by Alex Grayson
I rear back, uncertain I heard him correctly. A glance at Trouble shows I heard him just fine. What the fuck? Sierra hurt herself? But why?
“Fuck!” I bellow and launch up, beating feet out of the room and down the hallway. I yank my phone from my pocket and find Ellie’s number. My hands shake as I bring it to my ear.
That Goddamn bitch lied, and she did it knowing I’d go after Caleb, leaving Ellie and Maisy alone, something I haven’t done since the person who shot Brittney, killed Earl, and tried to kill Trouble was never caught. But what the fuck is her motive? What in the hell does she want with them? Clearly the woman is deranged if she’s willing to beat the fuck out of her own face, so it doesn’t matter the reason. I don’t want her near Ellie and our daughter.
When Ellie’s phone rings several times before going to voicemail, a guttural growl leaves my lips. I barely suppress the urge to ram the fucking device through the wall.
Hearing heavy footfalls behind me as I sprint out the door, I don’t need to look to know who’s following. JW and Trouble both know the conclusion I’ve come to.
Seconds later, I’m jumping in my car and JW is getting in on the passenger side. No doubt Trouble stayed behind to take care of Caleb
JW already has his phone to his ear, calling Emo, as I screech away from the curb. Thank fuck I brought my car. I try Ellie’s phone again, but it goes straight to voicemail this time.
“Meet us at Judge’s place. Ellie and Maisy are in trouble.”
He hangs up and tosses the phone on the dash, then grips the “oh shit” handle as I turn a corner, the tires squealing against the pavement.
“What in the hell is Sierra doing, Judge. Any idea?”
“I have no fuckin’ clue, but I’ll rip her to shreds if she touches a single Goddamn hair on their heads.”
Under normal circumstances I’d never lay a hand on a woman. However, if she were to hurt another woman or child, especially my woman or child, then all bets are off. Over the years, my brothers and I have had to eliminate women who committed unspeakable crimes. People like that, no matter their sex, aren’t human enough to deserve more.
I screech to a halt in front of my house and slam my car into park. The engine hasn’t fully shut down by the time I’m throwing my door open. I make it up the steps and to the door within seconds, my heart in my throat and my mind conjuring all kind of possible scenarios I might walk into. Bad ones. Gruesome ones. Terrifying ones.
I wait until JW ducks around the side of the house before bursting through the front door, knowing Sierra heard the screech of my car and is expecting me. I come to a halt when my eyes immediately clash with Ellie’s. She’s seated on the couch, facing my way. Her eyes are round and filled with ungodly terror. A trickle of blood seeps down her chin and a bruise is forming over her eye. There’s a piece of tape over her mouth, and her arms are behind her back, undoubtedly with her wrists tied together. I can’t see her feet, but I’m sure they’re tied as well.
I scan the rest of the living room and find Maisy in a kitchen chair, her shoulders slumped and shaking and her face splotchy red from crying. From my position, which isn’t the greatest, I can’t detect any noticeable injuries, but that doesn’t mean jack shit. Sierra’s around here somewhere and Ellie didn’t willingly let her tie her up. Sierra used some type of force.
“I’m so glad you’re back!” a voice screeches off to my left.
The she-devil appears from the hallway, a gun hanging limply by her side. Her face is a mess of bruises, but she smiles like she’s not batshit crazy, which makes her even more so.
I take a step toward her, my hands clenching at my sides. Ellie’s in front of me, about fifteen feet away with a table and chair between us. Maisy is to my right about ten feet away, the same distance Sierra is to my left.
“What in the hell is going on, Sierra?”
She tilts her head to the side, expression perplexed. “What do you mean?” She looks over to Ellie, her countenance changing to delight. “Oh! You mean this?” She waves the gun in Ellie’s direction.
“Sierra!” I bark, taking a couple of steps closer to her. If I can get near enough, I can tackle her to the ground.
Sierra flinches, but turns to face me again, her arm dropping back to her side. I dart my eyes to the gun and see her pointer finger on the trigger. A soft squeeze could cause the gun to go off. And the safety’s not on.
