Second Chances: A PAVAD Duet (12 page)

“
Hell!” Josh swore, taking
the bar towel Lorcan handed him. Dan wasn’t even sure when the man
had joined them. “Somebody get a car! We’ll get her to the hospital
ourselves!”

“
Let me through!” Doc
Brewster pushed her way through the growing crowd.

Dan shot a glance to the
little doc, seeing the fear he felt reflected in her blue eyes.
“Kelly?”

She fell to her knees
beside Kelly. “Kelly, listen. I want you to concentrate on
breathing slowly, ok? I’m going to poke around, see if the bullet
passed through. Then we are getting you to a hospital, and get you
sewn back together. You’ll be ok, and Ryan will be pestering you
about what it feels like to get shot. You’ll be his
hero.”

She nearly crooned the
words, and Dan watched as she efficiently removed the now bloody
bar towel and examined the area beneath. His breath caught when she
finished.

“
I think the bullet is
still in there, but from what I can tell it hasn’t hit anything
major. Probably will be able to extract it, then sew her back up
quickly. But we need to get moving.”

Josh apparently needed no
more instruction. Dan felt utterly useless as the younger man
gently lifted Kelly and cradled her against his chest. Doc Brewster
skirted around Dan, then around Josh’s back, then replacing her
hand over a new bar towel Lorcan had once more supplied. The man
was resourceful, Dan could give him that.

“
I’ll get your car!” Lorcan
sprinted down the end of the alley, headed toward the parking lot.
Dan reached into his back pocket for his keys, not surprised to
find them missing. Lorcan was quick handed, too.

By the time Josh made it to
the parking lot, with Dan on one side and Doc Brewster on the
other, Lorcan had the car idling. He hurriedly jumped out of the
seat and Dan took his place.

He may not be able to carry
his daughter to safety like Josh, but he could damned well drive
her to the hospital. Josh hadn’t let her go, instead slid into the
back seat, using his body to keep her braced. The doc slid into the
other side, her focus on keeping the pressure steady. Dan barely
waited until her door was shut before throwing the car into
gear.

Kelly was crying softly,
the sounds nearly breaking down his willpower. He risked throwing a
glance over his shoulder. His daughter had her face turned into
Josh’s neck, and the young man kept stroking her bright
purple-streaked hair.

They looked so strange next
to each other. Josh was a conservative in both manner and dress.
His Kelly was anything but. Yet she clung to the other man. Josh
was always so good with victims.

A victim. It left a sour
taste in Dan’s mouth to refer to his own child as a victim. He’d
get the bastard responsible, as soon as his little girl was
better.

Ally's predictions were
correct―the bullet had been small caliber and had done minimal
damage. Kelly slept peacefully after having given instructions to
both Dan and Ally to stop hovering. Ally knew Kelly hated to have
people see her vulnerable, so she quickly led a protesting Dan out.
He relented only after she explained. And asked him for a ride
home. She'd ridden to Smokey's with Cody and Kelly.

He was quiet on the drive
and she didn't have much to say, either.

He walked her to the door,
as if it had been a date. She readied her keys, thoughts on the
night's events and not paying much attention to her surroundings.
She squealed when he cursed and jerked her behind him.

It took her only seconds to
see what he had. The pretty green paint she and the kids had picked
out for the door the week they'd moved in had been scratched and
gouged around the lock, and the door stood open the barest of an
inch. He moved her off the porch so quickly she didn't have time to
protest.

“
Get in and keep your head
down.” He opened the front passenger door and ushered her inside,
closing the door quickly.

He rounded the front of the
vehicle and slid behind the wheel. Ally shivered as it sank in that
her home had been broken into. “Dan?”

He pulled his cell out of
his pocket as he pulled the car out of her drive. “Hit speed dial
number four. It'll be Ed Dennis. Then hand me the phone,
sweetheart.”

Ally followed his
instructions with hands that trembled. She waited until she heard
the answering ring on the other end before handing it to him, and
then listened as he explained what had happened. Ally pulled her
coat tighter around her shoulders.

It was then that she saw
the stain on her coat. Kelly's blood. Oh, God.

The next twenty minutes
were a blur. Dan pulled the vehicle into the parking lot of a
nearby convenience store and they waited for the local police to
arrive, then waited for the locals to determine if the scene was
secure. Then Dan drove her back to her house, where they spoke to
the locals on Ally's front lawn. Director Dennis arrived moments
later.

The older man had his hand
out, then wrapped it around Ally's elbow. She immediately felt a
sense of comfort. “Dr. Brewster. Dan, how's your daughter
doing?”

“
She was sleeping when we
left,” Dan said. The two men flanked her and Ally felt an instant
sense of safety. These two were powerful, strong men.

“
And what have they said
about this?” The silver-haired man nodded toward the front
door.

“
Nothing yet.” Dan pulled
Ally closer to his side, and she let him. Let him be strong for her
just a bit while she dealt with the fact that not only had her best
friend been shot but her home had been violated.

She said little while the
two men discussed everything that had happened. She didn't know
what to say. She'd never been the victim of a crime. What seemed
like hours passed before the local officers cleared the house for
Ally to enter. Dan held her hand.

Once inside she was
grateful for his support. The entire house had been upended. The
knickknacks, mementos, photo albums she'd just happened to finish
unpacking onto the shelves by the fireplace were pulled to the
floor. The coin dish Ryan had made in the second grade lay in three
pieces on the living room rug. Aislin's finger paints were opened
and upended over the sofa.

The destruction was copied
throughout the house, with only the children's rooms being left
relatively untouched. She was marginally thankful that the monsters
who'd done it had had the grace to not violate her children's
places.

