Chapter Thirty-six – Laying Low
Chapter Thirty-six
Sadie
LAYING LOW
Performed by Danielle Bradbery
Adam waved the gun in my direction, and it took everything I had in me not to flinch. The old wound in my leg ached as if it was new and fresh.
“Tie Fallon up. Gag her. I can’t have her calling for help before we’ve gotten out of town.”
“Uncle Adam, please,” Fallon said.
“Sit back down,” he ordered his niece, and my heart plummeted as the gun rotated in her direction. Then, rage so strong it nearly blinded me surged in my chest.
I’d kill him before he could hurt her.
Fallon pulled the rolling chair closer to the desk and sank down in it.
When I still hadn’t moved, Adam grabbed the wrist he’d already hurt and squeezed until I winced. “I promised you I wouldn’t hurt her. Don’t make me. Go tie her up.”
“I don’t have anything to tie her up with,” I said through gritted teeth, hoping to calm him down, hoping to somehow get the gun he was waving around away from him before he purposefully or accidentally used it on one or both of us. With no safety, the weapon was built to go off fast and easy, and I wondered if he even knew it.
His gaze narrowed on me in disbelief. “This is a damn bar. You have duct tape or rope or something.”
This time, when the gun landed on Fallon, it was firm and resolute. I barely stopped myself from lunging at him. The only thing that halted me was my fear the revolver would go off as we struggled, and she’d be hurt anyway.
As his finger landed on the trigger, I all but shouted, “I’ll find something!”
I hurried behind the desk, opening drawers as he watched my every move. For two seconds, he looked down at his phone in order to dial someone, and my hand closed around the pocketknife next to the duct tape. In the blink of an eye, his eyes were on me again as he said to whoever had answered, “We’ll be ready in an hour. Two passengers.”
I grabbed the duct tape as I slipped the pocketknife up the sleeve of my flannel shirt. With my back to Adam, I faced Fallon and saw her gaze slide to the sleeve where I’d hidden the knife. I was so proud of her. For keeping it together. For paying attention. She was so much braver and smarter and stronger than I’d ever been at her age. More than I was now.
“I’m sorry,” I said with every ounce of regret I felt. My fingers shook as I tore a piece of tape from the roll. My life felt like it was on repeat. Mila had jumped on Chainsaw and saved my life. Fallon had stabbed Theresa with a screwdriver before she could shoot her. The two girls were better at saving themselves and me than I could ever be at saving them. I’d completely failed at the one thing Rafe had asked me to do.
“He-he killed her. He didn’t even hesitate. He’ll kill us both if you d-don’t do what he asks.” Fallon was shaking so hard I could barely keep her hand on the arm of the chair.
“Stop talking!” Adam yelled. “You’re right, Fallon. I did kill her, but she was planning on doing me in first. As soon as she had the diamonds in reach, she was going to get rid of all of us and use the money to fuel her feud with Lorenzo. So don’t feel sorry for her. She gutted that guy Nero. Had me hold him while she did it. She bragged how she’d done the same to your dad. How she was going to do it all over again and make sure he died this time. I saved you by shooting her.”
As he talked, I taped Fallon’s wrists to the chair, trying to keep them loose, but Adam came closer and noticed.
He aimed the gun at me again. “Don’t pull that shit, Sadie. Wrap them tight. Do her legs too, and then tape that mouth of hers shut. She likes to talk. Likes to rat people out when she doesn’t even know what’s really happening.”
“She can’t escape if she’s tied to the chair, Adam, and no one is around to hear her,” I insisted.
He swung his fist and clocked me in the cheek again. It was the exact same place he’d hit before, and pain radiated through the bone. I stumbled back, hitting my lower back and side on the desk with enough force it had me gasping.
“Don’t argue with me. Just do as you’re told.”
“Please, Uncle Adam. Please don’t hurt her.” Fallon was crying again, tears streaming down her cheeks, and my heart tore in half. The expression on her face had returned to the wild fear instead of the anger that had been there moments ago.
He yanked the tape from my hand, juggling the gun as he ripped off a piece, and I used the cover from the noise it made to flick open the pocketknife. As he slapped the tape over Fallon’s mouth, his hand with the gun drifted near me, and I dragged the blade over his arm with a strength that surprised us both.
He screamed, dropping the gun. It clattered beneath the wheels of Fallon’s chair, and I dove for it. He kicked me in the ribs, sending me sprawling to the floor. The knife went flying from my fingers, sliding between Adam’s feet and disappearing under the desk.
