Chapter Twenty-nine
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Nine years earlier, March
DRAPED ACROSS her bed, chin in hand and her dreaded geometry book open to the homework assignment, Hadley doodled flowers in the margins of her notebook with a gel pen. Flowers made way more sense than angles and degrees. Little navy-blue flowers … the same color as the jeans Cash had worn to school that day.
Scowling, she dug her pen harder. She shouldn’t have noticed what he wore. And she wouldn’t have, if she’d gone the long way around to math class after lunch. But she’d taken the shorter route, past Cash’s locker, and of course he’d been there. So, of course she’d looked. And what hormonal teenage girl wouldn’t have admired the way his favorite jeans hugged his thighs?
Yet the revulsion in his gaze … directed, for the first time ever, at herself—
The pen gouged a hole in the paper. Pretending she was into Travis Phillips sucked, but she had to stick with it. Had to convince Cash she was over him. And when he graduated in a few months, he’d leave for college and find a new girl. Someone worthy of him.
A door slammed downstairs, and her father’s outraged shouts rose from the living room. Hadley stilled her breathing.
“You’re nothing but a stinkin’ thief!” another male voice hollered, cutting off her father. “Where’d you stash my money?”
Mr. Cooper! Why was he—
Uh-oh. Hadley glanced at her desk then scrambled from her bedroom to the stairs. It shared a wall with the kitchen and hid her from view.
“You dare come into my home waving that pistol around?” Alex snarled as Hadley tiptoed down the steps. “Well, two can play at that game.” Metal clicked. She grasped the railing. Alex must have reached for his revolver and cocked it.
“You stole my money,” Mr. Cooper growled.
“It was found on my land. Makes it mine by right.”
“You gave me permission.”
“I take it back.”
“Where’s the money, Jacobs?” Malice coated Mr. Cooper’s voice, and goosebumps peppered Hadley’s arms.
“You ain’t gonna see one dime of that money.”
“Alex, let’s think about this,” Mother said, her padded footsteps nearing the other side of the wall.
Oh, no. Was she going for the hutch? Hadley fisted a hand in her shirt hem. If Mother looked for the money now—
“Vivian, don’t you touch that money,” Alex commanded.
A hutch door creaked open and items rustled. “You don’t want people calling you a—oh! I-it’s gone! The money’s gone.”
Hadley let out a whispered expletive.
“What do you mean, the money’s gone?” Alex’s boots stomped across the linoleum and objects crashed to the floor. “Where’d it go?” he snarled. “You saw me put it in here the other day. Did you take it?”
“I didn’t touch it.”
“You stole it back, didn’t you, Cooper?”
“Would I be here now, if I had?”
Slow and measured, her father’s boots stalked back across the floor. “You’re here to make me look the fool in front of my family. I’ll show you who’s the fool.”
“No, Alex!” Mother shouted.
Hadley glanced around the doorjamb as her mother jumped in front of Mr. Cooper and Alex’s revolver went off.
Mother’s eyes grew wide, and she crumpled to the floor.
Hadley clamped a hand over her gasp and pulled back behind the wall, heart bucking in her chest. Bile surged in her throat.
“Now look what you made me do,” Alex grumbled.
Yes, this is my fault , Hadley thought, a hand pressed to her roiling stomach. What had ever possessed her to hide the money?
Shouts erupted between the two men. If she didn’t act fast, another person would end up dead. On silent feet, Hadley raced up the stairs and into her parents’ bedroom. She yanked open the top drawer to her father’s dresser and dug through his socks with quaking hands. One death on her conscience would haunt her forever. A second death—
No, Mr. Cooper would not die too.
Her knuckles scraped against a cold, solid object, and she snatched the Glock from its hiding place. She checked its clip, wiped her sweaty palms on her thighs, then slipped back down the stairs.
On the bottom step, she readied herself against the wall. Please let all those afternoons learning to shoot with Mr. Cooper help me now , she tossed heavenward.
