by H. D. Gordon
Dead at last. Dead at last. Thank God Almighty, the sick bastard was dead at last.
She felt the tiniest moment of relief, but as she looked up and met the silver-blue eyes of the girl with the raven-hair, she remembered that Ron Reynolds was not the only one who was dead and gone.
Bobby. Ron Jr. Her sons. Her precious children. Her babies.
Sharon Reynolds opened her mouth and…
Chapter 77
Joe
…put the barrel of her gun between her teeth. It took me less than a split second to realize what Sharon was going to do, only enough time to grab Madison’s head and hold her face against my heaving chest in a too-late attempt to shield her from what was going to happen next.
And sure enough, a moment later, right after another, final bang! Sharon Reynolds collapsed to the ground, having blown a hole through the back of her head. The blackness around my vision threatened to pull me under as I watched the woman fall to the floor, the smoking gun still clutched in her hand.
I had to fight the darkness, though, because Madison’s arms were wrapped around me and her tears were soaking through my already blood-soaked shirt. I looked all around me, taking in the chaos as would a movie goer staring up at a big, red screen. People were still trying to break down the doors that led to freedom. Others were cowering under pews and clutching bibles. Others lie wounded, dying or dead on the floor. And others still were crying over the wounded, dead and dying.
It was too much to take in. I sat there, clutching Madison to me, holding her as much as she held me, not understanding how things had gone so wrong. I’d had it all under control. All under control until that gunshot, that gunshot that had come from…
Chapter 78
Michael
…up on the balcony, staring down in horror at the scene below. Michael’s eyes searched the crowd and his heart felt as though it could pump again as he saw that Joe was alive. She was alive and fine.
Well…physically, at least. Emotionally, even from his high vantage point, he could see that Joe was not okay. The way she was clutching that little girl to her chest made something in his own chest ache something awful.
Then, something buzzed in his pocket, and he fumbled his phone out of it and stared down at the screen for several seconds without being able to read the words there. When he was finally able, he saw that it was a text message from Mr. Landry, and the letters seemed to scream up at him from the screen.
POLICE ARE ON THE WAY IN! GET JOE AND GET OUT OF THERE NOW! HURRY!!!
That snapped him out of his…
Chapter 79
Joe
…stupor, but there was no way to snap out of it. I could do nothing, nothing but hold Madison and smell blood and listen to the rushing sound of silence in my ears.
When Michael appeared in front of me, I would have bet my left hand that he was an apparition, and only when he began trying to pull me to my feet did I realize that he was real. But that didn’t make any sense, because he wasn’t supposed—
Another realization fell into place, and my heart dropped out of my chest and settled somewhere near my gore-covered shoes as I made the connection of that first gun shot that seemed to come from—
“Joe,” Michael said, still trying to pull me to my feet. “We need to go. The police are on their way in. We need to go now.”
I stared up at him, not really hearing his words, thinking only of that first shot, that first gunshot that had caused all the chaos.
“Joe!” Michael said again, shaking my shoulders now. “Joe, we need to get out of here. Come on!”
I clutched Madison tighter to my chest. I heard myself speak, but my voice sounded wrong, far away and foreign. “I’m not leaving her,” I said.
Madison’s head jerked up then, and the look in her green eyes struck right through to my heart. “Just go!” she screamed, pushing me away and laying her little body over that of her dead mother’s. Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up at me. “Just go! You lied! You told me I didn’t need to worry and you lied! Just go! Just leave me alone!”
Michael pulled me to my feet and scooped me up in his arms. I didn’t fight him. I didn’t have any fight left in me. I didn’t look where he was taking me, or ask how we were going to get out. I didn’t care. I didn’t care, because some part of me would never leave this room. Some part of me had already died here.
Words cannot describe the pain I felt as Michael carried me away, as I collected one last broken image of the green-eyed girl who had stolen my heart. The words…they simply do not exist.
Chapter 80
Troy
Troy was still around the rear of the big white house, leading the children across the lawn to where his team members—the ones that weren’t currently charging into the building—were waiting, so he saw when Joe and a guy he’d never met scaled down the drainpipe from a second story window of the house.
He watched as the guy took Joe’s hand and led her away from the house, toward where Troy knew there was a service road that served the rear part of the ranch. Out of habit, his hand went down to his radio, and he even pushed the button. He opened his mouth, fully intending to instruct someone to go to the service road to stop Joe and the unknown guy from leaving. He’d heard the gunshots—too many to count, coming from the inside of the big white house, and he knew in his gut that whatever had happened, those two had played a role in it.
And yet, as he placed his radio to his mouth, he found the words wouldn’t come. Instead, an earlier conversation with Joe flashed through his head instead.
Why didn’t you tell me? she’d asked.
