Page 109 of Confessions of the Dead

Peterson came about halfway down Ellie’s driveway, then cupped his hands around his mouth. “Matt. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Send out the girl, and we’ll be on our way!”

83

Sheriff Ellie

THE WORLD MOVED INslow motion.

Ellie reached for her sidearm and managed to unsnap the leather guard on her gun the moment before Buck jerked the slide on his shotgun, chambered another round, and fired again.

The second shot blew through the girl’s shoulder, causing her body to twist and pivot.

Ellie yanked her gun out and leveled it at Buck as he chambered another shell. “Drop it!”

Buck fired.

Point blank, directly at the girl’s face.

What happened next would remain ingrained in Ellie’s mind for the remainder of her life.

There was no blood, no gore, no brain matter or bits of flesh, none of the things she expected. Instead, there was a flutter of black—small bodies, wings—this explosion of harsh movement from where the girl stood beside her in all directions at once, and when Ellie’s brain managed to make some sense of what she saw,she realized the girl had burst into hundreds of crows, all of them shooting out from center mass with the force of an explosion. They twisted through the air, found the wind, the trees, the sky, and then they were gone with nothing but their angry cries left to echo in Ellie’s ears behind the thundering blast and ring of the shotgun.

Ellie wasn’t sure how long she just stood there. It might have been a lifetime, or it might have been half a second. Her mind had reached some kind of breaking point and flipped a switch. It wasn’t until Buck spoke over the ringing in her ears that she found the string attached to reality again and managed to tug herself back. His deep voice resonated through every inch of her being as he held out his hand, grazing the tip of her gun with his fingers. “No, Ellie.”

Her finger was already moving toward the trigger, though. She couldn’t stop that involuntary motion any more than she was able to stop the younger version of herself from firing at the meth head in that store.

84

Matt

“GET DOWN!” MATT HADleft the shotgun leaning against the wall near the front door.

Dropping to a crouch, he scrambled over and scooped it up. With his back against the wall, he checked the chamber, then tugged his service weapon from his holster and slid it across the floor to Gabby. “Take that and go down to the basement. Anyone but me comes down those stairs, you shoot them.”

There was much about Gabby’s past Matt didn’t know; entire years she refused to discuss, and he never pressed. She eyed the Glock for only a moment before scooping it up, checking the magazine, and pulling the slide slightly back to ensure the weapon was fully loaded and ready to fire. “I’m not going anywhere. We kill that fucker, then we go and get Riley.”

Matt knew better than to tell her no; he also knew he couldn’t do this alone. “Okay, take the back door. Nobody gets in.”

Gabby nodded and darted back into the kitchen.

Addie remained still. Her eyes wide, filled with fear. Her handwas clutching her belly, her fingers nervously twisting the fabric of her shirt.

“Go back upstairs, find someplace to hide.”

She quickly glanced back toward the kitchen and shook her head. “No, give me a gun. I want to help, too.”

“You need to think about the baby.”

“I am.”

“You don’t have to prove anything.”

“I want a gun.”

Matt had no time to argue. “Ellie told me she keeps an old Colt in the top drawer of her nightstand. Go find it and see what you can see from the upstairs windows. Just be careful, don’t let anyone spot you. I don’t think these guys will hesitate to shoot.”

Addie started to go, then hesitated. “Would you even care if they did?”

“Addie, we can’t do this right now.”

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