“People already know we’re married here. They know who I am. Am I really safe?”
I glance down at the way my hands are starting to shake. My body is trying to tell me something.
“Good. Let them. That ain’t a problem.”
I blow out a breath. It feels like he’s saying this to calm me down, but I think deep down, he’s worried too.
“I need to come home.”
Glass shatters inside the bar. Then gunshots. Two of them. I’m shaking like a leaf. So hard my phone drops out of my hand and clatters onto the floor.
“Lola!” I hear Hunter’s voice roar through the speaker.
I pick it up, pushing it to the side of my face, being careful not to be loud. I have no idea who the hell is in the bar.
“Lola. Do not fucking move. I’m on my way. Okay, baby. No one is going to hurt you,” he tells me.
But I hear the fear in his voice. The things he’s trying to hide from me. Hunter Sterling is scared for me.
“I love you, Hunter,” I choke on a sob. I don’t want to be here.
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.