Adam cradled his wounded arm and bent to retrieve the gun, but Fallon kicked out at him, hitting him in the thigh. He lost his balance, tried to use the corner of the desk to stop himself, and ended up stumbling over my legs and falling on top of them. The momentum thrust Fallon backward until the chair collided with the wall.
Our eyes caught. Fear. Anger. Desperation.
I remembered seeing those emotions in Mila’s eyes that day too.
I had to save Fallon. Had to save myself. Had to stop him.
With his weight on my legs, I was trapped, but I stretched my arm out, using every ounce of power I had to reach for the gun. Adam shifted, swearing, still cradling his torn flesh, trying to right himself, and the weight had my finger slipping off the grip. I bucked, my knee colliding with his wounded arm and causing him to scream again.
Hope filled me when my hand closed around the weapon.
I raised it shakily, shoving it toward his face and snarling, “Get off me!”
He used his good elbow to slam into my stomach, and even as I groaned and gasped for breath, I pulled the trigger. His body jerked backward, blood spreading along the shoulder of his white button-down.
“You bitch! You fucking bitch!” he wailed.
With one more kick, I was free of him.
The door of the office slammed open, and the sound of a rifle cocking filled the air, followed by my brother’s voice, dark and furious, saying, “Get away from them, asshole.”
Ryder eased across the room, blue eyes zapping with lightning, cowboy hat tipped back, lips stretched tight. His gaze darted from me, to Fallon, to Theresa’s dead body, and finally back to Adam who’d scrambled to rest against the wall, cradling his wounds.
“You’re bleeding,” Ryder growled, eyeing the blood that coated my arms and clothes. “You’re fucking bleeding.”
He stepped toward Adam, aiming the rifle at his chest, and I was barely able to stop him from pulling the trigger. “It’s not my blood, Ryder. It’s his.”
My brother grunted, a wolflike noise that warned of an attack, and then yanked me to him. For two seconds, I let myself lean into my brother’s comfort. Let myself wallow in the knowledge I was alive. That Fallon was alive. Tears swarmed, but I held them back as sirens filled the air.
My entire body was trembling as I handed Ryder the pistol and dragged myself away from his comfort. After finding the knife I’d dropped, I fell to my knees in front of Fallon to cut her free.
Boots pounded in the hallway, and a voice shouted, “Sheriff’s Department, put your weapons down,” just before Deputy Walker eased into the room with his gun drawn.
It took Walker mere seconds to assess the situation, glaring at the sight of Ryder with two guns pointed at Adam and a dead woman.
“Goddamn it, Hatley, did you have to shoot them? Do you know how much paperwork I’m going to have to fill out now!”
“I didn’t shoot anyone,” Ryder said. “That was all Sadie.”
Once Fallon was free, I pulled her to me, wrapping both arms around her trembling shoulders, burying my face in her hair as she clung to me. We were alive! Nightmares might haunt us for years, but we were alive.
Walker spoke into his two-way, asking for an ambulance, and I heard Maddox’s voice demanding a sitrep. Ryder’s phone started jangling, and then my ringtone went off in whatever pocket Adam had slid it into after using it for the code on the safe.
“He’s got my phone,” I told Ryder.
With the deputy’s gun aimed at him, Adam didn’t even move as Ryder searched his pockets, pulled my phone from the depths, and then ripped the bag with the jewelry in it off his wrist. Adam hissed in pain as Ryder glared down at him. “You’re lucky you’re not dead, asshole. You’re lucky my sister has more goodness in her left hand than you do in your entire goddamn body. If she hadn’t stopped me, you’d be on your way to hell. Just remember that when you’re sitting in a prison cell, cooking up more vengeance and hate. You owe her your damn life.”
Ryder stepped back just as his phone went off again, and he whipped it out. “I’m with them now.” He assessed us both, slowing as he took in my face that was screaming and the ugly bruise already forming on Fallon’s temple, and his jaw tightened. “They’re alive. Some bruises. But they’re whole.”
I heard the dark voice on the other end and knew it was Rafe just from the tone. My heart soared and broke at the same time. He’d sent me away, and I hadn’t had time to come up with a plan on how to keep him. Now, he’d arrive to take his daughter and vanish from my life. It made the tears fall harder. It made me squeeze the teen in my arms just a bit more.