Motherfucking hell!
She frowns, a deep groove forming between her eyes. “Why are you angry?”
The question is so damn ludicrous, but apparently, Sierra isn’t too bright.
“Why am I angry?” I growl through gritted teeth. “Because you’re holding the woman I love and our daughter at gunpoint, and I don’t have a damn clue why.”
Her lips turn down into a pout, the dried blood by her mouth cracking.
“How can you love her? She kept you away from Maisy for eleven years. You can’t love someone like that.”
“The hell I can’t. What I can’t do is allow you to threaten them.” A couple more steps puts me about five feet from her. “Now tell me what in the hell you’re doing here.”
Her chin begins to wobble, and her eyes turn glassy. “You were supposed to love me,” she whispers. “I was going to help you raise Maisy. We were gonna get married and have other babies.” Her eyes narrow, turning dark and malevolent. “You ruined fucking everything! You owe me!” she shouts, so loud it echoes off the walls and the tendons in her neck bulge.
She lifts the gun and points it at me with a shaky hand. Maisy whimpers, but I keep my eyes on the psychotic bitch in front of me.
My muscles bunch and scream at me to rush her. To take her down and terminate the threat, but she’ll get a shot off before I make it to her, and no matter how bad of a shot she may be, there’s no way she would miss.
“Sierra,” I call, keeping my voice calm when my blood feels like lava rushing through my veins. “I have no clue what you’re talking about. Why don’t you put the gun down, and we’ll talk about whatever’s bothering you?”
The look that crosses her face sends icy shards down my back.
“You owe me, Judge,” she says again. “You fucking killed him and took him from me. I forgave you because I thought you could take his place, but not anymore. Now I get to take something from you.”
She takes several steps back and swings the gun in Maisy’s direction. My heart jolts against my sternum, ripping away my breath.
Over her shoulder, I notice a shadow in the hall and know it’s either JW or Emo. I trust they won’t make a move until Maisy and Ellie are out of harm’s way. Even so, fear has me frozen in place, and I send up a prayer to every God there is that my family will make it out of this alive.
“Wait!” I yell.
Keeping the gun trained on Maisy, she slides her eyes my way.
“Who did I kill? Who did I take away from you?”
Her eyes turn into hard slits. “Gary.”
I don’t attempt to hide the shock from my face. Gary Watters was a sick son of a bitch who suffered the Expiration Penalty almost a year ago after being caught sexually and physically abusing his two children. Brittney was ten and Jacob was four. He had been abusing them for years.
“He loved me,” Sierra states, sniffing. “He promised me that we would be together; me, him, and his kids. But then his bitch of a daughter had to go and ruin it for us.”
“He was raping her, Sierra.” I can’t keep the acrimony from my voice. “She was ten years old.”
“So fucking what?” she spews. “She would have learned to love it, just like I did.”
My gut churns. “How long were you seeing him?” I force the words out between clenched teeth.
No matter the answer, she was too young. A year ago, Sierra would have been seventeen. Too fucking young for a forty-year-old man.
Her eyes turn sad. “It would have been nine years this past February.”
“Fuck,” I hiss. She was nine years old when it started. His wife, Eloise, was still alive then, but she suffered severe depression and had a toddler to care for, so her mind was occupied with other things. It probably never crossed her mind that her husband was busy abusing a nine-year-old while she was home with their daughter.
The shadow shifts behind her back, getting closer. My eyes move to the gun. She’s lowered it a couple of inches, but it’s still pointed at Maisy. I slide my gaze to Ellie, who’s trembling in her seat, tears tracking down her cheeks and fear darkening her face.
“How did your parents not know about this?” I ask, keeping her focus on me. “Why didn’t you ever tell them?”
She licks her lips and pain lances her face. “I wanted to at first, but Gary said they’d never believe me. He was friends with them, and he said they’d know I was lying, and I’d get into trouble. I was scared in the beginning, but after a while, the things he did to me felt good. I never wanted him to stop. He always said he loved me once he was finished and swore once I turned eighteen we wouldn’t have to hide anymore.”
