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Going back to the living room, she took a good long swig, and sat on the opposite end of the couch from Fleet.
“Okay. How much do you know?” She eyeballed Fleet warily, but gave her sister a slight quirk of her lip, letting her know she wasn’t pissed, just…caught off guard.
“Only that the two of you were shot at some point when you were teenagers,” Fleet revealed.
“So, not much, then,” Talia replied, taking another fortifying drink.
“Nope.” He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, clearly staying mum until she gave over everything.
Hesitation wasn’t in her make-up.
“I was sixteen. Pix was seventeen,” Talia began. Damn, she hated revisiting this memory. It had changed the dynamics in her childhood forever, and she retained a lot of bitterness to this day. Of course, it had also changed her life in a positive way, setting her on the path to her career in policing. But that had come later.
“And you wouldn’t know it now, but Pixie was the live wire in the family; smart, social, opinionated…”
Talia could see the look of disbelief on Fleet’s face, and she understood. She almost snorted. Wait until he heard the next bit of intel.
“She dated a lot, flitted from flower to flower, and loved being part of the fast and dangerous group at school.”
“I was an idiot,” Pixie grumbled, but Talia wasn’t having any of that.
“You were young,” she corrected. How many times would Talia have to assure her sister that the things that went down weren’t her fault? That number had to be in the thousands by now.
Talia cleared her throat and kept going. “I was actually the shy kid in the house. Helped out with chores, stayed in a lot, did my homework when I was supposed to, and always had my nose in a book. I didn’t feel the need to have a lot of friends. Pixie was my best buddy, and when she wasn’t around, I stuck to a small group of girls who weren’t even close to popular. That was all fine with me.”
She knew she was blowing Fleet’s mind.
The way she operated these days was completely opposite to who she’d been way back then.
“Pixie started dating this guy who was…volatile to say the least. He was always in trouble in school, and lived sort of off the grid with his dad and brother. Pixie saw him as a…challenge.”
She looked at her sister, who had gone even paler than normal, and understood. Not only was bringing this up difficult for her, it made her feel like she’d failed everybody she loved.
“Our parents were very concerned, and pleaded with her to leave the guy. I kept my opinions to myself, but lamented at the change in my previously sunny, gregarious older sister. Pix became moody, combative, and no longer wanted to hang out with me. I missed her terribly. It affected us all, but mostly it was doing a number on her, which she managed to keep secret. Then one night she came home with a big bruise on her face. The guy had hit her. For the third or fourth time, but that night it apparently woke her up.”
Much to Talia’s surprise, Pixie took over. “I told him before I drove away from his place that I wasn’t his punching bag, and I wasn’t going to see him again. I thought… I thought it would end it. That everything would be all over, but I was wrong.”
As quickly as Pixie had interjected, she just as quickly shut down again. Talia filled the silence.
“Our parents were out for dinner one night a week or so later. Pix and I were home alone. There was a knock on the door, and when Pixie pulled the curtain back and saw who it was outside, she told me to go hide and call 911. I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I did as I was told. I heard her open the door while I was on the phone to dispatch. I had just given them our address when a gunshot sounded, followed by a scream.”
Talia glanced at her sister and saw tears streaming down her face, matching the ones that Talia refused to let loose from her own eyes.
Talia’s shoulders stiffened. “I couldn’t stay hidden any longer. I ran out to see what had happened and saw Pixie lying in a pool of blood on the floor with that asshole standing over her, sneering. I launched myself at him, furious, but he was easily a hundred pounds heavier than me, and knocked me off like I was a gnat.
“I kept coming back at him, incensed, and that’s when he shot me, too.”
She raised her shirt, revealing a section of skin Fleet hadn’t seen since she’d only removed her pants in front of him. “Luckily, it was a through and through, just below my ribcage, but the impact tossed me back on my ass, and he must have felt like he’d done his job, because he turned to go.”
Pixie picked up the thread again. “There’s something to be said for small towns,” she choked out. “The police station was only two minutes from our house, so the police arrived before he’d even had a chance to step off our porch.”
“And I was able to get up and move into the doorway behind him, letting the responders know he was armed, and had already used his firearm.”
Talia took another deep breath. “They ordered him to the ground, but he ignored them and started firing as they took cover. That’s when I…lost my mind.” She gave a wry laugh. “I tackled him from behind, and we went tumbling down the stairs, which was probably stupid, but it gave the officers just enough time and opportunity to move in and disarm him.”
“Holy shit, Talia. You could have been killed.” Fleet’s eyes were suspiciously wet, now.
“But I wasn’t. I was only mildly injured. And the cops who witnessed the whole thing said I saved the day. Not one of them got shot, and they were able to cuff the prick and haul him away.”