And he’d said, Same reason you didn’t tell me.
Troy’s finger fell off the radio’s button then, and a moment later, the raven-haired girl and her mystery man were out of sight.
Chapter 81
Joe
Mr. Landry was waiting in Michael’s Lexus on the other side of a cornfield to the west of the ranch. His eyes widened as he took me in, but I couldn’t care less. I stepped passed him and pulled open the back door of the car, sliding inside and laying down on the backseat without saying a word. The leather of the seat was blessedly cool against my cheek.
A moment later, the front doors of the car opened, and Michael and Mr. Landry got inside. Mr. Landry drove us home, and nobody said a word the entire time, but I knew that the old man was digging around in my head. I didn’t try to stop him. I figured he should see what his interference had done.
When we got back to my apartment, I got out of the car and headed up the steps to my door. I felt like a robot, just moving on autopilot, and I wanted nothing more than to collapse into a deep sleep for the rest of forever.
Michael and Mr. Landry followed me up and inside and stayed out in my living room as I went into my bedroom and shut the door behind me. Then I went to the shower, stripped and hopped inside. It took a good twenty minutes before the water running off of me stopped running red. I felt like my soul was circling the drain along with it.
After that, I pulled on some sweatpants and climbed into my bed, which I had never been more grateful for in my entire life. I felt as though I had stepped out of one universe and into another, and the only thing leftover was this aching in my heart.
I slept straight through the night and into the next morning, when I awoke to a knock at my bedroom door. It was Mr. Landry, and there was a look on his face that instantly raised my alarms.
He spoke quickly in my head.
“The police are here, Joe. They’re outside on the doorstep right now. Two of them. You need to get out here now.”
I glanced around my living room, a terrible panic blooming in my chest. “What? What are they doing here? Where’s Michael? Oh my God, Mr. Landry, what am I going to do?”
“Relax,” he snapped back. “I sent Michael home. Just follow my lead, and everything is going to be okay.”
I gave him a look that said things were already not okay, but then I took a deep breath and
headed over to the door. Upon opening it, I saw a woman I’d never met before and…
“Troy?” I said, not meaning to speak out loud, but unable to hide my shock.
Troy nodded. Gone was his playful smile. “Hey, Joe,” he said. “I’m glad to see you’re okay. This is Agent Sydney Prescott from the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Do you think we could come in for a minute? We need to ask you some questions about…what happened at The Family Ranch yesterday.”
I stepped to the side, my pulse racing, and the woman and Troy stepped by me and took seats on my living room couch. I sat down in the chair across from them, my foggy brain struggling to keep up with this new development. Mr. Landry came to stand behind me.
Troy looked up at the old man. “I don’t believe we’ve met,” he said. “Are you Joe’s father?”
Mr. Landry grunted. “Closest she’s got,” he said. Silently, in my head, he added, “Joe, he’s a telepath. Why didn’t you tell me you met another telepath?”
I had to struggle to keep my eyes from rolling. “Must’ve slipped my mind,” I replied.
“Don’t worry,” Mr. Landry added. “He can only read minds when he’s making physical contact. He’s not as practiced as I am…but he knows a lot about you…too damn much about you.”
“If this is supposed to be comforting me, it’s not working,” I said, and pulled out of the silent conversation.
“Wuh-what do you wuh-want to know?” I asked, not at all feeling ready to talk about any of this. But then, when had my being ready for something ever mattered? Besides, some part of me had known this day would come.
“We just need you to confirm some things,” Troy said. “I’ve told Agent Prescott that you had only arrived at the ranch less than a week before yesterday, so your involvement was limited. Other witnesses have confirmed that you were not one of the people shooting in the church, but that they saw you leaving with a man they’d never seen before. Is that correct?”
My mouth fell open, and I snapped it shut when Mr. Landry told me to in my head. I couldn’t think of a thing to say to that.
To my surprise and relief, Troy spoke again for me. “The thing is, I’ve told Agent Prescott that can’t be true, because I saw you running from the church yesterday, just trying to escape the chaos, no doubt, and you were alone. I also explained to her that the reverend Ron Reynolds—that piece of shit—had tried to make everyone hate you when you stood up against him, and this is more than likely an attempt by his crazed followers to implicate you in some way. Does that sound right?”
I swallowed and nodded. It was all I could manage. Troy had deceived me in the worst of ways, and now he was trying to help me? It didn’t add up.
After that, Troy told me that he was an ATF agent, and that he’d begun his undercover assignment at The Family Ranch when they became aware of the types of weapons Ron Reynolds had been acquiring. I also learned that a total of twelve people had died, including the entire Reynolds family, and several more had been critically wounded. Agent Prescott asked me a few questions about what happened in the church, and I told her about it. I told her what she wanted to hear; what Troy basically told for me. There were too many screams, too many gunshots, too much going on to remember anything but the terror. I didn’t have to fake the shudders and shivers that wracked my body as I recounted.
