by Sable Hunter
“Great! Hold on.” Looking at his phone, he was shocked to see his ex’s name, Derek stopped in his tracks and lifted the phone to his ear. “Blair?”
“Dad-dee, is that you?”
“June?” He felt his heart almost explode. “Baby, it’s so good to hear your voice.”
“I playing with mommy’s phone. I found your picture.”
Derek realized she’d pressed his photo in Blair’s contacts. “I’m glad. How are you?”
“Good.”
Her sweet baby voice almost brought Derek to his knees. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” There was a pause. “I’m scared, Dad-dee.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” Derek was looking at Shae with fear in his eyes. “Is someone hurting you?”
“I don’t like that man.”
“What man, sweetheart?”
“God. He says his name is God.”
“What’s he done? Where are you? Is he nearby?”
“He’s with Mommy.”
“Where are you?” he asked again, absolutely frantic. “Are you in your room at home?”
“Nope. I’m outside.”
“Alone?” Ye gods. Derek tore at his hair. His house set close to a busy road. “Don’t leave the yard,” he warned her.
“I’m at de park.”
“What park?” He felt utterly helpless. “Is anyone with you?”
“Nope. Just the man in the hat.”
“What man?” God, she was with a man. He started turning in circles, scared to death. “Don’t talk to strangers, baby.”
“He don’t talk. He’s got a tit-tar. I’m sitting on his boots.”
“Okay.” Derek looked helplessly at Shae. “She’s in a park with a man who doesn’t talk. He has a hat, boots, and a guitar.”
Shae shook, trying to think – then it hit her. “She’s with Stevie Ray Vaughan. The statue. At the park on Lady Bird Lake.”
Derek’s eyes widened in horror. “God, she’s alone in the midst of SXSW.” Speaking to June, he pleaded with her. “His name is Stevie, baby. Stay with him. Hold on to his legs and don’t leave him. I’ll be there to get you just as soon as I can. Okay? Stay right where you are. Daddy will come get you.”
Shae was terrified too. For June. And for Derek. “Oh, God. The restraining order, your bail…” was all she got out before he sliced his hand through the air to stop her words.
“Daddy loves you, June. Sit right there with Stevie and watch for me.”
“Okay. Bye, Dad-dee.”
“Bye, darling.” He raced toward the truck, threw their purchases in the back, then climbed behind the wheel. “Come on. We’ve got to hurry.”
Shae didn’t want to argue, but she was afraid for him. “Call the police, Derek. Call Zane. Don’t go by yourself. Blair will make something of it. Even though the tapes were fake, we haven’t proven it yet. Remember, you’re out on bail.”
“None of that is important!” Shooting her a hard look, Derek held up his hand. “Don’t try to come between me and my daughter.”
Shae’s mouth dropped open. “I would never do that. I’m just trying to take care of you!”
“You phone them while I drive.” Peeling out of the parking lot, he gunned the truck west, ignoring the speed limit.”
With shaking hands, she phoned 9-1-1. Shae explained the situation as best she could, focusing on June, and telling them her father was on the way. Next, she called Zane on his personal cell.
“Hello? Shae?”
“Zane, June called Derek. We think she’s been left alone near the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue in the park on the river. I phoned the police, but we’re headed there too.”
“I won’t even try to tell him not to go. Look, I’ll meet you there. I’m closer, but you’ll probably beat me. Downtown is a madhouse because of SXSW, a lot of the streets are closed. Tell Derek to be careful, because something’s going down. Right now. Rylen and his partner are on Provo’s tail. We’ve contacted the police. I can’t say I understand this, but I’ve got a really bad feeling.”
“Okay. If you get to her first, tell June her Daddy’s on the way.”
As soon as she ended the call, Derek reached out to grab her hand. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I’m just scared.”
“I know. Zane thinks something is happening. He’s headed to the park too, but he says the streets are jammed. Rylen is watching Provo, but they still don’t know what’s going on.”
“We’ll find out soon enough.” He gave her a hopeful smile. “I know it’s probably all important, but I can’t think of anything but my little girl.”
“I know. I know.” She held his hand as he drove fast and furiously toward Austin. “Everything will be okay.”
“I know. I just can’t stop thinking about all of this. How crazy it’s been.” He glanced at her quickly. “You’re the only bright spot in all of this, Shae.”
“June will be all right. We’ll get to her in time,” she assured him.
“I just want to take her home,” he said, then laughed wryly. “I’m not sure where home is anymore.” He nodded his head as he looked outside. “You know, my folks settled in this spot in their later years because it reminded them of their childhood in East Texas. Just look at all the pine trees.”
“Yes, it looks like home,” she agreed with him.
“They say this isolated island of trees are genetically equal to your pine forests around Longleaf…but separated by hundreds of miles. They call them the ‘lost pines’.”
“How did they get here?” She knew he was scared to death and if it helped him to talk about pine trees, she was all for it.
Derek chuckled. “They say a great glacier brought them here, depositing them in a place where they would’ve never grown otherwise. Lost.” He looked at her with tears in his eyes. “I feel lost, Shae. Lately, the only place that has felt like home to me…is you.”
