Road to Peace (24 page)

I kind of lost track of names after that, relying on Hatch to fill me in on occasion, but everyone was warm and welcoming. They did treat me a bit like a unicorn, several admitting they’d been questioning my existence, but they all seemed genuinely thankful that Hatch was “less of a dick” since we’d gotten together.

Poppy loved the attention Lily lavished upon her. There didn’t seem to be a mean bone in the older girl’s body and they became fast friends, exchanging phone numbers and promising to hang out more.

“What’s up with that?” I asked Hatch after watching Maverick and Lily. Maverick held Lily’s hand on occasion, stroked her hair, and all around appeared to worship the ground she walked on.

Hatch sat on the picnic table, and situated me on the bench between his legs, my arms over his thighs, and lowered his mouth to my ear. “He decided when he was six or so that she was his old lady.”

“Shut up,” I breathed out.

Hatch nuzzled my neck. “Been in love with her since the day he met her.”

“How does she feel about him?”

“Don’t know. Hawk keeps her pretty sheltered. They live next door to each other, but Lily goes to the art school up in Vancouver. Mav’s on the football team at Skyview, so they’re in two different worlds right now. Lily’s all sweetness and innocence. Mav’s a good kid, but he’s the son of a biker and he’s around women who don’t have a whole lotta class, and they’re starting to notice him.”

I frowned. “I don’t want to know.”

“Didn’t say he does anything with ’em, Sunshine. Cass’d kick Ace’s ass if he let that happen.”

“Well, these women shouldn’t even think about it. He’s in high school.”

“I agree, but look at him… does he look sixteen to you?”

“Well, no,” I conceded. “But, still. Ew.”

“Doesn’t matter. Maverick’s only got eyes for Lily. If they don’t get together, it’d have to be because of an act of God… or Hawk.”

“Hawk would stop it?”

“Right now, hell yeah.”

“Good dad.”

Hatch chuckled. “Yep.”

Poppy watched Devon covertly, but I noticed. He respected her space, stepping away if she got too close, but seemed to enjoy her company. He was charming, but not
too
charming, which I believed would serve him well in life.

Hatch slid my hair away from my neck and kissed me gently. “What are you thinking about?”

I craned my neck and smiled up at him. “The charm of the Wallace men.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t typically get called charming, Sunshine.”

“That’s a load of crap and you know it.” I turned back to watch Poppy. “Did you forget I nearly had to cut a bitch yesterday?”

Hatch dropped his head back and laughed, drawing confused looks from the rest of the brothers standing around.

I waved my hand. “Don’t mind him. I just reminded him of something.”

“Burger or dog, Maisie?” Knight asked.

“Burger, please,” I said.

“Hatch?”

“Burger.” Hatch leaned down and wrapped his arms around my chest. “Like that you think I’m charming.”

“The problem is you’re supposed to only be charming to me.”

“I’ll work on that.”

“No, don’t. That’ll just make you more lethal.”

“You like me lethal,” he whispered. “Especially when I do that thing—”

“Stop,” I ordered a little too loudly, and Hatch started laughing again, while I blushed profusely.

As we dressed our burgers, my phone buzzed in my pocket, so I pulled it out and glanced at the screen. Alison’s name popped up and I frowned. Choosing to ignore the call, I slid my phone back and continued about my business. A few minutes later, my phone buzzed again. Handing my plate to Hatch, I sighed. “Excuse me for a minute.”

I walked to a private area away from the group and answered the call. “Hello?”

“Maisie?” Alison said, sobbing into the phone. “I’m so sorry.”

“Maisie! Mom has a gun!” Grace screamed in the background.

“Ali, what’s going on?” I spun to face the group again and locked eyes with Hatch who stalked toward me immediately.

“I can’t keep doing this,” Alison rasped.

“Doing what, love?” I asked, then muted my phone and said to Hatch, “Something’s going on with Alison. Gracie’s screaming in the background that Ali’s got a gun, she’s terrified, Hatch.”

“It’s all too much, Maisie, you know?” Alison rasped.

I unmuted my phone as Hatch gathered up his brethren.

“What’s too much, love? Where are Ryan and Merrick?” I asked Alison.

Gracie continued to scream in the background and my heart raced painfully.

“Do you remember that time we took the kids to the museum?” Alison asked.

I tried to keep my voice calm and carefree as I said, “The great pink eye incident of two-thousand-six?”

“Ohmigod, yes,” she giggled, but her laugh sounded manic.

