CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Hawk, Janita, and Lassiter was on their phones the entire ride over, trying desperate to reach somebody inside the Webster mansion.
But nobody was answering. And when they pulled up to the guard booth outside of the gate, and saw that there was no one manning the booth, their panic went into overdrive.
Their driver sped through that open gate, around the horseshoe driveway, and Hawk and Janita, and even Lassiter, were all jumping out before the car could come to a complete stop.
They raced inside of that house with their guns drawn.
But as soon as they turned the corner of the foyer and ran into the living room, they stopped all movement.
Because Shelly was standing behind the sofa, with a gun pointed at the head of William Webster, and another gun pointed at the head of Resheda Webster.
Hawk could see both of his parents were mortified.
Von and the guard, along with the driver that drove Shelly and Von from the airfield, were all laying on their stomachs on the floor, with their hands behind their backs.
Janita was relieved that at least her brother was still alive.
But Hawk and Lassiter couldn’t take their eyes off of Shelly. They still could not believe it.
But there was no doubt now. And Hawk was heartbroken. “Why, Shelly? Why?”
It seemed like Shelly had been waiting a lifetime to get it all out. “Ask your old man that question,” he said. “He knows why. Don’t you, Big Man? Don’t you, W?”
William could only shake his head. “It’s not true, Shelton. How many times can I tell you it’s not true and it’s never been true?”
“It is true!” Shelly was so unhinged that Hawk immediately tried to calm him back down.
“It’s okay, Shell, it’s okay.” Then he yelled at his father. He was terrified for his parents. “Don’t you realize you have a gun to your head?! Shut the fuck up!”
Janita could see William’s jaw tightened at the thought of his son speaking to him so disrespectfully.
But oddly enough she could also see William realizing, not so much that he had a gun to his head, but that his wife had a gun to her head.
Janita even saw him look at that gun to her head.
And that reality, that his wife was also in jeopardy, seemed to terrify him more than his own flimsy fate. Which surprised her.
But Shelly, whom she only got to know while Hawk was in the hospital, surprised her more.
“You tell me why you’re doing this, Shelly,” Hawk said. “I wanna hear it from you. You tell me why.”
“All I had to do was find the people who hated your guts,” Shelly said. “Which was practically everybody,” he added. “You made me CEO of Eagle Records. You made me a fucking millionaire. I’m a rich bitch too, bitch.”
Then he settled back down, which Hawk appreciated. He didn’t know this man standing before him. That wasn’t the Shelly he knew and loved.
But he knew it was. He was in denial.
And Shelly kept telling it. “As for Kemberly,” he said, “I told her if she and her brothers took you down, then I would take over Eagle and make her my supreme recording artist with the contract of her dreams. And her stupid ass fell for it.”
Kemberly, Hawk thought. He was behind that attack too? “Where is Kem now?”
“Dead. Where you think? Her and her brothers. They’re all at the bottom of the ocean. You think I was gonna trust that bitch not to blab her big mouth? After they took you down, I had to get rid of them.”
“What about Greta?”
“Same issue. She hated you too. She wanted to avenge her son’s death. But I couldn’t approach her. She would have blown my cover. That’s where Donnally came into the picture. I asked him to do me that one solid, and he did. But even before that, he was doing my dirty work for me.”
That didn’t sound right to Hawk at all. “Why would he do you a favor?” he asked him. “For money?”
“For blood. That fat ass thinks he’s my father. But I know that’s a lie. But I went along with it to get what I wanted.”
Janita was confused. Hawk was lost. “Wait what? Donnally believe he’s your father?”
“He’s not though, I don’t care what that DNA test said.
Your father had an affair with my mother, okay?
Is that clear enough for you? He impregnated her and she had me.
But instead of claiming me like he claimed y’all, he had those test people switch the DNA results and claim he wasn’t my father.
But I know he is. And my mother committed suicide because she knew it too. ”
Reecie looked at William. He shook his head. It was as if that old horse had been beaten long ago, and he was still harping on that conspiracy theory that was as much a lie as Shelly’s friendship with Hawk was.
“But how did Donnally get in the picture,” Janita asked, “if you’re so certain he’s not your father?”
“He is his father,” William snapped. “And the DNA proved it!”
“That’s bullshit!” Shelly fired back. “That DNA test was rigged too. Your ass my father and you know it,” he said to William like an accusatory child. “My mother died because she knew it too. She died because of you!”
“But your mother died years ago, Shelly,” Hawk said. “Why are you avenging her death now?”
“When I was laid up in that hospital after those fools shot me,” Shelly said, “I realized that not one Webster called to ask if I was okay.”
Hawk frowned. “I was there! I came to see you at the hospital.”
“You came one time and that was it. You was too busy to be bothered. But your old man didn’t come.
Nobody came. Nobody called. Nobody cared!
” He was trembling with rage. “I was protecting your father all these years. At get-togethers I never once said a word about my mother. I never once told you the truth. But when I was down and out in that hospital bed, and I realized that not one Webster gave a damn about me, I got mad as hell. And then I decided to get even.”
“But Hawthorne loves you,” Reecie said. “Why would you try to harm Hawthorne?”
“Because W loves Hawk. Just like he loves your crazy ass. He won’t admit it out loud, but he’ll do anything for Hawk.
And that just ate me up. He denied my mother, but he’ll do anything for you,” he said to Reecie.
“He denied me, but he’ll do anything for Hawk.
” Then he yelled: “That’s why! And that’s why you and your husband will have to pay the price for what he did to my mother.
And to me. Both of you will rot in,” he started saying, but suddenly stopped midsentence when everybody heard what sounded like a powerful shotgun blast.
Hawk pushed Janita down to the floor violently and fell on top of her, covering her, protecting her, while Lassiter pulled out his weapon and looked where he heard that blast. And that was when he saw the shooter. Then he looked at Shelly.
Shelly was still standing there with his eyes still wide open, as if he was frozen in time. And then he fell straight back with a thump so hard the dust of his body kicked up.
William immediately jumped up and grabbed a screaming Reecie into his arms, while Lassiter ran behind the sofa to remove all weapons from Shelly’s hand. But both guns had fallen to the floor when he fell backwards.
But everybody else was looking in the direction of the sound of that gunshot blast. And like Lassiter before them, they saw Matty standing at the living room’s entrance.
With a shotgun in his hands. Even more relief filled that room as Von and the driver and the booth guard got up too. But Hawk was still in bad shape.
With his heart still hammering, he got off of Janita and helped her on her feet.
Then he pulled her into his arms. All the while staring at his father, who was staring at what used to be Shelly Dobson.
But Hawk was trembling with rage too. Because this scene, which could have been even more horrific than it was, was what his father’s inability to control his urges had wrought in their family.
Shelly had been the living, breathing embodiment of what all those so-called indiscretions produced. And it was, to Hawk, a crying shame.
As he held Janita as tightly as he possibly could, he was all the more determined to treat her like the queen she was, and like the queen his mother tried to be to his father.
He was determined to treat her in every conceivable way his father never, ever understood.
Because he knew since childhood that his father had it all wrong.
That you can’t love somebody and hurt them too. You just can’t, in Hawk’s mind.
That was why, as he continued to hold onto the one human being on the face of this earth that he considered to be his lifeline, Hawk squeezed his eyes shut as if that small gesture alone could shut out the reality, and the pain, of what being a Webster truly meant.