Page 109 of Silver Linings

“I don’t understand?”

She felt faint. Her brain couldn’t comprehend who she was looking at. Darkness closed in all around her as the panic threatened to swallow her whole.

A needle appeared in her blurred vision and Lily felt it plunge into the meaty part of her arm. The office tilted and twisted in front of her as panic flooded her veins. A moment later, her body went slack. She felt completely weightless, only to realize she was slipping from her chair. With a loud thud, Lily’s body crashed to the ground.

“Lily? Are you okay out there?”

NO…

Sloane’s patent leather heels rushing towards her were the last things she saw before the world went dark.

Thirty-Four

Gunner smiled as he read the text from Lily. She was having a great day at Sloane’s, and as much as he wished she wanted to stay home safe in their apartment all day, he understood how much working meant to her. And he felt proud.

His office phone rang.

“Mae?”

“Hey Gunner, Sheriff Porter is here to see you. Shall I send him back?”

“Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks.”

Before his mind could spin out of control with reasons why the sheriff had come to see him directly at work, there was a knock on his office door. Gunner waved the man in, while standing up from behind his desk.

“Sheriff Porter.”

“Hank, please. It’s good to see you’re doing okay.” Hank pointed to Gunner’s stomach.

“Yeah. I was lucky. So, what’s going on?”

“Well, I was in the area and once I got the call, figured you’d want to know right away.” Gunner waved his hand towards a chair and Hank shook his head. “Cole Trudall was released today. His lawyer got him to plead out for probation.”

“What the fuck?”

“We still have a protective order in place for Lily and Sage.”

“You and I both know that won’t mean jack shit to him, Hank.”

“I know. That’s why I came over as soon as I heard.”

“How long has he been out?”

“Since nine this morning. I would have had a deputy follow him home if I had known. I’ll send someone to check out his address over in Lark Lake just to make sure he’s behaving.”

Fuck. That was nearly five hours ago. The asshole could easily be on his way, or already in Silver Springs.

“Well, I appreciate the heads up. Lily started working next door this morning. She’s going to be pissed when I go over there and tell her?—”

Gage ran down the hallway and past his door, yelling Gunner’s name as he passed by. What the fuck?

“What’s that about?” Hank asked.

He didn’t bother answering because he was already halfway down the hall.

Running to the front of the building, Gunner looked over at Mae, who was staring out the door after Gage.

“Mae? What’s going on?”

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