“And that’s why you shot Brittney?”
“Yes,” she growls, her face contorting angrily. “That stupid bitch had to tattle to her teacher.”
“What about Earl? Why shoot him?”
She bares her teeth. “That old nosy bastard caught me getting rid of the gun in the dumpster behind The Hill. When he turned away to call JW, I knew I had to stop him. I couldn’t shoot him because it would make too much noise, so I grabbed a broken bottle and jammed it into his fucking neck. He didn’t know what hit him until it was too late.”
I grit my teeth at the carelessness way she talks about the old man who’s been a part of Malus since the beginning.
“And Trouble? Why try to kill him?”
“Because he’s the one who confirmed Brittney’s allegations and took Gary away from me.”
I ball my hands into fists and press them against my sides. It’s the only way to keep from strangling the crazy woman. A small part of me feels pity for what happened to her at Gary’s hands, but a bigger part sees the person holding a gun on my child, threatening her life. The same women who shot another child, intending to kill her.
Life is full of choices, and we all have to choose what path to take. The right one or the wrong one. We choose our own fate. Circumstances can persuade us down the wrong path, but only if we let them. We choose where we want our life to take us. If a situation leads us one way, then we let it. The decision isn’t made for us.
Sierra chose the wrong path. She chose one of destruction and inflicting pain on others. She made that choice, and in doing so, sealed her fate.
I look back at my daughter, my heart breaking at the utter panic and terror on her face. I look to Ellie next and silently tell her with my eyes that I love her and that everything is going to be okay.
When I pull my eyes back to Sierra, I let my hatred shine through for a split second before wiping my face clean of all emotion.
I look at her and make my choice. There’s no Goddamn way in hell I’ll let this woman take away the two most important people in my life.
I take a deep breath and steady my heart rate. “Sierra, I want you to listen to me.” Her head cocks to the side, and even though the gun never wavers, I know I’ve got her attention. JW appears behind her, only a couple of feet away. I’ve got to find a way to get the gun pointed away from Maisy before he makes his move. “What Gary did to you was wrong. A child should never be touched in that way. You know the history of Malus when it was Sweet Haven, and you know the way things are now. You know what we do to people who harm others that way. Gary knew this too, but he still chose to hurt his children. He made that choice, knowing the consequences.”
“You’re wrong!” she yells, spit flying from her mouth and her lips pulling back into a snarl. She levels the gun back on me, exactly as I hoped. “Gary loved me! He loved me so much that he said he couldn’t stand to be around me without touching me. He’d sneak in my bedroom at night sometimes because he hated being away from me. He said he was glad when Eloise died because it meant he could be with me more.” She’s panting, her eyes manic and her chest pumping rapidly. “We were going to be a family. Me, him, Brittney, and Jacob. He said we were going to be a special kind of family.”
Jesus fucking Christ. Gary sure did a number on her. Special family, my ass. Gary would have had his own harem of sex objects to fuck and torment, and more than likely had plans to get Sierra pregnant as soon as possible to add more.
The thought turns my stomach and magnifies the rage boiling inside me.
“Gary didn’t love you, Sierra,” I say and take a step forward, hoping like fuck I’m making the right move. “He was a sick bastard who liked to prey on children.” The muscles in my legs tense and I shift my body to the side. “He deserved every single bullet hole my brothers and I put in him. He’s rotting in hell, right where he belongs.”
Her eyes flash fire and her lips peel back from her teeth. She releases an ear-piercing shriek. “NOOOO!”
Just as I spring forward at the same time JW does, she swings the gun back toward Maisy. Everything happens so fast. The blast of the gun is deafening, obliterating every molecule in my body. My fucking heart constricts, squeezing so tight I can’t draw in air. Maisy’s screams ring in my ears just as JW makes contact with Sierra. I look over to where Maisy was just sitting, to find her chair tipped back and her lying on her back with Emo on his hands and knees above her.
I run over and skid to my knees on her other side.
“Oh fuck,” I grunt hoarsely, fear tightening my throat. “Maisy, baby, are you hurt?”
