Zach raised his hand to cut him off and focused back on me. “I think when this is over, you should try to learn more about why you can do this. There has to be like a group or something.”
I scoffed. “What do you want me to do, search others with my gift out on Facebook?”
Zach nodded. “It’s a place to start.”
Before I could respond to how ridiculous the suggestion was, Kipp interjected. “He’s right, you know. There must be others like you. Wouldn’t it be nice not to feel alone?”
What was this, an intervention? “How did this become about me?” I scowled. “Would you all focus, please?”
“It doesn’t even look like me,” Hannah whispered.
I looked over at her and found her peering down into the grave. “Er, well, that’d be ‘cause it’s bones.”
Hannah smiled. “Why hadn’t I noticed that?”
A warm and fuzzy feeling drifted up. The first time I’d seen her smile where it hadn’t looked forced. I looked over at Kipp, and judging by his sweet grin, it appeared he appreciated the sight as much as I did. I returned my gaze to Hannah. “You have a beautiful smile.”
She reached up and ran her hand along her lips. “I think I forgot how nice it feels to do that.” Her form shimmered.
It didn’t surprise me to see her time had come. I suspected her crossing over hadn’t been about solving the murder, but more so about finding her body and bringing her home. “It was nice to meet you, Hannah.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at me before she glanced around to the group. “Thanks to all of you.”
“She’s thanking you,” I told them, “and she’s leaving now.”
Eddie cleared his throat and mumbled something that sounded like, “I’m glad to have helped.”
“Godspeed,” Zach said. Eddie burst out laughing. Zach punched him in the arm. “It seemed like the right thing to say, dickhead.”
“That’s what you come up with?” Eddie laughed harder. “Godspeed—damn that’s funny.”
“Ahem,” I interrupted. “Having a magical moment here, do you two think you could zip it?”
They both listened.
Hannah approached Kipp with her arms raised and ready for his embrace. “Without you, none of this would’ve been possible. I’m sorry for what happened to you, but without it, I’d always be stuck here.”
Kipp hugged her fiercely. “My peace rests in yours, Hannah.”
When she backed away from him, for the first time since I’d met Hannah, she had life in her eyes again. The dream of a future had been stolen from her and always would remain lost forever, but she faced something better now— Heaven, I assumed.
Hannah looked at me as she faded away. “Please tell my mother I’m okay now.”
“Wait! I need more than that.” I couldn’t start a conversation if I didn’t have a little background information. “What should I tell her?”
“Tell her I listened to her read to me every night and I loved it.”
Hannah’s gaze swung over my shoulder and her eyes widened. She screamed something, but she’d nearly vanished now. I couldn’t hear her words.
“What?” I focused on her mouth and tried to make out her words. In one second, it all became clear.
“It’s him.”
Time froze as I spun around to see Brody, with a gun aimed in our direction. My heart pounded in my ears as a wave of fear washed over me, yet confusion made my mind race.
How could Brody be the killer? He didn’t match the description. Then a memory surfaced and clarity came forth. The mark I’d seen earlier on his ear had been hair dye. He’d altered his appearance, which was why he hadn’t been picked out in the police department photos.
Zach had seemed surprised Max sent him to assist in the search. The truth being, he didn’t ask him to come. Brody had clearly come here with one intention—to kill us all.
“Get down,” Kipp shouted.
I didn’t hesitate. I dropped to the ground in an instant as the gun erupted with a loud bang that shuddered into my soul. I covered my ears with my hands and I screamed against the earth-shattering noise.
A body fell in front of me with a heavy thud, and in my line of vision, Eddie stared at me, gripping his side. Footsteps barreled past me and I looked up just in time to see Zach running full speed toward Brody.
Another shot blasted through the night sky and the bullet lodged in Zach’s shoulder. Blood splattered, but he never stopped running. Zach slammed into him with the full force of his body.
“Get up, Tess,” Kipp yelled. “Run.”
