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“Get out of my way! Let me go! I need to find her, McKellen. She knows I’m going to be coming for her. I promised her I always would. The last time Steve hurt her. I tried to stop him; I reported him but people in Wichita Falls just buried it. Made it go away. Threatened us, and then I was pregnant and—I need to get to her. She’ll know I’m coming for her. Hope will be waiting for me to find her. She won’t trust anyone else, not really. She won’t. Hope will be waiting for me.”
“We’re going to find your sister and Madison. I promise. But now, you need to get inside. I’m pulling you officially, but—I’ll keep you informed, Heather. I swear. But you can’t work this now. You just can’t. Not with your sisters involved, and your husb?—”
“That monster was never my husband. Don’t ever call him that. He just thinks he owns me. We dated for six weeks, sporadically. I got pregnant, told him, and he got angry, then beat me unconscious, trying to get rid of that little problem, McKellen. How’s that for romantic? Four years ago. Fourteen months ago, he broke into my apartment. Hurt me. Then Hope walked in. She had a key and she just walked in. And saw what he was doing. Then he tried to do the same to Hope, until I put my gun to his head when he thought I was unconscious. He was never my husband. Ever. He just thought he owned me.” She saw the look cross his face then. The shock, horror. Big surprise. As McKellen put it together. Did the damned math. “He just thought he owned me. Because he had a damned badge, friends, power, that was all that mattered. Nothing I did stopped him. Nothing. I should have pulled the trigger when I had my gun to his head that night. I should have pulled the damned trigger. But I knew, if I did, his friends would come after me. And what about my little girl then? My family?”
“Heath…” Joy was looking at her, too. With pain in her eyes. Hell, Heather would shout exactly what Steve had done to her from the hospital rooftop if that was what it took to get Hope back.
She would do anything to get her sister back now.
McKellen was staring at her now. With that look in his eyes she’d never forget. His tone was… gentle. But he was just like all the rest of the men she’d ever met just like him. Powerful. And he thought that gave him the ability to do whatever he wanted. “Get your family inside, Heather. Make sure everyone is okay. I have every responding officer I can get heading to look for them. We’ll find them. I promise.”
But could he? There were a lot of open spaces in this county. Places a woman’s body could just disappear.
Fear for Hope was as strong as fear for Bonnie and Crispin had been before. And once again she was left with nothing to depend on but the damned TSP.
Heather forced herself to pull in a breath. To at least look calm from the outside. She looked at the woman clinging to her hand. Like Joy always had when she was afraid.
Joy had been hurt. And there was blood—and other biologicals—on Joy’s light pink jacket. Heather lost it. She turned and tossed the contents of her stomach as it sank in.
Joy was covered in Steve’s blood.
Steve had been shot in the head right in front of her.
Not even fifteen feet away. From Joy.
That bullet…could have hit Joy, too. Joy was bleeding, was hurt.
She could have lost Joy, too. And Cashlyn and Samia. Because of Steve.
Kimball could have killed them all tonight. Because of Steve.
Joy’s arms went around her. “It’s okay, Heather. It’s okay. We’ll get Hope back. I promise. Let’s get inside. Someone will have to get Bonnie-Mom. Someone will need to bring her here.”
“I’ll go,” a male voice said behind them. Heather and Joy turned. Murdoch stood there. Heather knew, knew he’d heard what she had said. Well, so what? Screw them all. She just wanted to get out there and find her sister. “You two head on inside. Stay with Foster. People will be showing up here soon. TSP. Heather—hell, I’m so sorry you had to see that tonight. So damned sorry you both had to see that. I’ll go get Bonnie myself now.”
Heather nodded.
Of all the people she worked with, Murdoch would be best. For Bonnie. Bonnie trusted him. Felt like Murdoch was family, in a way.
Heather just watched as he and Lila took off in Murdoch’s unmarked. As more TSP cruisers arrived. Hell, it probably hadn’t even been five minutes since Steve had been shot. Not even five minutes. Not with them just now moving the victims on the gurneys.
Hope. Hope was out there. And Heather couldn’t get to her.
Five minutes could change a life. She knew that. Could end one, too.
They had Haldyn on a gurney now. Daniel was at her side. And Jarrod. Jarrod looked less like a colleague and more like a man terrified for the woman he loved. Hell, so did Daniel.
They weren’t watching Heather now.
They had Steve on a gurney, too. Heather stepped closer to the man who had fathered her daughters. She didn’t want to forget this moment ever—and she needed to see, to know that he wasn’t just going to get back up and come at her, or Hope, ever again.
She looked at the man leaning over him now.
Dr. Stockton. Joy’s friend. The man who had operated on Bonnie after Eastman and on Hope after the barbecue. The irony wasn’t lost on her at all.
Then they were moving Steve, too.
Tonight? Tonight was going to hurt Bonnie so much.
