Page 44

Caleb

“ I t’s like Grand Central Station in here,” Sierra mumbles from beside me and moves away from me, heading to the door. I turn back to see her birth parents on the couch, her father now sitting beside her mother as she sobs in his arms. The whole story has been mind-blowing to say the least.

The next couple of seconds happen so fast, I don’t even think I know what’s going on. Sierra opens the door, and she has one hand on the doorknob while she looks up at the guy who is there.

Something pushes me toward the door. I don’t know what it is, and I can’t explain it, but the minute I get close enough, I see his hand straighten up.

It takes me half a second to register that he’s aiming a gun at her.

The look on his face is filled with rage.

“I told you to stop looking.” It’s the only thing he gets to say before I roar out her name.

“Sierra!” I rush to her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pushing her to the side when the gun goes off. There is chaos all around me as I cover her body with my own.

“Fuck,” the man swears, looking down at us, his gun aimed at us.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Carl shouts, and the man turns to look toward them.

“Are you crazy?” Fiona shouts, coming to stand next to them, and I look down at Sierra, whose eyes are closed.

“Sierra, baby,” I say as wetness fills my chest, and I look down to see she’s bleeding. “She’s been shot.” I get off her, looking down at her to see that she’s been shot in the shoulder.

“Don’t think you’ll get away with this, Peter!” Fiona yells her brother’s name, as I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial 911, leaving it to the side.

“We need some towels!” I shout to them, and Peter aims his gun at all of us.

“Move and I’ll shoot you all.” His brownish-blond hair that was perfectly coiffed when he was standing outside the door is now becoming disheveled, just like he is. He waves the gun around, and Carl now looks like he’s about to charge him, but he steps half in front of Fiona.

“You had to go and fuck everything up!” he screams at Sierra. “We took care of this shit twenty-five years ago.”

“What are you talking about?” Fiona asks.

“You think we were going to give you the inheritance with that no-good piece of shit, who was just with you because all he saw when he looked at you was dollar signs?” He points the gun at Carl.

“You went and got knocked up like a stupid slut instead of listening to us when we told you to walk away from him.”

“You think I gave two shits about the money?” Carl retorts, trying to push Fiona behind him.

“She’s bleeding!” I yell, taking off my shirt and pushing it on her shoulder to stop the bleeding.

“For fuck’s sake, we need help.” I look over at my phone to see that I’m connected to 911 and hoping like fuck they get here fucking fast. “She’s been shot.

We need to get her help. If anything happens to her—” I stare at Peter, who just puts his head back and laughs.

“Good. Hopefully, now she really fucking dies, and we don’t have to deal with this shit anymore.

” He shakes his head. “The minute the kid was born, we had to get rid of her. I told them we should have just dumped her in the garbage like she was, but fucking Sonia didn’t listen to me.

No, she took her and dumped her off at a fire station, for fuck’s sake.

” The more he talks, the more rage fills me, my eyes going to Sierra’s beautiful face as I plead with her silently to open her eyes.

“The number of people we had to pay off to keep your fucking secret was insane. Doctors, nurses, journalists, police chiefs, the list went on and on, all because you couldn’t keep your fucking legs closed. ”

“I loved him,” Fiona declares. “He was the only thing that mattered. I didn’t want any of the money. I wanted nothing but him and my daughter, and you guys just took that away from me.”

“So irrational.” Peter shakes his head, the hand holding the gun starting to get really fucking shaky.

“I was supposed to get it all…me.” He points the gun at himself.

“I was the oldest, but you”—he points at Fiona—“you with your feminist bullshit and how it’s not fair, so our grandfather then changed his fucking will to include you and your kids.

Your bastard of a child would get it all because she was first in line.

There was no fucking way I was going to allow that to happen.

” He shakes his head, and we can hear the sirens now, far off in the distance.

“It ends today!” he roars. “It should have ended twenty-five fucking years ago.” He points the gun at Fiona.

“You ruined this family”—there is a frightening look in his eyes as he sneers at her—“for nothing.”

The sound of the sirens getting closer makes me close my eyes for a second before I open them back up and look down at Sierra.

“Hang on, baby,” I whisper before I see movement in my peripheral vision.

Carl charges at him like a bull, leaving Fiona open, but it takes him less than a second to knock Peter off his feet.

His shoulder going straight to his stomach, his arm moving high, and the sound of the gun going off.

I see Fiona’s eyes go big as she looks down and puts her hand to the side of her stomach.

Blood oozes through her fingers. She takes her eyes away from her hand to Sierra, and the tears flow down her face. “I love you, baby girl,” she says before her legs give out on her, and she falls to her knees.

The sound of sirens now fills the whole house.

The red lights flash through the windows and the open door.

“In here!” I yell. “They’re here, baby,” I murmur, wanting to shake her to make her wake up.

I look over to the side and see Carl on top of Peter, his fists flying one after another on Peter’s face.