I jumped to my feet, wanting nothing more than to get the hell out of there, but my feet seemed glued to the forest floor. Held back by exactly what, I didn’t know. All I knew was I couldn’t move.
Kipp’s panicked expression matched his tone perfectly. “Run.”
I glanced at Brody and Zach as they beat the hell out of each other. Zach had managed to get the gun away from Brody and it now lay in the grass next to them. Loud shouts and the thumps of two men annihilating each other filled the quiet forest. It became impossible to tell who had the advantage; it appeared to be an even fight.
Zach suddenly got the upper hand and he straddled Brody while he pummeled his fists against his face. But Brody was a cop and apparently knew how to get out of a tight hold.
In a quick move, he managed to get out from underneath Zach and now had him pinned while he issued blows in return. Zach’s forearms took most of the hits, but a few sneaked in and I saw the ripple of pain across Zach’s face.
“You were responsible?” Zach pushed Brody away from him, jumped to his feet and circled Brody. “You shot Kipp?”
“Hannah would have ruined my life. She just wouldn’t keep her mouth shut.”
“So you killed her.” Zach lunged forward and blasted Brody across the chin. “An innocent woman?”
He recovered from the shot instantly, reciprocating with a hard hit into Zach’s gut. “She left me no other choice.”
“You shouldn’t have been fucking her in the first place, you’re a married man.” Zach coughed, but his hesitation didn’t last long and he ran at Brody, latching on to him around the waist, slamming the both of them into a tree.
I couldn’t look away. I needed to hear the answers for myself, almost to find closure or even to make sense out of why he would end Hannah’s young life. I think I still suffered from shock in discovering Brody had been behind this. It was like a twist out of a Hitchcock murder mystery. Not in any stretch of the imagination did Brody look like a killer.
“Hannah planned to ruin everything, my marriage and job.” Brody gasped as Zach pinned him against the tree.
Zach landed a hard punch on Brody’s face and blood trickled down from his eyebrow. “That was worth more to you than a woman’s life?”
“I couldn’t let her destroy my life.” Brody laid a good right hook onto Zach’s jaw. “Especially since all I wanted to do was fuck her.”
“What about Kipp?” Zach returned the gesture, which sent Brody crumbling down to the ground.
“He got too close.” Brody stumbled back onto his feet. “He knew too much.” Zach lurched forward and pounded into Brody’s stomach a couple times. “If y’all had just stayed out of it,” Brody dodged the hits as best he could, “it wouldn’t have worked out this way. I didn’t want it to come to this. I’ve been following you since I discovered you in the file room, because Betty told me that you received a lead on the case. When you came here, I expected you to find nothing.” He dodged another one of Zach’s hits. “I never expected you’d lead me back to where I buried her.”
Zach punched him in the side, apparently searching for a kidney he could demolish. “If you’d kept your cock out of this, it wouldn’t have happened at all.”
Brody pushed Zach, sending him tumbling back. “I never wanted any of this to happen. I never wanted to kill anyone. But I’ve gone this far to protect my life. I won’t let you destroy it now.” He reac
hed into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade. After a quick flick, the shiny metal glowed in the moonlight.
I couldn’t see Zach’s expression, but his tense body told me he knew the trouble he currently found himself in. He attempted to lunge forward and grab the knife, but Brody managed to slice deep into Zach’s arm.
Blood splattered onto the ground as Zach backed away, groaning and clutching his arm. He hesitated only a moment, then rushed toward Brody, which landed him a knife in the same shoulder that had been shot.
His scream rang out around me and snapped me out of my stunned state. I gasped and coherent thoughts came back into my mind.
Apparently, Kipp had been in a similar condition because he suddenly said, “What the hell are you doing, Tess? Get out of here.”
Brody jumped on top of Zach and attempted to gouge his eyes out, but Zach did whatever he could to avoid the sharp blade. I tore my gaze from the fight and looked Kipp straight in the eye. “I have to help him.” Then I ran as I’d never run before.
