THIS IS SNEAK PEEK

• This book reflects the author's present recollections of experiences over time. Some names and characteristics have been changed, some events have been compressed, and some dialogue has been recreated.

Introduction

The searing pain, like a sunburn, engulfed my left arm and the left side of my face: it was not what I imagined it would be. Moments before, I had knocked on the door, and then it happened—the man on the other side kicked the door open. At that moment, I saw him point a crossbow toward me and I ran down the side of the connex trailer that the man lived in. As I drew my weapon to confront the danger this man posed, the pain came.
At that moment, the training and instinct collapsed into something simpler and more dangerous. There was no room for doubt, no space for hesitation, only the belief that decisive, immediate action was the answer. I didn’t feel fear so much as focus, a narrowing of the world to threat and response.
In a split second, this moment in time slowed down and thoughts flooded through my head. The only conclusion I could come up with is that I had just been shot. I was already drawing my weapon, and I squeezed a round off from the hip toward the direction of the man with the crossbow. I just wanted him away from me, and the shot I took had done exactly that. Now he was running away, disappearing around the corner of the connex trailer. I had to protect others as well as myself, so I ran to the corner of the trailer to better observe and react to whatever was going to come next.
This wasn’t the first time I had been in danger; I was seventeen years into my law enforcement career by this time and had seen many ups and downs. I had been fired from my first agency, worked as a wrecker driver, seen redemption, and began a new start. How did I get to the point of being shot in the face with a crossbow?