“Time to get you inside where it’s safe and warm,” I murmured against her ear. “But what I really want to do is take you home and administer those spankings you just earned.”
Her intake of breath was all the confirmation I needed to know she wouldn’t mind it if I did exactly as I said.
“I’m going to walk Gemma back to the house and clean up!” Bodie yelled over the car.
Right as I was about to answer, a vehicle came down the street and I moved Capri behind me, but realized quickly that it was one of Lyric’s cop friends. He had been doing Lyric favors like trying to help watch over the ladies, kids and such as we tried to figure out what was happening with Capri. I wasn’t sure why he was here, but Lyric must have asked him to drive by.
The cop car pulled up behind my vehicle and Bronson got out. He was a good dude. Also ex-military and now a cop, he was all about protecting others. He was younger than Lyric I believed, but they were pretty tight. Even after Lyric left the force and joinedNo Surrender,they’d kept in touch and Bronson came in to use our shooting range, gym, and take classes.
“Hey man, Lyric rope you into checking on everyone again?” I asked, as he approached us.
Bronson reached out his hand and I shook it, then he turned and did the same with Bodie, who had approached with Gemma at his side, neither having made it inside.
Capri moved out from behind me and snuggled into my side. “Hey, Bronson, how do you keep getting roped into looking after us all the time?”
“I don’t mind. Honestly, I owe Lyric my life,” he answered in a tone that said there was a story behind those words for sure.
Lyric hadn’t said anything or shared any story about him and Bronson that would merit an‘I owe Lyric my life’statement, but maybe he thought it was Bronson’s story to tell. I was just about to ask him what he meant when someone called out from the house.
“Hey, you girls are going to freeze your melons off out there! If you’re going to stand outside, come grab your coats!” Alley yelled from the porch, waving jackets around in the air.
“I’ll grab them,” I said as I released Capri and started to jog up toward the house.
I’d almost made it to Alley when the screeching of tires and the gunning of an engine had me spinning toward the sound. What happened next I knew would play out in my head for years to come. Yet, everything took place so fucking fast it also seemed like it unfolded in slow motion just to torment me more.
“Get inside!” I screamed at Alley as I took off running toward Capri and the group standing on the street between my car and Bronson's vehicle.
My blood ran cold as a gun appeared out of the passenger window of the unknown vehicle.
“Gun!” I shouted, but I should have known that Bodie and Bronson would already be jolting into action.
Bullets rang out, spraying in all directions. Bodie and Gemma were close to the lawn and he pulled her swiftly behind my car, but my girl was farther out and there was no time to move fast enough to get her behind anything. Bronson seemed to sense that too and with his own body he protected her, pushing her down toward the ground to cover her like a shield.
“Capri!” I yelled as I dove to the ground.
With my breathing ragged, I crawled the remaining distance to get to Capri, where Bronson lay on top of her, neither of them moving as the sounds of squealing tires and sirens rang out in the night.
My heart dropped out of my chest.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
CAPRI
I couldn’t move.
Between Bronson’s heavy, muscled body and the hard cement, I was pinned on my back in place. But fear kept me there too. I heard Paxton yell out to me and I wanted to respond but nothing came out of my mouth.
Tears trickled down my cheeks and a muffled-sob broke from my lips.My baby. Oh my God, what if my baby isn’t okay?I couldn’t get my hand between us to feel if there was any movement.
I wondered why Bronson wasn’t moving and it was as if that thought had conjured up a groan from the man who no doubt saved my life. I just hoped he’d save my child’s too. Seconds later, Bronson was being rolled off me slowly.
Blinking, I looked into Paxton's distraught face. “Capri, baby, don’t move, let me check you out first.”
“Pax, please tell me the baby is okay,” I cried.
There was commotion all around me then. People scurried around, voices were everywhere, and lights flashed, illuminating the night.
All of a sudden someone else was by my side with Paxton, trying to tell him he needed to move out of the way so they could get to me. I grabbed his hand like a lifeline, panic setting in.
