Chapter Twenty-Two #3
“Maybe she was right. What kind of idiot goes in for ten years, then earns himself six more?”
“That wasn’t my fault. I was set up. I ain’t stupid.”
She glanced back again. Russell had faltered. The muzzle of the pistol dipped down.
“I dunno,” Jude said. “You got framed by a woman. Arrested by another woman. Then you went to prison and got framed by the screws who left drugs in your cell, then framed by another man who claimed that you assaulted him. Sounds pretty stupid to me.”
Russell found his voice. “Shut your goddam mouth.”
“Then you let a sixteen-year-old girl scam you,” Jude said. “Gave her a five-hundred-dollar gift card. Mandy and Allison laughed at you, Russell. They were laughing at you the whole time.”
Jude glanced at him again. She realized too late that she should’ve prepared herself. Ignorant, impotent men like Shane Russell always responded to truth with violence. Russell swung back the pistol and smashed it into Jude’s head.
“No!” Emmy screamed.
Jude felt it all at once: the blinding pain, the dizziness, the nausea, the hard impact as she slammed into the floor. Then she felt her body lift like a rag doll when Russell kicked her in the stomach. Then he kicked her again. Then again.
“Stop!” Emmy dragged Jude into Myrna’s room. “Leave her alone!”
Emmy fell back against the wall, taking Jude with her. Everything was spinning. Jude’s gaze skipped like a stone across the water. Myrna’s wedding quilt, the old painting of the farm, the ceiling fan, the dressing table, the knotted rug on the floor.
“Jude, please,” Emmy begged. “Stay with me. Please stay with me.”
Jude felt Emmy trying to lift her. She swallowed the vomit in her mouth. Willed herself not to pass out. She wiped the blood from her eyes. Her nose was broken. She coughed. Blood dripped down her throat. She tried to hold on to Emmy, but Russell snatched her out of Jude’s hands.
In one swift motion, he’d turned Emmy around, snaked his arm around her neck, and pressed the pistol to the side of her head.
“No!” Jude yelled. The pain in her body was gone. She was consumed by fear. “Don’t hurt her. Please. Take me. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Jude—” Emmy choked on the name as Russell tightened his arm against her windpipe. She clawed her nails into his skin. Gasped for air. Her feet kicked out.
“Get up.” Russell smacked the muzzle against Emmy’s head. Like any predator, he’d figured out Jude’s weakest point. “Open the safe.”
“I—” Jude forced herself to take a breath. She had to concentrate. To strategize. “I don’t know the combination.”
Russell loosened his grip around Emmy’s neck, but only enough to let her speak.
“My b-birthday,” Emmy stuttered. “Oh-three-one-six-eight-four.”
Jude’s knees could barely hold her up. She put all her attention on the dressing table beside the closet. The heavy wooden jewelry box. Sharp corners. Hard edges. She wiped the blood from her nose. Tried to steady herself. To force her stomach to calm.
Emmy gasped. Her mouth opened, but she couldn’t form words. She started taking in quick, shallow breaths. She wasn’t choking. She had started to hyperventilate. Jude understood why a few seconds later. She heard the heavy roar of a V8 engine inside of a Clifton County sheriff’s cruiser.
Russell heard it, too. He dragged Emmy to the window. Kept to the shadows as he looked down at the driveway. “Shit!”
The screen door screeched open, then closed. Emmy’s teeth started to chatter. Her skin went pale. She looked at Jude, begging, pleading for her to stop this.
Russell whispered, “Get rid of him!”
“Mom?” Cole called from the kitchen. “Aunt Jude?”
Russell started to drag Emmy toward the door.
“I’m changing for bed!” Jude struggled to keep the trill out of her voice. “Your mom’s in the shower.”
Only Emmy’s short, sharp breaths filled the silence. Cole had grown up in this house. Between the banging pipes and roar of water hitting the galvanized tub, no one could take a shower without everyone knowing.
“Okay.” Cole’s voice sounded strained. He understood the danger. “I’m gonna take this cobbler to Uncle Tommy. Is that okay?”
Emmy started to whimper. Russell tightened his arm around her throat.
“That’s good, sweetheart.” Jude’s heart was beating so fast she felt dizzy. “Tell him I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”
Emmy gulped, holding her breath in the silence. Cole’s boots walked across the kitchen floor. The hinges on the screen door squeaked. A few seconds later, the V8 turned over. Gravel crunched under tires as he backed out of the driveway.
Russell told Jude, “Open that goddam safe.”
Emmy kept chasing her breath, trying to calm herself.
She knew that Cole was going to park on the street so that it sounded like he’d left.
That he was calling for backup. That he wouldn’t wait outside the house while they were in danger.
She had been gripping Russell’s arm to keep him from choking her, but now she released her right hand.
Slowly reached toward her back. She was going to grab her Glock in Russell’s waistband.
She wouldn’t make it. Russell would pull the trigger before Emmy could.
Jude swallowed the blood in her mouth.
