Eat Crow (Cheap Thrills 6)

“What are y’all yapping about?” a female voice yelled from one of the doors of the motel.

The door that was next to the room I’d dropped Bexley off in. Son of a bitch!

DB spun around at the sound of it, but I had a clear view of the owner of the motel standing with her shotgun resting on her shoulder. “Mizz O’Hare—"

Moving the shotgun, she started using it as a sort of pointer stick like they used at the academy to point at the board. “Now, don’t be giving me any of that, Sheriff. It’s Hyacinth, and you know that. Y’all also know I don’t take any shit in my establishment, and this definitely goes against the rules. Now, are you going to come and help me out, or are we having tea and a social gathering?”

Carter moved to stand beside me, his eyes wide as he watched her waving her shotgun around. “What’s happening?” he whispered.

“I have no fucking idea, but she’s standing next to the room Bexley’s in.”

DB turned to look at me over his shoulder. “Logical thinking time. If someone like Bexley needed help because she was hurt, Hyacinth’s demeanor would be very different from what it is now, and she’d be requesting medical assistance. Instead, she’s agitated but only slightly more than normal.”

“Trust me when I say I’m not getting any younger here,” she bellowed. “Gravity ain’t friends with age, so I got both beating down on me.”

“Does anyone need medical assistance?” Alex called back.

“No? Well, maybe?”

Glaring at DB, I growled, “I’m losing my fucking mind here. I need to go up there and make sure she’s okay.”

“And you will. Give me just thirty more seconds, and think about what I just said about Hyacinth. Don’t let your emotions take over your ability to do the job properly.” Answering him with a jerk of my chin, I watched Miss O’Hare closely as he walked toward her and shouted, “What are we walking into, Hyacinth?”

“A fucking magic show, what do you think? Got a judge who thinks he can shoot up my property, a man being held hostage by the judge, and a handsome young fella y’all know who does some great body art—” she stopped as someone shouted something to her from the rooms, then turned back to us. “Sorry, he says he’s got shit okay in that room, and to get the sorry sacks of shit outta this one.”

Hanging my head to look at my boots, I mentally kicked myself. DB was right. I’d let my emotions take over my ability to do my job.

A meaty paw smacking me on the shoulder made me grit my teeth. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. We didn’t know anything about Bex’s situation, and having innocent people around when guns start going off affects all of us. Hopefully, you’ll never be in a situation where it happens around Bexley again, though. Twice in one day is more than enough for one lifetime.”

I listened to Alex’s advice and absorbed it. I was raw. That was the only way to describe it. Twice today, my heart had stopped because of guns being shot near her. Twice I hadn’t known if I’d find her breathing or dead.

So, yeah, I was fucking raw, and I would be until I got to check her over myself.

Holding his hand in the air, DB motioned to us to split into two teams. Because there were staircases on either side of the walkway that ran in front of the rooms we were aiming for, one group would approach from one side, and the other would come from the other side.

Looking at me, he pointed at Carter and then at the room we’d rented earlier.

I was splitting off from the team and going in to see her.

Nodding, we moved quickly and were soon on the walkway. As I got to the door, I tapped gently three times and stood back so Mace could see me through the peephole.

When he threw open the door, Carter and I moved inside and shut it quietly behind us.

“They’re in the bath with the animals. I hid them with a comforter over their heads in case the guy shot again,” he pointed at a wall where there were three large holes.

“Damn,” Carter whistled.

“Yeah, and the girls were standing four inches to the right of it when the first one came through,” he clipped, his lips set in a straight line. “Fucker almost hit them because he couldn’t take getting dumped.”

All I could see was Bexley laughing as she relaxed after a bullshit day with her friend, a glass of wine in her hand, and a bullet going into her.

“Why—” I stopped and licked my lips. “What did they do when it happened?”

Mace’s lip twitched slightly as he looked at me. “They don’t even know it happened. They thought initially it was fireworks or an argument outside. I went in earlier after it kicked off again next door to reassure them it wasn’t in the room, and the damn dog was sitting in the tub with them while Ava cuddled the cats.”

Tipping my head back to look at the ceiling, I felt anger, relief, sadness, happiness, and rage. All of them were extreme, but the one that came to the surface was a burst of irrational laughter.

A bullet had come through the wall near her and her friend, and now she was hiding in a tub with Doyle on her lap and the box of kittens.