Chapter 28

Shhh, my coffee cup and I are having a moment. Come back later.

-Coffee Cup

Michael

I stomped up the steps of the police station—a sorry excuse for one, if my opinion was asked.

It wasn’t, but still.

“Where is Hannah Morton?”

That was asked to the first officer I found, which happened to be a woman who looked like she was afraid of just about anything—loud sounds, small dogs, rabbits. Possibly gerbils.

“Ummm,” she hesitated. “She’s in the cell in back.”

I passed her.

“Sir, you can’t go back there.”

I ignored her.

I had to make sure that she was okay before I found whatever motherfucker that’d arrested her, and gave him a piece of my mind.

It didn’t take me long to find her.

Hostel, Texas wasn’t a very big place, so it was no surprise that there were only two cells in the entire place.

At least they put my sister in a cell all by herself. If they’d put her in there with that drunk motherfucker that I could smell from the goddamn doorway, I’d have been pissed.

“Hannah Banana?”

Hannah was leaning forward, her hands on her knees, her feet planted on the floor. Her head was hung, and I could tell without actually seeing or hearing the words leaving her lips that she was saying something over and over in her head.

Her head snapped up, and she was on her feet in an instant.

“Is Travis okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah, from what I hear.”

Her eyes closed, and tears started to slip down her cheeks.

“Han.”

She opened her eyes, and they were swimming with tears.

“Thank God,” she said. “Did you go check on the girls?”

I nodded. “That I did. Travis’ mother has them. As well as TJ.”

She looked away, and I saw her throat work as she swallowed.

“You did good.”

Her eyes came back to mine.

“I did?”

I nodded. “You sure the fuck did.”

She looked startled at the vehemence in my voice.

“You did what you were supposed to do. You did what the Second Amendment was designed for. You protected yourself and your girls. I don’t care if you broke the law doing it. I don’t care if you did it on purpose. I only care that, at the end of the day, you’re all right. Those girls are all right, and that you’re going to see tomorrow breathing.”

She blew out a breath.

“I got an update on Travis about twenty minutes ago,” Hannah informed me. “They told me that Allegra shot him in the chest in the middle of the truck bay at work. When I left him at the hospital, he was so out of it, but he tried to follow me.”

I nodded. “They did. When I got the call, they gave me the same info.”

Her brows rose.

“Who called you?”

My lip twitched. “Travis’ brother.” I paused. “And then Wolf.”

Hannah’s brows rose.

“Really?”

I nodded. “Really.”

She whistled. “Wolf heard how?”

I shrugged. “Don’t know. The law enforcement community is tight-knit. Whatever happened, it was inevitable that I’d hear about it since you’re my sister. Wolf probably has a few of his buddies watching out for you as well.”

Her smile was small, but there.

“Will you go check on him for me?” she pleaded.

I touched her cheek through the bars. “You bet.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Thank you, Mikey Mike.”

“Be good.” I winked at her and left, not stopping until I found the piece of shit that’d arrested her.

The FBI agent that was staring at me knowingly. As if he’d assumed that I’d be looking for him.

“That was a courtesy that won’t be offered again,” the man said.

I smiled. “Is it now?”

His eye twitched.

“Let me tell you something, Agent Arrogant.”

The agent’s eyes widened. “I know a lot of people. Good and bad. Hannah? She’s not a bad person.” He opened his mouth to say something, but I interrupted. “I know that you’re a good agent. I also know that you have the authority to charge her, which you won’t be doing.”

His mouth twitched in an almost smile. “I won’t?”

I shook my head. “No, you won’t. But you gotta make it look good, I understand.”

The agent’s eyebrows rose. “You do that. Keep her for a little while, make everyone think that she’s in a lot of trouble, but I also want you to be careful here. Your story’s known.”

The man’s eyes changed, but the rest of him didn’t.

“I know about the little girl you lost. In Sandy Hook. I know, and I won’t say anything.”

Wolf had called me the minute that he’d heard that this particular agent was here. He’d then given me all the details on him and then gave his two cents on the matter.

The agent swallowed, showing emotion now.

“And if I were you, I’d be really careful about what you do.”

We both knew what I meant.

School shooters that had the unfortunate luck to run into this agent normally had some bad stuff happen to them.

Bad stuff that left them little more than a shell.

As much as I was all right with this bitch who’d shot at my sister being a ‘shell,’ I was not okay with my sister going down because he’d fucked up and gotten a little too creative. Hannah wasn’t going down because this guy was on a revenge mission for every single school shooter that ever lived.

But I knew in the next instant that there wouldn’t be any misunderstandings between us because this agent had his shit together.

“I’ll be back to get her in a few hours. Try to make it before dinner so they don’t have to eat without her.”

The man nodded once. “Be back around four.”

And I left and didn’t look back.

***

Travis looked like shit.

He had bruising all over his chest, and it went all the way up to his neck and disappeared into his beard.

“You look like shit.”

Travis grunted, not opening his eyes as he did.

“She okay?” he rasped.

I stared at him and waited for him to look at me before I replied.

“For some unknown reason, she’s worried as hell about you.”

He made a sound under his breath. “Imagine that.”

I rolled my eyes. “So I hear that your ex-wife is in the room next door.”

That got his attention.

His eyes narrowed, and I swear, had the side rails been up on his bed—why they weren’t I quickly realized was because he’d have used them—then he’d have been up and out of that bed.

“Thanks a lot.”

I turned to find another of his brothers, Baylor, standing there.

“What?” I asked.

“Been keeping that secret for the last four hours. He’s hell on wheels wanting to get to Hannah, and then you have to go and mention that,” Baylor grunted.

I shrugged. “If it makes you feel better,” I returned my eyes to Travis, who was staring at me with an angry intensity I’d never seen in him before. “She has three armed guards, and your brother standing outside her room making sure she’s not going anywhere.”

Travis shook his head. “Not really.”

My lips quirked. “Hmm.”

He flipped me off. “Go get my girl. Then go take care of the girls.”

“Done and done,” I said. “Your mom has the girls, and Hannah’s getting out by four.”

“How do you know that?” Baylor asked before Travis could.

“I stopped by on the way here. Seems like you have a friend…one that is pretty good to have on your side if you ask me.”

Baylor looked at me with eyebrows raised.

“Wolf called,” I started, causing both Baylor and Travis to groan. “Said that this agent had a kid. Five and a little bit. Was lost in that school shooting a few years ago right before Christmas…remember?”

Baylor lost his scowl, and now he just looked sad.

“Could’ve been my girls.”

I looked over to where Travis, face white as the sheet he was lying on, was watching me intently.

I nodded. “But it wasn’t.”

He closed his eyes. “Thanks to Hannah.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Thanks to Hannah.”

Travis held out his hand. “Got a lot of things to thank you for.”

I took that hand being careful not to pull the IV that was sticking out of it and shook it.

“You do,” I agreed. “And as long as you take care of her, you’ll repay it.”

That’s when his hand went limp.

I looked over to see Baylor standing next to Travis’ morphine pump.

“Stubborn fucker won’t do it himself.”

I grinned.

“Why does that not surprise me?”