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She would never think of Handley Barratt as a common criminal ever again.
The man was, well, not a knight in shining armor, but a knight in tarnished, maybe. That man, a supposed criminal, was far more heroic than the very cops who’d been out there supposed to protect them tonight.
That wasn’t something Madison would ever forget.
He’d been able to get them three blocks from FCGH. Traffic was blocked ahead, but they were only three blocks away now.
“Okay, Hope. Three blocks. We can make it three blocks. I promise. My mom might still be there. You met her at the barbecue, remember? She’s always telling me I’m getting into trouble lately and giving her gray hair. Let’s go see if we’ve given both our moms gray hair with this one tonight, okay? They can have lunch together and talk about how badly behaved we both are.”
“My mom is off tonight. But…Cashie or Sam. I really want to see them.” Hope laboriously kept putting one foot in front of the other. Madison kept pushing her to do it. “Tell them all I love them, and…other things.”
They could do this.
Handley Barratt had gotten them this far. Madison was going to get Hope the rest of the way. No matter what. She could see flashing reds and blues in the distance. By the entrance to the hospital.
Maybe…maybe her mom had had to work over. Maybe her mom was there. Or maybe Vince was. Vince would call Dom for her. Get him immediately. And Dom would come. Fix this. Find Haldyn. Make everything okay again.
Dom would find Steve Wilson and rip him apart like the feral wolf she had always known Dom was inside. Madison would stand right next to him and watch. So she never forgot.
“Heather needs to know. About Steve. If I don’t—you promise. Go to Heather. Help her stop him. All I wanted to do was stop him. Before.” Hope was slumping. Madison pulled her back to her feet, as much as she could. “He just kept hurting her, Mads. Hitting her. Stalking her. Making her afraid. They only dated a few months at most, around her busy schedule. She’d only slept with him a handful of times and she got pregnant by accident. After she told him she was pregnant with Frankie, he…went off on her. Beat her up really bad. She said he told…her he was going to ‘make that little problem go away.’ He harassed her constantly after. He said he owned her. She tried… reporting…him…didn’t work...”
“He’s an asshole. I’m going to sic Dom and Jake and Gunnar and Jarrod and the rest of the guys on him. I promise. You have to keep walking, Hope. You have to. We can’t save Heather from Steve if you quit now. Or Hal from Kimball.”
“There is a file. If I die, Mads…get it, okay? On my laptop at home. It has everything, what I know about Steve. All of it. Password is sisters by choice—all one word and lowercase letters—and the number twelve. Since…there were twelve of us once. Everything I’ve found on Steve. And his friends. That’s why I really came to Finley Creek. Some of his friends were here, and I knew it. They helped him do…bad…stuff… And I needed stuff on them too. I was going to bring them all down. Hoping…I could ask the governor for help when I had enough... Since he’s married to Cashie and Cris’s sister and everything. There was stuff…on the governor’s server. Stuff like I’ve seen before. But it…here. I thought governor would…least listen to me…for a few minutes anyway. If I told him some…really crappy stuff…is going on in the TSP in Wichita…Falls, too.”
Terror froze Madison’s blood at what Hope was saying. The Major Crimes team was trying to bring down that organization. And Hope had just stumbled right into it?
There were dark enemies out there. One lone woman couldn’t bring them down by herself. “We’ll do it together. You, me, Char, and Hal. Have you met Charlotte yet? She’s in Masterson County right now. Making a movie with the Davis brothers.”
“Yeah, not met her yet. Not too impressed with what…read about those nephews, honestly. My dad would…have…taken those grandsons of his…out behind…woodshed, I think…”
“Probably.” Madison knew the Davis brothers’ secrets, even if no one ever spoke about it. “Your family is waiting. We’re going to keep going.”
“I…don’t really know if…I can. Just so tired.”
She couldn’t carry Hope. She just couldn’t. “Please, Hope. You just can’t give up now. I really need you to keep going. Your mom is waiting for you. She’s waiting. Your mom needs you to be okay. And your niece. Crispin, right? She’s been through enough this year. And your sisters. Heather and…” Madison searched her memory for the twin sister’s name. Joy. “Joy. And isn’t there another one?”
“Bonnie is my mom-sister. And Marcia. It is Angelina Anne-Marie, Bonita Bianca. Marigold…Marcia. Then Heather Holly—Heather…twin is Jasmine Joy. And then there is…me. Hazel Hope. They…didn’t know I was coming, you know. Why I got stuck with great-aunt Hazel’s name. And Hope. My parents. I was…surprise. My dad…was older when they had me. Fifty-nine when he died. I… just turned four.”
“Who are the rest? Which ones are Zoey’s sisters, too? Zoey is one of my best friends. She didn’t give up either. Did you know the day we were shot together she had time to get away? But she kept going. She’s the one who called it in. Got help for all of us. A niece can’t be stronger than an aunt. It just doesn’t work that way. So you just keep going. You can’t let Zo show you up or anything.”
“Cashlyn. And Crispin. And Iagan. He’s Zoey’s baby brother, too. He looks like her…We always said he looked like Heather. Zo… Heath look more alike than Heather and I do. It’s…weird.” Hope pulled in a wheezing breath. As they just kept walking. “It… hurts… breathe, Mads… breathe.”
“I know. I remember. I remember, too. You get to join the ‘We’ve been shot!’ club now. With me, Zo, and Char. And you look more like Zoey’s baby sister Pen. Pen’s in the club, too. Isn’t one of your nieces her identical twin?”
“Heather… thinks she has to take care of me. Because of what Steve tried… do to me. He… going… hurt me… too. Make… Heather watch. I was fighting but… ripping my shirt… laughing at how small… Six weeks later Heather… pregnant. She’d asked for morning-after pill, but mix-up at… the hospital. She never got pill… And I know… baby was because… that night before... I got there.”
Madison fought the urge to puke. As what Hope was implying sank in. That bastard. That sick, evil, evil bastard. “We’re going to bring him down together. And I’m going to kick him in the face when we do. Just for you and for your sister.”
“Heather’s so afraid… I can’t help her forget. We look… each other… we… remember. Kimball… said… gets better. But when… does… it… get better?”
It was the last thing she said.
Hope slumped to the ground half a block behind the hospital’s side entrance.
Madison wasn’t giving up now. She wasn’t. They were too close to give up now.
The good guys were going to win tonight, for once.
