At the Crossroads (Buckhorn, Montana #3)(5)
As he started to rise, the deafening report of a gunshot filled the air.
CHAPTER THREE
VIVIAN “VI” MULLEN had been sitting in the round café booth and simmering all morning, her breakfast now roiling in her stomach. “The nerve of Lars to bring that woman in here,” she said to her daughter.
“Mother.” Tina tucked the soft baby blanket around her infant daughter sleeping in her carrier on the booth seat between them. “Please don’t make a scene. Lars and Shirley have every right to be in here as much as we—”
“I can’t believe you’ve put up with this for months,” Vi said, her voice rising. “You even invited her to your baby shower!”
“Mother, please,” Tina reproached her again as she glanced across the café to where Lars Olson was sitting with Shirley Langer. Even from here, she could see that the two were arguing. She didn’t have to guess about what. Lars had been spending more time with Tina and the baby. “You should see how good he is with Chloe.”
Vi harrumphed. “He won’t even acknowledge that she’s his child.” She’d been looking for a fight, and Lars and Shirley were a favorite trigger. Not that her head of steam hadn’t been building for months.
“We should go,” Tina said in that submissive voice that Vi hated.
“And let them think they ran us out of the only café in town?” she demanded. “Not a chance.” She’d been glaring across the room when the bell over the front door jangled and three men had come into the café, passing in front of her view. She’d paid them no mind, too angry to notice.
For months, her daughter’s live-in boyfriend and father of her child had been sneaking over to that sleazy motel to do God-knew-what with that twice-divorced woman. Everyone in town had known about it. Worse, Lars had been telling anyone who would listen that the baby wasn’t his.
Vi had wanted to fire him, since he worked for the Mullen family, but her husband, Axel, had insisted she stay out of it. She couldn’t understand her daughter putting up with this.
“Do you love Lars that much?” she’d demanded of Tina at one point.
“It’s my life, Mother. Let me live it.”
“You didn’t answer my question. You couldn’t possibly love this man after the way he’s treated you.”
“It’s between Lars and me. And yes, I love him. So please, leave it alone. He’s really good with the baby and—”
“What? While he tells everyone in town that you don’t want him to take a paternity test?” She’d seen her daughter look away and had felt her heart drop. “The baby is his, right?”
“Mother.” Tina had closed her eyes. “Stay. Out. Of. It. You’ll only make matters worse.”
“I can’t see how,” Vi had snapped.
Now Lars and Shirley were sitting over there flaunting their immoral behavior. Vi felt sick to her stomach. She’d been through so much recently and now this. Why didn’t Lars just leave town with Shirley so they never had to see him again?
She glanced at her daughter looking lovingly down at the sleeping Chloe. She couldn’t bear the thought of Lars breaking Tina’s heart. She went back to glaring at the two across the café.
Only when she heard the gunshot did she look up startled and wondered what she’d missed.
CULHANE SWORE AS the gunshot reverberated through the small café. He quickly put his hand on Alexis’s arm as he saw her start to reach for her weapon. In the kitchen, the cook was looking down at his chest, his white apron blossoming bright red with blood.
In the seating area, a cacophony of screams and curses exploded along with the shuffling of feet as people started to rise from their seats to see what was going on. The baby, startled awake, began to wail.
The other two gunmen had shot to their feet in surprise and drawn their guns.
“Everyone shut up and stay right where you are!” Gene yelled as he came out of the kitchen brandishing his weapon.
Culhane watched the cook slowly slide to the floor as he heard the commotion behind him. All three men now had their weapons out.
“What the hell, Gene?” the thinner of the two men with him demanded. “I thought we were just getting something to eat?”
“Shut up, Eric,” Gene snapped and glanced at the other man. “Bobby, lock the front door and turn the sign to Closed.” The café erupted in a roar again with crying, screaming and the baby bawling as Bobby, waving his gun around, rushed to the door. An older couple near the door had gotten up and had been trying to leave but were pushed back into their seats at a booth.
“Everyone shut up and sit down!” Gene bellowed. A second gunshot boomed in the small café. The bullet that lodged in the ceiling brought down dust and debris and resulted in more sobbing. The older couple who’d started to leave were holding each other and weeping openly.
Culhane saw how quickly this could go even further south. He looked at the others in the place. He’d only given the customers a passing glance earlier as he’d come in. But now he considered each of them, seeing the fear and trying to decide who was apt to overreact and get them killed before this ended.
Apparently the locals had gathered for a Sunday-morning breakfast before the holidays. When he’d walked in earlier he’d noticed most plates were empty and diners were just sitting around finishing their coffee and visiting.