Shae began to cry. She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it. “I’m glad, because you feel like home to me too.”
“When this is all over…” He started speaking but stopped abruptly. “I can’t think about the future until I have June in my arms.” He smiled sadly. “I used to take her to McKinney Falls, not far from here and watch her splash and play in the water. We also spent many happy nights camping out in the woods, roasting marshmallows over an open fire, just me and her. Blair isn’t much for the outdoors.”
“You’ll go camping again soon,” she assured him, wanting to say anything she could to comfort him.
“I can’t wait to see her. I bet she’s grown an inch. She’s at that wonder age where every new day brings changes. I don’t want to miss another single moment of her life.”
“You won’t.”
The last few miles were made in silence, but when they drew closer, Derek could tell he wouldn’t be able to park anywhere near the park. “We’re going to have to walk from here.” He whipped into a convenience store on South First Street.
Hand in hand, they didn’t walk. They ran. Dodging pedestrians. Darting around cars. Listening to the sound of the band performing on Auditorium Shores getting louder and louder as they neared their destination.
“Come on. Come on,” he urged her on as they wove through the ever-increasing maze of people. “Look, there’s the statue!” At eight-foot tall, it could be seen above the crowd.
“June! June!” Derek began to call. As they neared, he could see several uniformed policemen standing around. His heart began to hammer. “Let her be okay. Please, God. Let her be okay.” They’d probably want to arrest him for contacting his child when he was being accused of molesting her – but right now, that didn’t make one whit of difference. Making sure June was safe was his highest priority.
“There, I see her,” Shae announced with relief, spotting a small girl with beautiful blonde hair. She had to be Derek’s child.
Derek held his breath until he spotted his little angel. She was still sitting on Stevie Ray’s boots. Waiting f
or him. “There you are,” he whispered. Going to his knees, Derek opened his arms and June flung herself in them. “Dad-dee!”
“My baby. My baby. I’m so glad to see you.” He painted butterfly kisses all over her face and she giggled and giggled, her little body shaking with pure, sweet joy.
Standing, he picked her up, cradling the girl protectively. Zane came walking up about that time and placed himself between the police and Derek, giving them much needed explanations.
“Where’s your mama?” Derek asked, knowing a confrontation lay ahead. He considered just driving off with June, but as angry as he was at Blair, he couldn’t be cruel enough to scare her in such a way.
“Up there.” She pointed toward a huge, waterfront hotel, looming large over the park and concert.
“In the hotel?”
“Is anyone with her?” Zane asked, coming to join them.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, her bottom lip quivering.
“She’s just a baby, Zane,” Derek reminded him.
“June! June!”
They all turned to see Blair running up with a worried expression on her face. “I told you to stay in the room!” Seeing Derek, she turned on him like a mad harpy. “What are you doing here?”
“Taking my child! Why did you leave her alone! Were you with Provo?”
June buried her face in Derek’s neck, hiding her eyes. “I don’t like that man. He’s mean. He hit me.”
“He did what?” Rage flowed through Derek like a flashflood.
“He hit me.”
“Where?” he asked, glaring at Blair.
Their arguing had attracted the attention of the police who’d come in relation to Shae’s 9-1-1 call.
“On my face.”
Derek’s blood boiled. Pressing his hand to her back. “I vow no one will ever harm a hair on your head again.”
“And who’s going to guard her? You? Do you classify yourself as a good father? You’re a criminal!” Blair held her arms out to take June. “Give me my child.”
June didn’t reach for her mother. Instead, she clung tighter to her father’s shoulders.
“You let that idiot hit her!” he spat out the words.
Blair was dismissive. “She’s fine. Spare the rod and all that jazz.”
“She’s a tiny little girl. Provo’s a big bull! And I’m not a criminal. You faked those videos. The proof is on the way to the judge.” Derek recognized panic on his ex-wife’s face. “What? Did you think no one would figure out what you did? If you don’t want me here, tell the cops.” He gestured toward the men in blue standing to his left.
When she just frowned and hardened her expression, Derek laughed. She wouldn’t do it.
“Where’s Provo?”
“Busy. He has important work to do.”
“Oh, really? Like what?”
Blair threw her head back. “A cleansing. Making a statement the world will remember forever.”
“What are you talking about?” Derek didn’t know what she meant, but he felt a cold chill go down his spine.
Shae watched on, her own heart racing. There was a heaviness in the air, an expectancy she couldn’t explain.
And then it happened.
Shots began to ring out.
“Up there!” Someone pointed to the hotel. “There’s a shooter!”
Derek held onto June with one hand and grabbed Shae with the other. “Here! Take the baby and run! Get to the hotel before the crowd turns!”
“What about you?” Shae cried as people began to run all around them, screaming and crying.
“This is Provo’s doing. It has to be. And Blair knows where he is.”
Even as Shae did as he asked, she looked back over her shoulder, seeing Derek take his ex-wife by the arm. “Come on, June. Let’s get out of here.” She held the little girl tightly and ran toward the hotel, dodging people who were racing in the opposite direction. The sound of bullets raining down was the most horrifying sound she’d ever heard.
