CHAPTER 24 - BRYNN
“There are always choices, Victoria,” I murmur, holding the older woman’s dark, determined glare. “Maybe you should take your time right now and consider what they are.”
A hard, emotionless laugh bursts from her mouth, echoing off the walls.
“You think I haven’t?” she hisses, taking a step forward. “Before you arrived here, I had things worked out. I had everything under control. I had a plan!”
I match each step she takes, slowly moving around the room, trying to place obstacles like tables and chairs between us.
There’s something absolutely terrifying about this woman.
She’s not tall.
Her build is thin.
But the presence she carries with her is larger than life. Each tap of her designer boots on the wooden floors feels like it makes the entire building shake, and each breath she takes, I swear I can feel it on the back of my neck.
There are several square tables between us when she finally pauses again, her shoulders drooping as she shakes her head. “No,” she whispers—whether to me, or to herself, I’m not sure. “It’s not your fault. I let this happen.”
I glance around, hoping that at any moment someone is going to throw open a door and interrupt, but I can hear the parade still going on in the distance, and I know that even if I yell, scream, or cry out, there’s not a chance I’ll be heard.
So instead, I swallow hard and clear my throat. “Whatever it is that you think you let happen, I’m sure we can fix it,” I say, trying to sound sincere and caring, though it’s hard when your body is pumping you full of adrenaline, subtly screaming at you to run. “If it’s about the fire…”
I let the words float in the air, not accusing, more curious.
She lifts her eyes, tears sparkling.
“It happened so suddenly,” Victoria says, her breathing heavy.
I inhale deeply through my nose, the twisted knot in my stomach beginning to unwind as I think I’ve actually managed to get through to her.
“Okay,” I say, standing a little taller and forcing a smile. “An accident. See. Accident’s happe—”
“She was going to kill you.”
I flinched, the statement hitting me like a slap in the face.
“What?” The question catches on my tongue, barely making it out of my mouth. “Wh… who was—”
“Sarah,” she answers, staring me dead in the eye.
Is this some kind of sick joke?
Some kind of messed up tradition to go along with the darkness of the Krampus Parade? Pick out someone new in town and scare the shit out of them. Funny. Haha.
But the punchline never comes.
We just stand in silence with the heavy thumping of the drums in the distance—or maybe it’s the sound of my heart beating in my ears as the blood rushes around, fighting to keep me alive as I’m frozen in what I think is shock.
“Victoria…” I say steadily. “I think it’s time we call Grizz.”
Before I can finish, she’s already shaking her head and waving her hands in the air.
“No,” she states sharply, her eyes narrowing. “No. That’s not how this is going to go.”
I stand a little taller, pushing my shoulders back. “And I don’t think I really trust you anymore to make those kinds of choices! Look where it’s gotten us!”
Huffing out a frustrated breath, I take a couple of steps toward the door, ready to storm the hell out of there, done with playing nice.
If I have to fight my way past this woman, I will, but before I can even think about throwing a punch, she reaches into her coat and pulls out a small handgun, raising it toward me.
The glimmer of light coming in through the windows makes the revolver sparkle, and the way she grips it in her hand makes it seem like it’s not her first time.
Of course it’s not.
Victoria is many things, but she is not weak, nor is she unprepared.
“She’s my daughter.” Her voice is suddenly more level and less frantic than a few moments ago, and while it’s absolutely fucking frightening, there’s a part of me that understands why.
“I love her more than anything on this earth, and I always have, even though I’ve always known there was something about her that wasn’t quite right. ”
It’s the mama bear inside her, clawing its way to the surface like a rabid animal prepared to fight anything that threatens her child. That instinct is one I know all too well. I’ve felt it before… hell, it’s one of the reasons we ended up here in Hallowed Springs.
“I get it,” I tell her, trying not to look directly down the barrel of the gun. “I really do. I’ve done some things I’m not proud of just to keep Jovie safe, but come on, listen to yourself, please. You just said Sarah was going to kill me.”
“Because she loves him!” Victoria snaps, her hand shaking a little.
I fight every urge I have to duck, dive, or run—not knowing if she’ll fire on reflex.
“Love makes people do crazy things, Brynn. And Sarah loves Grizz. She’s loved him since he moved into town, and that love changed her for the better.
It made her happy. It gave her something to focus on instead of… instead of… those damn voices!”
Holy shit.
Holy fucking shit.
“For years she’s been normal,” she continues, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth as her attention drifts and her eyes wander.
“For years, she’s been happy. Happy to work beside him, to be around him, believing what she wants to believe, creating her own story about their lives. It was perfect…”
The unsaid words hang in the air.
Until you showed up.
“Do you understand how crazy this sounds?” I question, clearly enunciating my words in hopes they might actually get through to her. “Your daughter is hearing voices… voices that at one point were telling her to kill me—”
“And if you’d just gotten the hell out of town, it wouldn’t have mattered!
” she says with a cold laugh, finally dropping her hand with the gun to her side as she takes a long, deep breath.
“I tried to help you, Brynn. I tried to get you to leave before things got any worse. I pointed out how dangerous the MC is. I took you out into the wilderness and told you all those tales about the town.”
