Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Logan
“ Y ou sure you’re okay?” DB asked again as he checked me over.
“Yeah, he got me in the fucking vest. Jesus, couldn’t they make these things better, so we don’t feel anything?”
DB, Carter, and Alex were staring at the bullet hole in my vest, all of them looking almost intrigued by it. If it was that interesting, I had no issues promising to shoot them in the same place so they could experience it for themselves.
Not looking away from it, Carter rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Probably feels better than it would if you weren’t wearing one.”
“Wanna try it so you can confirm that?” I snapped, wanting to take it off to check my stomach, but we couldn’t right now.
“Not really. I wonder what it looks like underneath?”
There was scuffling at the door, and then Garrett and Raoul brought out King Kirkwood and led him over to their vehicle.
“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” I asked DB, watching him closely.
When we’d gotten to the property, King had been on his own, counting money. Apparently, word of his Dad’s arrest and situation hadn’t hit him yet, so he hadn’t been expecting us .
We’d found piles of meth, cocaine, and all of the other things they were mixing into it, just lying out in the open. You could smell it in the air as you went in, so we’d masked up to protect ourselves from it.
The initial drugs we found hadn’t been prepared for distribution yet, but at the back, he had hundreds of full baggies carefully laid out for collection. It was unbelievable to see the amount just sitting there and knowing how far it could travel to do damage to someone.
Being around the drugs in an enclosed space had also messed with King, so initially, he’d smiled at us and waved a happy hello. Unfortunately, he’d also been waving his gun around as he did it, and his finger had hit the trigger, shooting a bullet into my vest as we all tried to move away from where he was pointing with it.
In my job, I hadn’t had the opportunity to come across a lawyer who was happy to see us, especially not one who was high, so it would definitely be a story I’d tell my kids when they were older. I might miss out on the piles of drugs scattered around him, though, at least until they were much, much older.
“I think he’s tripping out of his mind right now,” DB replied, turning back to us. “But we need to find Lord and—” His phone suddenly ringing cut him off. Pulling it out, he frowned at the screen and lifted it to his ear. “Naomi, we’re— What? When?” The way his eyes shifted to stare at me had me moving toward where our cruisers were at the end of the road. “Okay, we’ll be there as fast as we can.”
“Tell me,” I shouted over my shoulder, breaking into a jog with the others beside me.
“Shots fired at Hell On Wheels and loud banging. Hyacinth called it into Naomi and hung up after telling her she was getting her shotgun ready.”
“Didn’t Naomi tell her to stay on the line?” Carter snapped.
“She tried, but Hyacinth wouldn’t listen. She’s tried calling back, but there wasn’t any answer, so she tried calling Bexley and got the same there.”
Fuck. Fucking fuck !
Cutting across the group to get to the cruiser I had the keys to, I jumped in behind the wheel and started the engine. The passenger door opened, and Carter got in, slamming it hard enough to rock the whole thing.
“Go. Alex is going with DB, but he said you had the lead.”
As I drove, I thought about the last couple of weeks. Bexley was still grieving over her pops, and I’d never get the image of her on her knees beside his grave as they lowered his coffin into it.
She’d opened the doors to me that I never expected to have opened, and now I had her beauty back in my life. I’d gotten more than that, I had all of her. Finally, after years of wanting her badly, she was mine.
What she’d been through today had been a nightmare, and it was still going on. Was she scared? Was she crying? Was she hiding in a closet? It hurt to even think like that, so I had to focus on how strong she was.
I had zero doubts in my mind that she’d be protecting Ava, the cats, and Doyle. She was a born protector.
I also had zero doubts that she was terrified—no one hears gunshots unexpectedly and isn’t.
I hated that she was going through even more on top of losing someone she loved.
But I had to be as rational as possible.
I was missing something, what was it?
Lifting my ass cheek, I concentrated on not pushing the pedal down to the floor with how I was balanced. “Hey, Carter, reach into my pocket and pull my phone out.”
“Which pocket’s it in?”
“Back right. Once you’ve got it, type in—”
He’d been reaching out but snatched his hand back again. “I’m not touching your ass. I’ll call whoever you need on my phone. ”
“Just take it out,” I growled, relieved to feel a man’s hands on my ass cheek for once when he did it. “Now, type in zero-one-zero-three and look at the messages. Are there any from Mace, Bexley, or Ava?”
