Games of the Heart

by Kristen Ashley

  “Love you, Angel,” he told her.

  “Love you too, Mike,” she replied.

  He stared at her with his dog in his bed, unconsciously memorizing the view.

  Four hours later, he would be glad he did.

  * * * * *

  Three hours, forty-five minutes later…

  Standing by Fin close to Mike’s back gate in the big side yard between the farm and Mike’s row of houses in the development, I smiled at No and Rees galloping Blaise and Moonshine around the big space, Layla dashing between them.

  “Like she’s been born on one,” Fin muttered and I looked to him to see his eyes were glued to his girl and his lips were curled up.

  “She’s been taking lessons from you for a while now, Fin,” I reminded him.

  He didn’t take his eyes from Rees when he replied, “She’s still way good at it.”

  I looked from Fin to Rees to No and noted they both were but Fin had no praise for No.

  I decided not to point that out, let my lips twitch but didn’t smile and asked a stupid question, “Things solid again between you two?”

  “Yup,” he replied instantly and in a way that didn’t invite further discourse.

  My lips twitched again.

  Then I told him, “Smart women know when to forgive.”

  Fin had no reply.

  “Though, if it happens again, smart women also know when to stop being stupid.”

  Slowly, Fin’s eyes cut to me.

  I pressed my lips together.

  Okay, clearly that conversation was over.

  As if he intended to make this point even clearer than he’d already done, Fin walked toward where Rees was wheeling Moonshine around at the top of the yard closest to the corn.

  No was at the bottom of the yard closest to the street and he was galloping their way.

  And that was when it happened.

  I heard the roar, my eyes went to it and saw a suped-up muscle car turn at high speed into the lane.

  Then it turned off the lane and drove through the yard.

  For a second I stared.

  Then two heads popped out of windows.

  Even at a distance, I recognized those two heads.

  And I saw in their hands they had guns.

  I turned and shouted, “Go!” at the top of my lungs right when the first gunshot rang out.

  Layla started barking. I saw Fin’s body jolt, his head whipped around toward the car then he started sprinting to Rees.

  More gunshots as I ran across the field and screamed, “Go, go, go! Into the fields!”

  Fin got close to Moonshine and Rees, reached out and jerked the reins. Moonshine halted and in a flash Fin had a hand to the saddlehorn and heaved himself up on the horse’s back behind Reesee who’d yanked her feet out of the stirrups. Fin shoved his in, wheeled Moonshine around, dug his heels into her flanks and Moonshine shot toward the corn. No was already within five feet, Blaise in full gallop.

  Layla had run to me.

  “Get inside, Dusty!” No shouted over the continuing gunfire.

  “Inside, Aunt Dusty!” Fin yelled as he took Rees into the fledgling corn, No hot on their heels.

  But I was already running.

  Then I wasn’t.

  This was because pain and fire ripped through my thigh and I went down hard on my palms.

  “What the fuck, Troy?” I heard screeched but I was crawling, Layla moving with me, alternately barking fiercely and whimpering while nosing me. I was trying to gain my feet but my right leg kept collapsing from under me.

  I heard the roar of the car and I lifted my head to look up at the house. That was when I saw Mom and Rhonda there, coming out the backdoor.

  I lifted up a hand and waved sideways toward the house, screeching, “Inside! Lock the doors. Call 911!”

  “Dusty!” Mom shrieked and made as if to come out to me but Rhonda caught her at the waist and yanked her roughly in the house.

  Thank God.

  Thank you, God.

  Thank you, Rhonda.

  I kept crawling at the same time trying to gain my feet, Layla with me, whimpering and barking. The pain was excruciating. I felt wetness all around my leg, a lot of it.

  Blood.

  Shit.

  Shit!

  Layla started growling.

  “Troy!” I heard screamed just as I felt a boot in my side and I had no choice but to go in the direction it took me.

  To my back.

  I looked up at the boy who tried to touch Reesee.

  He looked down at me.

  He was smiling.

  He was also holding a gun pointed at me.

  My blood turned to ice.

  Then he fired.

  * * * * *

  He felt it. When it happened. He felt it like he was in dispatch getting the call.

