I nodded. “Kasey’s dead. Raleigh is in the OR. They don’t know if she’s going to make it.”
“I never liked Kasey, but fuck…this is a disaster.”
It occurred to me that he hadn’t heard yet about his sister. “Alyssa’s here.”
“What?” he snapped.
“She’s fine. She was attacked by her ex.”
His nostrils flared in anger. “How the fuck did he find her?”
“You know how,” I hissed. “How did all of this happen? He put all this in motion. And then Archer and Cheyenne?—”
He stiffened beside me, his gaze sharpening. “What about them?”
“Her building was set on fire. He ran in there, got her out, but it was bad. They’re both in the ICU.”
The news hit him about as hard as anything else, though you couldn’t tell aside from the anger seeping from every pore of his body.
“Give me the green light, Mav.”
“You know I can’t do that,” I hissed.
“After all this shit, do really think anyone would question who pulled the trigger?”
“If anything, the whole town is going to be under higher scrutiny. People are dead. If you really think there’s any fucking way the whole country won’t be watching after what happened, you’re sorely mistaken. If you go out there and pull the trigger, and they somehow trace it to you, there’s not a damn thing I’ll be able to do to protect you.”
I wasn’t sure if my words were sinking in or not, but I prayed he didn’t go out and do anything stupid.
“You have a kid on the way,” I reminded him. “Josie needs you. Don’t be a fucking cowboy.”
With that, I walked away. As much as I wanted to stay at the hospital, I had to see what else I could do to track this fucker down. If anyone else in my town died because of Austin Callahan, there’d be no stopping the Parker family from retaliating. I had to stop the bleeding before one of them ended up in prison.
31
SAM
“When canI go back and see her?” I snapped at Caroline.
“Not yet. They’re still getting her cleaned up, and then they have to set her leg,” she calmly explained.
“You don’t understand. I was there. I need to see her.”
Caroline’s eyes softened as she placed a hand on my arm. I didn’t want her touching me. I didn’t need her sympathy or any placating words. I needed to see with my own eyes that Cassidy was okay.
“Look, I’ll get you back there as soon as I can, but you’re not family. Even if she was cleaned up, they wouldn’t let you back yet.”
I ground my teeth, biting back the retort on the tip of my tongue. Telling her to fuck off wouldn’t do me any favors.
“Sam!”
I spun around, cursing under my breath when I saw Parker staggering in with Blake, Rosie, and Wes. They both looked fine, but the fact that they were here spoke volumes.
“What happened?” I snapped, rushing over to my sister.
“We were ambushed at the house.”
I immediately grabbed Rosie from her arms. At two years old, she was already wiser beyond her years, and the wary look on her face said that she had seen things tonight that terrified her.
