Page 93 of Three to Fall

Well, almost everything.

We didn’t mention how Whip and his guys had all turned up at pretty much the exact same time Jacqueline had pulled the trigger point-blank at Josiah’s crotch. How the shock of seeing their messiah lying on the ground bleeding had given us the upper hand to take control of the situation, all of Josiah’s men disarmed and herded away into the night along with all the weapons.

Except the one gun Jacqueline had used to make sure Josiah could never hurt another woman the way he’d hurt me.

Ice and Kyle had stayed behind with us. I didn’t know where Whip and Trigger were taking the rest of Josiah’s guys. I doubted it was anywhere good. I’d heard the guys mumbling about not having a pile of bodies here when the cops arrived.

I’d been scared of innocent women and children getting hurt. Hadn’t wanted people I loved to go to jail for murder. But Grayson had given Whip a nod, clearly telling him to take care of the situation, and I hadn’t had it in me to argue.

It had been me who’d called the police.

Because even when Josiah lay bleeding on the ground, it didn’t feel like enough.

It had been me who’d administered first aid, slowing the bleeding while Josiah howled on the ground until an ambulance arrived.

“He needs to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Search that building, you’ll find everything you need as proof of fraud and child pornography,” I said to the police officer shakily, watching the paramedics try to stabilize Josiah before they could move him. “Please save him,” I called out to them.

The police officer paused, shaking her head and mumbling, “You’re a bigger woman than I am. I’d want that mofo in the ground.” She cringed then glanced at me. “Don’t tell my superiors I said that. Please. Men like him, I just…” She squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head, swallowing hard.

I squeezed the officer’s fingers, telling her silently I understood.

One abuse victim could see it in another.

For Jacqueline’s sake, I didn’t want him to die. Having the knowledge you were responsible for another person’s death, even one as evil as Josiah, wasn’t something anyone should ever have to feel.

But some darkness inside me just wanted him to suffer in prison for the rest of his life. Where I would know that hisevery minute was miserable, the same way mine had been every second I’d been his wife. Death would be too kind a fate for the things Josiah had done. He didn’t deserve the easy way out his friends would receive at the hands of Grayson’s murder squad.

The paramedic shot something into Josiah’s arm that calmed his howling long enough for them to get pressure bandages on his wounds and him loaded onto a gurney. The legs folded up as they pushed it into the back of the ambulance, and one paramedic climbed in beside him, the other readying to close the doors.

“Wait!” I broke away from the officer interviewing me and hurried to the back of the vehicle.

The paramedic stopped me, but it didn’t matter anyway. Everything I’d wanted to say to Josiah was drowned out by his drugged-up, barely coherent ramblings.

“We will all be judged at the feet of the Lord, our souls melded to our earthly bodies until the ring of fire is crossed. Repent! Repent! The Lord demands your souls be cleansed with fire and rain and blood. Repent! Repent!”

I couldn’t even get a word in amongst his verbal diarrhea.

For a man filled with so much natural charisma and charm that he’d managed to form a cult, what was left of him at the end of the day was nothing but a raving lunatic who I might have actually felt sorry for, if he hadn’t deserved everything he had coming.

Hayden moved a phone away from his ear and let out a wolf whistle that cut through the bustle of the scene. “All interviews end now, until our lawyers are present.”

One of the older officers frowned at him. “That’s not how this works, son.”

Hayden simply held the phone out. “You can explain that to my brother.”

I let out a slow breath. I knew Hayden’s brother, Liam, was one of the best lawyers in the state. We’d met years ago, just after Hayley Jade was born, and I’d never forgotten the calm demeanor he’d handled everything with.

It was clear nothing had changed. The officer listened while Liam barked orders down the phone, and eventually the officer made a face.

He gave the phone back to Hayden. “We’ve already got statements from Jacqueline and Kara. But according to your lawyer, we’ll be finishing these interviews at the station with him present. He tells me he’s flying his whole team in today to take care of this.” He lowered his voice to a mutter, but I still heard it. “Won’t that be fun.”

It sounded like he thought it would be anything but.

The police made shooing motions at us. “Go then. We have more than enough details to track you down should you decide to skip town before we’re done investigating. We need to process this crime scene.”

“They won’t find anything other than proof Josiah is a perverted freak,” Scythe said quietly from behind us.

“Nothing?” Hawk asked beneath his breath. “You sure? If I have to make a scene so you have more time—”

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