Chapter 26 - Karter
The brothers rush around helping. Not me or Kooper, though. We stay close by the cop who’s at the front entrance. We’ve crept back over the barricade, but not farther than that. The cop gives us the eye every now and again but says nothing.
He’s been talking to the SWAT team that pulled up a few minutes ago. He might be on that team or just giving his initial report, I don’t know. Wish I could read lips.
“Flint have anything yet?” I ask Kooper, who’s been on a constant phone call with him, needing eyes in there as much as he can.
“He’s searching, but someone took out the cameras before they went in. All he has is Ruby entering, and then they go down a minute later.”
I hum and keep eyes on the hospital, thinking I’ll get magic powers and suddenly be able to see through it to find my girl. My girls. Got two. Maybe a third, depending on what Ruby has.
The cop jogs over and catches Kooper’s and my eyes. He turns his back to us, standing in front of us, as if blocking. I glance at Kooper, and he does the same my way.
“Place is secure and threat is localized,” the cop says, but it’s low. I’ll give him props for his guts alone. I doubt he’s meant to share intel with us, but I ain’t questioning the reason he’s doing it.
“What location?” I ask just as low, barely moving my lips, making sure none of his cop buddies see us talking. I’ve been here more than most and know it better than some of the staff by now.
“Second floor. OB-GYN wing.”
My head snaps to Kooper. He doesn’t move, but I hear a distinct cracking from the phone still being held to his ear.
“We’ve got people in there,” I tell the cop.
“Shit,” he mutters, then gives up the pretense of not talking to us and turns around. “We’ve got a team going in soon. The initial sweep already determined that no other location is compromised. I’ll keep you updated when I—” His radio squawks with codes.
He grabs it and his stance changes, just like all the other cops who get the same radio announcement.
“What is it?” I ask.
“We’ve got people coming out,” he says and turns just as women rush out the doors.
He steps forward, then turns back. “Please stay here. We need to clear each one to make sure they aren’t in on this. Once they’re clear, we’ll send them this way.”
It takes everything I have to nod in understanding. Kooper doesn’t give his word, only blinks.
With a sigh, the cop takes it for something and turns to help the rush of people coming out. All women so far, none we recognize—till the last few exit.
The prospect is holding one woman up who’s clearly on the brink of her baby popping out, and Ruby’s holding her other arm as they waddle out.
“Peaches!” Kooper shouts, and I put my hand out on instinct. He doesn’t go past my arm, but it’s an internal fight I know he’s facing. I have it too.
The cop looks over at us, vibrating with a need to run to her. He goes to Ruby, says something to her and the prospect, then calls us over with a single hand raise.
Kooper bolts, sliding over the hood of a cruiser parked between the entrance and the rest of the barricade, and wraps his woman in his arms.
I get there a second later and hover, not sure if I should hug her or not.
But thankfully, I don’t have to make that call.
She sees me and unwraps herself from her man to grab me in a tight hug that I had no idea I needed.
I hold her and breathe her in, checking her arms and back for wounds of any kind.
“You okay?” I ask as I pull back.
She nods, and Kooper yanks her back into his arms.
I look at the prospect, and he doesn’t disappoint in giving me details.
“Guy came in and started shooting up the place. Some jealous asshole or some shit. Went after his wife. No one else was a target but her. Most ran out when he fired the last time, hitting his girl.”
“How many left inside?” the cop, who didn’t go far, asks the prospect.
He shakes his head. “Not sure. We were close to the exit as it was. I was outside the door when the last shot happened. Then the women were running out. I grabbed Peaches, and we just kept going, making sure everyone who was out could make it out.”
“You sure only one person had a gun?”
“Yeah. Five shots from my count. Most wide, only one hit.”
The cop nods at the prospect’s assessment and runs to tell his group. Anything is bound to help now that they’ve got intel from inside.
“Jesus, Peaches, I can’t leave you alone for one second,” Kooper mutters into her hair.
I watch as her eyes close and she squeezes him tighter to her.
“Sounds like a personal problem,” she replies, and it gets the three of us to laugh out of spite.
“Folks, we need you to move back behind the barrier,” another cop says, then ushers us away from the front.
Casper and Mad Max are waiting in the spot we were at before. Neither has been far, but they knew not to get in the way.
“You okay, Peaches?” Casper asks.
She nods but doesn’t let her man go. From the tight grip he has on her, I think it’ll be a while till he does too.
“Sounds like someone random. Not tied to the club,” Kooper offers, and Casper nods, pulling out his phone and texting something to Flint, probably.
No one fully expected this to be about us, but you never know. Half the shit that happens, we don’t expect. It’s nice that for once, we ain’t involved in some shit. But we’ve still got bad timing if we end up in it.
“Karter!”
I look up from the group. A hand waves, and the boys part for Nana. I pull her into a hug just because I can. The others take note but say nothing.
