Book 2 of Cat and Mouse

Title: Better Off Dead

Author: Jayde

Rating: PG-13 for Language, Violence, and Adult Content

Credits: Thanks to Sassy for the beta read. (Hope I didn't mess up your studying!)

Summary: FBI agent Samantha Gallagher, now a friend of the turtles, starts working on a new case that may spell the end of her career.

Prologue:

Two years earlier …

"You want to believe you can get away."

"Please. Just let us go," the woman begged. She was curled on the floor, her back against the wall, and her arms full of two sobbing children. "Please."

"You never listen, Juliet. That's your problem. If you would have just listened," the man said, raising his gun, and aiming it at the trembling woman. "It would have been so much better." The report of the gun was deafening, and Juliet screamed as the bullet exploded in the wall just above her head. The two little girls squirmed to get closer to their mother, crying out in terror.

"Please, don't hurt them," Juliet shrieked as the muzzle of the gun moved lower.

"It was never about them," the man spat contemptuously. The phone in the man's pocket shrilled, startling him a little. He yanked it out. "What?" he barked into the phone. He listened for a moment, and his eyes went round with surprise. "This is my home, and I'll do whatever I …"

He didn't get to finish his sentence. The door behind him burst open, and blue uniformed SWAT members flooded into the suburban living room.

"Thank God," Juliet murmured against her eldest daughter's hair. "Thank you, God."

-

Twelve years earlier …

"This is the police! Come out with your hands up!"

"That's my boy up there," the sergeant said, smiling at his partner as they crouched behind the open doors of their police cruiser. His partner grinned back.

"What is this? His first day? Damn, man, can't you give the kid a break?" James called back over the hail of gunfire that had erupted from the convenience store doorway.

"Hey, he's a Gallagher," the sergeant replied with a firm nod. "He can handle it."

"Everybody needs to get back!" SWAT was pouring from one of their vans onto the street in full body armor.

"What the hell? We already got this covered," Sergeant Gallagher shouted over the din. "NYPD was here first!"

"Are you insane?" A SWAT member questioned sharply. A white news van careened around the corner, and flew towards the mess of police vehicles and uniforms on the street. More gunfire erupted from the doorway of the convenience store where an armed robbery had turned into a volatile hostage situation. "There are five men in there armed with automatic weapons. You have no armor on, you jackass. None of these men do. Now back off!"

"The hell I will," John Gallagher retorted, rising from his crouch. He glanced at his son, fresh out of the academy and not a mark on his uniform as he ducked and covered on his way up to the open door of the store. "This is our collar."

The van was still moving at dangerous speeds, nearly out of control, and clipped a light pole less than half a block away.

"Who is that?" Sergeant Gallagher asked, turning at the sound of the crunch of metal. The van bore down on them, and police officers started to move from their coverage in the face of the vehicle. The SWAT member grabbed the sergeant by the shirt collar, and jerked him out of the street. Everyone scattered as the van smashed into the patrol car parked in front of the store. It caught the back bumper, and flipped onto the sidewalk.

"Mark!" Gallagher shouted. He shrugged off any restraint, and ran for the tipped van. SWAT stormed the store, and the armed robbers were being dragged out, handcuffed, as the sergeant dropped to his knees on the sidewalk. "No," he breathed. He reached out, and touched a lock of red hair. "No."

"Sergeant," James said, and put a hand on the older man's shoulder. "He's gone, man. I'm sorry."

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