11. Chapter 10
Crusher
“I’m not doing this with you, Blaze. I don’t even know why you’re in Rose Hill to begin with.” I snap as I stalk away from my half-blood brother, “Are you fucking following me?”
“Yes,” he admits without shame as he follows me, and I grit my teeth to stop myself from snapping at the asshole with my colleagues around.
Blaze has hovered since the bullet was dug out of my arm, and it’s a fucking blessing that he doesn’t know where I live because I swear to fuck, I’m going to shoot him!
I get it, I’m self-destructing, I can feel it, and I know they can feel it, but fuck, it doesn’t mean I need a full-time fucking babysitter. Especially not one three hours away while I’m on a fucking training with the fire department.
I told Cage I’d be back in a few days, that this was mandatory, and that I wasn’t going to do anything fucking stupid, so why in the fuck has he told Blaze to follow me?!
“Go home, Blaze,” I snap as I get halfway to my colleagues, causing him to growl when our radio blares, “All crew, all crew, shooter at Rose Hill Elementary, I repeat, shooter at Rose Hill Elementary, the school is on lockdown.”
“Shit!” I snap and sprint towards the fire truck along with my colleagues as Blaze shouts, “I’ll follow on my bike!” and fuck, I hate to admit it, but I’m glad the fucker is here.
“Smith, behind the wheel!” I hear my captain demand, and I do as instructed, climbing in. Instantly, I put the sirens on before I floor it as quickly as the rig will go.
“Be on high alert, Smith. You will be the only one medically trained when we hit the sight, the ambulances are stuck at a five-car up pile-up.”
“No fucking pressure, right” I mutter, and he snorts as I weave in and out of traffic, Blaze right behind us.
“What kind of sicko brings a gun and shoots up a fucking elementary school?” I hear Marty demand, “A scorned wife,” Cap says and my jaw tenses.
I pull up outside the school to chaos within minutes, people everywhere, police trying to hold off scared parents, and I climb out before ordering, “Marty, Cammers, help the feds, and someone inform their chief I won’t be going by protocol, and I’ll see if Trick can access the cameras!”
He nods, and everyone listens just as my phone rings and Blaze walks over to me and says, “I’ve called Trick, he’s on it, and several brothers are on their way just in case, including some Dark Angels.”
I nod so he knows I heard him, and I grab my phone and answer, “Yeah?” as I look around the chaos, thinking maybe it’s Trick if Blaze has already updated him, but I freeze as my wife, my fucking heart chokes, “Hayes!”
“Freckles?” I choke, causing Blaze to look at me sharply, and I look towards the school again, feeling so fucking torn but knowing what I have to do, I rasp, “I don’t want to hang up, but I-I…”
“Miss, you can’t go in there!” I hear snapped and I frown before Alexiana screams, “No, my son is in there,” and everything fucking slows down as I look up and lock on an officer trying to hold back someone I haven’t seen in eight years, my wife.
My wife, who is trying to get into the school, trying to jump over the frustrated man, and I swear I feel like I’m breaking.
Son, she has a son, she has…
Fuck, I feel like I can’t breathe.
“Let me through!” she screams as she tries to shove past the man, and Blaze chokes, “Fuck is that…”, but I don’t let him finish his words.
I slam my phone into his stomach, and I sprint to my wife, who I haven’t seen in eight years, my wife who has a child with someone else.
I hurt her that much, she moved on…
Fuck, fuck, fuck…
Is that why she keeps sending divorce papers?
“Miss, please, I don’t want to arrest you,” the man rasps as he tries to stop my wife from jumping over him again. I quickly grab her by the waist and pull her back, the man looking relieved to see me, and he quickly rushes to another parent trying to get through.
“No,” she screams, trying to fight me, “let me go!”
She jolts my arm, but instead of letting her go despite the shooting pain, I hold her tighter.
“Freckles, it’s me, it’s me,” I say into her ear, but she fights harder, and I say louder, “Freckles, it’s me, baby, it’s me!”
She instantly relaxes into me as she looks up at me, and she lets out a sob as our eyes connect for the first time in eight years.
“My-My, Hayes, my son…” She sobs, and I squeeze her to me and press my lips to her head, and she cries, “The shooter is in his hallway, Hayes, p-please let me get to my baby, let me get to Kayden, our boy…”
I freeze… Fuck, our what?
My legs nearly give out at her words, her truth fucking suffocating me.
My, she, I have…
A gunshot echoes, and I snap my head up with fear as parents shout and scream, but my wife’s piercing scream, that will forever fucking stay with me. She tries to fight against me again, and I choke, “Blaze!”
