Bury the Hatchet (36 page)

I shook my head. He’d know what that meant.

“Zee,” Razor shouted, interrupting whatever Spurs was saying.

Everyone turned to stare at him.

“Call Dana. Hunter can’t get Tallie to answer.”

Zee nodded and dug out his phone, and one of the coaches moved to turn on the big-screen TV at the front of the room.

“So to sum up what’s going on,” a reporter said as they showed a shot of the arena from outside, “shots have been fired at the BOK Center following tonight’s Thunderbirds game.”

My blood froze in my veins.

“We’re still working on getting all the details. They’re coming in piecemeal, but here’s what we do know. One or more gunshots were fired in one of the luxury suites or another room on that level. There is at least one injury, but we don’t know more than that at this time. We don’t know the severity of the injury. Police and arena security are working together to determine if the one shooter they have in custody is the only shooter or if they were working with someone else, and while that is being determined, the entire building is under lockdown.”

Zee looked at me and shook his head. “She’s not answering. Tried her twice.”

More of the guys took out their phones and started dialing their wives.

Gary Asher came into the locker room from the direction of the coaches’ offices, his expression grim. “It was in the wives’ room.”

That was all I needed to hear. I was on my feet and barreling through the door the second he confirmed my fears, half the guys following right behind me. A few of the coaches tried to stop us, but I wasn’t stopping until I was sure Tallie was safe or Lance Benton was dead, whichever happened first.

An arena security guard tried to stop us, but there was only one of him and a lot of us, and he wasn’t armed. We kept going straight past him. I skidded to a stop and hit the button for the elevator, but I didn’t have the patience to wait for it. Took off running again and found the stairs. I took them two at a time. Turned the corner just as a paramedic team arrived on the scene, coming off the elevator. Good thing I didn’t wait.

Cops and arena security guys were everywhere, blocking the entrance to the wives’ room. No sign of Tallie or any of the other guys’ wives. None of the kids, either. I tried to push my way through with the paramedics, but some cop put a hand on my chest.

“You can’t go in there.”

“I just need to know if my wife’s all right.”

“Hunter!”

It was a familiar voice coming from somewhere in the middle of the crush of bodies, but it wasn’t Tallie’s. I turned to find Nathan pushing his way through to me.

“Tell me she’s okay.” I was panting, but I didn’t care.

He didn’t immediately reassure me. Fucking hell. Kept looking at me like he was assessing how sane I was right now.

“Tell me,” I repeated. I could feel my teammates huddling in close behind me, as worried as I was.

After what felt like an eternity, he nodded. “He shot her.”

Everything inside me exploded, but Nathan kept talking before I could do anything stupid.

“I tackled him and deflected it enough that it just grazed her on the outside of the shoulder. Lots of blood, but nothing too serious. Dennis might have bruised her ribs in getting her down, but I doubt they’re broken. She passed out, probably from the shock. And one of the other wives fainted, too, when it all went down.”

Grazed her shoulder
. I repeated it over and over in my mind, hoping it would calm me, but instead it only made me angrier. At Lance.

At myself, too, as if I could have done something more to protect her. She was my fucking wife. To have and to hold and all that shit, and to motherfucking protect.

“Who?” one of the guys behind me asked, reminding me it wasn’t just Tallie who’d been in danger this time. Lance had fucking brought a gun to an arena filled with thousands of people, taken it to a room full of our wives and girlfriends and kids. Right now, prison didn’t seem good enough for him.

“Tall, blond, athletic build,” Nathan said, looking at the other guys, his eyes scanning them. “Couple of kids and pregnant.”

Zee let out a string of expletives.

“She’s all right,” Nathan assured him, not that anything would enough to make him stop worrying until he could see her for himself. At least not if he was anything like me. I was beginning to think that this whole being in love with someone business changed a man, and not always for the better. Nathan crossed his arms. “Fell when she fainted, but one of the other women caught her and helped lower her to the ground. Scared the kids. The paramedics are talking to her about going in for a few tests, but there’s nothing serious there.”

Nothing serious, my ass.

“There’s something else,” Nathan said, meeting my eyes again.

I shook my head. What the fuck else could there be?

“Lance is in custody. They’ve already taken him to the station to book him. But he wasn’t alone.”

Now I was really confused, and I was positive it showed on my face.

“Janice Roth was hanging around. When I knocked Lance to the ground and kicked the gun away, she rushed out and grabbed it, pointing it at me. She’s in custody, too.”

“Tallie’s mother? But why…”

Nathan shook his head. “Not sure I follow it, either, but they’ll untangle it all in the trial. Based on the way those two were squawking at each other, it seems she was the mastermind behind everything he’s been doing. Seemed to think she could get more out of Mr. Roth in the divorce, or maybe convince him to come back to her, if she could convince him Tallie was better off back under her control now and for the foreseeable future. She wanted Tallie away from you and back with her, and that was that.”

Fat chance that would happen. Ever.

But then the group of cops blocking the doorway shifted, and the paramedics came through with a gurney. This time, I pushed my way through and didn’t let anyone stop me until I got to Tallie’s side. Dennis was with her, holding tight to her hand. I took it from him, and she turned her head toward me.

She smiled. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” I brushed the hair away from her face and let my hand rest on her cheek. “You’ve got to stop scaring me like this.”

“Yeah, I think I’m at my limit,” she joked. The fact that she could make a joke at a time like this made me breathe easier.

One of the paramedics made an impatient sound. “You coming with us? We have to move.”

“I’m coming.” There wasn’t a chance in hell I was letting her out of my sight for a good long while.

