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And were going to kill her and Hope to send a message.
Her mom’s face popped into her head. Madison wanted her mom so badly. She didn’t want to put her mom through this hell. She didn’t. And Hope’s mom—she had been through hell, too. Their moms didn’t deserve this either.
Hope was next to her. Fighting. Hope sounded so winded. How long could Hope fight a man that size? He was just randomly hitting Hope, slapping her. Toying with Hope. Getting off on the control he had over her.
He was a monster. There were no other words for him. Tonight they faced pure evil.
The van slowed. Stopped.
Terror filled her.
Then the back doors opened.
Hands jerked her from the van. “Come on, Madi baby, I know you are awake.”
Costovia dragged her out. Across the hard ground. Madison tried to bite him. But he hit her. As she heard Hope screaming behind them.
79
Detective Kimball made her get back in the SUV. At gunpoint. Brett’s eyes had been closed again. She hoped he lived. Haldyn said a small prayer that he lived. Survived. He deserved so much better than this. “What are we going to do?”
“Five minutes up the road. They are probably headed toward the creek area. Where it feeds into the reservoir. Picnic tables there—and some are damned inaccessible. Private.”
They had Madison and Hope out there. Alone. Two men with evil intent in their hearts. Fear for her friends had her shaking—but he’d put her in the front seat this time. Like they were doing this together or something.
Maybe, in a way, they were.
Those were her people out there. Her friends. If she could help them, Haldyn would. However that happened. “We should call it in. Get people out here.”
“It would take too long. And Wilson has a scanner, honey. He’ll listen. Hear. Hell, he probably already knows we called it in for Naylor. I told the dispatcher Naylor was unconscious, though. So they won’t think the boy told anything. Protect him a bit. The ones in Wichita Falls—they’re the type to take a man out when he’s flat on his back in the hospital, too. Seen it before.”
They were ten minutes from the southern edge of the city now. The lake was more than forty minutes away. But he’d said creek. “Where would they be?”
“Probably just up ahead. Small tributary there. End of the original Finley Creek. I took you and your sisters with your daddy fishing there, once. Little Reid got caught with a hook and I had to get it out with pliers.”
“I remember.” He had been so gentle, so kind with her sister, who hadn’t been more than seven at the time.
“You spend much time with your daddy now?”
“Not if I can help it. He…” Haldyn didn’t know why tonight called for truths, but… “My father used to beat us, Detective Kimball. I don’t know if you knew that back then. But…he hurt us. A lot. Almost…every day sometimes. Daniel caught him breaking my arm one day when I was sixteen, shortly after they were assigned to partner up. It stopped then. He was afraid of Daniel’s father, so he stopped. Moved out. Daniel protected us from him.”
He cursed. She flinched. Maybe she shouldn’t have told him. But she had. Haldyn waited. And waited.
His words were quiet when he spoke next. “I’m sorry, Hallie. I did not know he was like that. If I had, I would have stopped him from hurting you, too. Somehow.”
For some reason, she almost believed him. “Thank you.”
“I never hurt my girl. Never even spanked her once. I loved her. Loved her so much. It still hurts that she’s gone. It still does. And I just can’t stop that hurt. I drove those drugs into this city. I did. She took them. And she died.”
Haldyn’s cheeks were wet now, too, as the enormity of what he said sank in.
He sounded so broken. Like he’d shattered into a million pieces.
“I have to find her. I have to find her again.”
“Maribeth?”
“Maybe. Maybe in a way that’s what I am doing. Maybe by finding Hope…I can somehow make things right. That’s all I really want. I need to find hope again.”
