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Griz was looking at her, Kate was looking at her, everyone was looking at her. Everyone seemed to want to hear one thing or another, and Becca had no answers for any of them.
“I don’t know,” she said. “No reason to rush back to Denver. Maybe I can finally relax now that this is all settled.”
“You don’t have to make any decisions now,” Kate said. “You can stay as long as you like. Like you said, take some time to figure things out.”
“Let’s just get out of here,” Becca said.
“Amen to that,” Wyatt said, getting to his feet with a groan. “I hate courtrooms. They make me nervous.”
“I can’t say I’m a fan, either,” Kate said. “Let’s go home, Becks.”
That sounded like the best idea in a long time. Becca filed out of the courtroom along with the rest of the gallery, lost in her thoughts.
The only thing that shook her out of it was some sort of loud commotion behind them in the courthouse.Oh, God,she thought,not more of the Death Faces yelling. She just couldn’t deal with more drama today. The big creepy bodybuilder guy staring at her and then slamming his hands on the bench like a mountain gorilla before leaving had used up her storehouse of tolerance for psychos for the day.
Griz and Wyatt split away from them, jogging a short distance back to see what all the fuss was about. Boomer kept she and Kate moving, one of his arms around each of them, out onto the courthouse steps.
“The excitement never ends, hunh, ladies?” he said.
Becca stole a glance back and saw that Griz and Wyatt were already returning, once again trotting to try to catch up.
“It was nothing,” Griz said. “Some jackass dropped a…”
His eyes suddenly went wide as he looked past Becca, down the courthouse steps and out onto the street. In almost the same instant, he began to sprint toward her, shouting her name at the top of his lungs.
Things started happening quickly, so quickly that they became a blur of sensations to Becca. People shouting around her. The nearby screech of tires on the street. The heavy press of a body as Boomer grabbed her and leaned down over top of her, pushing her to the ground with him on top.
And then, the staccato thunder of gunfire. Automatic gunfire, a long burst of it, shattering the air with its rapid reports. Becca cringed underneath Boomer, trying to make herself as small as possible, all by instinct. It was all she could do, react instinctively, as quickly as it all happened.
As quickly as it came, the moment passed, and the air itself seemed to relax around her. Boomer was still covering her, protecting her, but the screaming was over, the shooting had stopped, and it seemed like everything was over and done with.
Boomer took his weight off of her and straightened up, and then she could breathe again and see around her. People were picking themselves up off of the courthouse steps from where they’d dove for cover, checking each other to see if they were okay.
Griz was by her side in heartbeat, kneeling down next to where Becca still crouched on the courthouse steps.
“Are you hit?” he said. “Are you hit?”
“No,” Becca said dully, still coming back into herself after the sudden shock of the drive-by shooting. “No.”
“Are you sure?” Griz said. “Sometimes, people can’t tell right away because of the adrenaline…”
“No, I’m fine… oh, God,” Becca said, when she saw the blood on her hands.
The shock came back, splashing over her like a wave. There was blood everywhere; on her hands, on her forearms. Griz was right; she’d been shot and hadn’t even felt it, but all this blood, she must be seriously hurt…
“She’s hit, she’s hit!” Griz shouted.
“It’s not her blood.”
It was Boomer who spoke. Standing next to her, swaying just a little on his feet.
“Dad?” Griz said, and then Becca saw it.
Blood was all over Boomer’s midsection, staining the part of his shirt that she could see where his leather MC cut was open in the front. He looked slightly confused, as if trying to remember someone’s name that was eluding him, and then he fell heavily against Griz.
“Dad!” Griz said, catching him before he fell and lowering him gently to the courthouse steps.
“I, uh,” Boomer said weakly. “I’m all right. I’m all right. I can get up. Help me get up.”