Ryder waved his phone toward me. I shook my head. I couldn’t talk to Rafe yet. Not when I’d almost failed him. Not when Fallon had saved us more than I had. Not when I knew it was over between him and me.
“Let Fallon talk to him,” I said softly.
Fallon’s head whipped up. When she saw the phone extended, she reached out and took it. “Dad!” Her tears came harder on hearing his voice, and I just held on as she cried and talked through her sobs. “We’re okay. We’re okay. Sadie saved us.”
It wasn’t true. We both knew it wasn’t true. She’d saved us.
Fallon paused, listening to her dad. “I love you too. I love you so much. Okay.” More pauses. “Mom? Oh God, Mom… Uncle Adam… No. No. He’s alive… He’s alive. They’re taking him to the hospital and then to jail. He killed Theresa. He just shot her, point-blank, as if it was nothing.”
I tried to move away, to give her space to talk to her parents, but Fallon only gripped me harder with her free hand, so I stilled and then pulled her into me once more.
My gaze met my brother’s over her head and saw them assessing me closely. I knew what he was waiting for. He was waiting for me to break. To fall. To stumble. But I didn’t feel anything anymore except exhaustion. The short spat of tears had dried up. The fear was gone. Regret was somewhere in there, but I wasn’t sure where. I was so damn drained and numb.
“Okay. Okay,” Fallon said. “I’ll see you soon. I’m okay. I’m with Sadie. She saved me. I’m okay. I love you.”
Fallon hung up and handed the phone back to Ryder. He pocketed it and then wrapped both of us in his arms. I clung to him and let the void of nothing swamp me.
? ? ?
Maddox and McKenna met us at the hospital. While they talked to me, I tried to follow what they were saying, but everything felt hazy and scattered. I felt like I was outside myself, watching an old-fashioned movie reel where part of the film had been destroyed. In and out. Glimpses of action. Glimpses of words.
When my brother strode off to arrest Adam before he went into surgery and arrange for a twenty-four-hour guard, I insisted McKenna examine Fallon. The teen was sitting with me on the ER bed, arm still wrapped around my waist with her head on my shoulder.
“I just have a bump,” Fallon said, even though her skin was raw from where the tape had been pulled off her wrists. “Sadie took the brunt of it.”
“Does she have a concussion?” I asked, and I had to focus extra hard on McK’s mouth to ensure I heard the answer as I fought off the flickering film.
“No. Her eyes are clear.” She turned back to the teen. “It’s going to hurt for a few days, Fallon. And if the headache gets worse, you need to let us know immediately.”
Fallon grabbed my hand and squeezed. “You have to check out Sadie. He hit her several times. And kicked her too.”
My sister-in-law’s thick brows furrowed as she took in the cheek I could feel swelling, and she swung her light in my eyes. For a moment, everything disappeared. It was almost a relief. Then, she pressed her hands in places that made me wince, frowning when I hissed at the pressure she placed on my ribs and my wrist.
“I think you’re just bruised, but I don’t want to take any chances that you have internal bleeding. You need an X-ray and an ultrasound, at a minimum, and I’ll need a blood and urine sample. Let me go order the tests.”
I’d do whatever they needed me to do in order to get out of the hospital, to escape before the memories of the smells and sounds ripped back my numbness and made me feel the fear I’d had the last time I’d stayed here.
While McKenna went out to the nurses’ station, Fallon dropped her head to my shoulder again, whispering, “Thank you. Thank you for saving me.”
The world in front of me flashed again. White. Black. I hadn’t saved her. She’d saved herself.
Before I could respond, McKenna was back. She handed ice packs to both of us and gave Fallon some pain pills, apologizing that I couldn’t have any yet until they were sure I didn’t have any internal bleeding.
I didn’t think I had anything seriously wrong with my body. I hurt. I could feel every place his hands and feet had touched me, could even feel the heat of his breath on my ear. But it was my emotions I was wondering about. Where had they gone? I didn’t feel sad or mad or happy or relieved. I didn’t feel anything. But then again, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
Mama and Daddy showed up, bursting into the room and surrounding us both with love. Fallon burst into tears, just like she had when she’d heard her father’s voice. And for a moment, I clung to my dad before backing away as the room swam.