“Stop…”
I ignored him, kept my focus on the gun on the ground and never looked back. The sound of Zach fighting for his life sickened me. Deep groans, shouts of pain as metal sliced against bone filled the air around me.
Oh God, give me strength!
In seconds, I reached out and fell to my knees. I wrapped my hand around the cold steel and gripped it tightly as I stood. I raised the gun and pointed it in Brody and Zach’s direction.
“Have you ever fired a gun?” Kipp asked, right beside me.
My breath hitched. “No.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” His composed tone told me that he wasn’t completely against the idea.
Zach used all of his strength to stop the knife from plunging into his chest. I couldn’t wait any longer. “What do I do?”
Kipp stepped in behind me and the coldness of his presence surrounded my entire body. It provided a much-needed comfort and a boost of confidence to know I didn’t face this alone. “Feet shoulder-width apart. Bring your left foot forward a little. Yes, that’s right. Lean forward slightly and make your firing arm strong, but don’t lock your elbow.”
The posture felt entirely uncomfortable; a gun in my hand seemed all wrong. I pushed the insecurity away. Another life would be lost if I didn’t act, and by the way it looked now, it wasn’t going to be the one who deserved it.
“Close your left eye,” Kipp said. “Focus on Brody—lock in your target.”
The gun wavered with each and every way Brody turned as I followed his movements. “How can I lock in on him? They’re not staying still.”
“I’ll get him away from Zach. Just keep your aim on him no matter what. When Zach is clear, shoot and don’t stop shooting until he’s down and not moving.”
You can do this! You can do this! You can do this!
“Take a deep breath in and don’t let it out until he’s on the ground.” Kipp bolted toward the brawling men on the ground.
He passed through my peripheral vision, but my focus held on Brody to clearly understand what his plan was. My chance of hitting him would be slim and I only had one shot. If I didn’t take him out, we’d all be dead, and I did not intend to become a ghost.
Right then, Kipp came into sight, hovering over Brody, almost as if he floated, and then a second later, he dropped down on top of Brody and seemed to enter his body.
Brody flew straight back off Zach with a look of utter horror on his face. I followed the movement and stiffened my arms to be ready. Come on…come on…Kipp…get out of there…
With a loud gasp from Brody, Kipp shot out of his body and vanished from my line of sight. I closed my finger around the trigger and the gun exploded, sending vibrations roaring down my arms that were strong enough to rattle my teeth.
Brody fell to the ground.
I ran forward with the gun still straight out in front of me. I stood over the top of Brody, pulled the trigger again and his body jumped. Blood poured from his mouth as he coughed. I screamed as I never had before, closing my eyes, and I fired again and again.
“You can stop now.”
Click, click, click.
A hand closed around mine and I realized the chamber had emptied and all that remained was the click of the trigger. I opened my eyes to find Zach staring at me with concerned eyes. “Did I do it?” My voice trembled and my blood ran cold.
Zach smirked—I thought, since his face looked swollen and bloody—and he glanced at Brody. “I’d say that he’s dead.”
Brody definitely no longer moved. Blood layered his cotton white shirt and his eyes were wide open, staring at the sky above. An emotional breakdown drifted up as I realized I’d just taken a life. I gasped a shuddering breath and dropped the gun as if it burned my skin. Tears filled my eyes and I nearly fell apart, but a voice distracted me.
“Tess,” Kipp whispered.
I spun on my heels and the confused look on his face momentarily held off the breakdown. But as I stared into his wide eyes, the horror of this situation dawned on me.
Brody had been the killer, the case had been solved and Kipp’s reason to stay had left.
“No. You can’t go yet. I thought we’d have longer—at least a while to do the DNA testing. No, this can’t be happening.”
“Tess,” he said again.
I ran toward him and fell to my knees. He joined me so we were face-to-face. He cupped my cheek and the cold air created frostbite against my hot flesh. I welcomed it because it meant he hadn’t left me. “I love you, you can’t go. I need you here.”
