Page 62 of Everyone Loved Her

Something internallyscreamedat me.Just leave it and go home.

But I pushed the warning thought away, pulling and parking along the side of the road—the opposite side as the headlights.

Here we go.

I reached into my console, searching for the pistol that I had kept there for years. I fished through the documents, desperate to find my .380. “What the hell?” I nearly shouted at it. I glanced back up at the bright lights, blinding me. “Seriously Garrett?”

I kicked open the driver’s side door, and slid out, the air feeling a little cool as it hit me in the face. My nostrils filled with the deep woodsy smell of the brush surrounding me, and what once had been one of my favorite scents now made my stomach churn. In the moment, it was hardly comforting. My first time being intimate hadhappened down here.

And now, for all I knew, the same person was about to murder me.

I stood there, just outside of my car at that thought, for a few seconds longer, staring at the headlights and waiting for Garrett to jump out. I carefully took a step toward the bridge, and gravity pulled my door away from me, clicking shut. I pulled out my cell phone, pulling up Garrett’s phone number, and hitting the call button.

But the door flung open instead.

I stopped the call and slid my phone back into my pocket. “Whatever you have to say, you can say from there,” I snapped, folding my arms across my chest as the wind cut through my jacket. Boots thudding across the wooden bridge, I made my way to the railing, my heart racing as I kept my eye on the open door, still blinded. I tried to shield my eyes as the lights dimmed—and then cut completely.

Why the heck is he blinding me like this?

I squeezed my eyes closed and then opened them, catching sight of a figure. Asmallone. As my sight adjusted to the dark, I realized I wasn’t looking at Garrett’s truck. It was a Tahoe. A black one.

“He’s not here, is he?” A feminine voice called out, and I made out Brittany, Garrett’s wife—er, ex-wife? Whatever she was.

“Um…” I eyed her as she jogged up to me, her expression filled with fear. “What are you doing here?”

“I knew he’d come to find you. You have to leave Beth.Now.He’s dangerous.” She shivered under a black jacket, her dark hair braided out of her face. “I don’t think you understand. Youhaveto go.”

“How did you know I’d be here?” I asked her, unable to let go of her presence.

“I, um, I put an app on his phone when we were married.” Her face fell in defeat. “I don’t really know how to help him, and that was my way of knowing where he was. I left it on there for safe keeping, and continued to try so hard to keep up with him—and I know that we were over, but I just kept praying that he’d come back, you know?” She looked back up at me, her eyes brimming with tears.

“Yeah, I get that,” I said, my shoulders slumping. “I’m sorry that it didn’t work out...” my voice trailed off as her eyes narrowed at me.

“Doyouknow where he is now?” Something in her voice caused me to rethink the situation.

“Uh... He… He was supposed to meet me here.” I swallowed hard, sensing her change in demeanor as she shifted her body to the left, blocking my way back to my car. “I really don’t know what’s going on… But I’ll go.” I held up my hands, making a move to slip past her.

She stepped in my way, her eyes darkening. “Really? Because you’reallhe’s talked about since you showed up to town. Actually, I guess that wouldn’t even be the truth. The man has gabbed about you since Imethim. Every time he got drunk, he’d go ranting and raving about needing to tell some bitch named Beth he was so sorry. He never called me when he got drunk. I had to make himthinkhe did.”

I raised my eyebrows at her, my heart now pounding inside my head. “My brother was his best friend, and he lost his friend. That’s all it was.”

“How cute you think that,” she snapped, her eyes boringinto mine. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as she took a step toward me. “You know what else is cute?”

“What’s that?” I choked out, tightening my grip around the railing. I had no idea what level of psycho I was dealing with, but based on the dead panned look in her eyes that I recognized in some of my clients… This wasn’t good.

“The fact that Sarah thoughtshewas going to be the one who changed Garrett,” she laughed, shaking her head as she reached into her back pocket. I wasnotsurprised when she pulled a pistol out, holding it out at me—but Iwassurprised it wasmine. “You can drop the act now. I’ve beendyingto talk to someone about what happened.”

And she has no intention of letting me live to snitch.

“Okay,” I held my hands up. I was going to have to have an exit strategy, and my mind was already calculatingjusthow far it was to the creek beneath me. “Whatever you want to talk about, but Garrett is on his way here.”

“No,” she cackled. “He’s not. He’s getting cuffed by your ranch manager. I called him with his location a few minutes ago.”

My heart sank, but I had to try. “Someone will still come. I told everyone where I was going.”

“Yeah, whatever,” she snorted, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, soSarahthinks that she can changemyhusband. Like she starts calling him up, and trying to convince him to go to treatment, all the while he’s still crashing on my couch. I was trying tosavemy marriage and she was just out there trying to be a jezebel and steal him away. I even took his guns to try and make him a better law-abiding citizen, like me. He took his shotgun back, but I kept the pistol...for awhile.”

The gun. The gun was with Brittany.The realization hit mychest like a ton of bricks as I feigned a sympathetic look. The pro to being a lawyer was knowing when to fake it—and right now, my life was on the line. “So, what did he think about it? Sarah? And your efforts?”

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