Page 21 of Crusher

“Yes, you can,” Chief instantly replies, “and honestly, sweetheart, if you don’t, then I’ll put a high-risk alert out for you, and I’ll come fucking get you myself before he kills himself.”

He hangs up, and a few tears fall as I hear footsteps, and I quickly wipe them away. I shove my phone into my pocket, grab the cloth, and continue wiping down around the coffee maker, my stomach tightening.

He was shot.

He wrecked his bike.

“Seriously, you haven’t finished?” I hear Jarrold complain, and I look his way sharply, giving him a hard glare.

“What did you expect? Cleaning is a two-person job, and you know it, but because I’m a married woman and you can’t stand that I’m not going for your advances, you decided to go screw someone upstairs as a screw you to me. Do you know what? Now that you are here, you can finish!” I snap, causing his eyes to widen as I slam the cloth to his chest, and he opens his mouth, but soon slams it shut when we hear, “I think I’m siding with Alex on this one, Jarrold!”

I turn and notice our boss, Mr. Finley, glaring his brown eyes at Jarrold just as my phone vibrates and our boss glares at me next and demands, “You do not answer that, Alex, I’ve already let you off with that phone call a minute ago because of Jarrold's actions.”

I raised a brow at the man and state, “That phone call was Chief Marshalls from Hill Crest. My husband was in a motorcycle accident. I was actually going to come and speak to you because I’m going to need time off for obvious reasons.”

Crap.

I swallow my gasp at my words, words I didn’t mean to say, but it seems my mouth has a mind of its fricking own.

I can’t go home!

What the hell is wrong with me?

“Oh right, damn, okay, yes, no, you go,” he stumbles just as my phone vibrates again and I frown just as Frankie the receptionist runs into the rink and shouts, “Alex, a shooter at the school,” and we all look her way in shock just as my phone goes off again and I quickly grab it to see several messages from the parents group, several panicked messages.

Oh god.

The school is on lockdown.

There’s a shooter; classes are being barricaded.

There were gunshots!

The shooter is still inside.

No one is telling us anything!

They won’t let us call our children.

It’s Toupee’s wife, he’s been screwing the receptionist!

The shooter is confined to the 3rd-grade halls!

“Oh, Kayden,” I choke before I quickly tear my apron off and run towards the exit, my boss’s, “Keep us informed, Alex,” coming through, and my first instinct is to call Hayes.

Chapter 10

Crusher

“I’m not doing this with you, Blaze. I don’t even know why you’re in Rose Hill to begin with.” I snap as I stalk away from my half-blood brother, “Are you fucking following me?”

“Yes,” he admits without shame as he follows me, and I grit my teeth to stop myself from snapping at the asshole with my colleagues around.

Blaze has hovered since the bullet was dug out of my arm, and it’s a fucking blessing that he doesn’t know where I live because I swear to fuck, I’m going to shoot him!

I get it, I’m self-destructing, I can feel it, and I know they can feel it, but fuck, it doesn’t mean I need a full-time fucking babysitter. Especially not one three hours away while I’m on a fucking training with the fire department.

I told Cage I’d be back in a few days, that this was mandatory, and that I wasn’t going to do anything fucking stupid, so why in the fuck has he told Blaze to follow me?!