“No, Mama, please don’t,” Grace begged.

“Alison?” I called.

“Huh?

“Ali, love?” I called again.

“Yes, I’m here.”

“Remember, after the kids got pink eye, how Grace took care of Merrick and Poppy? She went and got her plastic stethoscope,” I reminded her. “Goodness, she was the cutest little nurse, eh?”

“I forgot about that,” Alison whispered. “Why don’t they wash those damned toys?”

I hated it when she segued. “They probably do now, but it wasn’t the greatest memory, was it, love? But remember how Ryan watched the kids the next day so we could go to the spa? That was such a great day.”

“We had such good times, didn’t we?”

“We did, love.”

“I’m so sorry, Maisie.”

“I know, love,” I whispered.

“If I could take it back, I would.”

“I know, love. I forgive you.”

“Goodbye Maisie.”

Before I could process the meaning behind her words, a loud blast sounded. Over the ringing of my ears, I could barely hear Gracie’s gut-wrenching scream.

“No! Mama! Ohmigod, why did you… you… ! Mama, get up!”

The reality of what had just happened hit me as my knees slammed into the concrete and I fell to the ground. Somewhere in the background I could hear Poppy calling out to me and then strong arms lifted me and pulled me close.

Hatch grabbed my phone and I think he spoke into it, I’m not really sure. I climbed into the dark recesses of my mind and hid there.

“Goodbye Maisie.”

She couldn’t have killed herself, but I knew it was true even as I clung to Hatch and tried to deny it.

No, Ali. We can fix this. We’ll get through it. I won’t press charges. Everything will be okay.

But I was only trying to convince myself. I knew in my gut my friend was already gone.

“Mummy?” Poppy asked, her soft hand wrapping around mine.

“I’m okay, Poppet.”

I was, but Alison…  My eyes burned.

“Mama, get up!”

She’d done it in front of Gracie. How could she? She was getting help.

Hatch had me cradled on his lap on one of the picnic tables, my phone to his ear, his face unreadable.

“What’s going on?” Poppy asked.

“Grace is okay,” I lied. Grace was far from okay, but it was the only hope I could give Poppy. “She’ll be fine. She’s tough.”

“Grace,” Hatch said into my phone. “I need you to call 9-1-1. I know this is scary, but I need you to do that right now, can you?”

Knight walked up to us and Hatch raised his head.

“Jax is on his way out to their place,” Knight provided.

“Someone’s comin’ to help and he’ll probably beat the cops. His name’s Jaxon Quinn,” Hatch said. “But you still gotta dial 9-1-1, okay? Tell them who your dad is and that they need to call him.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “As soon as they can, Grace, yeah? Okay.”

He hung up and I swallowed convulsively. “Did Alison really…?”

“Yeah,” he breathed out.

“What’s going on?” Poppy demanded.

I linked my fingers with hers. “Alison... ” I swallowed. “There’s been a…” Another swallow. My throat was suddenly so dry. “Alison was very sick, Poppy. And she’s going through a lot and…” I turned toward Hatch. “The ambulance is on the way, right? She could still pull through. We don’t know for sure that she’s dead.”

“What?” Poppy burst into tears.

My stomach clenched. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Lily stepped in and wrapped her arms around Poppy as Hatch led me away from the group. My knees stung, and I looked down to see blood seeping out the holes in my jeans but couldn’t have cared less.

“She’s dead, Hatch,” I whispered. “She really… oh God.” Once inside his bedroom, I stepped into his private bathroom barely making it to the toilet. After emptying my stomach of everything I’d eaten over the last year, Hatch helped me to the bed where I fell in a heap, too overwhelmed to cry.

“Let’s look at those knees, Sunshine.” Hatch removed my wedges, then gently pulled my jeans off, grimacing at the hamburger that used to be my skin. “Let’s get some peroxide on those.”

I rolled to my side, hugging one of his pillows to my chest and closing my eyes. My best friend was dead. Never had I ever thought this would happen. I’d lost the two people closest to me… and I wasn’t even forty. Shit like this wasn’t supposed to happen to young people.

“Connor?” I whispered.

“Yeah, baby?” He crawled onto the bed with me and cupped my cheek.

“Please don’t die. I can’t lose you too.”

Readjusting me so I was on his chest, he held me close and kissed my temple. “I’m not goin’ anywhere, Sunshine. You’re gonna get so sick of me, you’ll be that grumpy old lady who complains about her old man to the nurses at the old folks’ home.”

