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If that was what it took to get her baby sister back to Heather, Sol would do what it took. “Heather isn’t going to be fucking hurt anymore. She just isn’t.”
“Heather is out here?” Hallie asked. She was staying calm. Good girl. Such a good girl. Gordon should make every effort to see her more often. She was the kind of daughter who made a man proud to be her father. Always had been. “I thought she and Jarrod were in their conference room discussing Handley Barratt.”
“Hell, that damned billionaire really is Foster’s MacGuffin, isn’t he? Would have been fun to see Heather pitted against that billionaire guy, though. That won’t happen now. Me, seeing that, I mean.” Sol thought about Heather for a long moment. What she had been through. “Heather’s not out here. But her ex is. I know what that bastard did to her. To Hope. I know he hurt Hope, too.”
And the bastards in Wichita Falls had buried those reports so deep Sol had only stumbled on it when he’d been doing things in the computer he shouldn’t have been. To make things right.
Sol had found them. He had seen Heather had gone to the hospital for help.
But Heather’s statements had been hidden. Like they had never existed. All of them. Every time. That was wrong. So damned wrong. She had deserved better.
Those bastards in Wichita Falls had had her practically captive with her baby sister in their sights the whole time since. Of course, they had—only way to control a woman like Heather was through the ones she loved.
He had seen the photos of those bruises.
Those bruises had haunted him. He flexed his fist on the wheel. The other held his service weapon. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to hurt you that day. I was just…called. Told to drive. Then they did what they did.”
“But you were still there. Still responsible.”
She was still using that calm tone with him, but he heard the fear. It broke him. It did. He didn’t want her afraid of him. Sol didn’t. “I made it so you could get away, though, honey. Best I could do at the time. I saw that SUV coming up behind us. And when he stayed on my tail no matter what, I let him bump us into the ditch. Turned the wheel that way myself. I knew Wilson and those fuckers would run for their own skins after that.”
75
She would never know if that was true or not. “What are we going to do tonight?”
“Find little Hope, I think. Hell, I lost my everything the day I buried Maribeth. Thought I’d never feel a damned thing again. Until I looked up at that barbecue and there little Hope was. In those damned overalls and that slouchy hat, with that HHC emblem on it. With her nephew’s skateboard in her hands. Shot me right back to when my girl was with me.”
“Hope likes overalls. Says wearing them makes people underestimate her. Hope…I think sometimes she feels a bit invisible in her family. Since there are so many of them, and she’s a bit in the middle. That hat with her logo on it reminds her that she’s not.” Fear for Hope and Madison tightened her stomach until Haldyn felt like she was going to vomit.
“She’s not invisible to me. Definitely wasn’t to my Maribeth. Maribeth dressed just like her, cut her hair just like her, talked just like her, for years. I bought her a dark purple HHC hat for Christmas off some website, too. Had it shipped. She was going to compete with her skateboard. Until she got caught up with some boy down on Boethe and he got her involved in drugs. And then she died. I didn’t realize who Hope was at first. Then I saw her and her family at that barbecue.”
His tone was so odd when he spoke about Hope. She didn’t know what to make of it. He looked out the side window for a moment before looking back at her.
“I saw Heather’s baby the night of Eastman. Still a newborn then. So beautiful. And Heather had tears in her eyes then. Wanting me to help them girls, practically begging. But I couldn’t. You…tell Heather I would have helped find those girls if I had known how. But I was following protocol for missing persons, while Mawbry was off looking for those Eastman girls that day. Him and his partner. Heather’s eyes haunted me for weeks. Until…I lost Maribeth. I found the reports. Of what happened to Heather. I saw the photos of what that bastard did to Heather all those times. I can’t get the hurt in Heather’s eyes out of my head now, Hallie girl. I just can’t. And I can’t forget.”
“What is he planning to do to Hope and Madison?”
“I don’t know. You heard about as much as I did. I wasn’t supposed to be there tonight. I may have tipped my hand when I called your boyfriend about that OPJ. Bell—he’s the one that was there at the concert hall, shot Heather’s niece. Lake’s wife. Enjoyed it. He’d tangled with her on a case or two before, you see. Didn’t like her.”
“You drove the van. Detective Bell, Jody Callahan were also there.” Callahan had died. Zoey had shot him through the neck. That was three. “Who were the other two guys?”
“Costovia. Shot Madison, I think. I’m not sure. I was outside. I’ve seen the videos, but I’m not certain. I think he’s the one who shot Madison.”
“And the fourth guy?”
“Not really sure who that one is, still. He was only there for that night and barely spoke to us at all. I haven’t seen him with those bastards since—or figured out who he is. Cold bastard and evil to his soul, Hallie. To his soul. The rest—for the money. But that guy, he does it for the pain. But I can give you four of them, honey. You make sure your Foster and McKellen know that. Those four might lead to the fifth. How did you and Foster happen anyway? I always thought you and McKellen would make things permanent.”
“Daniel and I were never together, detective.” What was she doing—just sitting there in the backseat, talking to a man who was abducting her—for the second time? That was insane. “And Jarrod—he was assigned to guard me. Things just happened between us. Unexpected things, but…they happened.”
He snorted. “Yeah, that seems to happen a lot around the TSP when one of you girls get into a bit of trouble, doesn’t it? Figure it’ll happen to my little Hope soon, too. Probably Heather, too. They deserve good ones, though. Good men. You do, too. Foster’s a good one, Hallie. Honest. Has integrity. Far too many men now don’t. Remember that. Be happy with him—he’s a good one. We’re almost there. Bell said it was at the crossroads of Reservoir Road and Boethe Highway. We’re almost there.”
“What are you going to do?”
76
Wasn’t that the million-dollar question?
He didn’t have a clue what he was going to do. He was just not going to let… “I’m going to stop the hurt, baby girl. That’s all. If that means…doing what I got to do, then I’m going to do it.”