Hadley stole another glance. Alex stood near the island counter, his Colt trained on Mr. Cooper crouched beside Mother as he drew a gloved hand over her eyes.
“I want my money!” Alex shouted.
“Vivian is dead, and all you care about is money ? Go to hell, you bastard.” Mr. Cooper whipped his pistol around and shot.
One of Mother’s collectible plates exploded on the wall beyond Alex, and he flinched. Then his lips curled back to reveal gnashed teeth, and he took aim.
So did Hadley. She trained the Glock on her father’s revolver and pulled the trigger as another shot reverberated in the kitchen.
Mr. Cooper jerked backward into the vintage pie safe.
Alex howled, dropped the Colt, and clutched his bloody hand to his chest.
Mr. Cooper slid to the floor, a dark red dot staining his coat front.
“No!” Hadley screamed.
She rushed forward, but Alex stepped in her path. “You ungrateful brat.” He swung with his good hand, his fist connecting with her jaw, and the blow knocked her to her knees. “What the devil you think you’re doing?”
Her vision swam and she tasted blood, but she held the gun in both hands and aimed it up at her father. “Stay away from me.”
He swore and pressed his mangled hand against his body. “Think you’re safe? ’Cause you got a gun and I don’t? You ain’t gonna use that on your old man.” He advanced on her, and she scooted back on the cold linoleum.
“I said stay away!” Her voice shook along with her hands.
Alex spat on the floor. “C’mon, I dare yeh.” She bumped into a corner, and he closed in. Blood ran down his forearm. Her finger froze on the trigger. “Yer nothin’ but a useless, disappointing—” He spewed a repulsive word and lunged for her.
Movement blurred behind him. His mouth opened, and he made a strange sucking noise, his lips twisting as he dropped to his knees. He collapsed on top of her. She screamed. Her fingers jerked, and the Glock went off in his belly.
She clamped her eyes shut, her stomach revolting. She’d just killed her father.
Or had she?
Hadley tensed, anticipating his flying fists.
But Alex didn’t move.
She opened one eye. A knife handle protruded from his back. She yelped and writhed beneath him, adrenaline tunneling into her arms as she heaved at his chest and rolled free.
The background came into focus. Mr. Cooper gazed bleakly at her, slumped against the base cabinets, a cutlery drawer opened nearby. Blood soaked his coat front, and his legs sprawled in front of him.
“Li’l Hadley Oakley,” he wheezed. “You okay?”
“Mr. Cooper.” Hadley crawled across the floor on trembling limbs to Cash’s dad. “No, no, no.” She flattened her hand against the wound in his chest. “I’m so sorry.” Her voice broke on a sob. “This is all my fault. I … I took the money from Alex and hid it. I intended to get it back to you, but—” She glanced at her parents’ lifeless bodies. Tears dripped from her chin. “But it got all messed up, and now it’s too late.”
A car door slammed outside, and she stiffened, her face going cold. She couldn’t let anyone find her like this.
Get out get out get out!
Mr. Cooper’s eyes had closed, and a fresh wave of tears seared her cheeks. “You saved my life. I’ll never forget that. Never forget you.” She kissed his forehead then hurried to the front door, flung it open—
She plowed into Cash.
Fool! Why hadn’t she used the mudroom? What was Cash even doing here? She tried to flee past him, but he caught her arm.
“Hadley?” His gaze swept over her, and his eyebrows knotted. “Why is there blood on your—Are you hurt? What happened?”
She struggled against his hold. “It’s my f-fault,” she choked out. “I’m s-sorry.” A useless apology. She was a monster.
“What do you mean, your fault?” Cash’s hand tightened on her arm. “What’s going on?”
“Please forgi-give me.” She clawed at his fingers. “L-let me go. I need to—”
“Cash?”
Cash whirled at Mr. Cooper’s hoarse voice. “Dad?” His hold slackened. She broke free and bolted down the steps.
She didn’t stop running until exhaustion claimed her hours later on the snow-riddled forest floor.