Eventually, after what seemed like hours of circular questioning, they stood to leave. Agent Prescott handed me her card and told me she might be in touch again if she had any more questions. I took it with a nod, and could only hope I’d never see her again.
As I was closing the door, feeling as though I’d just dodged a bullet for what felt like the millionth time in the last twenty-four hours, Troy hung back while his FBI buddy headed down the stairs.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered. “I’m not going to tell them about you.”
He turned to go, but I grabbed his arm, knowing I was pushing my luck but unable to help it. “Why?” I asked.
Troy stared at me for a moment, and then that old, familiar smile crept over his face. “Because,” he said, “my gut tells me that if our situations were flipped, you would do the same for me.” He winked. “And I always trust my gut.” He reached up and brushed his fingers over my cheek. “Besides, I know for a fact that you saved the lives of over a hundred and fifty people. Turned out you were right about those pretzels you had me switch. The amount of poison we found in the chocolate coating would have killed a herd of elephants.”
I nodded slowly and my throat grew tight. I didn’t want to ask my next question, but I had to know. “Madison,” I said. “Duh-do you nuh-know what happened to Madison?”
Troy’s smile disappeared. “They took her back to her father,” he said. “I went with her myself, though I have to be honest, that man was a real piece of work.”
I swallowed. “Was…wuh-was she okay?”
Troy released a slow breath. “What do you think?” he said.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but they popped open when something else occurred to me. “And Fae?” I asked.
Troy’s mouth drew down, and he shook his head. “We didn’t find her. She wasn’t where we left her in that closet. We’re on the lookout for her, though, so try not to worry.”
“You keep s-s-saying that.”
His hand fell on my shoulder. “And I mean it,” he said, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Prescott was out of earshot. “You did a good thing, Joe. A damn good, brave thing. You have my word that I will do my best to minimize your involvement here. You’re a good person. The world needs more folks like you.”
Troy leaned forward and placed a kiss on my cheek, and in my ear, he whispered, “But if you ever think you want a career in law enforcement, look me up. We could sure use someone with your…particular talent.”
I let him leave after that, but I got a feeling in my gut that this would not be the last time I’d be seeing Troy. And this was no good, because if anyone’s gut was trustworthy, it was mine.
Chapter 82
Joe
“If you got something you need to say, just go on and say it already,” Mr. Landry said, crossing his arms over his chest.
We were standing in my living room, waiting for Michael, who was on his way over. “I duh-don’t,” I said.
“Bullshit. I don’t know why you bother lying to me. You know there ain’t no point.”
I sighed and rubbed my head, flopping down on my old couch and pulling my legs up underneath me. I spoke in my head now, because it was easier.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” I said. “You want to know if I’m angry? Yeah, I am, okay? I had the situation under control. I told you to let me handle it. Michael firing that gun…it started all the chaos. There wasn’t any poison in those pretzels. Troy helped me switch them out. It didn’t…it didn’t have to go down the way it did.”
Mr. Landry scoffed, his wrinkled face going a little red as he spoke out loud. “First of all,” he said. “You didn’t tell us shit. You ran off, charging in alone and left us to sit here and worry about you. And you can’t seriously believe you had that situation under control when there wasn’t no way to control that damn situation.”
I threw up my hands. “Well, it s-s-sounds like you huh-have uh-all the answers.”
Mr. Landry’s jaw tightened. “No,” he said, jabbing a finger at me. “You’re the one who acts like you have all the answers. You act like you’re the only one who cares if people get hurt. Well, guess what, darling? I hate to break it to you, but you ain’t. Don’t it ever occur to you that there’s people who care if you get hurt? Do you think Michael and I could sleep at night, knowing you was in that place?”
I leaned back and sighed. I already felt crappy enough. I just didn’t need this right now.
“No,” Mr. Landry said. “I think this is exactly what you need right now. You need to hear it while that aching in your chest is fresh, because next time, you need to think a little harder before you go charging
in like a damn bull in a china shop. Wasn’t nobody going to stop you from doing what you felt you needed to, Joe. All we wanted was for you to let us help.” He paused. “You think you’re so damn alone in this world, but the truth is, you make it that way.”
That made my anger flare. Later, I would come to the conclusion that it was because somewhere deep inside, I knew what the old man was saying was true. Right then, I was too worked up to see that.
“And look wuh-wuh-what happened!” I shouted. “Michael sh-shot—”
“The gun because he thought you were about to eat poison,” Mr. Landry said, cutting me off. “And if you think about it, who’s damn fault was it that he didn’t know there wasn’t no poison?”