Ally was crying by the time
she reached Kelly's. Their rooms were across the hall from each
other, with Aislin's beside Kelly's and Ryan's beside
hers.

Kelly's bed had been
sliced, deep gouges with a very large knife. Probably serrated.
Ally's mind filed that away even as she carefully stepped over the
broken remains of Kelly's guitar. Thank God they weren't
home.

She wasn't aware she'd
spoken it aloud until Dan echoed it. “Honey, come on. Let's go back
into the living room.”

“
There's still one more
room to see,” Ally said, voice grim. “Mine.”

Ally’s room was destroyed
on a much grander scale than any other room in the house. Ally had
processed enough crime scenes to recognize that. She turned away
for the moment and crossed the hall.

Dan hesitated. “Are you
sure you want to see it? We can always come back in the
morning.”

“
No. He...they...they are
not going to run me out of my home. Not tonight.” Ally took a deep
breath, released it on a shaky exhale. “Not tonight. And
I...have...to clean this up. I can't let my children see this. How
can they feel safe here, with it like this? No. I have to
stay.”

Her room was in even worse
shape than Kelly's. The word bitch had been painted on her mattress
in Aislin's purple finger paint.

“
Tomorrow is Saturday; why
don't you and the kids come stay with me?” Dan said. “Kelly will be
getting out of the hospital tomorrow afternoon. You can stay with
me until we catch the bastards that did this.”

Dennis stepped into the
living room in time to hear the last. “And Allison…we will catch
them. There is nothing that says you will be weak if you chose not
to stay here tonight. No one will think any less of you if you
chose to deal with this in the light of day instead of
now.”

“
My children...”

“
Will understand that you
are staying with Aunt Kelly's dad and her sisters to help out Aunt
Kelly. We don't even have to mention this to them if you would
prefer it,” Dan said.

Ally looked around and the
destruction that was her living room and nodded slowly. She
couldn’t deal with this tonight. She just couldn’t. She’d almost
lost her best friend, and now this…“Ok. But...but...only for a few
days.”

“
Good, I think the locals
have a few more questions for you then you can leave. Salvage some
sleep. It's been a traumatic night,” Dennis said.

Ally swallowed back more
tears as she looked around the living room one more time. A local
police officer came over, his notepad at the ready. Dan checked the
man’s identification, then the officer turned to Ally. “Ma'am, if
you're ready, I have a few questions.”

Ally nodded; Dan's hand
wrapped around hers and squeezed reassuringly.

“
I understand you recently
moved here? I'm sorry this hasn't been a great welcome,” the
officer said. He eyed the blood stains on both Ally and Dan’s
clothing. She knew his questions were going to end up there,
eventually. “Can you get me a list of things that were stolen some
time tomorrow?”

Ally nodded.
“Although...from what I can tell, nothing is missing. I had some
jewelry, but I found it all. My tenant, Kelly, she may have some
things but...it doesn't look like it. At least, not to
me.”

“
And where is Kelly? Her
last name?”

“
Reynolds. She's my
daughter,” Dan said. “She's currently at the hospital. She was shot
this evening.”

The officer straightened,
his eyes focusing on the stains. “Is it possible there’s a
connection?”

“
If there is, the PAVAD
division of the FBI will be handling it,” Director Dennis said. No
one argued. “Allison, can you think of any reason why someone would
target either you or Kelly? Or both of you? Someone who may have a
grudge?”

Ally chewed her bottom lip.
“Well...no...”

“
Doc? It may be important.”
Dan's fingers ghosted up her arm softly. “Anything you can think
of.”

“
Well...there's
Jack.”

“
Go on. Jack?” The director
prompted when she paused.

“
My ex-husband.” Ally
rushed to continue. “But he's not a violent man, not really. He
wouldn't do this. Not like this.”

“
And he has a grudge
against Kelly?” Dan frowned. Ally looked away. She really didn't
want to tell him this. Not Dan.

“
There was the small matter
of his tooth and it having to be capped.” She blew the rest out in
a rush. “She was baby-sitting one night. And he came to the house,
we’d just separated, and he was drunk. He surprised her, made a
really awkward pass. She may have also broken his nose in two
places. But that was a one-time thing. Jack was apathetic, most of
the time. He would not have done this.”

“
Are you sure?” Dan asked.
Ally resisted the urge to flinch, seeing the angry expression on
his face.

“
Positive. Jack never would
have done this, he fights with words. And he definitely wouldn't be
the type to shoot someone in a dark alley. And he would never be
able to actually break in a door. Jack's not like that. At
all.”

Did she still love the
bastard? Dan read her face for some sign of how she felt. She
seemed emphatic that the ex wouldn’t do this, but Dan had seen
domestic disputes go this direction before. “Doc, it may take a
several days for this place to be put to rights, why don’t you pack
a bag for your kids? Enough to get them through the weekend? Kelly,
too.”

Dan wanted to speak to
Dennis alone. Every instinct he possessed was telling him this
wasn’t some random burglary. He waited until the little blonde was
in her son’s room before turning toward the other man. “This wasn’t
random.”

“
No.” Dennis’s eyes held
the same predatory gleam that Dan knew was most likely in his own.
Dan knew the other man was as hungry to catch the culprits as he
was. Neither could stand to see a frightened woman. “It wasn’t. You
think it was the ex-husband?”

“
Don’t know. But if it
was–I’d feel better if we had someone watching her kids at all
times.” Dan didn’t wanted what had happened to him and his girls to
be repeated with the doc.

“
Where are they?” Dennis
pulled out his phone, no doubt to order a protective detail on the
children.

“
Dr. Glendower’s.” Dan bent
down to pick up the broken pieces of a child’s art project, that
had the words I love you, Mommy written on them in bright orange
paint. He’d make a point to glue the pieces together
later.