He hummed as he unlocked it, but then he said, “Yeah, there’s one from Mace. He says the girls are safe.”
That was it ?
“That’s it? There aren’t anymore?”
“Nope, just the one saying they’re safe. Want me to text him and ask what’s going on?”
I didn’t reply because our radios suddenly came back to life as we moved out of the no-reception zone.
“Guys, I hope you can hear this. Mizz O’Hare has called in an update, and now we have a hostage situation at Hell On Wheels Motel,” Naomi said quickly. “I know we’re not meant to talk like this on the radio, but I’m freaking out. She said everyone’s got a gun, and I don’t know if she means the good guys or the bad guys. Can an eighty-three year old woman be a good guy?”
DB was the one who answered her. “Thank you for the update. We’re en route to the motel.”
Then everything went silent again, leaving me with a racing heart and a million thoughts.
“Just to say, I know you’re close to losing your shit, but if I were ever in a hostage situation, I’d want Mace and an eighty-three year old woman with a shotgun protecting me. I accidentally stood on her flowerbed a few weeks back, and I swear she was going to tear me a new one. If someone’s done any damage to her property, I’ll be betting she’s pissed.”
“But is she stable? A pissed off old woman with a shotgun?”
Snorting, he pointed out the turning ahead unnecessarily. “Sorry, force of habit. I think the question of whether she’s stable or not is a loaded one, but I’d still want her protecting me in that situation.”
The motel wasn’t far after the turning, so I pulled to a stop in front of it and was almost out of the vehicle when someone grabbed my shoulder and almost got punched.
It was Alex.
“Stay calm. If you can’t, you’ll need to sit this one out.”
“She’s my fucking life, man,” I snapped. “My world is sitting in that room, and someone with a gun is—”
“We don’t even know if the gun’s anywhere near her,” he interrupted, giving me a quick shake. “Now, we’re going to move carefully so that we don’t fuck it all up and get people shot. It’s a shitty situation,” he admitted, ignoring the sarcastic noises that everyone let out at the words, “but we won’t be the reason someone innocent gets hurt.”
Grinding my teeth together, I reluctantly nodded. I wanted to run in and get to her, but he was right. God, but this sucked.
“Good job,” DB said as he walked up, stopping in front of me. “A lot of us understand how you’re feeling right now, Logan, but Dad’s right. You have to be calm to be smart, and smart is making sure no one gets shot. We’ll get her out.”
I’d take and love Bexley any way she came, so long as her heart was beating.
And it was my job to make sure it stayed that way.
I didn’t take the weight of that responsibility lightly either. She was my heart, so hers couldn’t stop, especially not now.
“What are y’all yapping about?” a female voice yelled from one of the doors of the motel.
The door that was next to the room I’d dropped Bexley off in. Son of a bitch !
DB spun around at the sound of it, but I had a clear view of the owner of the motel standing with her shotgun resting on her shoulder. “Mizz O’Hare—"
Moving the shotgun, she started using it as a sort of pointer stick like they used at the academy to point at the board. “Now, don’t be giving me any of that, Sheriff. It’s Hyacinth, and you know that. Y’all also know I don’t take any shit in my establishment, and this definitely goes against the rules. Now, are you going to come and help me out, or are we having tea and a social gathering?”
Carter moved to stand beside me, his eyes wide as he watched her waving her shotgun around. “What’s happening?” he whispered.
“I have no fucking idea, but she’s standing next to the room Bexley’s in.”
DB turned to look at me over his shoulder. “Logical thinking time. If someone like Bexley needed help because she was hurt, Hyacinth’s demeanor would be very different from what it is now, and she’d be requesting medical assistance. Instead, she’s agitated but only slightly more than normal.”
“Trust me when I say I’m not getting any younger here,” she bellowed. “Gravity ain’t friends with age, so I got both beating down on me.”
“Does anyone need medical assistance?” Alex called back.
“No? Well, maybe?”
Glaring at DB, I growled, “I’m losing my fucking mind here. I need to go up there and make sure she’s okay.”
“And you will. Give me just thirty more seconds, and think about what I just said about Hyacinth. Don’t let your emotions take over your ability to do the job properly.” Answering him with a jerk of my chin, I watched Miss O’Hare closely as he walked toward her and shouted, “What are we walking into, Hyacinth?”