  The air in the Station went static.

  Merry, sitting across from him and on the phone, cut his eyes to Mike.

  He felt it too.

  Marty Fink, a uniform who was walking across the bullpen, stopped and his body went still.

  And he felt it too.

  Then all the phones started ringing.

  Mike leaned forward instantly and tagged his out of the cradle.

  “Haines,” he growled.

  “Mike, oh God, Mike,” it was Jo in dispatch, “shots fired at the Holliday farm.”

  Mike heard no more.

  This was because he dropped the phone back into its cradle and he didn’t even look at Merry before he was gone.

  * * * * *

  Joe Callahan ran up the steps at the Station.

  Sully saw him and shot out of his chair, moving to the top of the stairs to head Cal off.

  “Cal, cool it,” he ordered, hands up, palms pressing down.

  “Talk to me,” Cal growled, his eyes scanning. No Colt. No Merry. Lots of activity.

  No Mike.

  “Those kids who been vandalizing The ‘Burg and got caught at Mike’s, they played a prank gone bad on Rees Haines and Fin Holliday,” Sully explained and Cal’s eyes narrowed.

  “A prank gone bad?” he asked low and Sully got closer to him.

  “Keep your shit, Cal,” Sully whispered.

  “Word is, Dusty was hit.”

  “Cal –”

  Cal leaned down and got in Sully’s face, growling, “Talk to me.”

  Sully nodded and said quickly, “Two boys, we got. Colt’s in with one. Merry’s in with the other. Drew’s observing.” He jerked his head toward the hall that led to the interrogation rooms. “They said they were just fuckin’ around. Just hittin’ the farm with their Dad’s guns, gonna make some noise, scare the crap outta Fin and Rees. Sick shit, stupid shit. But they meant no lethal harm. Problem is, they didn’t know one of ‘em’s got a screw that’s even looser than theirs. He didn’t shoot in the air. He took aim. He got Dusty in the thigh as she was runnin’ away.”

  An unintelligible rumble came from Cal’s throat.

  Sully kept talking fast. “Jonas, Clarisse and Finley got away into the cornfields. Luckily, they were on horses. But the shooter kid jumped from the car as it was still movin’. Ran to her, kicked her to her back then shot her in the chest.”

  Cal closed his eyes tight and turned his head away, murmuring, “Fuck me.”

  Haines. Fucking Haines was probably undone.

  In his mind’s eye, Cal saw them huddling outside her farmhouse.

  So he quickly opened his eyes and looked back at Sully.

  “How is she?” he asked.

  “No idea,” Sully answered. “She’s still in surgery at Hendrick’s County Hospital.”

  “You got no preliminaries?” Cal pushed and Sully pressed his lips together. “Sul,” Cal growled.

  “He…fuck, Cal. He shot her at point blank range with a fuckin’ .45 and he clipped an artery in her leg. By the time the ambulance got there, she’d lost a shitload of blood so even if she didn’t have a hole in her chest, they were fighting
time and already losin’.”

  Fuck.

  Fuck!

  “Mike there?” Cal asked.

  “For now.”

  Cal stared into his eyes.

  Then he asked, “You don’t got the shooter?”

  “While the other two boys were freaking out, he jumped in their car, took off, left them behind.”

  “Name,” Cal clipped and Sully blinked.

  “What?”

  “Name and make, model and color of the car.”

  Sully’s eyes got wide.

  Then he stated, “Let the police handle this. Everyone’s out. Even folks who got the day off have come in and joined the search.”

  “Name, Sully, and make, model and fuckin’ color of the car,” Cal growled.

  “Cal –”

  “You don’t give it to me, you fuckin’ think my ass isn’t down the street in Tanner’s office and I’m not gonna round him up and those two fuckin’ nutjobs he works with to get on the streets?”

  “Tanner’s already been by,” Sully admitted.

  Cal didn’t say another word.

  He turned on his boot and jogged down the steps, his hand to his back pocket to pull out his phone.

  He had a name, make, model and color of the car before his ass was in his truck.

  Fuck, he should have called Tanner first.