“I love you too,” he replied, cool and collected as always. “But Tess…”
I closed my eyes tight, not wanting to see him go. I couldn’t watch him vanish. “No, no, no. I don’t what you to go. I don’t care if that makes me selfish, I’ll be self-centered then. I want to keep you forever, or at least until I’m ready to join you, which isn’t right now, by the way.”
“Tess…”
I opened my eyes and raised my head, wanting to scream at the heavens above. “He’s mine. You can’t have him. I won’t let you have him.”
“Tess.” His voice sounded much more impatient now.
“What?” I looked back at him, a little annoyed myself. “Can’t you see I’m talking to God?”
He grinned. “Yes, I can see that.”
“Well then, what is it?”
He never said anything, but simply stared at me intently. The seconds ticked by while I found myself lost in the depths of those stunning eyes that could give me a lifetime of happiness if allowed.
My panic lessened and my sense of mind slowly returned. I glanced around to see Zach had a phone to his ear with one hand, while the other pressed down onto Eddie’s wound as he rolled in pain. I looked back to Kipp and his grin became a full-blown smile.
It took a split second for me to fill in the rest. I’d misread his wide eyes. He hadn’t experienced fear—it’d been surprise. The unbelievable had happened. “You’re still here…”
“Apparently so.”
“What…” I couldn’t wrap my head around my reality. “What does that mean?”
His smile said it all. “It means we have more time—”
“Tess,” Zach interrupted. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” I said it, but realized that maybe I shouldn’t have answered so quickly. I had taken a life—killed someone. Could I even accept that now? No, I couldn’t. But as Kipp trailed his finger along my hand, I realized no matter what happened, no matter how much more there was to learn about my ability and all the shit that’d come along with that, I still had him. “I’m fine as long as you’re not going anywhere.”
“As sweet as that sounds, we sure have a lot ahead of us to discover the ‘why’ I’m still here.”
I scowled. “If I could pinch you, I would, and I’d make it hurt. Don’t ruin my romantic moment here.”
He laughed, leaned in and brushed his nose across mine to send a
cold breeze to tickle my skin. “By all means, then, continue…”
“Oh, just kiss me, will you?”
Kipp leaned in as I heard police sirens blaring in the distance and he placed his lips across mine. The frostbite stung my skin, but I embraced it. Who knew how much longer Kipp and I had, but the only thing that mattered was we had tomorrow.
The rest I could figure out later…
Epilogue
Calla lilies, yellow roses and deep green foliage decorated the pretty wreath atop the casket. The large cathedral was stuffed full of people as the sun streamed through the stained-glass windows. I’d never been one to cry at a funeral, but Hannah’s service had me gulping back the lump in my throat. It didn’t help much that Hannah’s mother stood in front of her casket and cried as she addressed the crowd.
“It’s been so long since Hannah went missing, but to us, her father and I, the days have been long. I’d be lying to you that if I said that hearing the news of her body being discovered didn’t disappoint us. We still prayed she’d come home to us and somehow had lost her memory, which explained why she’d been missing.”
The crowd sniffed and sobbed and I found myself unable to restrain my tears. As one escaped my eye, a tissue came up in front of my face. I took the tissue and glanced over at the hand that held it to see Zach. His arm was supported in a brace from what he called a “minor wound”. I was sure getting shot and stabbed was anything but minor, but I wouldn’t argue with him. I mouthed a thank-you and dabbed my eyes before I focused back on Mrs. Reid.
“Once the news had sunk in, I realized what a blessing it was that she’d been found, because what we’d been searching for this entire time happened—Hannah came home. It might not have been how we wanted it, but Hannah wasn’t missing any longer, which is what we wanted all along.” Mrs. Reid straightened her shoulders and wiped the tears off her face. “We’d like to thank the police who went out of their way to find Hannah and the one responsible for her murder, even after all these years. They never stopped caring, searching to find her, and we’re grateful for all they’ve done for our family.”
“You see why we do this now,” Kipp said, standing beside me next to the pew.
Supernaturally Kissed (Frostbite, Book One) Page 17
