Page 111 of Broken Halo

“You see him, Dustin?” Ray asks his brother.

I can barely see her now, but Quinn has given up the fight and is limp in his arms. “No, but he’s right, Ray. If he’s got a clear sight, you’re a goner.”

“He’s got too much to lose,” Ray says on a laugh and grinds the gun against my temple.

With no other option, I reach into my front pocket while Ray is distracted and Dustin is behind us. Gripping the metal in my hand, I pull it out as I hear Trig rustle in the dark brush like a ghost ready to materialize at any moment.

Ray shifts me slightly and I take advantage. Reaching around, I do my best to harm him with my dull, makeshift blade.

“Fuck,” he spits and drops the gun from my head, pushing me to the ground. When he lifts his shirt, he proves I barely broke skin.

I scramble and Trig steps out from the darkness. I’ve never seen a gun in his hand, but he stands tall and is in command of his weapon, as if it’s an extension of his own limbs. Trig doesn’t take his eyes off his father but steps between Ray and me.

“Stay back, angel.” His shirt is stretched across his wide shoulders and his muscles are taut as he focuses on nothing but his father. “So, you and the good sheriff killed Silvie Montgomery.”

Ray shakes his head. “If I ever loved a woman, it was Silvie. But that bitch could still be a pain in my ass.”

Trig’s shoulders tense at his father’s words—or the words he didn’t say, especially about Faye. I’m only surprised Ray Barrett ever loved anyone.

“Silvie and me were fighting.” Ray goes on, rubbing his abdomen from my lame stabbing attempt. “She’d disappear for months at a time, but always come back. When she turned up the last time, wantin’ to know what I did with the baby she left for me, I thought she was trippin’. I was with Logan and she knew him and me were partners—hell, she bought from us,” Ray shrugs and smirks, “in one way or another. I told her I didn’t believe there was a baby but she insisted there was. She flipped out, came at me, and I had to fight her off. Then she threatened to tell Kipp about me and Logan sellin’ if I didn’t tell her where her baby was. I didn’t think there was a baby, Logan freaked, and in the end, we needed to shut her up.”

“You both killed her,” Trig mutters.

Ray sneers and I realize I’m right. He doesn’t know what love is because he tips his head and goes on. “I guess. She was in bad shape that night, who knows what did her in. But then Logan turned on me and I knew I could be framed for murder. The fucker backed me into a corner and me going down solo for the drug charge was my only out. Looks like old Silvie was tellin’ the truth and your mama took that baby. Who knew?”

“Don’t you dare utter a word about my mother,” Trig warns.

Quinn is breathing heavily as the truth spills out about her, her birth parents, and Faye. When her eyes catch mine, she looks more hopeless than ever.

Trig doesn’t take his eyes off his dad as he warns his uncle. “Let Quinn go, Dustin. You’re barely an accessory. I’ll even vouch for you. Don’t let my father drag you into murder and kidnapping charges. You can easily put it all on him. He’s got four eye-witnesses who just saw him kill a man.”

“Self-defense,” Ray argues with a lazy tip of his head. He lifts his gun, this time aiming it straight at Trig and my heart clenches. He goes on to shake his head and seethe, “Always hated you. Faye turned you against me and my family. Shoulda put the two of you out a long time back. Woulda made my life a lot easier.”

Trig, calm and cool, tips his head. “Yes. You should’ve.”

Then, from a distance, sirens sound at the same time Eli appears from the same shadowed place Trig did. He passes where I’m on the hard ground and has his own weapon drawn and aimed at Dustin as he demands, “Let her go.”

Dustin’s eyes dart back and forth as he fidgets.

“Do not fucking think about it. Let her go and put your hands up,” Eli repeats.

“It’s come down to this, huh?” Ray twangs and narrows his eyes on his son.

“You so much as flinch, I’ll kill you,” Trig says as if he were ordering a cheeseburger at a drive-thru. “Because of you, I lost everything.”

Sirens, a whole chorus of them, parade down the long gravel drive to the dead sheriff’s property before coming to a screeching halt.

“Ray!” Dustin yells. For the first time since he threw us into the trunk earlier tonight, Trig’s father appears agitated.

Police start running toward us through the darkened night and Ray looks back at his brother one more time before settling his eyes on Trig. He shakes his head, dropping his aim from Trig to me. “I’ll kill her myself. You don’t deserve anything.”

I tuck into myself and roll as one lonely gunshot rings through the night.

Quinn screams.

Dustin calls for Ray.

I hear a body hit the gravel.

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