Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
He took a step toward Brett, and the shooter unleashed more gunshots again.
Over and over again, Ben’s body jerked from each bullet as he took one more step, before finally falling to his knees, then stopping. He held himself there, somehow, and those crazed eyes looked past Brett, to me.
He was dying.
A tear welled up and slipped free before I could stop it.
He’d been my brother.
I loved him.
I raised him.
He’d been mine just as much as he’d been our mother’s.
Emotions welled up in my chest. Ben was so crystal clear in the moonlight and I whispered, “I love you.”
Ben faltered, just for a fraction of a second, relief showing over his face.
Then he died.
It was over.
66
BILLIE
Police sirens lit up the air, coloring it red and blue almost as soon as Ben’s body hit the floor.
Brett ran to me, dropping to his knees, a sob in his throat. “Jesus. Baby. Billie.”
I was fine, but he looked scared to touch me. “Help Howard.”
Vicky was just finishing untying Howard, pulling the tape off his mouth and holding one of their couch cushions against his head. “I’m fine. We’re fine. Take care of Billie.” But seeing a plea from Howard who was looking from him to Vicky, Brett ignored her, picked her up in his arms. She was protesting as he stood, saying to me, “Don’t move. I called Travis and he called the rest of his people. We got twenty squad cars out there and five ambulances. They’re all coming down the driveway so sit tight.”
He took her outside, bypassing Travis who was kneeling beside Ben. As Brett disappeared from sight, Travis felt for Ben’s pulse.
There’d be none. I saw my brother die, knew it the instant it happened. I felt it. A weight lifted off my chest and I swore I heard my mom’s voice whisper, “It’s done now.” An odd sensation of peace and warmth wrapped around me before that also lifted away.
Travis came in, holstering his gun. His eyes were hooded, his face like granite. His gaze skimmed over me, a question in there. I shook my head, just slightly, and cut my eyes to the side toward Howard. Travis raked a hand over his face as he seemed to have aged five years in one night. Giving me a brief nod, he went to Howard’s side. “I’ll help you outside.”
“No, you won’t.” Howard said it loudly and proudly. His Adam’s apple was bobbing the whole time, and he was so pale. There was a slight yellowish tone just underneath, which was worrying. “I am just fine. You help my daughter, you hear m—”
Travis wavered, knowing I wanted him to help Howard first.
Brett came in, striding to Howard, and he didn’t give him an option this time. He knelt and picked Howard right up in his arms. He paused once, gritted his teeth, but readjusted Howard in his arms, and looking like freaking Superman, he carried him back out the door.
Travis said under his breath, watching them disappear, “Jesus.”
I pulled myself up, resting against the back of the couch. It was nearest to me.
I wasn’t quite ready to go out there, whether I walked, Brett carried me, or if the paramedics transported me. It’d be a scene so similar to another that I couldn’t stomach.
So, stalling.
I was doing that.
Plus, Brett would want to carry me out. He was doing his thing where he needed to help but in a way where he could deny it later.
Travis eyed me, but as if reading my mind, he didn’t come over to help me. He leaned against the wall behind him, sliding down to the ground. “Brett called me. He couldn’t reach you on the phone so he logged into Howard’s security system. He wasn’t human when he called me. I’d only ever heard another person talk how he did, and that guy was jacked up on drugs and it took thirty cops to stop him from going on a rampage. I don’t know how your man reined himself in, but he did.”
“You’re the one who was shooting Ben?”
Guilt flared in his eyes. He looked down. “I killed your brother. I’m so—”
“Do not,” I said it swiftly, so swiftly that his head jerked back up. I leaned forward, letting him see everything I was about to say, letting him see how much I meant it. “It is a fucking tragedy what happened to my brother, and I’m not talking about today. I’m talking about when my mom drove into the river, when she died and he didn’t, when he was saved by the worst possible people who could’ve been there at that moment. I’m talking about how he was then raised by them. They helped create him into this, but…” I couldn’t go there, what I now realized my mom had known and why she made the decision to drive into the river. It was ghastly and horrible and no mother should do what she did, but she did it for a reason. That wasn’t for Travis to know, not yet anyway. “It morphed him into who he became, which was a killer. He told me Ben died in that river, and I believe him. That guy out there—” I gestured to him, not looking because a part of me was still aching at the loss of what could’ve been, “—he’s not Ben. He had no soul, and putting him down was the most humane thing you could’ve done.” A tear slid down my face, and dammit. I turned away, saying, my voice dipping, “The brother I loved would’ve been horrified at the man he became. You put him out of his misery, and you brought justice to all the people he’s killed. Don’t ever feel guilty about what you did.”