Silence.
Heavy, ringing silence broken only by the sound of children crying and adults breathing hard.
“Clear!” one of our security guys yells. “Hostiles retreating! Three down, others fled!”
I don’t move yet. Don’t trust it.
“Jace.” Parker’s voice, strained. “Jace, are the boys?—”
“They’re okay,” I call back, still covering them. “They’re okay.”
Slowly, carefully, I lift off Noah and Liam. Both boys immediately scramble toward their mother, who’s crawling toward us despite Silas trying to hold her back.
She reaches them, pulling them into her arms, checking them frantically for injuries.
“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” she’s murmuring, tears streaming down her face.
I stand, my hand going to my weapon, doing a quick perimeter check. Charles is on his phone, barking orders. Cal is checking Sienna and Jimmy for injuries. Silas is standing guard over Parker and the boys, his weapon still drawn, his expression murderous.
Lottie is crying in Sienna’s arms. Jimmy looks pale but unharmed.
Noah and Liam are terrified but not hurt.
No one is bleeding. No one is shot.
But the baseball equipment is destroyed, the dugout is riddled with bullet holes, and the chain-link fence looks like Swiss cheese.
This wasn’t random. This was targeted.
Someone just tried to kill us.
In a park. In broad daylight. With children present.
“Everyone in the cars,” Charles orders, his voice cold and hard. “Now. Security will sweep the area. We’re going home.”
No one argues.
Parker carries Liam, I carry Noah—the boy won’t let go of my neck—and we move quickly to the vehicles. Silas keeps Parker and the boys covered, his body between them and the tree line where the shots came from. Cal does the same for Sienna and her kids.
We pile into the SUVs, security forming a perimeter, weapons drawn.
As we pull out of the parking lot, I look back at the park.
At the destroyed baseball diamond.
At what was supposed to be a normal, happy family afternoon.
And I think about Charles’s words from earlier.
You’d all make good fathers one day.
Well.
Looks like we’re about to find out if that’s true a lot sooner than expected.
Because whoever just opened fire on us in that park?
They just made this very, very personal.
