Jobe: Alvarez Security Series by Maryann Jordan Page B

mom.”
    Later that night after her mother had gone to bed, Mackenna pulled her laptop onto the bed with her and began looking up sites on PTSD and soldiers. So much of the information she had seen before, both on the news and in articles, but none of it seemed to fit Jobe. So many talked about disengaging from work or friends. That’s certainly not him. Depression. Lack of energy. Nope, not him either.
    Then she dug a little deeper and found that the symptoms could vary considerably from patient to patient. Detaching from loved ones. Difficulty imagining a future. Fear of losing control. Becoming workaholics. Now that describes him.
    Reading a little more, she was vaguely aware of the sounds of a car backfiring on the street, piercing the quiet of the night. Then the shattering of glass. Shit, it’s gunfire!
    Dropping to the floor, she threw open her door and crawled toward her mother’s bedroom. “Mom, Mom, don’t move,” she screamed. Her mother’s room was at the front of the house and she could see the window was shattered. Crawling through the glass on the floor, she glanced at the bed finding it empty.
    “Mom?” she screamed again.
    “I hea,” came her mom’s voice from behind. “I wa in ba-room.”
    “Stay down,” Mackenna yelled as she crawled back to the hall, hugging her mom. Once out of the sight of windows, she grabbed her cell phone dialing 911. Quickly explaining the process, she pulled her mom back down the hall.
    Instinct kicked in; assuming this was a gang drive-by she wanted to warn the center. Little John did not answer the phone, so she scrolled through her contacts to see who she could call. Jennifer. She can tell Gabe, who can have someone check the cameras.
    She dialed Jennifer and told her what had happened, but before she could get out what she needed, Gabe came on the line.
    She told him that the police were on their way to her house, but she was scared for the center. He assured her that Alvarez Security would take care of the center but wanted her to stay put until the police arrived. “Are you away from the windows?” he barked.
    “Yes, we’re in the hall. I hear the sirens now.”

Chapter 7
    J obe pulled himself out of the pool as he finished his late night swim, working his body to exhaustion in an attempt to ease his mind. Just as he reached for his towel, his cell phone buzzed. It seemed an odd time for Gabe to be calling.
    “Yeah?” he answered.
    “Get over to Mackenna’s. There’s been a drive-by shooting. She and her mom are okay. Tony’s sending Terrance and Vinny to check on the center and the rest of us are meeting at her house. He’s coordinating with Matt and Shane.”
    “Goddamnit,” he growled. Grabbing his gym bag, he jerked off his trunks and pulled on his boxers and jeans after quickly toweling off. Throwing on his t-shirt, he then slid his feet into his boots. Snagging his keys and wallet off of the bench, he headed out to his vehicle.
    *
    Within a few minutes of getting off of the phone with Gabe, the police had entered the house immediately finding Mackenna and her mom. Penny was unharmed but shaken, while Mackenna’s knees and hands were bleeding from the broken glass she had crawled through.
    An ambulance arrived about the same time that the house began to fill with others. Mackenna was taken to the kitchen so that the EMTs could work on her cuts. One of the policemen walked in to inform her that the detectives from the Drug Task Force would be in to see her as soon as she was patched up. Nodding, she had just looked down at her legs when two men came into the kitchen accompanying her mother. Assisting her mother into a chair, they introduced themselves.
    “Ms. Dunn, I’m Detective Matt Dixon and this is my partner Detective Shane Douglass. We’re with the Richland Police Department’s Gang Task Force. Your mother has already answered some ques—”
    “Please don’t tire her out. I can answer your questions for you, Detective,” Mackenna