THE DOCTORS HAD
run Tallie through a barrage of tests and stitched her up, and they had determined she was in good enough shape to go home.

The bullet had only grazed her shoulder, like Nathan had told me. She’d lost quite a bit of blood, and she would have to rehab the shoulder once everything healed, but she should be fine. None of her ribs had been broken when Dennis had flattened her to the ground, but she was a little sore there. Overall, though, she was fine, and so was the baby.

So now, we were finally home. It was a huge relief to have Tallie where I could watch her. Touch her. Her father had spent a few hours at the police station, gathering as much information as he could, before joining us to see with his own eyes that she was all right. Good thing he was a lawyer. They were a hell of a lot more likely to give him details than me.

The three of us had gotten together around the dining room table, but Mr. Roth got up and went into the kitchen to fix a pot of coffee. Made sense, because there wasn’t a chance in hell any of us would be getting to sleep any time soon. The adrenaline was going to make sure of that. When it was ready, he fixed us each a cup and brought them to the dining room table, taking a seat on Tallie’s other side. He squeezed her hand.

“You ready for some news you might not want to hear?” he asked her.

She nodded. I had to admire her courage, since I had no doubt the news her father was about to divulge had to do with Mrs. Roth and how she’d been involved with every aspect of Lance’s attacks. It couldn’t be easy to hear that her own mother wanted her hurt.

He let out a weary sigh. “Your mother was paying Lance to scare you.”

She blinked back a couple of tears, but she honestly didn’t seem too surprised by this news.

“She was determined to convince you that your marriage to Hunter wasn’t what you needed to do. She wanted you back under her thumb, and she thought if you got scared enough, you’d go running back to her—because nothing like this had ever happened on her watch. Lance was willing to go along with it because he was out a job otherwise. What he’d said to you about not being able to get other work? That was absolutely true, and he really
was
angry and desperate. Your mother recognized that, and she decided to use it to her advantage.”

“But what did she honestly think would come of it?” Tallie asked, bewilderment in her tone, which was completely understandable.

“She thought that Lance could scare you enough that you would see the error of your ways and come back to her. She thought she could convince you to divorce Hunter and sign on for a reality show, and then she could continue to reap the benefits you would bring to her. And with you under her control again, she thought I would come back to her. To have access to you. She knows I love you, and I would do anything for you. She was going to use that against me.”

“But why would she even want you back?” Tallie was shaking, likely more from rage than anything. “She never loved you.”

“No, but she does love money, and she loves image. If I follow through with divorcing her, she thinks I’ll be ruining her image.”

“She’s done a decent job of that, herself,” I said.

Mr. Roth’s lips twitched up in a half smile. “That she has, son. But the good thing about all of this is that now it’s all out in the open. She’s going to face charges right alongside Lance. The truth is going to come out, and you won’t ever have to worry about her having any control over you or your life again.”

“No, you won’t,” I said, agreeing. “You’re in control of your own life. You’ve taken that control.”

Tallie blinked back tears. “Have I really? I mean, all I’ve done is move from her house to yours. I’m not in control of anything.”

“Aren’t you?” I raised a brow. “You’re free to leave anytime you want, but I hope to hell you won’t. You’ve been deciding for yourself how to spend your time, taking cooking classes and devoting a lot of time and energy into making friends with my brother. You can do whatever you want to do, whatever you set your mind to. You’ve got friends you can count on. If you want to finish your degree, you can. There’s nothing stopping you but yourself.”

A wonky smile crept to her lips, like she wanted to beam at me but was afraid to let herself show a bit of pride. In the end, she couldn’t stop it, though. “I guess you’re right. I just hadn’t thought of it that way.”

Mr. Roth winked at me, which gave me an idea. He’d been filling us in on so much lately, I decided it was time we filled him in.

“You think he can handle a bit of news, too?” I asked Tallie, nudging my head in her father’s direction.

“Oh.” She blushed and nibbled on her lower lip, which made me think all sorts of inappropriate thoughts I had no business thinking in front of her father. But then she laughed and turned to him. “I guess now’s as good a time as any to let you know you’re going to be a grandfather.”

In the months that I’d known him, I’d always thought Mr. Roth to be the most unflappable man of my acquaintance. Nothing fazed him. Nothing made him lose his composure. We’d finally found the crack in his armor, though.

He started crying and laughing at the same time, and he pulled Tallie in for a gentle hug. Once he’d soaked her shirt, he let her go and looked at me, and then he did the same thing to me. I patted him on the back, not sure how to react to his sudden show of affection.

Tallie got up and went into the bathroom, bringing back a box of tissues. Her father ripped out a couple and used them to dry his eyes and blow his nose. Once he’d finally gotten himself under control again, he sat back in his chair and looked from one of us to the other.

“So,” he said, his voice still rough from crying. “What’s she going to call me?”

“Who says we’re having a girl?” I asked, laughing.

“I do,” he replied, cool as a cucumber. He met my eyes, dead on. “And I promise you, you’ll be overjoyed when she arrives. There’s nothing like having a little girl to love and protect. So what’s she going to call me?”

“What do you want her to call you?” Tallie asked.

“How about Gramps? Pops?”

He kept throwing out suggestions, going from the relatively normal to the downright absurd, keeping us all in stitches. For the first time in a long time, I let myself fully relax. It struck me, watching Tallie and her father together, that even though I’d fought tooth and nail against the idea of marrying her only a few short months ago, I wouldn’t change anything now. I wanted her to be my forever, and that made everything we’d been through worth it in the end.