  * * * * *

  Fin’s phone rang and he saw Mr. Haines’s eyes cut to him.

  They hurt.

  Mr. Haines’s eyes on him actually hurt.

  God, he’d never seen pain like that. Not even when his Dad was in the snow and his mother lost it.

  Quiet pain. Deep inside.

  God.

  He pulled out his phone and decided he’d turn it off after he got rid of whoever this was. He was sure news was spreading around The ‘Burg. Everyone would be calling to see if he and Reesee were okay. He’d tell whoever this was to leave them alone and ask everyone else to do the same. Then he’d turn it off. He should have turned it off before like everybody else did theirs. He just wasn’t thinking.

  He had his arm around Reesee’s shoulders. They were sitting in the waiting room chairs at the hospital and he pulled her closer as he held Mr. Haines’s eyes and took the call without looking to see who it was.

  “Yeah?”

  “Finley, honey, don’t hang up on me.”

  Jesus.

  She had to be fucking kidding.

  Aunt Debbie.

  His back went straight, his eyes lost focus, he felt Rees take her head off his shoulder and her eyes come to him.

  “You got nerve,” he whispered into the phone.

  “Mom called,” she told him then amended, like he was a moron and didn’t fucking know who she was talking about, something she did all the fucking time, “Your Gram, it was your Gram who called. But I can’t get hold of her to find out what’s going on.”

  “That’s ‘cause everyone in The ‘Burg’s been phonin’ her and Gramps and Mr. Haines and I’m the only one of us stupid enough not to turn off my phone.”

  “Do you have any news?”

  Fin was silent.

  Her voice was trembling when she whispered, “Fin, honey, do you have any news about my sister?”

  “You bought this,” he whispered back.

  Her voice broke on the word, “Don’t.”

  He said nothing.

  “I’m getting on a plane. Leaving right now,” she whispered. “But please, please, I need you to talk to me,” she begged.

  “Do not come here,” he ordered.

  “Fin –”

  “You promise not to come here I’ll keep you informed. You do not call my Ma. You do not call my brother. You do not call my grandparents. You got his number, you absolutely do not call Mr. Haines. You hear whatever you’re gonna hear from me and you wait for it. You don’t call me. You get me?”

  “But I have –”

  “You come here, Aunt Debbie, I swear to God, I’ll kick you out of the hospital myself. Now if you wanna know what happened to your sister, you wait until you hear from me.”

  There was silence then, “There’s no news?”

  “She’s in surgery.”

  “She’s been in a while.”

  Fin had no reply to that because she fucking had. Forever. A fucking eternity.

  “Listen, people here are freaked,” he told her. “I got folks to take care of. You with me on this deal or do we got more problems from you?”

  Another stretch of silence then, “I’m with you on the deal, Fin.”

  “Right,” he muttered then hung up and turned off his phone.

  His eyes went back to Mr. Haines and he knew he’d heard everything when he nodded at Fin but he did it only once.

  Then he looked away.

  Rees pressed closer and he looked down at her.

  Pain there too.

  God, did he look like that? Because he sure as fuck felt like it.

  “You okay?” she whispered.

  “No,” he answered.

  She smiled a lame smile, pressed even closer and clarified, “No, Fin, I mean about your Aunt Debbie.”

  “No,” he repeated.

  She held his eyes then dropped her head so her forehead was pressed to his chest. Then her arms slid around his middle, her head moved so her cheek was resting on his chest and she held on tight.

  Jesus, his chest hurt. Like a burn deep inside. Sometimes it got so hot he found it hard to breathe.

  His eyes caught movement and he saw No, his face white, had got up from his seat. He was moving to his Dad. He got close and touched his Dad’s arm. Then he got closer, rounding his front. Then Fin watched No hug Mr. Haines, his arms around Mr. Haines’s waist, Mr. Haines’s arms going around No’s shoulders, one of his big hands at the back of No’s head shoving No’s face in his neck.

  Fin knew No was crying or close to it. The shit that went down, Fin didn’t blame him.

  But even as Mr. Haines kept hold on his boy, his head was up, his eyes trained to the door like he could make someone appear there by staring at it. He’d been doing that almost since they got there. And he held his son and did it now.

