Chapter 4

4

Gunnar took one look at the people starting to crowd into the FCGH waiting areas and bit back a curse. Of course. When an officer-down call went out, people came from everywhere.

Both from solidarity—and damned curiosity.

Fear for Haldyn was sharp. And Jarrod. Jarrod would be freaking right now. Jarrod Foster was in love with Haldyn—Gunnar had seen that for himself within weeks of transferring to Finley Creek years ago. The other man just hadn't been aware of that fact until recently. But Gunnar wasn't a fool.

Haldyn. She hadn't deserved this at all.

Tall, slim, strawberry blond hair, big soft blue eyes, little wireframe glasses—Gunnar had taken one look at Haldyn years ago and felt his heart lurch. At the similarities. She had looked so much like Jamie, the wife Gunnar had lost years before he came to Finley Creek.

Jamie had been five months pregnant at the time. The grief for his wife and unborn baby had nearly destroyed him.

For the first two years he had been in Finley Creek, Gunnar would admit it—he'd been attracted to Haldyn. But after a while, he'd realized it was because of how much she'd reminded him of Jamie. A relationship built on that wouldn't have been fair to Haldyn. Gradually, the physical attraction had waned, and Haldyn had become more of a friend than anything.

One of their ladies-of-the-lab. The counterparts to him and his buddies in Major Crimes. It was a natural progression. Madison, Charlotte, Haldyn, A.J., Daryn, and now even the newest recruit to the lab— Hope .

Hope. Who had taken a bullet to the chest.

Hope Coleson was all of twenty-three or -four years old, maybe five foot six, and one hundred ten pounds on a really heavy day. With rocks in her pockets to weigh her down. She never stopped moving for a moment.

She'd usually been grinning and happy whenever their paths had crossed before. Almost bouncing.

She was beautiful.

They called her their little gremlin of the lab now.

They met Powell's parents and two of her brothers coming in the lobby doors. Powell clung to her mother for a moment. "Mom, Hallie's in surgery now. We just arrived."

"Let's get you upstairs, baby girl," her mother said. Her cheeks were just as wet as Powell's. Powell had called her parents from the car. "We'll be waiting when our Hallie wakes."

One of Gunnar's teammates came up the hallway. Detective Murdoch Lake had a crowd of women with him.

Gunnar knew who they were with one look.

The Colesons . Hope's family. There were a lot of them. This wasn't even all of them either.

Hope was part of a family of a dozen women and nearly as many children. They lived together in the richest neighborhood in Finley Creek, sharing the bills on the mansion they'd inherited from a relative there. It was incredibly tight financially for them—that fact had been blasted all over the local tabloid after what hell Dr. Gregory Eastman had put some of them through back in October—but they pulled together.

Like the family they were.

In front of that Coleson crowd, right next to Murdoch, was the head of the Homicide division of the TSP Major Crimes Unit.

Miguel Rodriguez made Gunnar—at six five and a cool two ninety—feel petite. The man had a fierce look in his eyes Gunnar had never seen there before. Miguel was out on medical leave after taking a bullet in the TSP parking lot. The same lot Haldyn had been taken from.

That parking lot should have been guarded better.

Miguel had his arm around a woman more than a foot shorter than he was. Dainty and delicate and fragile. Gunnar recognized her immediately—the woman who had raised Hope and Heather Coleson.

"Erickson? What happened?" Miguel asked. "What's going on?"

"I don't have a clue. Powell and I were at the Barratt. The Realtors Association banquet. We've just arrived. All I know is that Haldyn and Hope are both in surgery now."

Elliot Marshall was there. Elliot—chief of the Finley Creek post and Gunnar's closest friend. He approached them. Held out his hand to the woman next to Miguel. "Bonnie…"

"Murdoch told us what happened. Where is my baby girl?" Bonnie stood ramrod straight. Her cheeks were dry. Her voice didn't waver. But there was so much pain on her face. "I need to know where Hope is."

"Where is Heather?" a blonde asked. There was blood all over her. "We were separated downstairs. Where is she?"

"Heather is in the surgical waiting room," Elliot said. "We're still putting things together now. I need to speak with Heather myself first."

"No," Miguel said flatly as a young baby fussed behind him. "You won't be doing that. Heather is going to be with her family right now. There will be time for TSP questions later. Period."

Gunnar had never heard Miguel sound like that before. It was obvious the man, normally easy-going, wasn't about to budge. And the fury was unmistakable. Elliot nodded, sending Miguel a considering look. "Heather is in the waiting room through here."

"I know the way, Chief Marshall," Bonnie said with a quiet dignity that Gunnar had always admired.

Gunnar followed the crowd to the nearest waiting room. Powell was right there—between her friends Shelby and Zoey. He checked Powell quickly. Then looked for Heather.

He wanted to check on Heather for himself.

There she was. In the back corner. Behind Jarrod. Pale and afraid, her niece Zoey, Murdoch Lake's wife, next to her.

Heather stood the instant she heard her family. Gunnar kept himself and Daniel back when Daniel started to go to her. Heather lifted her baby girl from her carrier and snuggled the fussing baby closer. The look on her face—Gunnar would never forget how Heather looked holding her baby at that moment.

Daniel McKellen, the commander of Major Crimes, was just staring at her and at that baby with a look Gunnar had never seen on the man's face before.

Gunnar pulled Daniel into the hallway. He had questions. Daniel had answers. That mattered now. "Tell me what in the hell happened out there tonight?"

"Sol Kimball was one of the choir hall shooters."

The choir hall shooting—when Zoey and two other women Gunnar cared about had been ambushed and shot and Shelby had been abducted. Months ago, well over a year. They had been looking for the shooters ever since. Sol Kimball was the head of Major Crimes: Assault.

"The driver. Tonight, he heard his buddies talking about attacking a forensics team on scene. He tried to stop it. In the process, he shot Haldyn and Hope. We've now identified four of the choir hall shooters. One more is still out there. Heather's ex, Steve Wilson, coordinated it but wasn't there that night, apparently. We're still putting things together," Daniel continued, fury in his tone. "Wilson's been stalking Heather for years, Gun. Those assholes in Wichita Falls threatened her to keep that quiet. They didn't stop him. He attacked her one night fourteen months ago. And he got her pregnant."

Gunnar bit back the curse as what Daniel was saying sank in. "Where is Wilson now?"

"Wilson and Kimball are both in surgery. They most likely won't make it. Bell and Costovia are dead. There is still a fifth man out there who was a part of Haldyn's abduction earlier this month. That's who we are going to focus on now. He…I want that one taken alive. For the answers he carries."

"Hope and Haldyn now?"

"Haldyn's in with Dr. Jacobson. I don't know…any updates." Daniel rubbed at his face with one hand. His eyes were red. His hand shook. Gunnar knew—Daniel had been in love with Haldyn once. "And Hope, no one has said anything about her yet. Hope walked most of the way to the door."

"That's a good sign, right?"

"I hope so. Now, we are just waiting. Brett Naylor is at County Gen. I've sent Lila and Price and a few others there to wait on word. Costovia shot him in the back when they ambushed the forensics van. Kimball and Haldyn found him and called it in."

"What in the hell is going on around here, Dan?"

"I think it's like Jarrod said. We're at war, Gunnar. We're at war. Kimball made it clear tonight—there are people in the Wichita Falls post involved. And people in our post, still. And private companies backing them all. The TSP are foot soldiers. Kimball said they are just paid to be the grunts."

"Then we're going to find them all. I need to get in there. With Powell. This…this is going to be tearing her apart." And he needed to be with her now.

"I think it's going to tear us all apart in the end. And I don't know what to do to stop it."