Chapter 56
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
HUNTER
I grab Colten’s keys, and I’m out the door. I don’t have time to call my brothers in on this one and explain myself. I just have to get to her. And I can’t take my own truck into Red Creek. Different plates. Different vehicle. Ten minutes. It will be fine.
Lola comes first. Before the bail conditions. Before the ninety days. Before every rule I agreed to follow. Her breathing is heavy on the phone. And I’m terrified. For the first time in my life, I’m petrified. I cannot lose this woman. My wife.
“Are you hurt?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady for her.
I can hear her little sobs, even if she’s trying to hide them from me.
“No. I’m in the bathroom. Violet’s just come in here to get me. She said someone pulled a gun on another guy. I think they’re gone, but I’m not going back out there.”
“Stay exactly where you are. Do not open that door for anyone except me.”
“Hunter, you can’t come here. Your bail—”
“Fuck my bail,” I snap.
I take the back roads into Red Creek. Five minutes. Longest few minutes of my life.
When I pull up outside the bar, the front window is shattered, and people are spilling onto the sidewalk. I push through the crowd, past overturned tables and broken glass, and bang on the bathroom door.
“Lola. It’s me.”
The lock clicks. She’s there. Mascara down her face.
Violet behind her. Trembling. Luke is fucking dead to me.
He’s not even in here with the girls. He was too drunk to take them home.
Too pussy to look after them. He’s done in this town.
But, right now, I gotta focus on Lola and getting her and Violet out safe.
I pull her into my chest. “I’ve got you. Let’s go.”
I keep one arm around her, the other around Violet, as we push through the bar and out the front door.
I’m two steps from the truck when I see them.
Red and blue lights. Cutting through the dark from three different angles.
Two cruisers are blocking the end of the street, an unmarked sedan behind them.
Standing in the middle of the road is a detective I’ve never seen before. This isn’t Dawson. And I am fucked. Really, royally fucked.
“Hunter Sterling. Step away from the vehicle.”
Lola’s hand tightens on my arm. I slip my keys into her hand.
“Get in the truck,” I tell her. “Lock it and call Ace and have him grab it.”
“I’m not leaving you—”
“Lola. Get in the truck. Now.”
She doesn’t move.
The detective walks toward us. Two officers flanking him. The crowd from the bar gathers, phones raised, red and blue lights strobing across their faces.
“Mr. Sterling, you are in violation of your New Falls agreed bail conditions. Therefore, you are now under arrest for the murder of Ashley Edwards.”
The crowd gasps, and I grit my teeth. These motherfuckers.
“I’m here to collect my wife. She called me. There were gunshots. I’ll be leaving now.” I try my luck. But these assholes ain’t on my payroll. And they want me convicted for this, because it means they haven’t gotta do their jobs. Or, whoever is setting me up is the one paying them.
“Hands on the vehicle. Now.”
I don’t move.
“Hands on the vehicle, Mr. Sterling!”
I hesitate, and two officers rush me. The first grabs my right arm and wrenches it behind my back. The second goes for my left, but I resist, not to fight, just to turn my head. Just to see her one more time.
“Lola—”
They slam me face-first into the hood of the truck. The metal is still warm. My cheekbone hits the surface, and pain explodes across my face. My hat falls off and rolls onto the floor.
I hear her scream. Not scared. My girl is furious. “Get off him! He didn’t do anything! And you bastards know it!”
Violet is holding her back. Lola is fighting against her, trying to get to me, tears streaming down her face.
They wrench me off the hood and throw me to the ground. Knees hit the asphalt. Then my shoulder. Then my face. Gravel bites into my cheek. A boot presses between my shoulder blades.
The cuffs click around my wrists.
“I know my fucking rights,” I spit into the dirt.
They haul me up. Blood runs from above my eyebrow. My jacket is torn. The crowd is watching. Yet through all of it, I find her. Lola. Looking petrified. Violet’s arms locked around her waist. My ring on her finger.
“Call Ace,” I tell her. “Tell him what happened. He’ll know what to do.”
Drago is due at the ranch today, and it looks like he’s going to work the second he steps foot in Arizona. That man is going to have to work some miracles.
“Hunter—” Her voice breaks.
“I’m coming home, Lola. I promise you. This isn’t how this ends.”
They push me into the cruiser. Through the rear window, I watch her collapse against Violet.
The car pulls away. The red sundress disappears into the dark. I press my forehead against the glass.
I held my wife in a courthouse and promised her I’d fight. And now I’m in the back of a cruiser with blood on my face. But I meant what I said. This isn’t how this ends.
I’m coming home.