The Ridealong
Page 15
He breaks every bone in Zevahk's body. Stuffs him in a car to die, then takes the car to the beach before riding back to his cruiser in a taxi.
He gets in his cruiser.
I see his face.
Dad.)
[ME!]
So who am I? What am I? What is Mel? What is ME?
A ghost?
For a moment I think that must be it.
Then I realize. No ghost. I'm not a phantom. I'm less. I'm nothing. I'm...
... I'm madness.
I scream. And as I do, Jack's voice comes on the radio. Screaming. Sarge still does not hear that voice. Because he cannot.
Dad starts to scream, too.
We scream, but Sarge only hears Dad. Because I'm dead, and I'm nothing but imagination, and Jack is nothing but conscience, and then we're nothing but...
2
... ME AGAIN. BACK IN my body, and fully awake for the first time since my daughter died.
The screams – my screams, Jack's screams, Mel's screams – bounce like bullets through my brain.
They killed her. The men I thought of as friends and brothers – they killed my daughter with their deals and their corruption and the fact that when the dealers tried to run they didn't let it just happen. More important to save the drugs than to save a life.
To save Mel's life.
She's gone. She's been gone the whole time. Just me. Just me talking to a no one, a ghost of my own making. Writing in a journal I always wished she would have kept, saying the words I wished she would say. Loving words, kind words.
Forgiving words.
I scream. Jack screams, because Jack is me – the best me, the part of me that is just a good father and never would have dreamed of being in that alley in the first place.
I scream. Then a shot sounds.
My scream ends, not with a whimper, but with a bang. I feel the bullet hit me in the chest. Dead center.
Sarge is a good shot.
But he missed my heart. I was twisting during my shrieking. It saved my life.
Jack speaks. He speaks from the dead and from a broken radio and from the nothing of my mind.
"End it," he says. His voice is mine.
I raise my gun. The gun I took from Ray.
Sarge pulls the trigger of his gun again. His second bullet takes me in the shoulder.
I don't care.
Sarge is the best of us.
But I've always been a decent shot. Maybe not the best, but good enough.
Good enough for this.
I pull my own trigger.
The shot opens him up. Slams him against his cruiser and to the ground, looking at me through three eyes instead of two.
A moment later I fall as well. Leaning against the Mustang. It's cool, just like I remember. Just like when I was Mel.
Jack whispers to me. The voice no longer in my radio, but in my own mind.
"It's over. You did it. You killed them all." He sounds fully and completely like me. At last. "It's over," he says again.
"Yeah," I say back.
I know I'm crazy. I know I've been crazy for weeks.
But it doesn't matter. I ended it. I ended it all. Killed the ones who killed my baby girl.
My job's done. Everything's done.
I feel a hand on mine.
I look up.
Mel is there. She's smiling at me.
She's wearing a prom dress. And I think... I think maybe Liam is standing behind her. They look great together.
(They're not really here.)
(I don't care.)
"Hey, Melly Belly," I say.
"I hate when you call me that," she says.
"Sorry," I say. Even though we both know I'm really not. She'll always be Melly Belly to me.
She pulls my hand. I stand up. Light as a feather, and free as a bird.
"Come on," she says. "It's time for me to take you on a ride."
I smile. "That sounds nice," I say.
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NOVELS BY MICHAELBRENT COLLINGS
PREDATORS
THE DARKLIGHTS
the longest con
the house that death built
THE DEEP
TWISTED
THIS DARKNESS LIGHT
CRIME SEEN
STRANGERS
DARKBOUND
BLOOD RELATIONS:
A GOOD MORMON GIRL MYSTERY
THE HAUNTED
APPARITION
THE LOON
MR. GRAY (aka THE MERIDIANS)
RUN
RISING FEARS
THE COLONY SAGA:
THE COLONY: GENESIS (The Colony, Vol. 1)
THE COLONY: RENEGADES (The Colony, Vol. 2)
THE COLONY: DESCENT (THE COLONY, VOL. 3)
THE COLONY: VELOCITY (THE COLONY, VOL. 4)
THE COLONY: SHIFT (THE COLONY, VOL. 5)
THE COLONY: BURIED (tHE COLONY, VOL. 6)
The colony: reckoning (the colony, vol. 7)
THE COLONY OMNIBUS
YOUNG ADULT AND
MIDDLE GRADE FICTION:
the sword chronicles
THE SWORD CHRONICLES: CHILD OF THE EMPIRE
the sword chronicles: child of sorrows
THE RIDEALONG
HOOKED: A TRUE FAERIE TALE
KILLING TIME
THE BILLY SAGA:
BILLY: MESSENGER OF POWERS (BOOK 1)
BILLY: SEEKER OF POWERS (BOOK 2)
BILLY: DESTROYER OF POWERS (BOOK 3)
THE COMPLETE BILLY SAGA (BOOKS 1-3)