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She suspected he didn’t know what to do next. They all knew what the most likely end to this was. “You need to give yourself up now, Sol. It’s the best thing. Only real way to fix things. Talking. Communicating. Working together.”
“Yeah, probably. Then we can talk. I can show you boys what all I got that you don’t know about. I kept notes. Just so I wouldn’t forget. Just noted down everything I did for them—like I did for when I was working the TSP. Probably never should have gotten the assault division. Didn’t earn it. Think Wichita Falls pulled some strings to get me there. So I could tell them what you all were doing. Never told them much, though. I have some damned integrity.”
“I know you do. I remember—” She could hear her words slurring, too. But she had to keep him talking. To buy time… “You with my dad…when I was younger. You were friends. You were Maribeth’s dad. And I know you loved her. She was so funny. Used to make me…laugh all the time. When she smiled, especially.”
“Yeah. She was.”
“She wouldn’t want you to do this. Or want you to get…hurt. I know that.”
She felt so dizzy now. Haldyn leaned a little. Into his arm.
Her eyes met gunmetal gray. In a face she could look at forever. Jarrod was afraid for her. She could see that.
She wanted his arms around her so much. She wanted to tell him how she felt just once. Just so he knew… She said the words. But she didn’t know if they actually came out.
But his eyes. She knew he understood what she meant.
And Daniel was there. Daniel, so strong. So safe. Always there when she needed him most.
She never really had been alone, had she? She’d had Powell, and Madison and the rest of her friends. Her sisters. Daniel.
And she had Jarrod.
But Sol Kimball was all alone now.
Tears fell from her eyes as she looked at Jarrod, at Daniel. Heather was there, too. And Haldyn knew she was terrified. Why wouldn’t that woman who had been through utter hell be terrified right now? “Let me go now, Sol. It’s time. It’s time we fixed this. We can do it together. You told me…Wilson knew about the choir shooting, didn’t you? Let Dom and Jake and Murdoch take Wilson inside. You and I both know that they deserve to be the ones to do that. To bring Wilson in for what he did. For what happened that night. Let them do what needs to be done—so they can go home to their families. So we can find Heather’s sister and Madison now. The only way we can do that is if they arrest Wilson now. We don’t want him to die before we can get the answers we want from him. He is the key to everything, isn’t he?”
“That he is,” Detective Kimball said. His arm loosened around her waist. He gave her a bit of a nudge. Away from him. “Go to your boyfriend now, honey. See to it that he takes care of you a bit better from here on out. You hear me, Foster? You take better care of her from now on. Go on.”
Haldyn took that first step.
She took another. Her entire body hurt. But she was moving. She was going to get to Jarrod. And she was going to hold him. Tell him, in front of everyone, exactly what she wanted from him. She wanted what Zoey had and Shelby and A.J. and Daryn—with the men who loved them. She wanted that more than anything.
And she wanted it with him.
She took another step?—
Just as something, someone, slammed into her from the side.
Sending her careening into Detective Kimball, just as he yelled out.
Haldyn fell to the ground, as hands reached for her.
But it was far, far too late.
98
Haldyn jerked as Kimball’s gun discharged again. Jarrod watched red bloom on her shoulder, just above the little lacy thing she’d worn under her suit that morning.
He would never forget the shock and pain that crossed her face in that instant. Ever.
Daniel fired.
Kimball went down. Wilson was down now, too. The stupid son-of-a-bitch had jumped Kimball at the dumbest possible moment. What was the idiot going to do? Grab the gun and shoot his damned way out of the parking lot? Take out Heather? Kimball? What?
Now both men were paying the price. Both men were down.
Dom went to Kimball, cleared the gun. “Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch. That dumbass! What was Wilson thinking?”
