Chapter 21 #3
By the time I reach town hall, my body trembles violently from the exertion, my blood rushing in my ears as it also trickles from several cuts. I place a hand against the brick to hold myself upright until I get to the door.
I listen carefully, trying to hear what’s going on inside, but only silence greets me.
This is wrong.
Town hall is always bustling.
People moving in and out for court, to talk to Tony or someone else in the sheriff’s department offices, to file something with the clerks.
I ease the door open and slip inside.
A heavy sob echoes off the marble floors. An anguished sound. One filled with the kind of pain and loss I can’t even imagine.
It comes from the left, the hallway that leads to the sheriff’s office.
My stomach clenches, and I force my feet to move toward the sound instead of away from it. Turning the first corner, I almost trip on another body sprawled out on the floor in front of me.
A pool of blood still spreads beneath him, oozing out until it hits the toe of my boot. Holding my breath, I lean forward until I can see his face…
Oh, thank God.
I don’t recognize the man at my feet.
Was that the gunshot I heard?
Voices float down the hallway, soft, hurried, concerned. I creep forward until I can see into the sheriff’s office, the main doors propped open, and my breath catches.
No.
No.
No.
No.
Tony sits on the floor with his wife, Tanya, holding her to him, with seeping blood beneath them, while Liam kneels beside him, whispering to him quietly and holding his shoulder.
Killian and Connor have their backs to me, leaning over the counter, doing something I can’t see from where I’m standing, but they appear unharmed.
It’s impossible not to be relieved by that, but my eyes keep drifting back to Tony and Tanya, at all the blood—on his uniform, on her.
I did this…
A sob slips from my throat.
Liam’s head snaps up and his green eyes meet mine, holding such an intense sadness that my legs give out from under me. “Raven!”
Connor and Killian both whirl around, and as soon as Connor’s eyes find mine, he’s racing across the sheriff’s office toward me.
His strong arms wrap around me, pulling me up from the floor as gently as he can, but the pain still slices through me as surely as that man’s blade did. “What the hell are you doing in here?”
“I couldn’t just sit there when you might be in trouble.”
He scowls at me in the way only Connor McBride can, his annoyance tightening his shoulders as he lifts me easily and cradles me against his chest. “That was very stupid.”
“We can argue about it later.”
The look he gives me tells me that absolutely will be happening.
But for now, he stalks back into the sheriff’s office, slowing as he reaches where Liam still kneels beside Tony and his wife.
Now that we’re this close, I can see the carnage much better.
Tears stream down Tony’s face, his heart-wrenching sobs filling the air. Tanya is clearly gone. The bullet hole in her chest isn’t the kind you survive. And from what I can see, Tony’s been hit, too, a wound on his shoulder that Liam is applying pressure to still drips blood down his arm.
“What happened?”
Tony glances up at me, his face covered with splotches of blood, tear streaks running through them.
“They just…showed up in town a few hours ago. Looking for me, looking for all of you. They ambushed me coming into town hall…hit me in the shoulder, but I managed to take two of them out. The third bolted around the side of the building…”
He swallows thickly, gazing down at his wife’s lifeless body.
“The gunshots scared everyone. People scattered, sought cover. Anyone who came out, I told them to stay inside or to get out of town.” His fingertips trail over her pale cheek.
“Tanya was coming to meet me for lunch. She found me in here, radioing for help. I sent everyone else to hide in the basement.”
His breath hitches.
“I-I tried to send her down there, but…” His eyes flick up to the doorway and the body down the hall. “He showed back up. Said they were tying up all the loose ends. He fired before I could get her out of the way.”
A sob interrupts him, and Connor clutches me close, holding me as I tremble and fight the emotions threatening to swallow me.
This is my fault.
“I’m so sorry, Tony.” I blink away the tears blurring him in my vision. “This is my fault. I brought them here. I did this.”
He doesn’t respond, just clings to his wife as Liam applies pressure to his shoulder wound.
That man will never forgive me, and he shouldn’t.
Not when I had to poke the bear. Not when I unleashed this on us.
Connor turns away, stepping around them to head toward where Killian stands beside what must be the radio. He dips his head until his lips are near my ear. “Tony almost shot Killian and Liam when they came in.”
That’s what I heard.
That shot.
Killian gives him a hard look. “The helicopter is coming for Tony and Raven. And I called Agent Michaelson to let him know what happened. The cavalry is on the way.”
I know what happened—blood flowed on McBride Mountain again.
Everything Connor warned me would happen came true.