When I came back from radiology, Maddox was there, talking through what had happened with Fallon. I tried to follow what she was saying, but I still couldn’t track all the words. After he’d finished getting her statement, he had our parents take her to the cafeteria. Once they’d left, he pulled me to him and hugged me for several long seconds before dragging a chair up next to the bed, making me sit back down and asking me to take him through what had happened.
I tried to tell him, tried to go through it in chronological order, the way I knew he needed for his paperwork, but I just couldn’t seem to pull it all together. It was fading away so fast, blending in with what had happened with Chainsaw and Mila. I couldn’t separate the two events, and I knew I had told him the wrong thing several times, told him things about that day at the creek instead of today at the bar.
He squeezed my hands and told me he’d give me a minute to gather my thoughts while he talked to McKenna.
He stepped out beyond the curtain, but the two of them were close enough that I heard her quiet response to his worried question. “It’s the shock, Maddox. She’s in shock. You’ll likely get a clearer story from her tomorrow than today.”
He came back and draped an arm over my shoulder. “I’m going to head over to the bar and make sure the crime scene techs have everything they need.”
Oh damn…the bar…Jesus. I hadn’t even thought about it. “Can you call Ted? Tell him not to come in? I’m sure the gossip has already spread like wildfire, but I want to make sure he doesn’t make the trip into town when he doesn’t need to.”
“I’ll handle it while I’m there.”
He kissed me on the top of my head and headed for the door. He looked back and said, “Hey, Sassypants?”
I nodded.
“Good job giving the assholes hell.”
But I hadn’t, had I?
I wasn’t even sure what had happened. What was real. What was the past. What I had wanted to do versus what had really occurred.
McKenna had already gotten Fallon’s discharge papers ready by the time my parents and the teen came back from the cafeteria, but she wanted me to stay longer, at least until all the tests came back and she’d been able to monitor me for any nausea, dizziness, or signs of internal injuries. But what I wanted to do was leave, to get the hell out of the hospital with its beeping machines and smell of antiseptic that reminded me too much of being stuck here for weeks, fighting to feel my leg, to walk.
Hours had gone by, the sun drifting through its peak and into the afternoon shadows, before I finally called a halt to it. Fallon was asleep on the bed next to me, and McK was shining the light in my eyes for what felt like the millionth time. I grabbed her hand and said quietly, “I just want to take Fallon home, McK. I don’t want to be here anymore. It reminds me too much of what happened before.”
While it was true that what had happened with Chainsaw and Mila was still mixing with what had happened today, I’d mostly said it to get her to agree to let me go.
She stared at me for a long time and then nodded. She gave my parents a long list of things to watch out for with both Fallon and me and then, finally, allowed us to leave.
When we pulled up to the ranch, it felt like it had been a week instead of the better part of the day since we’d left to take Parker to the rental car office.
Mama tried to fuss over us, and when I headed for the stairs, she followed on my heels. I sent her back to Fallon, saying I just needed to shower. Maddox had taken my clothes at the hospital, but I still had splotches of Adam’s blood on me. I needed to be free of it. Free of the body I could still feel weighing me down with my legs trapped.
How could I still feel everything physically when my insides were dead, as absent of feeling as some of the nerves in my leg from the bullet hole that had scored me?
As I showered, those flashes of three years ago continued to mix with today. I relived coming awake in the creek to find Maddox and McKenna bent over me. The desperate fear for Mila. The terror rolling off Fallon as I’d taped her to a goddamn chair.
I shoved my wet hair into a clip, strands already slipping out of it before I’d left the bathroom. My phone light went off, and I realized I had a message. For one brief moment, hope slid into my dead heart, thinking it might be Rafe. But when I swiped it open, it was to see Maddox had left me a message.
“Hey, Sassy, the crime scene techs are done. Ryder told me the cameras were down, but it must have just been the outside feed they hacked, because I was able to pull video from the internal cameras. Everything on them corroborates Fallon’s statement. The entire case against Adam is going to be pretty cut and dry. I’ve pulled in a bunch of favors I had coming, and you should have the bar back tomorrow. Ryder and I are going to swing by in the morning to clean up. Ted and Patti can cover the shifts tomorrow. After that, we’ll all pitch in until you’re ready to come back. I just wanted you to know where it was at so you didn’t worry. Give me a call when you get a chance tonight. I love you.”
I should have felt something. Relieved at his worry and love. Glad he’d handled things for me with such care. But I didn’t feel anything. All I knew was that I needed to be away from here almost as much as I’d needed to be out of the hospital. I needed to clean up the mess I’d made. I needed out of the house before everyone in my family showed up with their sad eyes and sympathy.