She opened the closet door. The safe was on a shelf in the back. She pushed away her mother’s clothes. Twisted the combination dial to reset it.
“Hold on,” Russell said. “What else is in the safe?”
Jude spun the dial so that the zero lined up to the arrow.
“Wait,” he said.
She turned the dial to the three. Then back to one.
“Goddammit, stop!”
Russell threw Emmy to the floor. He shoved Jude out of the way.
The brain tends to experience tragedies in slow motion.
It’s as if a switch is flipping on. Adrenaline floods areas like the amygdala, sending them into hypervigilant mode, allowing a faster response time and detailed memory encoding.
In the moment, everything slows down. Colors, sights, sounds—the tiniest details are made more brilliantly alive in order to increase your chances of survival.
This is what Jude saw:
Cole came through the door at a low crouch, gun drawn.
Emmy threw herself in front of him.
Russell swung around with the pistol.
Jude grabbed the Glock out of Russell’s waistband and pulled the trigger again and again until his head had vaporized into a mist of blood and bone.
She heard a clicking noise. This time, it was coming from the Glock. The magazine was empty. She had fired all sixteen rounds. Jude let the weapon fall from her hand. She heard it hit the floor. She looked for her child.
It was only then that Jude’s brain played the sound of Russell’s pistol firing.
Then the switch flipped back, and everything sped up again.
“Jesus!” Emmy clasped her hands to her belly. Blood seeped between her fingers, pooled onto the floor. The bullet had gone in under her vest.
Jude ran to her.
“Mom!” Cole yelled.
“It’s okay.” Emmy staggered back against the wall, but she stayed on her feet. “I’m okay.”
Jude knew that she was lying. “Cole, get a towel from the bathroom.”
Sirens screamed in the distance. Jude lifted off Emmy’s vest. Dropped her belt. The wound was low on the belly. About an inch to the left from center. Stomach. Pancreas. Kidney. Colon.
“Don’t—” Emmy grabbed Jude’s arm. It was the first time Emmy had ever reached for her. “Don’t let my son see me die.”
Jude stroked back her hair. Cupped her hand to her face. “My love, you’re not dying. I didn’t wait forty-two years to lose you.”
Emmy’s lips started to tremble. She closed her eyes.
“Backup is almost here.” Cole ran in with a towel. He wasn’t panicked. He was calm, methodical. “The ambulance is twenty minutes out. We need to drive her to the hospital.”
“No,” Emmy said. “Jude can drive me.”
Cole said, “That’s not gonna happen.”
Jude took advantage of the distraction. She punched the towel directly into Emmy’s wound.
“Jesus!” Emmy hissed.
“Let’s go.” Cole scooped Emmy up in his arms before she could tell him not to.
Jude walked backward, maintaining pressure as he carried her down the stairs. They had reached the kitchen when brakes squealed in the street. The sirens were deafening. Boots pounded onto the front porch.
“Put me down,” Emmy said. “Please.”
She was back on her feet when the door busted open.
Gregg had taken point. Julian and Levi were behind him. Jude recognized the rest of the deputies from Emmy’s force. They all came to a standstill when they saw Emmy. Blood had soaked through the towel and wicked into her shirt and pants.
“I’m okay,” Emmy said, but no sane person would’ve believed her. “Russell’s dead. Secure the scene. Call the GBI.”
They didn’t move.
Cole said, “Make way for the boss.”
The men parted so they could pass. Jude walked backward again.
Cole put his shoulder under Emmy’s arm, taking her full weight so that her feet barely touched the ground.
They had almost reached the cruiser when she started to slump over.
Jude climbed into the back, pulled Emmy’s head into her lap.
She pressed down hard on the wound. Emmy groaned again.
“It takes ten to fifteen pounds of direct pressure to stop bleeding. Your adrenaline is ebbing. The pain will bring it back.”
“Please,” Emmy whispered. “No lectures.”
Cole pulled away from the curb. Rolled his lights, turned on the siren.
They were on the road when Jude heard more sirens behind her.
Two cruisers whizzed ahead of Cole, taking up both sides of the street.
Jude looked out the rear window. She counted two more cruisers.
They were escorting Emmy to the hospital.
Jude looked down at Emmy in her lap. Stroked back her hair. “The cavalry is here.”
Emmy didn’t chastise her for bringing up horses. She coughed. A guttural sound came from deep inside her chest. She grabbed Jude’s hand. Held on tightly. She was scared.
Jude pressed her lips to Emmy’s forehead. “I need you to breathe for me, sweetheart. Focus on your breaths.”
Emmy inhaled through her nose. Shushed out the air between her trembling lips.
The sirens wailed. Lights strobed into the back of the car.
Jude cradled Emmy Lou in her arms. She looked down at her beautiful daughter.
She couldn’t get over her delicate eyelashes.
The clear, startling blue of her eyes. The perfect shape of her face.
Jude leaned down close. She sang their song again, but this time, she took out the sadness—
“Sweet dreams of you. Every night I go through. I’ll beg your forgiveness and start my life anew. And one day start living sweet dreams with you.”