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They both listened.
Hannah approached Kipp with her arms raised and ready for his embrace. “Without you, none of this would’ve been possible. I’m sorry for what happened to you, but without it, I’d always be stuck here.”
Kipp hugged her fiercely. “My peace rests in yours, Hannah.”
When she backed away from him, for the first time since I’d met Hannah, she had life in her eyes again. The dream of a future had been stolen from her and always would remain lost forever, but she faced something better now— Heaven, I assumed.
Hannah looked at me as she faded away. “Please tell my mother I’m okay now.”
“Wait! I need more than that.” I couldn’t start a conversation if I didn’t have a little background information. “What should I tell her?”
“Tell her I listened to her read to me every night and I loved it.”
Hannah’s gaze swung over my shoulder and her eyes widened. She screamed something, but she’d nearly vanished now. I couldn’t hear her words.
“What?” I focused on her mouth and tried to make out her words. In one second, it all became clear.
“It’s him.”
Time froze as I spun around to see Brody, with a gun aimed in our direction. My heart pounded in my ears as a wave of fear washed over me, yet confusion made my mind race.
How could Brody be the killer? He didn’t match the description. Then a memory surfaced and clarity came forth. The mark I’d seen earlier on his ear had been hair dye. He’d altered his appearance, which was why he hadn’t been picked out in the police department photos.
Zach had seemed surprised Max sent him to assist in the search. The truth being, he didn’t ask him to come. Brody had clearly come here with one intention—to kill us all.
“Get down,” Kipp shouted.
I didn’t hesitate. I dropped to the ground in an instant as the gun erupted with a loud bang that shuddered into my soul. I covered my ears with my hands and I screamed against the earth-shattering noise.
A body fell in front of me with a heavy thud, and in my line of vision, Eddie stared at me, gripping his side. Footsteps barreled past me and I looked up just in time to see Zach running full speed toward Brody.
Another shot blasted through the night sky and the bullet lodged in Zach’s shoulder. Blood splattered, but he never stopped running. Zach slammed into him with the full force of his body.
“Get up, Tess,” Kipp yelled. “Run.”
I jumped to my feet, wanting nothing more than to get the hell out of there, but my feet seemed glued to the forest floor. Held back by exactly what, I didn’t know. All I knew was I couldn’t move.
Kipp’s panicked expression matched his tone perfectly. “Run.”
I glanced at Brody and Zach as they beat the hell out of each other. Zach had managed to get the gun away from Brody and it now lay in the grass next to them. Loud shouts and the thumps of two men annihilating each other filled the quiet forest. It became impossible to tell who had the advantage; it appeared to be an even fight.
Zach suddenly got the upper hand and he straddled Brody while he pummeled his fists against his face. But Brody was a cop and apparently knew how to get out of a tight hold.
In a quick move, he managed to get out from underneath Zach and now had him pinned while he issued blows in return. Zach’s forearms took most of the hits, but a few sneaked in and I saw the ripple of pain across Zach’s face.
“You were responsible?” Zach pushed Brody away from him, jumped to his feet and circled Brody. “You shot Kipp?”
“Hannah would have ruined my life. She just wouldn’t keep her mouth shut.”
“So you killed her.” Zach lunged forward and blasted Brody across the chin. “An innocent woman?”
He recovered from the shot instantly, reciprocating with a hard hit into Zach’s gut. “She left me no other choice.”
“You shouldn’t have been fucking her in the first place, you’re a married man.” Zach coughed, but his hesitation didn’t last long and he ran at Brody, latching on to him around the waist, slamming the both of them into a tree.
I couldn’t look away. I needed to hear the answers for myself, almost to find closure or even to make sense out of why he would end Hannah’s young life. I think I still suffered from shock in discovering Brody had been behind this. It was like a twist out of a Hitchcock murder mystery. Not in any stretch of the imagination did Brody look like a killer.
“Hannah planned to ruin everything, my marriage and job.” Brody gasped as Zach pinned him against the tree.