“Come with me,” Derek pulled Blair along with him. While they moved, he kept his eye on Shae, praying she would make it to shelter with his little girl. When he saw her dart under the covered drive, out of range of the madman, he tightened his grip on his ex-wife’s arm. “Where is he? What room number?”
She balked, shaking her head. “I’m not going to tell you.”
“If he kills people, Blair, you’ll be an accessory to mass murder. Help yourself!”
“666.”
As Derek processed the information, Zane and two policemen caught up with them.
“I’ve had one of my private investigators watching Judge Provo and his associates. We believe this woman is involved with the shooter.” As Zane talked to the police, Derek took off. Rylen or the cops might beat him to the punch, but he had a private issue to settle with the judge.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Where’s daddy?”
Shae rubbed June’s back. “He’ll be here soon.” She cradled the little girl in her arms as she fought her way through a confused and frightened throng of people. Finding a relatively quite place behind some tall plants in a corner, Shae sank down to the floor. “We’ll wait right here. Daddy will find us.” From their hiding place, Shae could see most of the lobby and a portion of the front grounds facing the river and the park. The sound of the gunfire was muted from where she sat.
“There he is!”
Shae followed June’s tiny finger and, sure enough, she saw Derek racing across the lobby toward the service elevator. “Oh, no.” No one had to tell her what he was doing, she knew very well. He was going after Provo on his own.
“Dad-dee!” June called, but her little voice went nowhere over the din of noise and mayhem.
“It’s okay, baby. He’ll take care of things.” She really believed that. Shae had all the confidence in the world in Derek – but she still feared for him with every fiber of her being.
With June nestled in her lap, Shae stroked her back. The little girl trembled as dozens of policemen entered the hotel, closing off exits and cordoning off the elevators and stairs. She feared they would ask them to move, but the ones who made eye contact with her just gave the pair a nod or no response at all.
After a few minutes, June raised up, feeling comfortable enough to glance around. When she did, her eyes settled on Shae’s face. Giving her a smile, Shae stared back at her. A dawning recognition bloomed in both their eyes.
“You’re my angel,” June whispered, cupping Shae’s face.
“I’m not an angel,” she assured the precious little girl. “But I know you.” She drew her close. “We met in Galveston, didn’t we?”
“You saved me.” June hugged her tight. “Where have you been?” she asked with wonder in her little voice.
“With your daddy.” Shae closed her eyes and buried her face in the small child’s sweet neck. “Waiting for you.”
* * *
“Six-six-six,” Derek muttered as he stepped off the service elevator onto the sixth floor. “Appropriate.”
For a second, he paused, glancing around. Here he was, about to face down a madman, without even a weapon in his hands. Seeing a fire extinguisher on the wall, he broke the glass and pulled it from it’s resting place. With fire in his eyes, Derek set off to find Judge Maximillian Provo.
As he neared the wing where the room was located, he entertained the thought that perhaps he should’ve waited for the police.
“Maybe,” he mumbled. “But what would be the fun in that?”
With angry determination, he continued on his journey. When he neared the room, he could hear the shots still ringing out. God, he hoped the people had been cleared out of the danger zone. Derek prayed the idiot was just shooting for the sake of shooting. Remembering what he’d read about the cameras the Las Vegas shooter had put out in the halls, he continued slowly, looking for anything that might have been planted to give Provo forewarning.
“Alden, fancy seeing you here.”<
br />
Derek turned with a jerk, raising the fire extinguisher over his head.
“Easy, big guy.”
“Rylen, shit,” he sighed. “Damn, it’s you.”
“Six-six-six. Right?”
“I thought you two were watching this loon. Do you know he hit my kid?”
“No, but we have been monitoring him. My assistant has been undercover in his security detail. We knew he was planning something, but he didn’t share the details with anyone. The bastard gave us the slip this morning, but we bought ourselves an insurance policy.”
“What do you mean?” They continued to move down the hall together.
“The police wouldn’t arrest him until he did something, so we had to be ready for anything. My assistant replaced all Provo’s ammo with blanks.”
Derek froze. “He doesn’t know? The idiots firing blanks and he doesn’t know?”
“Hey, it works in the movies.”
Without waiting a moment longer, Derek stalked to the right room and brought the fire extinguisher down on the lock, breaking it off. As he threw open the door, a spray of bullets assailed him, but Derek barely flinched. He stalked through them like Superman.
“What the fuck!” Provo was like a mad bull, firing as he charged Derek.
“This is for June!” Derek threw himself at the psycho, tearing the gun from his hand and punching him as hard as he could, right in the mouth. “You’ll never, ever strike a helpless little girl again, asshole!”
Rylen stepped in, and together they brought the guy down. Derek sat with his knee in the big man’s back until they were joined by a room full of policeman. A few moments later, Zane came running in to answer questions and give them information. Even though he was bruised and battered from the impact of the blanks, Derek had never felt better in his life.
* * *
In the chaos that followed Provo and Blair’s arrest, Presley found Shae and updated her on what was transpiring. She was grateful and astounded to find out no one had been injured, other than a couple of people who’d fallen during the confusion.