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

Clara’s initial reaction was relief. This kind man had suddenly appeared to rescue them from a complete creep. However, her relief quickly morphed into trepidation as the unidentified man continued to pummel the creep even after he was bloody and unresponsive on the ground.

“Hey, I think you can stop!” she called nervously. “He’s not moving. We should call the cops now.”

By this point, even more people had gathered around to watch the scene unfold. Clara fished her phone out of her purse to call the police, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the man. Now that she took a closer look, the man seemed very out of place. He was wearing what looked like a bathrobe and didn’t have any shoes on, despite being in the middle of the Las Vegas strip. Suddenly, he ceased his relentless attack on the unconscious man and slowly straightened back up. Clara felt her blood run cold as she observed the man’s odd behavior.

The man turned around to face them, and Clara could see that his eyes were glazed and unfocused.

“Are you okay?” Melanie asked loudly. “You don’t look so good. Maybe you should sit down.”

The man’s eyes snapped toward her the moment she spoke. Without warning, he lunged at her and slammed her to the ground. Yolanda screamed as he began to punch Melanie in the face, and it seemed like her horrified cries broke whatever trance the crowd was in. Several people started shouting, and two men even rushed forward in an attempt to stop the crazed man’s attack. He threw them off easily and even bit one of the men’s hands when he attempted to pull him off her.

Clara’s phone was still clutched tightly in her hand, and she couldn’t pull her eyes away from the scene in front of her for long enough to call for help.

“We’re on the strip!” she heard Georgia shouting behind her. “I’m not sure exactly where. In front of this restaurant called Sally’s. Please send someone fast! He’s killing her!”

Clara could hear Yolanda shrieking somewhere to her right. In front of her, the man was alternating between slamming Melanie’s head onto the hard concrete beneath her and viciously biting at her neck and face.

“Stop!” a deep voice suddenly shouted from a few feet away. The deep timbre snapped Clara back to reality, and she snapped her head up to find the source. A police officer was standing nearby, his gun raised and trained at the man currently murdering her friend. “Everyone move away!”

The officer fired a bullet at the man and struck him in the shoulder. He immediately stopped his assault but didn’t cry out in pain or fall to the ground. On the contrary, he slowly turned to look at the officer.

Clara watched in horror as the man dropped Melanie’s limp body and staggered to his feet. The officer’s eyes were blown wide in shock.

“Get on the ground, now!” he yelled, though Clara could hear the tremble in his voice. “Hands behind your head!”

The man didn’t obey and instead began to trudge toward the officer, who fired again and hit the man directly in the chest. The crazed man stumbled but didn’t go down and suddenly took off at a run toward the officer.

The officer let out a guttural yell that sounded equal parts scared and angry before firing at the suspect. The second bullet hit his head, and finally, the crazed man collapsed to the ground. Despite the large crowd of people that had gathered by that point, the entire street fell silent as the man finally stopped moving. Clara sank to her knees and stared at the broken and battered form of her friend, too dazed to process what she was seeing.

“This has to be a nightmare,” she muttered to herself as the street broke into pandemonium a moment later. “This can’t be real.”

2

Charlie

I let out a deep breath and loosened my tie as I left the interview room. I’d never liked wearing suits, but it was necessary for today. Our agency had gotten into some hot water during our last big case, and honestly, it was mostly my fault. Sure, Junior had helped by throwing himself into the middle of a hostage negotiation, and Naomi hadn’t helped matters by threatening to throw a suspect into general population after spreading unkind rumors about him, but I had done the most damage by assaulting a suspect while he was in our custody, and handcuffed no less.

It had been a particularly trying case, one that involved children, which would have been bad enough on its own had it not been for the fact that my own niece had become involved as well when she was kidnapped by one of the perpetrators. It had become all too personal for all of us, and we’d wound up breaking protocol one too many times.

As a result, a formal hearing had been held to determine what should be done about our agency. One agent misbehaving would have been a simpler matter to deal with, but apparently, the top brass wasn’t impressed with the fact that half of our agents had acted against protocol in such a short time.

I thought about what might happen to me now as I sank heavily into one of the overstuffed chairs in the main atrium of the Clark County FBI office. I’d already received two weeks suspension, and the woman who’d interviewed me had seemed sympathetic when she’d heard the circumstances surrounding my outburst, but it was hard to tell whenever government agencies were involved.

“I can’t stand all this bureaucratic nonsense,” Naomi huffed as she took a seat next to me.

“I was just thinking the same thing,” I chuckled. “But we did technically break the rules.”

“We did,” Naomi nodded. “And if he hadn’t, the outcome might have been much worse. Children’s lives were at risk, for goodness’ sake! Including the family member of one of our own. They can’t possibly