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Alex scratched at the edge of his beanie. “That might be a good idea.” He turned.
A car slowed by the curb about fifteen feet from them. The window rolled down.
“Get down!” She tackled Selena, and all three of them went down.
Fire sliced across the outside of Clare’s arm. Alex’s body jerked.
Selena screamed.
EIGHTEEN
Gage gripped the steering wheel, trying to keep his speed manageable. His lunch break was over, but what he’d discovered in his mom’s things was a long overdue find. He couldn’t believe that after she’d refused her entire life to talk about his father or where he’d come from, Gage found an original birth certificate with his father’s name on it. His real name.
She had to have changed it. Wiped history clean and lived with shutters on anything that could cause her hurt.
He didn’t blame her for that. In a way, he’d done the same thing.
But that didn’t take away the hurt he’d suffered at her hand, never knowing the truth about his birth.
Alistair McCauley was his father.
Gage didn’t know anything about Captain Dennis McCauley beyond the kind of cop he was. If they were related, he didn’t know how yet. Could just be a coincidence. It wasn’t an unusual name, not like Deluca was.
He squeezed the wheel, heading on autopilot back to the PD the way he’d done so many times. Maybe he’d been living for years like that. Going through the motions. Pretending it didn’t bother him that—
His phone rang.
Gage hit the button on the dash screen that showed Sgt. Liam O’Connell was calling. “Yeah.”
A second of silence passed. Then, “You okay?”
“Did you call me to ask that?” Gage rarely took lunches by himself. Maybe the boys thought something was wrong.
“No. Shots fired at the park, two hit. The girl was fine, but Clare was hit and so was another guy.”
Gage flipped on his lights and siren, then cut across two lanes of traffic to head right. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t have details. I just know ambulances took the three of them to the hospital.” Liam paused again, just for a second. “Sure you’re all right?”
Gage wanted to tell his friend what he’d found. He wanted to say his father’s name aloud for the first time in his life. Claim it for himself, no matter what happened. He wanted to know if he could have a relationship with the guy or if he’d end up getting shutdown—shut out—like every other relationship.
“I’m—” He tried to sayfine, but the word got stuck in his throat.
“You really like this girl,” Liam said. “Look—”
“I loved her.” Gage gripped the wheel, fighting for focus on what was happening around him more than what swirled in his head. He didn’t need an epic crash on the way to the hospital. “And she justleft.When she was pregnant with my baby.”
“Pull over.” Liam sounded like he was moving. “We’ll come pick you up. Go together and get to the bottom of this. Unless…”
Unless she’s dead.Gage sucked in a breath through his nostrils. “I got it. I’m good.” He pulled in a few breaths in a row and pushed them out, slowing the SUV a little so he didn’t plow into someone unsuspecting and end up with more problems than he already had right now.
Not going through the motions sucked. He’d become a Christian, and it was like the lights came on. Suddenly he could see things he’d never noticed before, and life seemed so much richer. He had empathy he’d never felt before. Drive to do his job well. Passion to see the people around him succeed. It was exhausting.
Now Clare was back, it was as though someone set off a bomb in his carefully controlled life.
He’d thought there couldn’t possibly be more right now than that.
Here he was—metaphorically—reeling from another blow. Finally, after thirty-plus years, he knew who his father was.