  Fin dipped his chin and called softly, “Babe.”

  Rees’s head came up and her eyes went to him.

  “Go to your Dad and No,” he ordered and her eyes drifted to her father and brother. Then he watched her lips quiver.

  Seeing that, sitting where he was sitting right then, waiting on what he was waiting on, he sure as fuck hoped to God he didn’t see Brandon, Troy and Jeff again in his lifetime. He promised his Gramps and Mr. Haines no retribution but, he saw them again, all bets were off.

  Rees finally nodded, slid her arms from around him and got up. He watched her walk to her Dad and brother and when she got there, she burrowed in. Like they did it every day of their lives, they accommodated her naturally into their huddle.

  He was watching that so closely, when he felt his hand taken and squeezed, it came as a surprise. He looked to his right expecting to see Gram.

  His Ma was shifting her butt into the seat beside him.

  He stared at her but she didn’t say anything. She just held his hand tight, resting it on her thigh. About a second later, Kirby came and sat down at her other side. She took his hand too and held it on her other thigh.

  Well, she’d snapped out of it. Finally. She was his Ma again. The good one that did Mom stuff all the time, the little stuff and, like now, the big stuff.

  At least that was good.

  Fin’s eyes drifted to Gram and Gramps who were sitting together, Gram’s head on Gramps’s shoulder, her hand on his stomach, their eyes to Fin, his Ma and Kirby.

  Fin jerked up his chin.

  Gram smiled a smile she totally didn’t mean. Gramps pressed his lips together and looked at his lap.

  Fin’s chest started burning hot.

  He looked to the floor. It was the wrong direction but he figured God wouldn’t mind.

  Pleas
e, please, let her be okay, he prayed.

  God didn’t reply. He never did. But his Dad and Ma told him God was always listening.

  So Fin hoped He got the message.

  * * * * *

  Alec Colton walked into the waiting room and saw Mike standing there, his arm around his daughter’s shoulders, her front pressed to his side, both arms wrapped tight around his middle, his son standing close.

  Mike’s eyes came direct to him.

  Then he bent his head and said something quietly to Rees.

  She looked up at her Dad as Colt approached. Then her eyes came to Colt. Then No moved across the front of his Dad, grabbed his sister’s arm and gently pulled her away.

  Colt stopped a foot away from Mike and they both watched as No led Rees to Finley Holliday. She sat down and Holliday instantly draped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her tight to his side. No sat down next to her and, still pressed tight to Holliday, Clarisse took her brother’s hand.

  Colt looked at Mike.

  “I take it there’s no news,” he said quietly.

  “Nope,” Mike replied immediately, his voice tight.

  Colt nodded. He didn’t think that was good. It had been hours.

  “Well, I got some,” he told Mike.

  Mike held his eyes but said not a word. And Colt had to admit, he had to work at holding his friend’s gaze with what he read in it.

  “We got Troy Piggott,” Colt said low and watched Mike’s body get tight.

  “Yeah?” Mike asked, staring at him closely.

  He knew there was more.

  “Well, we got him but there’s a situation,” Colt told him.

  “What situation?” Mike asked.

  “We didn’t actually get him. Ryker and Cal did.”

  Mike drew in a long, deep breath.

  Then he let it out, muttering, “Fuck.”

  “Ryker went fuckin’ apeshit,” Colt went on.

  “Jesus, he’s met her once,” Mike stated.

  “Tanner says he’s got a jacked sense of justice,” Colt explained.

  “How bad is it?” Mike asked.

  Colt hesitated before he answered carefully, “He’ll survive.”

  Mike’s eyes flared and Colt knew why. Piggott would survive. Dusty, unknown.

  Then he asked, “Ryker gonna catch it?”

  “Piggott is a minor. His parents are at the Station. They’re freaked. The other two kids, Schultz and Wannamaker, laid Piggott out. They were separated when they made their statements but their stories match. They’re totally flipped out but they talked, they did it fast and they both said the same thing. Piggott went off on one. They had no clue he was gonna do it. They had a plan, jacking around, no one was supposed to get hurt and Piggott went maverick.”