43. Beast
BEAST
Blood marked the grass.
Dark against the silver moonlight.
A drop.
Then another.
Then a streak where Gerald had stumbled and caught himself against a piece of an old fence.
“He’s losing blood,” Wolf said quietly.
“He’s still moving,” I answered.
And that was all that mattered.
Gerald was wounded.
Armed.
Angry.
And somewhere ahead of us in the trees.
Sheriff Cooper’s deputies spread out behind us.
Radios stayed quiet.
Nobody wanted to give Gerald a target.
Nobody wanted to give him a chance to disappear again.
I followed the trail past the equipment shed.
Across the east pasture.
Toward the creek bed behind the ranch.
The ground dipped there.
Thick brush.
Tall weeds.
A place a man could crawl into and stay hidden until daylight.
Gerald knew the ranch.
Not like I did.
But enough.
Enough to know where the dark places were.
Enough to know where someone might hide.
“Beast.”
Wolf’s voice came from behind me.
I stopped.
He pointed toward a broken branch.
Fresh blood marked the bark.
Gerald had passed through here.
Not long ago.
My pulse slowed.
The Ranger calm took over.
Every sound sharpened.
The creek water.
The wind through the trees.
Boots moving softly behind me.
A distant siren on the county road.
And somewhere ahead…
A faint scrape.
Metal against stone.
I lifted my hand.
Everybody stopped.
Sheriff Cooper moved up beside me.
“You hear that?”
“Yes.”
The sound came again.
A low curse.
A man trying to stay quiet.
Gerald.
He was close.
Too close.
I moved forward.
One step.
Then another.
The creek bed opened ahead.
Moonlight spilled across the shallow water.
And there he was.
Gerald crouched behind a fallen tree.
One hand pressed against his bleeding leg.
The other gripping his gun.
His face was pale.
Sweat covered his forehead.
But his eyes?
Still wild.
Still wrong.
He saw me.
His gun came up.
“Don’t move!”
Every deputy raised their weapons.
Wolf shifted to my left.
Trigger appeared through the brush on my right.
Gerald’s eyes darted between us.
Panicked.
Trapped.
“You don’t understand,” he said.
His voice shook.
“She needs me.”
“No,” I said.
My voice stayed calm.
Low.
“She needs you gone.”
His face twisted.
“She was mine first.”
“She was never yours.”
The words hit him.
I saw it.
Saw the rage rise.
Saw his finger tighten around the trigger.
Sheriff Cooper stepped forward.
“Gerald, put the weapon down.”
Gerald laughed.
A broken sound.
“You’re all on his side.”
“You fired at her house,” the sheriff said. “You put her and her father in danger. You tried to hurt people who never did anything to you.”
“He took her from me!”
“No,” I said.
I took one step closer.
“You drove her away.”
Gerald’s eyes locked on mine.
Hate.
Pure hate.
Then he looked past me.
Toward the ranch house. As if he could see everything.
The storm cellar.
Sadie.
And I knew.
He wasn’t going to surrender.
Not willingly.
He was still thinking about getting to her.
Still thinking he had a chance.
The gun shifted in his hand.
Toward the opening beside the creek.
Toward the path that led back to the house.
Wolf moved.
Fast.
Gerald fired.
The shot cracked through the creek bed.
Wolf dropped behind a boulder.
Deputies shouted.
Sheriff Cooper yelled, “Drop the gun!”
Gerald tried to stand.
His wounded leg buckled.
He stumbled.
The gun slipped from his hand.
Trigger was on him before he hit the ground.
Gerald fought.
Kicked.
Cursed.
Tried to reach for the weapon.
But Trigger pinned him face-first in the dirt.
Sheriff Cooper grabbed Gerald’s arm.
Twisted it behind his back.
The cuffs clicked shut.
Once.
Then again.
Gerald went still.
For the first time since this started…
He looked afraid.
Sheriff Cooper turned him around.
Read him his rights.
Gerald barely listened.
His eyes stayed on me.
“You think this is over?”
I crouched in front of him, on the ground.
Close enough that he could hear every word.
“It was over the second Sadie stopped being afraid of you.”
His face twisted.
“You don’t know her.”
“I know enough.”
I stood.
Looked toward the ranch.
Toward the woman waiting in the storm cellar.
Waiting to hear if she was safe.
Then I looked back at Gerald.
“You will never come near her again.”
Sheriff Cooper pulled Gerald to his feet.
Deputies took him toward the waiting patrol truck.
His blood trail ended at the creek.
His gun lay in an evidence bag.
And his freedom ended with the sound of a patrol car door slamming shut.
Only then did I let myself breathe.
Wolf stepped beside me.
“You good?”
I looked toward the ranch.
“No.”
Then I started walking.
Because Sadie was still in that cellar.
And the only thing I wanted now…
Was to hold her in my arms.