Page 224 of Hold Me Until Morning

But the one I’d made Hailey blared.

A siren in my soul.

I wouldn’t let him hurt her or Maddie.

I angled up to the front of the SUV just as Brent edged to the side of the door, douchebag aiming at me. I popped off a shot in his direction before he got the chance. Scum toppled to the ground like the pile of shit he was.

It was enough of a surprise to make Pruitt let his guard down for one second, and Hailey, that fucking brave, amazing girl, took the opportunity to ram her elbow into his gut. A jolt of pain burst from his mouth just as she broke out of his hold, and she turned to fight him while Ezra started yelling, “Get on the ground! Get on the ground!”

It was the trigger that sparked the chaos.

Pruitt began to fire, as did Douglas, and Ezra and the other officers were shouting. Shots sounded from every direction.

Smoke and dust billowed, and urgency pushed me out around Ezra’s SUV.

Sweat slicked my skin, fear pounding my bones to dust.

But it wasn’t fear for myself.

It was for the two girls who deserved a magical life. Every moment and every hour and every good thing this life might have to offer.

“Get down, Cody!” I heard Ezra shouting it, but I couldn’t take it in.

Douglas curled into a ball at the side of the SUV, his hands going to the back of his head like that was going to protect it, and I kept moving toward Pruitt who was reaching down to grab a fistful of Hailey’s hair to drag her back to standing.

He stalled when he felt me coming, and he lifted his gun, spitting, “I warned you to stay out of our business.”

A figure suddenly stepped out of the woods behind him. Lolly barefoot and wrapped in her floral robe.

Dread covered me like I’d fallen through the cracks of a frozen lake. What the hell did she think she was doing?

“It’s already over, Pruitt. You might as well give up now because there’s not a chance you get my granddaughter. I won’t allow either of you to destroy her. She won’t live like me and her mother had to.”

She was holding a rock in her left hand.

“Now step away from my granddaughter.”

When he started to whirl her direction at her voice, she swung it, clipping him in the side.

“Lolly!” I shouted it, a warning, a plea, and I started running that way. But I couldn’t make it to her before Pruitt spat, “You stupid bitch.”

Then a single gunshot rang out.

It was loud, penetrating the air in a cloud of obliterating darkness. A total eclipse. A hollow echo that reverberated through the heavens just as the woman dropped to the ground.

A toppling of color and life and belief.

Hailey screamed from where she was on her hands and knees. Screamed and screamed as she started to crawl for her. “Oh my God, Lolly! No, Lolly!”

Pruitt started to turn back around to get to Hailey when two more shots rang out. One from Ezra and one from another officer.

Pruitt jolted backward as each penetrated his chest, and the gun slipped from his hand as his body hit the ground right next to Lolly.

Gathering the last strength that I had, I stumbled forward. I made it to my knees behind Hailey the second she made it to her grandmother.

And I wrapped my arms around her as she began to weep.

FIFTY-TWO

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