Chapter Ten
Tania followed Smokeydown the stairs, wondering what had gone wrong.Who had turned up at the house and why would they shoot these men?The only one who would have any reason, at least as far as she knew, would be Rod.But had he somehow known she wasn’t home?Or was whoever had hurt them really been looking for her?Would they have hurt Carter too?
She clenched her teeth and tried to ignore the way her heart raced.At the base of the stairs, Smokey wrapped an arm around her shoulders, tugging her against him as he scanned the room then steered her down the same hall she’d gone down when they’d first arrived.At the end of the hall, instead of going into the office where they’d been before, Smokey steered her to the other side of the hall and into a room with a large table and chairs all the way around.It reminded her of a conference room, except she’d never seen a conference table with a huge winged, haloed skull carved into the surface.
There were several seats already filled.Smokey guided her into the room, and to a chair, but before she could sit, he sat in the chair instead.She straightened and started to step to the side to take another chair but he hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her down onto his lap.
Twisting around, she glared at him and tried to stand, but his arm around her waist held her in place.
“There aren’t enough seats in here.Usually women aren’t allowed, but since this directly impacts you, I want you to have some input, Shell.They’ll probably have questions too.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, not sure if she should believe him or if this was a ploy to get her to sit with him.Didn’t he know he didn’t have to play underhanded games for that?He just had to ask.She didn’t say anything, though, but turned around to face the room, keeping her back straight as she fought to retain her composure.Two men had been hurt because they went to her house to get her things.Two of these men were hurt because of her.How could she live with that?What would she have done if one of them had been killed?Maybe she’d best just go back to Rod to make sure no one else got hurt because of her.But she wouldn’t be taking Carter back.She couldn’t risk him.
“Stop that.”Smokey’s voice cut into her thoughts.
“Stop what?”she asked, not thinking about where they were or the people around them.
“You’re getting lost in your head.You’re thinking up shit that doesn’t matter.”
“I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of me.”
“No one is getting hurt because of you,” Raven spoke up, drawing her attention and reminding her that she and Smokey weren’t the only ones in the room.“They were hurt because of the shooter.”Raven’s gaze flicked from her to the door, then back.“And there’s David, he’ll be able to tell us more about what happened.“Have a seat.”Raven said to the prospect, waving toward the chairs filling the room.
After a few minutes, the room was mostly full, but there were still a few empty chairs.She started to tell Smokey she could sit in one of those, when one of the men she knew from around town but didn’t know his name, closed the door.As soon as the door closed, the men stopped talking and turned their attention to Raven.
“We all know why we’re here right?”He scanned the room.
Several of the men nodded.
“For those of you who haven’t met her yet, this is Tania.She’s an old friend of Smokey’s and, as he’s only recently discovered, his baby mama, but we’ll get to that in a few.Her husband did this to her.She has no desire to go back to him, and she wants to keep her and Smokey’s son out of his hands too.We sent two prospects over to her house to gather the things she thought she’d need, while they were there working something happened.”He looked at David for a second, then continued.“David, tell us what happened.”
“We were doing what we were asked.Gathering the stuff on the list.”David turned to look at her, “everything was right where you said it would be, that made things easy.”He turned back to look at Raven.“We’d been there maybe half an hour, probably only needed another ten or fifteen minutes to finish loading everything.I was up in the baby’s room dropping things in a box when I heard David shout, then a gunshot.I dropped what I was doing and went to see what was up.”
The men around them nodded, silently agreeing they would likely do the same.
“I hadn’t made it halfway down the stairs when I heard a second gunshot.From that one, I knew they were in the kitchen, so I headed that way.I found David hunched down, using the island as cover while the other man stood in the dining room.I managed to get David and was dragging him out there when the asshole took another shot.That’s the one that got my leg.”His hand went to his thigh, where she’d seen Smokey working on bandaging him as she’d come down the stairs.
“What did he say?”Raven asked with a frown.
“The guy shooting?Nothing that I heard.He may have said something to David, I didn’t hear it and he didn’t tell me on the trip back.”He turned and glanced at Tania.“Sorry.I think there’s maybe one or two boxes in the truck.We’d decided it would be easier to stack it all next to the door and haul it all out at once.”
“That’s okay.Your lives are worth more than stuff.All that can be replaced.”Most of it consisted of keepsakes from when she was pregnant or when Carter was tiny.She’d like to be able to share them with Smokey, but it wouldn’t be earth-shattering if they were gone.“Was it Rod?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.I don’t know the man so I wouldn’t know if it was him.”
“Give me a second,” said another man she didn’t know.
“That’s Hawkeye.He’s our tech sergeant,” Smokey whispered in her ear.She nodded once to let him know she heard but kept her eye on Hawkeye, wondering what he was doing.
The TV on the wall behind Raven flickered to live then a photo of her husband that she didn’t recognize filled the screen.
“Was this him?”Hawkeye asked.
David shook his head.“No.I don’t know that I’ve ever seen either one of them before, but this guy was bald, looked mostly fit, except for the beer gut, and he was older.At least twenty years older than this guy.”Several comments went back and forth, some quiet and others louder as they tried to figure out who he was and why he might have gone in shooting at the house.
A cold weight started in Tania’s chest.She couldn’t be sure, not without seeing him but she thought she recognized the description.
“What is it?”Smokey asked.She didn’t know if she’d gone tense or what but somehow he knew.
