Irish Throwdown (What Happens In Vegas Book 4) by Matt Lincoln (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

shy, reclusive woman she’d been when we’d first met, and I was happy that she was being more outgoing and enjoying things away from her computer screen.

“Okay,” I conceded. “Although it might not be the greatest idea to go out at all with everything going on.”

“We can’t just stop living our lives because of that,” Fiona argued. “There will always be some new threat lurking around the corner. If we hide at home every time something bad happens, we’ll never be able to go outside again. Plus, we’re both armed federal agents. I think we can handle pretty much anything between the two of us.”

“I guess that’s true,” I agreed.

“Besides,” she shrugged, “that’ll just motivate us to solve this case that much faster.”

I chuckled at her optimism and was just about to open the passenger side door for her when I heard a man’s scream. I looked up at Fiona, whose face had gone white at the noise. A second later, we both took off, running toward the sound of the scream. As we sprinted around the side of the office building, I caught sight of a man standing on the other side of the street.

“Death is approaching!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. His face was red, and his fists were clenched at his sides. “I warned you! I warned all of you! The end is here!” He was walking down the street slowly as he continued to scream. He turned to look at us as we came to a stop and immediately ceased his rant.

The glare he threw at us was piercing, and I instinctively reached for the gun at my hip.

“Wait,” Fiona hissed as she gripped my arm with her hand. I gritted my teeth as a flash of pain shot up to my shoulder. “He might be harmless.”

“You don’t think he’s taken the drug?” I whispered back.

The man was staring at us unblinkingly. It was unnerving. Mrs. Evans had been behaving in a similar erratic manner right before she attacked me. If this man had taken the same drug, then there was a pretty high chance he was about to come at us at any moment.

“Are you alright, sir?” Fiona called. Her voice was clear and confident, but I could tell by the way she was gripping my arm tightly that she was nervous.

“Why don’t you mind your own business?” the man spat. Suddenly, his glare felt far less menacing. “Stupid kids, always butting into other people’s business. I’m trying to warn people here. Stupid kids…” He continued to mumble about us as he slowly shuffled away.

“Should we do something?” Fiona asked. “Take him to the hospital or something?”

“We can’t,” I frowned. “Not legally. He hasn’t done anything wrong. Screaming about the end of the world isn’t illegal. Technically, being high isn’t illegal either. Unless we have a solid reason to believe he is or is about to break the law, we can’t force him to do anything.”

“We should at least call the cops then,” Fiona said as she pulled her phone out of her purse. “Give them a heads up to keep an eye out. If he does start to become violent, at least they’ll be prepared.”

I nodded at her suggestion, but I wasn’t really satisfied. Legal red tape prevented us from taking the man into custody or to a hospital against his will, but if he was high on the new substance and later attacked someone, it might be too late for anyone to do anything about it.

I heard her speak on the phone, and at one point, she warned them that the man might become aggressive. I really hoped they would actually heed the warning and keep their eyes on the area. Hopefully, we were just being overly cautious, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Alright,” she sighed as she tucked her phone back into her bag. “I told them. They said they’ll increase patrols in this area.”

“Great,” I replied sarcastically. The experience had soured the relaxed mood that Fiona and I had been in earlier while discussing Halloween plans. It made me realize just how little time we had to spare.

“Come on,” Fiona tried cheering me up. “I’ll make us some dinner. Beau will be happy to see you.”

“Okay,” I responded, doing my best to return her smile. Fiona’s fluffy little dog Beau was adorable, and usually, I’d be excited at the prospect of seeing him, but I just couldn’t get my mind off the homeless man. I sincerely hoped he hadn’t taken any of the new drug.

9

Charlie

I took a sip of my coffee as I watched the morning news. I’d woken up earlier than usual that morning and had been unable to fall asleep. I just couldn’t stop going over the details of the case. In the end, I’d decided to get dressed and move to the couch in the living room to watch some TV before work. The attacks had been the hottest topic of conversation last night, and it seemed like the trend had continued into the morning.

“So far, the police have confirmed ten separate attacks,” the polished young news anchor reported. “Though there may be many more that have yet to be discovered. Because of the unusual nature of the attacks, it’s difficult to determine whether an assault was a part of this larger rash of unexplained aggressive behavior or--”

I turned off the TV and chugged the rest of my coffee. I could understand that people might be concerned about a drug that could suddenly cause someone to become violent, but the last thing we needed was a media circus. Especially since we still didn’t know what the perpetrator behind these attacks wanted to achieve. If it was to gain fame or notoriety, then the media was playing right into their hands.

I placed my cup down on the table a little too hard before standing up from the couch. I pulled my jacket off the kitchen chair and shrugged it on. It was