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Handley shot Colin a look. Handley would deal with the consequences when and if he had to. In the meantime… “There is the first aid kit there behind you, Madison. Get it out. Let’s see what we can do to help your friend here.”
The little redhead in the big glasses obeyed quickly. “Thank you. Thank you for stopping for us. I don’t know how much blood she lost. And I think the bullet is still in there.”
She was about ready to cry.
She broke Handley’s heart every time he looked at her.
91
Sol shoved Wilson to the ground in front of him. The bastard pulled himself to his feet and tried to run. Sol grabbed him and flung him to the ground. As people yelled out. They were all just there. Far too damned close.
“Stay back. Everyone freeze! No one move!” Sol kicked at Wilson. “Get up, you sick bastard.”
Wilson balked. Sol put his gun to the back of the bastard’s head. Someone, a woman, screamed. “Get moving, Wilson, or I’ll blow your head off right here. Hallie, come on, girl. Let’s get you inside.”
She was moving, gently. Quietly. Sol watched her out of the corner of his eye. But he didn’t step away from Wilson. “One step at a time, Wilson. We’re going to all three do this together. You do anything stupid, and I will kill you now.”
Sol moved them across the parking lot. Toward the crowd.
There were people out there. Sol could see two men, four women. That wasn’t too bad. They were one hundred feet away. He guided Wilson in their direction. One step at a time. “You do anything, boy, and I’ll make you hurt. You’ll die slowly when I am done.”
“You know they will make you pay for this. For Joey and Luke, if nothing else. Then what?”
“Why should I care? I don’t have anyone left to care about. Because of that damned drug we brought in. So if they kill me, so damned what? I’ll have told Marshall what I know first, and that is what matters. It’s time this bullshit stops, Wilson. It’s gone on long enough.”
Sol deliberately cut the people in the parking lot off from the main entrance.
He was going to need help to make what had to happen next happen. For Hallie mostly. She needed help now.
There was a blond woman there. By a car. He looked at her. She was familiar.
He tried to figure out exactly who she was.
Big brown eyes looked up at him, from where she stood, frozen in the moonlight. Familiar eyes.
That’s when he realized… “You’re a Coleson.”
“Yes. I am. Dr. Joy Coleson-Greene. What’s this about? I think we’ve met before, haven’t we…?” the little blond doctor asked, her hands out in front of her. Sol had to admire her gumption. She was afraid, but was trying so hard not to let it show. Brave girl. Beautiful one, too.
Of all people—this was a Coleson.
She was Heather’s twin sister. He was sure of it. They favored each other, the eyes, the jawline. The nose was a little different.
This one favored little Hope more than she did Heather.
Hope. Her baby sister. Of all the shitty luck in the world, why did it have to be little Hope’s family that were in the parking lot tonight? Anybody else would have been better.
He’d half hoped to catch that Zoey Lake’s brother, Dr. Holden-Deane. Or Jake MacNamara’s brother-in-law, Dr. Jacobson. To tell them that he hadn’t meant to be a part of hurting those girls. Those men’s younger sisters. Make his amends, or something.
“I couldn’t let him hurt little Hope. He wanted to hurt her so bad. Said it was personal. She looks like my girl. My girl. Looks just like my girl.” Sol looked over at the people watching them, him. His gaze met the woman’s nearest the blonde’s.
He recognized her, too. Shit.
Madison McAlister’s mother stared at him now, in horror. She wasn’t nearly as good at hiding her fear as the little doctor. “Mrs. Acardi, you tell that daughter of yours…I didn’t mean for her to be hurt that night, honey. Or tonight. I never would have gone along with them that night, if I had known. At the concert hall. Or MacNamara’s wife. I didn’t know what they were planning. I just drove the damned van. I never would have let them hurt Madison; not if I had known.”
“You said Hope. You mean my sister, don’t you?” The blonde pulled his attention back to her. The one with all those kids at home. Kids without a daddy. Four or five of them, he thought. Her husband had been killed by that Eastman three or four years ago.
She looked so damned young. So damned young to be doing it alone. Just like her twin sister was alone. Wilson for damned sure wouldn’t have amounted to much as a father. Best thing for those girls of Heather’s to not have this man in the world claiming to be their daddy. He was doing those girls a favor. That precious baby he’d seen that first time, there in her mama’s arms like that. That baby deserved a better man as a father than this pig shit.