He comes in front of us just as Alexiana’s legs give out and I catch her at the same time as him and I don’t think, I sprint away from them seeing he has her and he shouts, “Crusher!” but I ignore him and jump over the barriers, shouts and screams echoing but my heartbeat is louder, the fear for my son taking over.
Son, I have a son, my…
I pass the police chief, who hands me a taser, I won’t back down and won’t wait until protocol, especially not if someone is shot and I climb up the steps before rushing into the school.
Breathing heavy, I move up against the wall and slowly make my way to the first door and look inside.
The door is barricaded, and the tearful teacher under the desk, holding two crying children, points down the hallway, and I nod and head that way.
Pictures decorate the walls, pictures of happy children, and for a second, I wonder if one is my child, my son.
Fuck.
Shaking my head, I slide towards arguing.
“You shot him, you shot an innocent child!” I hear cried, and a woman sneers, “He’s the brat of your mistress!”
Fuck no.
I quickly press on my earpiece and murmur, “Child down, I repeat, a child has been shot, we need a crew in waiting!”
I hear several screams from outside within seconds, and my heart thunders as I hear, “He’s not my mistress's child! I’ve been fucking Principal Nattie, his mom is married!”
Fuck’s sake.
“What?!” the woman gasps before she cries, “Oh god, what have I done?” and I quickly round the corner and state, “Taser, drop your weapon!” causing everyone to look my way.
Kids are shaking, a man with a terrible toupee is trying to hold pressure against a small boy's shoulder, but I don’t look at him. Instead, I look at the woman who is covered in blood.
“I-I, oh my, what have I done?” she cries, “He, I mean, I…”
Her body trembles, and she moves the gun to her head, and even though I really want her to do it, I don’t want to traumatize these kids any more than they already are, and I press the trigger.
The woman's body trembles before she falls to the floor within seconds, and I let go of the trigger seeing she’s passed out, and the kids scream.
“Shooter down, I repeat, shooter down!” I say into my earpiece, and I run towards the small boy.
“Fuck, come on, Kayden, I’m so sorry, boy, so sorry,” the man cries, and fuck me, no, no, no, no!
Kayden.
“The shooter is in his hallway, Hayes, p-please let me get to my baby, let me get to Kayden, our boy…”
My son, my boy.
“Move!” I demand, and I shove him away as I check my son's pulse, but I don’t find it, and I choke, “No,” and I quickly begin CPR as the halls are swarmed by the feds, my captain demanding, “What do you need?”
“For his mama to be kept away,” I choke, and I press down on my son's little chest, causing blood to pour from his shoulder, and my captain orders, “Get all children into the gym now!”
“De-fib!” I hear and I quickly pull my son's top up, then grab the machine, set it up, and turn it on.
“Continue CPR,” an automated voice states, and everyone curses as police officers help kids out of the room, and I continue CPR.
“Come on, Kayden,” I murmur, my eyes taking in every detail of his features, so many of his mama’s, but mostly mine, and I struggle to breathe, but I don’t stop, I don’t allow myself to realize that I’m working on my child.
“Stand clear!” the voice echoes, and I lift my hands before it shocks my son, then beeps, indicating a faint pulse.
“Move it, now, now, now!” I shout, and everyone rushes into motion.
I quickly move my son onto his side just as the captain puts a stretcher under neath him and confirms, “An ambulance is outside, just arrived,” and I nod as I quickly strap my boy down, trying not to think about anything right now, but I can feel the terror beginning to settle in, my body shaking.
“One, two, three,” I grunt and lift the stretcher before quickly but carefully carrying it with my captain while an officer brings the defibrillator that is still attached.
Screams echo from parents seeing us carrying out a stretcher, everyone's kids still inside, but it’s Alexiana’s scream that has my knees weakening.
I look to see Blaze, with tears running down his face, trying to keep her back as she fights to get to us, crying, “Kayden, that’s my son, let me go!”
Parents sob, some with relief, others with pain, and I lock my jaw as I help place my son in the ambulance.
“You know her?” Captain asks as I side eye Blaze, struggling to keep hold of her, and I choke, “She's my wife,” and his grey eyes widen in shock before he looks at Kayden, and he chokes, “Shit!”
“We need to get the boy to the hospital,” the medic states, and I nod and ask my captain, “Bring her to the hospital?”
He nods as his eyes tear up before he pats my back, and I climb into the rig and take a seat, my eyes latching onto the small body, and it hits me like a ton of fucking bricks.
Fuck, I have a son, and she didn’t tell me...