Tanner was about to tell him to take a breath when the other man standing next to Mr. Dynam stupidly started pulling out something equally black and shiny from his pocket.
At the last second, Tanner noticed both men were holding cell phones, not weapons, and just as he opened his mouth to say that, Nico stood from his chair, undoubtedly looking to make a quick escape from an escalating situation. Only he lost his footing, bumped into Ramos’ elbow, and his weapon fired.
“No!” Violet screeched. The room went dead silent for a split second before it erupted into total chaos.
Much to Tanner’s relief, everyone was still standing and no one seemed to be bleeding. “Ramos!” Wilder called out. “What the hell, man? It was a damn cell phone!”
Tanner let out a sigh of relief that he wasn’t imagining things and it had just been a cell phone. But he also didn’t want to waste this moment of confusion. It was the best possible opportunity to get April alone for a few minutes to have her explain herself. He looked across the room and noticed Caden was still standing unharmed.Good.
Tanner was about to ask April to follow him once again, when something small and metallic next to his foot caught his eye. He bent down to get a closer look and saw that it was a bullet. He reached for it, immediately realizing that it wasn’t just any bullet, but a freshly fired one that was still warm to the touch.What the hell?Ramos wasn’t even pointing at him, but when Nico bumped into him, Ramos' arm must’ve shifted when his weapon went off.
Tanner’s blood ran hot, then cold. He had almost been shot, possibly killed. But wait, bullets didn’t just stop and drop in front of someone. From a kneeling position, Tanner looked up at April who had a blank expression, and then at Violet who was staring at him wide eyed.
“I think it’s time I get my daughter out of here this instant,” Ned demanded.
Tanner fisted the bullet and stood back up to his full height. “Just a moment. I need to speak to them before I can let you leave. Kindly have a seat and someone will be with you in a few minutes.”
“What?” Ned roared. “I am not -”
“You are,” Tanner said, “unless you’d like me to call the bomb squad and have them tear your building apart looking for that bomb.”
Ned’s jaw gaped open.
“Sit,” Tanner ordered. “April, Violet, come with me, please.”
He led them down a hallway and into the first available interview room. It had steel gray walls, a metal table with two chairs on either side of it, and a trash can in the corner. It wasn’t the most welcoming of places, but it would have to do. He gestured for them to go inside then shut the door, making sure the mic was off before saying a word. “April, what the heck is going on here?”
“I had to get Violet away from him,” April said. “After what she heard him talking about, I knew it was time.”
“April, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m talking about a very serious criminal charge,” Tanner said. “It’s called kidnapping, and you’re about ten seconds away from being charged. Do you have any idea of the prison time it carries with it?”
“I'm her aunt, Tanner.” She said it like a slap to his face. As if that somehow justified what she’d done.
“I don’t care if you’re Mrs. Claus. Unless you have primary custody of this child, you have no right to take her across the street without that man’s explicit consent. What on earth were you thinking?” He couldn’t believe how a woman he’d come to care about so much would do something so reckless.
“Don’t yell at her. I told her to run. She was helping me,” Violet said.
Tanner looked down at the little girl. As much as his heart went out to both of them, listening to the demands of a six-year-old would not help April.
“Aunt April helped me. She loves me, and she reads to me, and teaches me things. She can’t go to jail,” Violet pleaded.
April looked torn when she knelt next to Violet and whispered something in her ear that Tanner couldn’t quite make out. He was about to ask her what she said when he remembered the bullet he was clutching in his fist. The bullet that had just beenfired at him and was still warm in his hand. Thoughts raced through his mind, impossible conclusions that he only even considered because of his friends’ women, and what they could do. Besides, he was literally holding the evidence in his hand.
Taking a deep breath, Tanner knelt in front of Violet and opened his hand as if he was offering the bullet to her. He had an overwhelming suspicion of what had happened out there, and suddenly, everything Violet said about her stepfather making her do things she didn’t want to do was about to make his blood boil over.
Instead of reaching for the bullet, or even asking about it, April and Violet both just stared at it. The tension in the room made him want to take them both somewhere far away from here, where he could protect them and ensure no harm ever came to them. But there was a precinct full of law enforcement officials not ten feet away, and they would all demand answers. It was time for some serious truth. If one of them had a gift strong enough to stop a bullet, the only way he could protect them was by knowing everything. “You love your Aunt April very much, don’t you?” Tanner gently asked.
At Violet’s tenuous nod, he proceeded. “And you’d do anything to protect her, wouldn’t you?” He almost didn’t even need the little girl to answer to know her response. If only April had confided in him sooner. “And would she do anything to protect you?”
A tear rolled down Violet’s sweet little cheek as she nodded again.
He swallowed hard and looked up at April. “Was it you?” He finally asked. “Or you?” He turned back to Violet. “It’s okay, Sweetheart,” he said, directing his softly spoken questions to Violet. “Trust me. Please. I want to make this right for both of you, but I can’t do that if you don’t talk to me.”
April took in a ragged breath and Violet remained standing still as stone.
“Violet?” Tanner asked, softly. He had a feeling it was her, but he wanted her to tell him herself. He wanted to give her that power, to admit just how strong she was, even if she didn’t feel that way right now.
“Yes,” she whispered, just loud enough for him to hear.