28. Lizzy
LIZZY
Willa slept peacefully in her pack n’ play in my office, her favorite blanket wrapped haphazardly around her and her favorite stuffy giraffe clutched in her arms. It was moments like this that I really fell hard for my little girl.
From the moment she was in my arms, I knew I had made the right choice in keeping her, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have moments where I struggled with being a single mom. That first week at home, I’d been an emotional wreck, jumping from tears to smiles in a matter of moments.
How so much beauty could come out of something so tragic, I still couldn’t wrap my head around.
But I didn’t regret it for a single second. Not when I had the most beautiful little girl here with me. Yes, it was hard. Yes, I still struggled to come to terms with my circumstances.
Running the bar and toting her everywhere I went wasn’t exactly a picnic, but I couldn’t afford a sitter, and I liked having her with me.
But I knew this couldn’t last forever. Eventually, she would need a more rigid structure.
So far, she’d been a trooper, falling asleep here at the bar and staying asleep as I carted her home at the late hours of the night.
But as she got older, I worried that the influence of the bar would be dangerous for her. My customers were in awe of her, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a rowdy crowd. This was no place for a kid, and I wanted to set the right example for her.
“You should take her home for the night,” JR said behind me from the doorway.
“I can’t ask you to close every night.”
Tearing my eyes from my daughter, I smiled at the man who had saved my sanity.
He was gruff and a total asshole to pretty much everyone aside from Josie.
But he had always been great with Willa and me.
In fact, there were even a few times I caught him staring at my daughter with love in his eyes, though I would never point that out to him.
“It shouldn’t be too much longer before Josie has the baby. Are you ready?” I whispered as I shut the door behind me, following him into the bar.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready. This wasn’t exactly the way I saw my life going.”
“But you’re happy, right?”
His eyes met mine, and a small smile touched the corner of his lips. He rarely smiled, but when he did, it was usually because of Josie. “I—”
We both ducked as the pop, pop, pop of gunfire, followed by shattering glass, echoed around the bar. JR grabbed my arm and dragged me back down the hall, flinging the door open to the office.
Panic consumed me as I looked at my baby girl, wiggling around in her sleep as the sounds threatened to wake her up.
“Get Willa and hide in the bathroom. Don’t come out until I knock on the door three times.”
I grasped his arm, panic flooding me as he turned to leave. “JR, you can’t go!”
He pulled a gun from the holster at his side and his face hardened. I rarely saw this side of him, but I knew fully what he intended.
“You can’t go,” I hissed. “What about Josie?”
For just a second, his eyes flashed with fear, but then he schooled his features and shoved me back inside. “Stay here and lock the door.”
He slammed the door shut, and just for a moment, I considered going after him. But his words rang through my mind and I quickly flipped the lock, then ran over to Willa, gently picking her up and tucking her against my body as she started to whimper.
“It’s okay, baby,” I whispered, grabbing her stuffy and blanket from the makeshift crib.
Her cries grew louder as the sound of gunfire filtered to the back of the bar. My heart hammered in my chest as I slammed the door to the bathroom, wishing I had a lock to give us one more solid barrier between us and whoever was out there.
Ducking down in the corner, I tucked Willa against my chest and pressed kisses to her forehead, trying to calm her.
“It’s okay, baby girl. Momma’s got you.”
Her cries grew louder, and I had no doubt that she could feel my fear. The tension in my body was joined by uncontrollable shaking and erratic breathing. I had to pull it together.
Closing my eyes, I breathed deep, trying to control the panic, but it was impossible. Whatever was happening out there wasn’t over yet, and the longer it went on, the more I feared for JR’s safety.
Josie.
Yanking my phone out of my pocket, my fingers shook as I scrolled through my contacts, trying to find her number. It took me three tries to call her, and finally, I pressed the phone to my ear, closing my eyes again and breathing deeply as it rang.
“Hello?” she grumbled, her voice deep with sleep.
“Josie!” I hissed, trying to keep my voice low and the panic at bay. “The bar is under attack—”
“What?” she screeched, fully awake now.
“JR will come for you, but lock the doors and hide. Do not come out for anyone.”
“Lizzy, what the hell—”
“Just do it!” I hissed just as the gunfire stopped. “Oh, God.”
