Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
When I jerked my gaze to her, I found myself staring down the barrel of a gun that was pointed directly at my chest.
I’d never seen the barrel of a gun before. At least, not straight down it. I’d never been brave enough to look, not even when it was completely unloaded.
I’d grown up around guns. My dad had always had them. He’d taught me how to safely handle them.
But…
“Grace,” my dad said, wary as fuck now. “What are you doing? Put that away!”
At least he was rational about this.
“I can’t!” she sobbed. “That man stole my baby!”
Dad moved toward her, and she twisted the gun to aim at him. “Stay back! And find that son of a bitch!”
“What’s going on here?” Creed asked quietly, sounding wary.
I looked up to find him standing off to the side of the porch, his forgotten cell phone in his hand halfway to his head.
He’d been here, but on the phone to the side of the house.
Grace whirled, putting her sights on Creed.
That sent a wave of chills directly down my spine.
Two headlights turned down our drive, and I had the irrational thought that whoever it was shouldn’t be driving.
We’d sent Creed’s friend Courtland after Charleigh again because she’d been worried about me, and he was on the way here anyway.
Apparently, Creed’s place had become the hub for the winter storm that was about to blow in, and no one had been concerned in the least about the possibility of being stuck here unable to leave.
“Put the gun down,” my dad tried again. “This is ridiculous, Grace. Cody’s dead, but your life isn’t over, too.”
“Oh, that’s fine for you to say. Your daughter is still alive!” Grace cried out, leaving the gun pointed at Creed, but staring at my dad like he’d just personally offended her with his words.
Cody was dead.
What?
How?
When she’d been taken by the ambulance to the hospital, she’d only been suspected of having a concussion and broken bones!
The car paused halfway up the drive, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Courtland started to back out instead of pulling farther in.
“Grace,” Dad pushed gently. “Honey, listen to me, please. Put the gun down. This hasn’t gone too far yet…”
That’s when Grace yanked the gun toward my dad and pulled the trigger.
She shot him in the leg.
“Hasn’t gone too far?” Grace hissed as Dad fell to the ground, blood gushing from the bullet wound in his leg. “Hasn’t gone too far? My child is dead! And that man…” She pulled the gun up to aim at Creed but he wasn’t standing where he’d been earlier any longer. He was steps away from her, and heading toward her as fast as he could, head tucked down and sprinting.
Grace tried to redirect the gun in his direction, but Grace didn’t have enough time before Creed hit her so hard that she all but cracked as he landed on her and slammed her to the hard packed brick beneath them.
The gun skittered into the snow, disappearing somewhere deep into the depths just off of Creed’s porch.
Vito cried out. “Grace!”
Pounding feet sounded from inside, and I could practically hear Mable’s feet as they screeched to a stop on the floor.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Mable cried.
“Back inside!” Creed barked. “Both of you. Right the fuck now!”
I backed up quickly and carefully, bumping into Mable as I went.
I closed and locked the door, then hurried to look out the window across the room that gave me a great view of what was happening on the front porch. Mable squeezed in next to me, practically pulling the blinds off the wall in her haste to see.
We couldn’t see much, either. Just my dad on the floor, looking in horror at what was happening behind the large shrubs that he’d planted twenty years ago.
I could also see Creed’s feet, but that was it.
“What’s going on?” Odin barked.
“I…”
“My best friend’s mother and stepfather were here,” Mable said stiffly, pushing herself away from the window and walking to where Romeo had come in off the back porch. She moved straight into his arms. “Grace pulled a gun. Shot Vito and then was about to shoot Creed but he slammed her into the ground before she could.” Mable moaned. “Cody’s dead.”
Romeo swiftly inhaled, pulling Mable into his arms. “What?”
A loud fist banged on the door, and I moved to open it.
Boone cut me off. “Uh-uh. Go back there. Sit down. Don’t move. You’re not supposed to be doing anything strenuous anyway.”
I did what he said, sitting down with a heavy thunk.
Boone cautiously opened the door, keeping the majority of his body out of the door’s line of sight, and effectively blocking me from sight.
“Get out here and put some pressure on this dumbass’s wound,” Creed muttered through clenched teeth. “She must’ve hit an artery when she shot him. Also, call the cops. Grace is unconscious. Maybe dead. I don’t know. My fuckin’ fingers are freezing and I can’t tell.”