The police come in first, guns drawn and I see it’s Deputy Burke. “Drop your weapons,” he orders, and I look at him.

“One weapon,” I inform him, and he looks over at me. “On the floor over there.” I motion with my chin toward the gun that fell from Peter’s hand when he was tackled. One of the officers behind him comes in and kicks it aside while the firemen come in with the first responders.

“She was shot,” I tell them as they come over to me, “and so was she.” I motion toward Fiona, who is lying by herself. “Carl!” I shout his name, but he’s in another world.

Deputy Burke rushes over to Carl, side tackling him to get him to stop hitting Peter.

His fists are bloody. “Sir,” the woman paramedic says, “can you move your hand?” They look down at my shirt that is covered in blood.

I move out of the way to let them treat her, falling on my ass as I take a look around the room.

Ten minutes ago, it was a tearful reunion, and now it’s probably going to be the scene of a crime.

I look up, seeing a fireman in front of me, and he holds out his hand to me. “Let’s get you up and in a shirt so you can go with her to the hospital.” I reach out my hand for him, and he pulls me up.

“Is she—” I ask the paramedic beside Sierra.

“I think she’ll be fine.” He smiles at me. “It looks like it went right through.”

“I’m going to have to do a sweep to make sure it’s all good,” the fireman tells me, and I nod at him.

“Her blood pressure is going down,” a frantic voice says from Fiona’s side. “We need to get her out of here before she codes.”

She’s loaded on a stretcher as Carl gets up and walks over to her. “I’m here, Fiona,” he says by her ear. “Don’t fucking leave me again.” He grabs her hand, bringing it to his mouth.

“Sir, you can’t go with them,” one of the officers says to Carl.

“He’ll be okay,” the officer who came in first says. “I’m Deputy Burke.” He looks at Carl. “We are going to have questions for you.”

“I’ll be at the hospital,” Carl replies. “I’ll answer them all there.” Deputy Burke nods at him and then comes over to me.

“We have questions for you as well,” Deputy Burke says to me. “I’m assuming you are going to the hospital.”

“Really nothing to say,” I say to him. “He came in here.” I motion to Peter, who is mumbling on the ground. The officer getting him to sit up as a paramedic checks him out. “He shot them. I’ll answer whatever questions you want, but I’m not leaving her.”

“I’ll come by the hospital when we finish up here,” Deputy Burke relays and walks away.

I run out of the house beside Sierra when I look up and see Theo running toward the house, fear written all over his face. “Fucking shit, Caleb,” he hisses when he spots me and then looks at Sierra. “What happened?”

He stops mid-run when he looks at the female paramedic. “Oh my God, it’s you,” she says at the same time he whispers, “You,” pointing to her and then he shakes his head and turns back to me.

“Meet me at the hospital. Get me a shirt,” I instruct him.

“Call Lilah, we’re going to have to call her parents,” I tell him.

“My phone is somewhere inside.” I motion with my chin toward the house as I get into the back of the ambulance.

I sit on one side while the female paramedic sits on the other side.

She keeps looking at Sierra and at the house where Theo just went into.

The door shuts and her eyes go back to Sierra as she works on her.

Sierra moans out, and my hand reaches for hers as she moves her head side to side. “Baby,” I say softly, not realizing there are tears now running down my face. “Baby,” I call her again. “I’m here, baby, you’re going to be fine.”

“Burning,” she says, “it burns.” She licks her lips.

“I love you,” I state, letting out a sigh of relief from hearing her voice, “more than anything, baby. I love you.”

“I love you too,” she whispers. “What happened?” she asks, and I look over at the paramedic.

“We’ll get into that later,” I tell her. “You need to save your strength.”

“Okay,” she gives in. “I’m just going to close my eyes, but don’t leave me.” She looks back at me.

“Not for a minute.” I smile at her as she closes her eyes, and I look at the paramedic. “That’s good, right? That she woke up.”

She smiles and nods as I sit with my back against the cold steel side and close my eyes.

I open my eyes, and the paramedic hands me a blanket to cover myself up with.

I wrap it around my shoulders and look down at her the whole time.

We get to the hospital, and they take her out, and I follow, walking into the waiting room and seeing Lilah there with Emmett.

Her face is white and streaked with tears when she looks around and finally sees me and rushes to me. “What happened?” she asks.

“You need to call her parents,” I tell her, and she nods.

“I already called them on the way here. They’re on their way. Is she going to be okay?” Lilah asks, putting her hand on her stomach.

“She’s going to be fine,” I assure her. “She has no choice.” I look over to see Carl standing there, looking at the door they just wheeled Fiona in.

I walk away from Lilah, who turns in Emmett’s arms, as I walk to him. “How is she?”

“She coded in the ambulance,” he says, his voice monotone. “If I see him, I’m going to kill him.” He looks over at me. “Have nothing to live for anyway.”

“You have your daughter to get to know,” I remind him, “and her mother to take care of.” He looks at me. “They’re worth it.”