“You pushed me,” I murmured as the realization came to light. “At the Devil Pools. Jovie did see someone. You were trying to scare me.”
She starts to pace.
Back and forth, across the floor in front of the bar.
She’s lost in her thoughts, and I use that to move closer to the front doors of The Gallows. One step at a time, planning my escape.
“Sarah saw the way Grizz comforted you, how he got close to you when he saw you were hurt,” Victoria explains, swallowing hard and swiping a hand over her face. “She would have lost it completely, right there in that moment. So, I started the fire.”
My throat tightens, and I take another step back, slowly retreating toward the front doors.
If I can get out onto the street, surely she won’t come after me.
She wouldn’t dare risk someone seeing her as anything but perfection.
“I really thought that would do it,” she continues with a heavy sigh.
“You could have killed me,” I whisper through my teeth, tears burning at the back of my throat. “You could have killed Jovie!”
She barely even acknowledges my outburst, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye.
“Part of me wishes it had killed you,” she answers with a shrug and finally sits back on one of the barstools. “Then things would have been over. But no, he took you home, and she spent the next few days watching you three play happy families together.”
Watching.
Sarah was watching.
During the snowstorm!
Victoria starts to laugh. “That look on your face,” she says with a chuckle.
“See, you’re getting it now. You know the extent of what she will do.
And you can go ahead and judge me, but you have no idea what it’s like to love someone and fear them at the same time.
To want to protect them but also know the vile things that they're capable of.”
“Has she done this before?” I ask without even thinking, and Victoria’s body jerks, her eyes wide as her head whips toward me.
Her lips part, as if she’s about to object and tell me all the reasons why that’s a crazy accusation to make.
But nothing comes out.
Just a breath.
“Jesus Christ,” I whisper, my stomach feeling like it’s dropped through the floor. “This is enough. This needs to stop here, and we need to find Grizz.”
I continue to back toward the door, needing to make it a few more steps before I can reach for the handle and throw it open.
Victoria jumps up off the barstool, raising her gun again. “Don’t move!”
I take another step back despite the warning. “This needs to end, Victoria!”
“You’re right,” she answers, her voice cracking as tears fill her eyes. “That’s exactly why we’re here. To end this and make everything go back to the way it was.”
Realization hits, and it feels like a bucket of ice has been tossed over my head.
She didn’t bring me here to try and protect me.
This isn’t another attempt at convincing me to leave town.
To walk away.
To end this and make everything go back to the way it was.
“You want to erase me and Jovie.” Pins and needles. That’s the only thing I can feel, my skin alive with electric energy. “You might be able to get rid of me, but Grizz will never let you touch Jovie. You know that. I know that.”
There’s a creak behind me and I spin around, praying that the mention of his name had just manifested the man into thin air.
But it’s not Grizz.
Sarah stands in the double doorway, illuminated by the red glow from the lanterns hanging in the street. She steps forward, letting the doors close behind her with an empty expression, her eyes blank.
My first instinct is to put space between us, but I fight it, refusing to retreat, my feet stay cemented in place.
I can’t let her see that I’m scared.
“Sarah,” Victoria says cautiously as she approaches, stepping around me to stand beside her daughter. “Look, it’s under control. Let’s just—”
“Give me the gun, Mom.” Sarah holds my gaze as she makes the demand, holding her hand out for the weapon.
It’s bizarre, staring at the woman in front of me.
I know it’s Sarah—the girl I work with, who I’ve built a relationship with, and who I’ve trusted with my child—but I swear this person is a stranger. The way she speaks and moves is all different, like someone else is controlling her body. The thought makes my skin crawl.
Victoria hesitates, her hand gripping the revolver tighter. “Sarah, just listen—”
“Now,” Sarah says sternly, gritting her teeth. “I promise I understand what’s going on. I’m not going to make any rash decisions. I just need the gun so that Brynn will focus on me and not you.”
It takes a breath, but Victoria soon passes the revolver to her daughter. Her hand shakes slightly as she turns it, holding the handle out first for Sarah to take hold of.
“Thank you,” Sarah murmurs, wrapping her hand around the cool steel, and for the first time, she takes her eyes off me.
Turning toward Victoria. “We’ve always done things your way, but it’s obvious now that girls will keep coming, and we can’t keep trying to drive them out of town and away from my man. ”
Victoria nods. “There has to be a better way, I’m really proud of you for understand—”
There’s a flash, and a deafening crack in the air that has me stumbling backward.
My ears ring, and I press my hands against them, finding my footing just in time to see Victoria’s body hit the floor, the vibrations rolling across the room like a shockwave.
Sarah lowers the gun with a heavy sigh, letting it fall to her side casually, as if its just a prop and weighs nothing. “It’s getting a little hot in here, don’t you think?” she says, nodding toward the back door. “Let’s get some fresh air.”
“Sarah…”
The gun is suddenly leveled again at my head, and I straighten up, gritting my teeth.
She nods in approval, and for the first time since she walked into The Gallows, she flashes me a Sarah smile. “Come on! Let’s go for a walk.”