“Peaches!” Kooper shouts, and I put my hand out on instinct. He doesn’t go past my arm, but it’s an internal fight I know he’s facing. I have it too.
The cop looks over at us, vibrating with a need to run to her. He goes to Ruby, says something to her and the prospect, then calls us over with a single hand raise.
Kooper bolts, sliding over the hood of a cruiser parked between the entrance and the rest of the barricade, and wraps his woman in his arms.
I get there a second later and hover, not sure if I should hug her or not. But thankfully, I don’t have to make that call. She sees me and unwraps herself from her man to grab me in a tight hug that I had no idea I needed. I hold her and breathe her in, checking her arms and back for wounds of any kind.
“You okay?” I ask as I pull back.
She nods, and Kooper yanks her back into his arms.
I look at the prospect, and he doesn’t disappoint in giving me details.
“Guy came in and started shooting up the place. Some jealous asshole or some shit. Went after his wife. No one else was a target but her. Most ran out when he fired the last time, hitting his girl.”
“How many left inside?” the cop, who didn’t go far, asks the prospect.
He shakes his head. “Not sure. We were close to the exit as it was. I was outside the door when the last shot happened. Then the women were running out. I grabbed Peaches, and we just kept going, making sure everyone who was out couldmakeit out.”
“You sure only one person had a gun?”
“Yeah. Five shots from my count. Most wide, only one hit.”
The cop nods at the prospect’s assessment and runs to tell his group. Anything is bound to help now that they’ve got intel from inside.
“Jesus, Peaches, I can’t leave you alone for one second,” Kooper mutters into her hair.
I watch as her eyes close and she squeezes him tighter to her.
“Sounds like a personal problem,” she replies, and it gets the three of us to laugh out of spite.
“Folks, we need you to move back behind the barrier,” another cop says, then ushers us away from the front.
Casper and Mad Max are waiting in the spot we were at before. Neither has been far, but they knew not to get in the way.
“You okay, Peaches?” Casper asks.
She nods but doesn’t let her man go. From the tight grip he has on her, I think it’ll be a while till he does too.
“Sounds like someone random. Not tied to the club,” Kooper offers, and Casper nods, pulling out his phone and texting something to Flint, probably.
No one fully expected this to be about us, but you never know. Half the shit that happens, we don’t expect. It’s nice that for once, we ain’t involved in some shit. But we’ve still got bad timing if we end up in it.
“Karter!”
I look up from the group. A hand waves, and the boys part for Nana. I pull her into a hug just because I can. The others take note but say nothing.
“Have you seen Diana?”
I shake my head as I let her go. “Not yet. But the threat isn’t in her area. It’s down a floor.”
“She didn’t make it out?” Ruby asks, and everyone’s attention snaps to her.
“Who?” I ask, even though my gut already knows.
“Diana,” she says as she looks at me, then pulls out of Kooper’s arms—with a bit of force because he doesn’t let go easily—and glances around. “Did you see her get out?” she asks the prospect, who shakes his head.
“What are you saying, Ruby?” I step closer. I thought, for a moment there, that we were in the clear. That I could breathe because Diana is with long-term care, not the OB-GYN unit.