“What is it?”
I didn’t say a word, just sat there terrified as I heard pounding on the outer door. My heart was in my throat as I fought wave after wave of nausea. I didn’t even realize I was squeezing Willa too tightly until she started crying and wiggling.
“Sorry, baby. Just stay still.”
“Lizzy, what’s happening?” Josie hissed.
But I didn’t dare say a word. Not when I had no idea who was on the other side of that door.
Footsteps echoed through the other room, coming closer and closer to the bathroom.
It wasn’t JR. He wouldn’t stroll around outside like that.
He gave me specific instructions, and he wouldn’t stray from them.
Tears filled my eyes as I looked down at my baby girl.
As if she could sense that something was wrong, she let out a horrible cry that no doubt gave away our location.
“Josie,” I whispered, staring at the door, my heart pounding with every second that passed.
The footsteps grew closer. The handle started to turn.
“Tell my family I love them.”
“Lizzy—”
I spun, cradling Willa against me as I pressed her against the wall, protecting her with my body. The door crashed open and I screamed, my whole body going rigid as a single shot was fired.
But I wasn’t hit.
Something crashed into the vanity, then fell against my back. I screamed again, sure I was about to be attacked. Willa cried against my chest, terrified just as much as I was. I could feel it in her little body.
“Lizzy!”
I almost didn’t recognize the voice over the terror wracking every bone of my body. But when a hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me, I slammed my fist back, screaming until I finally recognized JR’s face.
Relief washed over me, followed by an uncontrollable shaking and a massive amount of tears that I knew wouldn’t stop anytime soon.
“It’s okay. It’s over,” JR said, tugging me to my feet.
As I turned to look at the body on the ground, he gripped my neck, forcing me to look at him. “Don’t look. Okay? Keep her close.”
I did as he said, forcing myself not to look back, though the slick liquid on the ground under my feet told me everything I needed to know. A man was dead, and it was gruesome.
I didn’t even realize I was still clutching the phone in my hand until I heard a distant shouting. I held it out to Jr, barely able to speak. “It’s Josie,” I whispered. “I told her to hide.”
Nodding, he took the phone from me, keeping his voice low as he led me into the office. Everything blurred around me through the tears streaming down my face. I didn’t understand yet what had happened. None of this made sense.
Yet, it felt very personal.
Someone had come after me in the office. They were looking for me. I knew it.
“Hey, come with me.”
My eyes trailed across the room, how everything was so normal. Not a thing had been touched in here. I knew that wouldn’t be true of anything in the bar.
JR practically pulled me out of the office, but the moment I looked across the hall, into the kitchen, my heart broke.
“Roy,” I whispered.
He laid on the ground, blood pooling around his body as his eyes gave that thousand-yard stare. He had been with me from the start, and now he was dead. My feet started moving toward him without my brain fully comprehending what I was doing. And I would have gone to him if JR hadn’t stopped me.
“Not now,” he said, his eyes flicking to Willa. “She doesn’t need to see this.”
Nodding, I gave one last look to Roy, then followed JR into the chaos of the bar. It was destroyed. Bullet holes peppered the walls. Chairs were broken. Alcohol was spilled behind the bar where the shelves had been fired upon.
And the blood.
A cry threatened to burst free from my lips as I slapped a hand over my mouth. Kasey and Raleigh were on the floor, neither of them moving. I didn’t know if they were dead or just injured, and I couldn’t go to either of them with Willa in my arms.
Lincoln Delaney—the man who loved to flirt with my mom—sat in the corner, his hand pressed to his arm as blood slipped between his fingers. He nodded, letting me know he was okay.
Jack Harding kicked through the glass, picking up the last of a spilled bottle before bringing it to his lips and taking a long drink. I didn’t say a word. If I could, I would get lost in a bottle right now as well.
I stopped looking around the bar, terrified of what else I might see. As JR led me out into the night, I let the chill of the wind whip over me. It was the only thing keeping me from completely falling apart right now.
And then I saw my brother’s face as he ran toward me, his eyes wide with panic as he took in Willa in my arms. Jeff wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tight as he whispered to me that everything would be okay.
But as the sirens filled the night sky, I wondered if anything would ever be okay.