I scan my eyes up and down her body, running my hands over her arms, legs, stomach, and shoving one under her to check her back. I tilt her head back and forth, finding nothing. Not one speck of blood.
Relief hits hard and swift. She stares up at me, eyes so scared it feels like my heart is being carved out with a dull knife.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” I whisper.
She launches herself at me at the same time I reach for her. Her grip is tight around my neck, and I relish the feeling of her in my arms, alive and unharmed.
A low groan comes from behind her, and I open my eyes to find Emo has fallen to his back, the color of his gray shirt turning a deep red just below his ribs. He stares up at the ceiling with hazy eyes, blinking slowly.
On the other side of him, Ellie is on her knees, her red eyes wide, tape over her mouth and her arms still restrained. She’s struggling against her bindings, her eyes flickering to Maisy desperately.
I’m so conflicted. Except for the bruise above her eye and what looks like a busted lip, she appears to be unharmed. I want to rush to her and gather her in my arms, just to reassure myself that she’s okay, but Emo is the one who needs attention right now. He’s pale as fuck and he’s losing a shit ton of blood.
“Shit.” I pull back and frame Maisy’s face with my palms. “I need to check on Emo. Can you untie your mom for me?”
Her lips are pressed into a tight line and she nods rapidly. I close my eyes and yank her forehead to my lips. As soon as I let her go, she runs around Emo and drops to her knees behind Ellie. I scoot over to Emo. He still has his black unfocused eyes pointed toward the ceiling, his arms limp on the floor. His expression is blank, as if he doesn’t even feel the bullet hole in his side.
I lift his shirt and mutter a quiet curse at the quarter-inch hole. He doesn’t make a sound when I roll him to the side to see if there’s an exit wound, thanking fuck for small miracles when I find one. No matter how tough you are or how much you enjoy pain, having tweezers digging around in your flesh and muscle hurts like a bitch.
I bring my eyes to him. “There’s an exit hole, but there’s no telling what internal damage there is.”
He grunts and closes his eyes before flashing them back open. “I’ll be fine.”
The stub
born son of a bitch attempts to sit up. Only then does a hint of pain cross his face. His brows pinch together and the lines around his mouth tighten.
“Lie the fuck down, Emo.” I growl, pushing him back down. I pull my phone from my pocket just as Ellie falls to her knees on Emo’s opposite side. I watch as Maisy runs off to the kitchen. I want to yell for her to come back. My lungs freeze with the thought of her out of my sight.
“Need you here,” I tell Trouble as soon as he answers. “Emo’s been shot in the side.”
“How bad?” he asks, fear evident in his tone. He and Emo have always shared a special bond over the love and grief they have for Trouble’s dead sister.
“Not sure. Right side. Went in just below the ribs and out straight through the back.”
There’s huffing and puffing on the other end, as if he’s running.
“Two minutes. Put pressure on it.”
He hangs up, and I drop the phone to floor just as Maisy comes back carrying towels. She hands them to Ellie. I grab one and stuff it underneath Emo where the exit wound is. She already has another one pressed against the entry hole. She pulls her hands away when I replace them with mine and press down hard. Seeing blood on her hands has my heart seizing. It’s not her blood, but it still freaks me the fuck out.
When JW comes to my side, my eyes dart to the left and see Sierra rolled to her side, her arms behind her back and her eyes closed. She’s not dead, but she has a fresh cut on her temple where JW must have knocked her out.
Rage simmers, heating my blood anew. I want to wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze every bit of life out of her. Instead, I bring my eyes to JW.
“Trouble’s on his way.”
Sensing what I need, he takes over and puts pressure on Emo’s wound.
As soon as my hand is free, I get to my feet and rush to Ellie. She hasn’t made it to her feet, so I grab her arms and haul her up, straight into my tight embrace. Her arms lock around my shoulders, her face against my chest and mine buried in her hair.
It’s not until that moment that I take a full breath, inhaling her fresh scent. I lift my head and immediately find who I’m looking for. Ellie and I both reach out at the same time and bring her against our sides. Her little arms wrap around both our backs, completing our circle.
