AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, I’m not going to kill you, Smith.”
His nostrils flare as he frowns. “Isn’t that why you’re here? To avenge your little girlfriend’s death?”
“I am avenging her death, but it’s not me you’re going to answer to for every crime you just confessed.”
He wildly searches the room, looking for an attacker in the shadows. He isn’t wrong to do so.
I pinch the microphone cord hidden under my shirt and bring it up to my mouth. “He’s armed,” I say into the microphone, to the men who are waiting in the trees outside.
I had taken Tori’s advice and went to the police station after we talked. They set me up with a microphone. At first, they wanted to prove me wrong, but after the admission just now, there’s no way they can deny how right I really am.
One minute, it’s just me and Smith, a standoff with a gun in the middle, and the next, the room is swarmed by the same police force he had under his wing. I step back as they shout, guns aimed, for him to put down his shotgun. A smirk plays on my lips when he eventually does, and the smirk grows into a wide grin when they cuff him.
“You’re a real bastard, Garner,” he spits as they lead him out the front door.
I say nothing as I watch him go. I may not have had the chance to watch him suffer, but a cop behind bars? The inmates will do that for me. Knowing that his suffering willbegin the moment he steps foot in prison until the day he dies gives me a sort of satisfaction that I didn’t think possible.
“Cole?” Derek calls as he steps through the front door, weaving between cops to get to me.
“Did you hear that?” I ask as he coughs into his hand. “He’s been poisoning you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says, waving his hand in the air. I frown at his dismissive gesture. I thought he’d be more pissed, filled with rage just like I am. “I’ll admit myself to the hospital soon, but I was told to come and get you.”
“For what?” I grunt. I hadn’t thought about what I’d do after proving Smith guilty, but right now, a bottle of whiskey to drown my sorrows seems right. I have nothing left. Nothing. Everything I’ve ever cared about has been stolen from me.
“Tori wants you at the hospital.”
“Why?”There’s nothing there for me but a shell of what Tegan was. A body. A reminder of the fact that I couldn’t protect her and, even worse, that I couldn’t save her.
“She didn’t say, but I can guess.” He rests a hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. “Don’t make her do this alone. You both need someone today.”
I nod once, my jaw tight. Tori is the only piece of Tegan that I have left. And even though the thought of looking at Tegan on a slab, lifeless and cold, makes me feel like I’ve been knifed, I can endure it. I can say my final goodbyes. I can ask for forgiveness with the hopes that Tegan is still watching, lingering to hear it.
He gives me a sad smile and releases my shoulder. “I can give you a ride if you want. The hospital is quite a distance, and in your truck…”
I nod once again, not trusting my voice because, now that Smith is arrested, I have to face the truth.
Chapter 26
Cole Garner
The whole wayto the hospital, I didn’t say a word. Derek tried talking to me a few times, but I never answered, so he more or less was talking to himself after a while between fits of coughs. I’m surprised he stayed on the road with how hard he was coughing, but at least, he knows the truth now. At the hospital, he plans to admit himself and let the doctors do the rest.
Hopefully, they can reverse the damage Smith has done. I may not like Derek much, but I don’t want him to die either. Smith has a lot to answer for, and I just hope the justice system doesn’t fail me like it did in the past.
Instead of answering him, I stared out the passenger window, watching the world go by. The world looks entirely different, less colorful and more gray. Less full of life even.
As we pull up to the hospital and park, I stare at the tall building. They tried to make it futuristic with stone and metal architecture, but as soon as you walk through thosedoors, you’re either greeted with life or embraced by death. There is no in-between.
Somewhere in there, my girl’s body lies. It makes me want to throw up. It makes me want to run away, and I don’t like to run from anything. But unlike my sister, I get to say goodbye, and I won’t turn that away because I know I’ll regret it. I’ll never be able to live with myself. I’m not stuck behind bars that prevent me this time. The only thing preventing me is my own crippling grief that makes it difficult to draw breath.
“Ready?” Derek asks when I just sit there, staring out the front window.
No,I want to say. It’s on the tip of my tongue, but I know I have to do this. For me. For Tegan. For Tori. So instead, I hop out of his truck. I hear him sigh as he shuts the door, but he meets me at the front of the truck, and we stride to the hospital entrance together.
“One of the cops told me.”
“What?” I ask.