I smiled. “As long as you’re in the old folks’ home with me, I swear I won’t complain… ever.”

“Deal.”

“My best friend isn’t here anymore, Connor.”

He stroked my hair. “I know, honey.”

“I know she… she screwed up, but she was sick and it didn’t make me love her any less. She was still my family.” I took a ragged breath. “I held out this stupid little hope that she’d get well and we could maybe get back to normal.” I glanced up at him. “And don’t growl at me for using ‘stupid.’ In this instance, I think it’s accurate, because she was farther gone than I thought, which was stupid. I should have seen it. I should have protected Grace. I should have protected Merrick. For God’s sake, I let Poppy into that den of crazy.” I burst into tears again and Hatch pulled me closer. “But I love her still. I’ve missed her. How bat shit crazy is
that
?” I snapped. “She tried to kill me and my child and I still
love
her. I
am
an idiot.”

“Shhh, Sunshine, you’re not an idiot.”

“I am so.”

Hatch lifted my head and thumbed my tears away. “You are a beautiful, loving mother and friend, and you want to believe the best in people. That doesn’t make you an idiot. As soon as you saw the threat, you got Poppy out of the way. No one would have guessed that someone like Alison would have had the know-how, let alone the desire, to mess with your car.”

“You would have.”

“How do you figure?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. You know everything.”

He sighed. “I wouldn’t have known, baby. No one could have known. And I’d venture a guess, Ryan probably didn’t know either.”

“Ohmigod,” I said, sitting up and scrambling off the bed. “Ryan.” I hissed at the pain in my knees and Hatch sat me back down and knelt in front of me.

“Let’s get these knees bandaged.”

“We need to find out what’s going on. And Poppy needs me.”

“Baby, Jaxon’ll fill me in on Alison when he can. There’s nothin’ we can do right now, so my priority is you and Poppy. Lily has Poppy and she’ll take care of her. Your knees are bleedin’ again and we need to get them bandaged.” He stood. “Stay put.”

I stayed put. Hatch grabbed some supplies for his bathroom and gently cleaned my knees, smearing ointment on them, then sticking bandages gently over the wounds. “How’s your arm?”

“It hurts.”

“You got anything in your bag?”

I shook my head.

Hatch frowned. “I’ll find you somethin’.”

He leaned down and kissed me gently before heading back into his bathroom and I flopped back onto the bed. “My jeans are ruined, aren’t they?”

“No.”

“Are they torn?”

“Yeah.”

“Then they’re ruined,” I informed him.

He returned with a bottle of ibuprofen and a bottled water. “Not ruined, babe.”

I took the pills and sighed. “You just have to argue with everything, don’t you?”

“I don’t argue with everything.”

“Yes you—oh, I see what you did there.” I rolled my eyes, and Hatch smiled. “Thanks, love.”

“Your jeans are fine, Maisie. A little blood and some tearing at the knee, but totally wearable for today.”

I couldn’t believe I was worried about ripped jeans when my best friend had just shot herself. I squeezed my eyes shut. This is exactly what happened to me when Niall died. I’d have these moments where I’d hyper-focus on something else. I’d worry the roses by the kitchen window were getting too much light, or that the pillowcases on the guest bed weren’t ironed; stupid, insignificant things like that… Alison said it was my brain trying to give me a break from the pain.

Tears slipped down my cheeks and I burrowed closer to Hatch.
God, Ali. Why?

Hatch shifted and pulled his phone out of his pocket, putting it against his ear. “Hatch. Hey. Yeah.” He dragged a hand through his hair and glanced at me. “Yeah. Shit. Yeah. Okay, Jax. Thanks, man.” He slid his phone back in his pocket and faced me. “She’s gone, Maisie.”

The last ounce of hope I’d been holding onto exploded and I burst into tears again. Alison had done it. She’d really killed herself.

“Ryan and Merrick went to a movie, so their phones were off. Alison has had this planned for a while… she left a note.”

“Ohmigod.” I covered my mouth with my hand. “Why would she do that to Grace? Kill herself in front of her own daughter?”

His face darkened.

“What?”

“In the note…,” he shook his head, “she was gonna kill Gracie too.”

My stomach roiled. I rushed into the bathroom again, but all I could do was dry heave. It felt like my heart was trying to come up. Hatch hunkered down beside me and held my hair back as I leaned over the toilet. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what Hatch said. Couldn’t do it. I didn’t think I even wanted to try.