Game of Fear (Montgomery Justice #3)(2)

The tremulous whisper stopped Gabe. He turned back to see his father sweep the brunette into his arms for a crushing hug.

“Yes, honey.” Patrick’s voice broke. “And it’s . . . Dad.”

Gabe stilled. No. It couldn’t be.

Her hair. Her eyes.

His father’s eyes.

And he knew.

“What the—” Gabe exploded out of the darkness and yanked his father away from the girl. The guilt and shock on his father’s face ramped up Gabe’s fury. “?‘Dad’? Is this some kind of sick joke? ’Cause I’m sure not laughing!”

“Gabe, I—” Patrick stopped and cursed. “Yes, Whitney is my—”

Gabe punched his father hard, knuckles cracking against his father’s chin. He pummeled his father’s chest. Gabe’s vision blurred, not with tears but with fury. The man did nothing to defend himself.

“You bastard! How could you have cheated on Mom? On all of us?”

His so-called sister grabbed Gabe’s arm with both hands and yanked him back. “Look, I’m sorry I screwed up your perfect life, but this is a crisis. We have to get my friend to safety. Someone’s trying to—”

Bullets strafed the side of the bus, decimating anyone in the way. An elderly woman reaching for her suitcase sprawled to the ground. Panicked screams and cries of agony filled the night. Patrick homed in on where the shots had come from and ran that way, his gun at the ready. “Gabe, get the girls inside and call 9-1-1.”

Gabe turned to grab them, then slipped on the blood oozing from the wounded. Before him lay the blood-spattered, bullet-ridden body of the blonde teenager. His sister futilely pressed her hands against the pulsing wound in the girl’s chest.

“Don’t die, Shannon. Oh God, please.”

Gabe bolted to them, tipping over a large metal trash can to act as a temporary shield. He pulled off his shirt and stuffed it against the chest wound.

The girl moaned, “Need my book . . . the game . . .” A gurgling sound came from her throat and crimson rivulets ran from the side of her mouth. “Stop them—”

“Shannon!”

His sister’s tearful cry twisted everything inside him. This was his fault. He’d kept them outside so some lunatic could take them out. “Get inside. I’ll carry her.”

Gabe picked Shannon up gently, even though he knew it no longer mattered. Her eyes stared sightlessly up and her body had gone completely limp. Crouching as low as he could, he ran for the door, his sister clearing the way. She’d grabbed the bags they’d brought with them.

Sirens wailed in the distance, but everyone stayed hunkered behind concrete walls until the police cleared the area. Gabe stared at his sister cradling the lifeless body of her friend. She rocked back and forth, tears streaming down her face. God, he’d screwed up. If he hadn’t gone postal on his father, maybe Shannon would still be alive.

“Gabe?”

His father’s frantic voice across the terminal broke through Gabe’s shock and guilt. He waved his dad over, meeting him halfway.

Patrick Montgomery wove through the crowded area until he reached his son. “Is anyone hurt?”

Gabe glanced over his shoulder. “The shooter got Shannon and hit several other people, too. Looks like everyone else will make it.”

A tic pulsed in his father’s jaw. “And Whitney?”

“You mean your daughter?” Gabe couldn’t keep the contempt from his voice. “A bullet grazed her arm, but she refused to go to the hospital unless you went with her.”

Patrick’s eyes flicked to the sobbing girl with obvious worry. “You okay, Gabe?”

Gabe laughed, the bitterness stinging his gut. “Oh, yeah, Dad. Awesome. I find out my father’s a cheater, meet my half sister, and witness a murder. Hell of a night. At least tell me you got the guy.”

Patrick flushed. “The shooter was too far away. He had a long-range weapon. I didn’t.”

“Maybe you should have joined SWAT instead of Homicide. Not that you stopped anyone from dying tonight.”

Patrick’s shoulders slumped. “All I could find was the shooter’s position. Maybe something will come from that. We’ll talk later. I need to see to Whitney now.”

Gabe crossed his arms, trying to stop the shaking that had settled deep in his core. He couldn’t let his father see, though. “Yeah, I get it, but don’t count on having that talk with me later. How can I believe anything you tell me after tonight?”

“What are you going to say at home?” Patrick asked quietly.

“Oh, don’t worry. They won’t find out from me what a bastard you are. I’d never hurt Mom like that.”

Gabe walked away, his emotions running hot and wild. He couldn’t leave the premises without giving a statement to the police, but nothing said he had to stay inside with that lying cheat. Gabe’s eyes burned and he shoved his disillusionment inside. How could his dad do this to Mom? Another hero dead and buried. Patrick Montgomery was scum.

Gabe didn’t know how long he waited through the chaos to be interviewed. Finally, they left him alone. The threatening tears had dried. When a black body bag wheeled out on a gurney past him, he stood, fists clenched at the injustice.

An hour ago Shannon had been alive. Now she was dead because of a coward shooting from the bushes. And because Gabe hadn’t seen the danger coming; he hadn’t moved fast enough.