I couldn’t handle it. Not again. God, I’d despised the pity so damn much the first time around. The pity and the worry and the shame. Ah, yes… there was an emotion finally. My cold, shutdown soul had finally come up with some deserving ones—shame and regret.
I pulled a pair of jeans from my dresser, but when I tried to drag them on, I found a whole set of bruises blooming along my hip and back from hitting the desk and the floor. I was certain they weren’t from any internal bleeding, but if I mentioned them to anyone, they’d send me back to the hospital. So, I ignored them, tossing the jeans aside and pulling on a loose, high-waisted skirt. I topped it with a blue McFlannigan’s tank before sliding into a pair of old cowboy boots I used for the sloppiest of work. They’d easily handle the clean-up at the bar.
As I went down the stairs, my old injury caused my leg to drag. Pushing it to function correctly took effort and slowed me down. Normally, it pissed me off, but instead, now I just felt resigned. It was misbehaving, not only because I was exhausted but because I was reliving that day at the creek, reliving every moment from when it had first been damaged.
Maybe I would always be damaged from now on.
Maybe I’d never feel anything but shame and regret ever again.
When I finally made it into the living room, it was to find Fallon asleep on the couch. She looked so young. So beautiful. But the crystal-clear bruise on her temple sent another stab of remorse through me. She’d been wounded on my watch.
Soft voices in the kitchen drew me and revealed my parents, holding each other and whispering. Mama pulled away from Daddy when she saw me.
“I fixed you a plate,” she said, nodding toward the warming tray.
“Thank you, but I’m not hungry,” I said.
Mama frowned. “You need to eat. Your body needs it.”
I ignored her and headed for the door, snagging Daddy’s truck keys from the hook there. My bag and my car were at the bar, but I’d risk driving without a license to get out of here.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she demanded.
“Maddox said I could clean up at the bar,” I told her.
“Sadie-girl, don’t you dare leave this house.” My dad’s voice was strong but quiet. His blue eyes, never as vivid as Mama’s and fading more as he aged, turned cloudy.
“I can’t sit here, Daddy. I just can’t… It won’t stop,” I said, pointing to my head and the flashes of the two awful days on repeat. “I need to fill it with something else.”
Tears hovered in Mama’s eyes, and I turned away, because if she started crying, I didn’t know what I’d do. I needed the numbness that had surrounded me. I wanted it. I had to keep it for as long as my body and brain would give it to me. I’d love to keep it forever.
“Rafe will be here soon,” I said. “You’ll need all the rooms upstairs for him and Lauren and Jim Steele, so I’ll stay at Uncle Phil’s tonight.”
Then, I turned and hurried out the door. Mama followed, hot on my heels. She stopped me on the porch steps with a gentle hand. When I turned, she rested her palm tenderly on my bruised cheek. My left eye was black already, a little swollen, and blurry, but I had another good eye. Just like I had two good hands and one and a half good legs that would let me do what needed to be done at the bar tonight.
“You love him,” Mama said softly. It was the last thing I’d expected her to say and had me jerking away. It wasn’t just my thoughts I was running from. I was running from Rafe, and I knew it. I couldn’t handle the guilt of looking at him, knowing I hadn’t done the one thing he’d asked me to do, any more than I could handle his goodbye. I couldn’t handle anything else coming at me today.
I just stared at her, not denying or acknowledging it. Just thinking about how I felt for him might crack past my numbness, and that I couldn’t afford. Not yet. Not tonight.
“You love Rafe, and you love his daughter,” she said with a surety that settled somewhere in my heart.
I swallowed, pushing back the wave of hurt and longing threatening to swarm over my self-imposed defenses. “I’ll just say I could have loved him. We had a moment when our lives crossed, brushing alongside each other’s, but then we flew on past, going in different directions.”
“So, make a U-turn and go back,” Mama said.
I stared at her for several long seconds. Was it that simple? Just flip right around and head back to that moment when we’d been pressed up next to each other, admitting we loved each other? Go back to the stop sign where I’d promised him all my last dances?
When I didn’t respond, she just hugged me to her and whispered, “At least think about it.”
And then she let me go, knowing it was what I needed, knowing I had to keep myself busy or I’d go mad, thinking of all the things I’d done wrong, and the things I’d done right, and what I couldn’t change.