Chapter 70
She was going to be okay. Auggie had stitches in her arm and orders to take it easy on her weak leg for the next week.
She’d have bruises—she’d hit the loveseat hard when Cal had shoved her out of the way.
If he hadn’t, she was under no illusions.
That bullet would have hit her, too. Far more directly than it had. He’d protected her.
She needed to get out there and find out how he was doing. She looked at the nurses blocking the door. “I need to be with him. I need to know if he is okay.”
Perci just nodded. “I get it. We all do. But let’s get you taken care of first, before the girls get here.”
She was right. The girls were on their way. She didn’t want the kids to see her like this. Not with blood all over her. “I need clean clothes and to hide the blood in my hair.”
She almost vomited thinking about the blood that was drying in her hair now. She had to focus on Cal, and on the girls. On just getting them all through. And while she was at it, she was going to make sure Claudia and her sisters were okay, too.
“I have clothes. We’ll get you changed. I’ll grab them from my locker,” Perci told her.
“I’ll do something about your hair, sweetheart.”
Auggie just looked at her aunt Pam and that was when the tears came.
Pam just wrapped her up like she’d done when Auggie was a child. “It’ll all be okay now. He’s a strong, healthy young man, honey. And Dr. Peterson is one of the best.”
But Cal was still hurt. And she couldn’t get to him now.
It took fifteen more minutes for her to get cleaned up enough for the girls to see. The last thing she wanted to do was retraumatize the girls.
Then she was out there with them. Markie was sound asleep in Clancy’s arms. Claudia, dressed in a far-too-daring-to-be-believed slinky black dress, held the baby, feeding her a bottle. And pacing. Barefooted.
She had a half-wild, scared look on her face that tore right through Auggie.
Em and Junie were near the window, just waiting. She didn’t know how much any of them had been told.
Claudia came toward her. “Auggie.”
Everyone went quiet. Even the kids. “Any word on your brother?”
“Not yet. He’s in surgery.” Claudia held Maeya closer. Auggie wanted to hold her baby, but her arm was hurting too much. She didn’t want to risk dropping her. “How badly are you hurt?”
“Bruises and stitches,” Auggie’s breath caught again. She wasn’t going to start weeping in front of the girls. It would just terrify them even more. “Your brother pushed me out of the way and got between us. He jumped Jacob to get the…to stop him from hurting me.”
“Sounds exactly like something my brother would do. For the people he loves.” Claudia’s voice hitched, too. “He loves you.”
“I know. We love each other. We figured that out tonight. And I’m never going to forget it. And when he’s out of here, we’re going to make a plan together. And then…maybe…make a few more.”
Because she wanted that more than anything right now. She just wanted that man to be okay.
Her sisters came to her—Em, Junie, January. Auggie reassured them that she was okay.
And then the Weatherbys and Zach Lowell and Joel were there. Maybe…they’d even been there all along? She looked at Joel, her cousin Phoebe’s husband. “You probably need my statement, don’t you?”
“Yes. We’re putting some things together.
We have what you recorded with your phone.
And Jack could hear, from where he was, somehow,” Joel said.
“He was picking the lock on the back patio when the first shots were fired. That cousin of mine might just have a few more skills than I am aware of. Cat burglar type, I think.”
“He showed up when we needed him most. Him and Gabe and Cloe. And when I saw Clancy by the kitchen—” She bit back the tears. “I was terrified because Markie and Maeya were sleeping in Clancy’s room. So close to where we were. I was terrified he’d kill us and then find them.”
Claudia’s hold tightened on Maeya.
Then Joel’s hand was wrapped around her elbow. “Let’s go find a place to sit down. You can tell us what happened. Joint interview so we don’t have to keep going over the same things and so you can be with the girls while you wait.”