“Have you seen Diana?”
I shake my head as I let her go. “Not yet. But the threat isn’t in her area. It’s down a floor.”
“She didn’t make it out?” Ruby asks, and everyone’s attention snaps to her.
“Who?” I ask, even though my gut already knows.
“Diana,” she says as she looks at me, then pulls out of Kooper’s arms—with a bit of force because he doesn’t let go easily—and glances around. “Did you see her get out?” she asks the prospect, who shakes his head.
“What are you saying, Ruby?” I step closer. I thought, for a moment there, that we were in the clear. That I could breathe because Diana is with long-term care, not the OB-GYN unit.
“She was there.” Her eyes go wide. “She was the one pushing me and the prospect out the door before the last shot went off, blocking me from the gun.”
“Blocking you? Why the hell was she blocking you?” Kooper asks with more heat in his voice than I know he intends. But the thought of a gun pointed at his girl, and his kid, is probably riling him up right now.
Ruby is quick to turn her smart mouth on her man with an attitude to match.
“Maybe because I’ve got a problem with keeping my mouth shut when bullshit needs to be called.
The guy was blaming his wife for stepping out on him when it was obvious the guilt was eating at him for him doing it to her.
Diana stepped in front of me the second she saw the gun pointed at me. So calm your tits.”
“Prospect,” Kooper growls, but Ruby shakes her head.
“Don’t you ‘prospect’ him. Him shooting the guy wasn’t going to help shit.
It was a room full of scared pregnant women.
He did what he was there for. He got me out and made sure everyone else did too.
So stop bitching and moaning that he didn’t step in front of the gun like you wanted and be happy someone did, you big blockhead.
I swear, if I didn’t love you so much, I’d smack you upside your head for your stupid caveman ways right now. ”
Kooper grabs the back of her neck and brings her lips to his in a hard, crushing kiss. Which is fine for any other moment, but not this one.
“Are you saying she’s still in there?” I ask.
Ruby pulls out of her man’s embrace, and she raises her shoulder with a sad look on her face. “I think so. She was the one who brought the girl the guy was yelling at. Another nurse, I think, from the scrubs she was wearing.”
Ashley. Shit.
“Guy’s a firefighter,” I tell the group. “Met him a while back. Has a chip on his shoulder. Thought it was just about the club when he saw my vest, but now he seems more like the psycho-husband type.”
Ruby nods. “And a jealousy issue to boot.”
“That means she’s still in there,” Nana says, pulling everyone’s attention, but she only looks at me. “She’d never leave anyone alone in there. Especially a friend.”
I nod in agreement. My girl is a caregiver. She’d give everything to help another. It’s obvious she’d choose helping someone, even if shot, over saving herself if she could.
“Smoke. We’ve got smoke!” A cop yells, and we all turn to see black smoke barreling from the side of the building.
“Fuck,” Casper mutters.
“Oh God. The baby.”
My head aches with how fast I turn it from the smoke to Nana. “Baby?”
She shakes her head and covers her mouth as her eyes turn glassy.
“Nana, what are you talking about? What baby?” I step in front of her to get her attention.
“She was supposed to tell you. I told her to do it the moment she knew. But you—” She looks at Ruby, then back at me. “—you told us your news. She didn’t think it was the time. She wasn’t hiding it, but she didn’t want to add to your issues.”
“What? What are you saying? You’re not making sense. What baby?”
“Yours. Diana’s pregnant.”
The world blurs for a second, and I feel myself sway. Mad Max holds me for a moment to steady me.
“Oh my God,” I hear Ruby cry out. Then Casper is yelling at someone on the phone. Sirens go by, and more people yell.
None of it breaks through what’s happening in my head.
Diana.
Pregnant.
Mine.
I move before I think better of it. But what is there to think about? Diana is still in there. And she has my kid with her. I’d walk toward her even if she wasn’t pregnant.
Diana’s mine. All mine. And I plan to get her out and wrap her in my arms. Just like Kooper gets to do with his old lady. I should be able to do that too.
Because Diana is mine. Not sure how anyone will feel about it, but I don’t give a fuck.
She’s put me first, and now I need to take a page out of Kooper’s book and put her first. She protected my daughter.
Probably protecting my kid even now. She put her own needs and wants to the side so I could handle being a granddad.
Always being the selfless one in this relationship.
That ends now. If anyone is going to be self-sacrificing, it’s going to be me.
“Sir, stop. Get back. Sir, you can’t go in there. Sir!” The cop who told us we needed to get behind the barricade the last time keeps shouting at me, but I ignore him.
I glance right and see the other cop. He looks at me, and whatever he sees makes him sprint over and walk beside me. Well, me and my brothers. Mad Max and Casper are at my back as I go in to find my woman.
And claim her.