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And then I remember that he’s not a man of the law. He killed his stepbrother. He hid his cousin’s rape of an innocent little girl. This isn’t a man of honor. He’s a coward. And that thought settles in my gut because I’ll be another check off his list of crimes.
“I was supposed to be the only one on his list.”
The gun shakes as he tries to use hand gestures, but I say, “The will?” as I put two and two together.
“Yes,” he hisses. “But then he grew a heart for his bastard brother. All the threats. All the trouble, and he was going to put him in the will. Something about his father’s wishes. Ridiculous, don’t you think?”
“You two were close,” I mutter.
“Apparently, not close enough. He was going to write me completely out of the will.”
“And you couldn’t have that.”
“No!” He takes a threatening step in my direction. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about his father’s wishes. It was meant to go to me!”
“So you killed him.”
He curtly nods. “Before he could file his new living will with the lawyer.”
“And where could his new will possibly be found?” Maybe if it can’t, I can talk him out of this. Pretend it never happened. Look the other way. Could I do that? Could I keep quiet?
The immediate answer comes to me: No. I can’t be the reason he gets away with another crime, the entire town none-the-wiser. They should know who their sheriff is, what an asshole he is. I just wish it didn’t end this way.
Reaching into his back pocket, he pulls out a folded piece of paper and waves it around. “Right here. The new will. I bet you didn’t get that far into the binder now, did ya?”
I shake my head, feeling like a fool. If I had, I never would have handed over such evidence to Neil’s killer. Now, I’m paying that price. . . With my life. “Why pretend he was still alive?” My voice cracks again as he stuffs the paper in his back pocket again and raises the gun to point directly between my eyes.
“Had to keep up the ruse.” He shrugs with one shoulder. “You understand?”
I nod vigorously.
“Good. Now there’s just the matter of you.”
My eyes widen as he takes a step in my direction and then another. Everything I fought for in this new life I’vemade for myself – a new town, a new home, a new job, a best friend, a boyfriend – comes to the surface. A blink. A flash, so quick it’s gone in a second.
Fear spikes in my chest, and I turn and run.
But I don’t get far before the gun fires, booms across the pasture, and a sharp stinging punch pierces my upper back. The force of it throws me to the ground, face first, and I gasp while clenching the grass. Warmth seeps across my back, and I’m vaguely aware that it’s my own blood. It dribbles across my ribs and soaks the front of my shirt.
I fight for air. Gasp. Wheeze.
I wait for the sheriff to come and finish the job, to put a bullet in my brain, but he never does. It’s a shame, really, because the pain is so great, so mind-blazing that I can’t think straight. Think clearly. Think at all.
My grappling for the grass weakens as my body turns cold. Vaguely, I hear a car peel away, and it’s then I know I’m alone. Except . . . Something is touching my cheek. Lazily, as if my eyes won’t work right, I manage to glance up, and what I see doesn’t frighten me. Not this time. This time, it’s a comfort.
Touching my cheek is Neil. He’s crouched down beside me, as transparent as ever, but his sorrow is evident in the way he holds his eyes, the way he holds himself.
And just as quickly as he was there, he fades, and so does my vision.
Chapter 24
Cole Garner
As I driveover the god-forsaken bumpy road, the two shovels I found rattle around in the bed of my truck. It had been a little longer than the ten minutes that I told Tegan I’d be, but hopefully, I’ll make up for that fact because I have two shovels instead of one.
Part of my mind still doesn’t want to believe that she’s being haunted by Neil. But I saw the evidence for myself. I saw the shock on her face, the fear. There’s no way she made this up or staged it, and even I have to admit that I saw the petals in random places throughout the house. When she was at Tori’s shop, one minute there’d be nothing there, and the next time I looked, there’d be a petal. On the floor. On the counter. Completely random places but always in my path.
At the time, I really hadn’t thought much of it.