“A fucking magic show, what do you think? Got a judge who thinks he can shoot up my property, a man being held hostage by the judge, and a handsome young fella y’all know who does some great body art—” she stopped as someone shouted something to her from the rooms, then turned back to us. “Sorry, he says he’s got shit okay in that room, and to get the sorry sacks of shit outta this one.”
Hanging my head to look at my boots, I mentally kicked myself. DB was right. I’d let my emotions take over my ability to do my job.
A meaty paw smacking me on the shoulder made me grit my teeth. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. We didn’t know anything about Bex’s situation, and having innocent people around when guns start going off affects all of us. Hopefully, you’ll never be in a situation where it happens around Bexley again, though. Twice in one day is more than enough for one lifetime.”
I listened to Alex’s advice and absorbed it. I was raw. That was the only way to describe it. Twice today, my heart had stopped because of guns being shot near her. Twice I hadn’t known if I’d find her breathing or dead.
So, yeah, I was fucking raw, and I would be until I got to check her over myself.
Holding his hand in the air, DB motioned to us to split into two teams. Because there were staircases on either side of the walkway that ran in front of the rooms we were aiming for, one group would approach from one side, and the other would come from the other side.
Looking at me, he pointed at Carter and then at the room we’d rented earlier.
I was splitting off from the team and going in to see her.
Nodding, we moved quickly and were soon on the walkway. As I got to the door, I tapped gently three times and stood back so Mace could see me through the peephole.
When he threw open the door, Carter and I moved inside and shut it quietly behind us.
“They’re in the bath with the animals. I hid them with a comforter over their heads in case the guy shot again,” he pointed at a wall where there were three large holes.
“Damn,” Carter whistled.
“Yeah, and the girls were standing four inches to the right of it when the first one came through,” he clipped, his lips set in a straight line. “Fucker almost hit them because he couldn’t take getting dumped.”
All I could see was Bexley laughing as she relaxed after a bullshit day with her friend, a glass of wine in her hand, and a bullet going into her .
“Why—” I stopped and licked my lips. “What did they do when it happened?”
Mace’s lip twitched slightly as he looked at me. “They don’t even know it happened. They thought initially it was fireworks or an argument outside. I went in earlier after it kicked off again next door to reassure them it wasn’t in the room, and the damn dog was sitting in the tub with them while Ava cuddled the cats.”
Tipping my head back to look at the ceiling, I felt anger, relief, sadness, happiness, and rage. All of them were extreme, but the one that came to the surface was a burst of irrational laughter.
A bullet had come through the wall near her and her friend, and now she was hiding in a tub with Doyle on her lap and the box of kittens.
Sweet baby Herbert and fish sticks on a Sunday.
“That’s the craziness of stress coming through,” Carter told Mace as they watched me laughing.
Next door, we could hear a commotion and a deep voice yelling that he wasn’t leaving without someone else, but I knew they had it under control when I heard Alejandro yelling out that he had the gun.
“You better believe I’m suing your ass for damages, Judge Ingleston. I don’t care what your job title is, you don’t make holes in someone else’s wall. I know you were born during the prohibition, but your mama must have taught you manners,” Hyacinth screamed from outside. “That’s like me coming to yours for Sunday dinner and wiping my ass on your decorative hand towels. Why I never…” she trailed off, muttering something to herself that we couldn’t quite pick up.
“Remind me to come here for a weekend,” Carter said, staring at the door.
Rubbing my face with shaking hands, I shook my head and wondered how just how something so bad could end like this.
Was this the end of it?
I hoped so .
“Go get your girl, man. But be warned—they’re talking about bad breath and wine stinking more after you drink it. They tried to get me to smell it when I went in to reassure them, but I told them I had shit to do.”
I’d smell her breath if she asked me to, even if it was first thing in the morning. I didn’t want to take even one second for granted with her, and I hoped that determination never stopped.
The second I opened the door, her sweaty, red face popped out from under the comforter, which looked like it was being propped up in the middle by Doyle.
“Logan!” she cried, then looked me up and down, stopping on my stomach. “What’s that?”
Shit, the bullet hole.
“I got it snagged on something. Are you okay?” I asked as I dropped to my knees beside her. “You’re not hurt?”
“No, we’re fine. Someone was arguing next door, so Mace put us in here because he’s a big old worry head.” Then, putting her face right in front of mine, she blew out a breath. “Hey, does that smell like death? Try Ava’s.”
Truth be told, it didn’t smell great.
But I didn’t give even an ounce of a shit.