fist against the door. "Masters, this is Sergeant Voight with the Chicago Police. Open up, make this easy on all of us."

"He's gonna kill me!" They heard a woman scream from inside.

"Take it." Voight took a step back, allowing Jay to shoot out the deadbolt with his gun. With the door open they all rushed inside, being greeted by the sight of Masters holding a half-naked woman in front of him as a human shield, holding a gun to her head. "Drop it!"

"I told 'em I would kill her!" Masters shouted as the team all filed in to surround him. 

"Drop it, Masters!" Voight demanded at the man backed himself into the corner of the living room. 

"Let her go!" Antonio tried to tell him as he, Scout, and Jay circled around the back of the long red sofa. 

"All we're trying to do is have a good time. Isn't that right, huh?" Masters grabbed a fistful of the woman's hair before shoving her face down into a bowl of cocaine resting on the coffee table. 

"Drop your weapon! Hands in the air!" Jay's jaw locked at the sight of the drugs now clinging to the woman's face. "Do it now!"

"Easy, easy. Everybody take a breath," Erin spoke up as she lowered her own gun. Scout didn't pay the other woman much attention, her eyes trained on the gunman in front of them. Noticing the way his hand trembled as he held the gun, his pupil dilated and a thin layer of sweat coating his skin.

"She set me up. She's trying to get me killed." Masters insisted.

"Fine, you're right. We can handle that," Erin tried to assure him.