The phone wasn’t even on speaker, the roar coming down the line as clear as if he was sitting in the car with us. I could only imagine how he felt, the idea that it could’ve been Presley, still very much on my mind.
Which was why I called North.
I knew his wife had just had a baby and the last thing he needed was to be tangled up in this mess. But if shit went down, Mack was going to need his family. And as much as I liked to think Tibbs and I could be there for him, there was only one of us he saw as a son, and that was Riley.
By the time we’d pulled into the Target parking lot, the active shooter situation had turned to shit. SWAT had stormed in and gotten the gunman down, but not before he’d shot a female victim. And I didn’t need to hear the description to know it had been Hayden.
We met Mack in the parking lot, the guy half out of his mind as Rockefeller tried to talk him down. I didn’t like the detective’s chances; the stare Mack was giving him lethal. Not sure if it was an effort to keep Mack calm or he’d finally decided to throw us a bone, but Rockefeller shed some light on Lewis.
It seemed the cocksucker hadn’t only been Presley’s ex-boyfriend but was also related to Hayden. In what had to be slim-to-none chances, Lewis Goodman, AKA DJ Lewis G, was actually Lewis Wright, brother to Cooper Wright, Hayden’s ex-husband.
There’d been some family issues, all of them disowning him—something I completely understood. So, by the time he’d started dating Presley, he was a completely reincarnated fuckface. Between that, the gambling and the debts he owed, he was a man ready to do anything to save his own ass. Even if it was taking someone he once shared a last name with at gunpoint.
By the time the EMTs entered there was no holding Mack back. And he’d either pulled rank or everyone was scared to tell him no, the chief pushing through the crowd to reach Hayden while Tibbs and I followed.
It was intense.
Cops were everywhere, collecting evidence, securing the scene, and a couple had taken the shithead into custody. Why they hadn’t just taken him down with a bullet to the head instead of the leg was beyond me. But I guess that was why I was a great fireman and would have made a lousy cop.
There was blood on the floor, Mack begging Hayden to stay awake as we looked on, unable to contribute any help. It was tough to watch, EMTs working on Hayden while Mack hovered like he was ready to rip out someone’s spine if they didn’t do everything they could to help her.
With so much blood, it was hard to see where exactly Hayden had been shot. It looked like a chest wound, the fact she was still semi-conscious a good sign and probably the only reason Mack hadn’t lost it completely.
“Her pulse is stabilizing. We need to move her,” Maree—one of the EMTs shouted, Taylor—the other—helping roll Hayden onto a stretcher.
As much as I sympathized with Mack, he was getting in the way, making Maree and Taylor’s job ten times harder because they had to contend with him as well.
With a silent nod, Tibbs and I each grabbed a side and held him back, Mack blinking back in genuine surprise. Either he’d forgotten we were there or he didn’t think we’d try and stop him, his death stare just as lethal as his tone.
“I’m going. Move your arms or I’ll rip them from their sockets.”
“You’re no good to her if you’re getting in the way.” North got in between the chief and the stretcher. “I’ll take you to the hospital, but you’re riding with me.”
Never had I been so glad to see Riley, his hand pressed against Mack’s chest with a single focused determination. Considering the guy had a newborn, probably hadn’t slept much, and had made a mercy dash from Brooklyn, he looked surprisingly calm.
“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you home with Quinn and Ava?” Mack focused on North, not having seen him arrive.
“Because I was needed here. Now stand down, Mack. You might be able to take on one of us, but not even you can take on all three.” North wouldn’t back down and we all knew it, the best chance of Mack getting to the hospital was to comply.
“Fine, you drive. But you drive like you have a purpose, North.” He fingered him hard in the chest. “And someone find out where the hell they’re taking her. We also need to call her family.”
“I can do that. Her brother is her emergency contact. I’ll call.” A blonde woman who was apparently the store manager had appeared, trying to reassure Mack. “Go, just get one of your guys to let me know which hospital.”
I was already on the phone as North and Mack left, finding out which hospital the ambulance was going to so I could pass on the information.
“She’s going to New York-Presbyterian Allen on Broadway,” I told the manager, Tibbs texting the info to Mack as I ended the call. “They’re probably going to need to take her straight to surgery.”
The manager nodded, grabbing her own phone as she left me and Tibbs with the cops. It was crazy to think how close Hayden came to dying; the only thing saving her was that Lewis hadn’t just been the worst person alive, but a lousy shot as well. He’d grazed a couple of ribs, hitting her in the chest but missing anything vital. It was the kind of luck you prayed for, and more than often didn’t get delivered.
“We need to get back to Midtown.” I nodded to Tibbs, fisting my keys. “Presley.”
Her name had been enough of an explanation, Tibbs nodding as he followed me back outside to my car.
“You really love her, Jared?”
It was the first time he’d said my real name in years. The sound of it so foreign in his mouth, it almost felt wrong.
“More than I ever thought was possible.” I stopped short, looking him in the eyes before getting into the car. “She’s the one for me.”
He nodded. “Good, because she’s going to need you now more than ever. This shit isn’t going to be over for her even if Lewis is out of the picture. You saw her back at Diablo, she blames herself and she’s going to need someone who is going to stick around. She’s going to say she’s fine because that’s what Presley does, but Brother, she is going to be so far from fine.”
He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, seeing the weight of responsibility in Presley’s eyes before we’d left the club. It was why it had been so hard to leave, even though I knew she’d be safe.
“I’m in this for the long haul, Justin. I’m not going anywhere.”
He shot me a look of relief. “Then let’s go.”
Presley
“FUCK, FUCK, FUCK.” I paced back and forth in my office, Bennett perched on the desk, watching me.
I’d been going out of my mind until Jared called, every worst-case scenario flashing before my eyes as I imagined poor Hayden with the monster I used to share my bed with.
And then when Jared called, my mental roulette just got worse.
Lewis shot her.
SHOT HER.
Never would I have believed he could do that to someone, let alone a person who was once his sister-in-law. I still couldn’t believe Lewis and Hayden’s ex-husband were brothers. That we were somehow connected by a sad and tragic thread of terrible men.
God, I’d been so stupid.
So fucking stupid.