Page 124 of The House Beyond the Dunes

“The cops and rescue squad can help her. She’ll need professional help, pain meds. The bullet struck her in the face.”

He squeezes my shoulders, reminding me of how strong he is. If he shifted those hands to my throat, I wouldn’t be able to stop him from strangling me.

Taking me by the hand, he pulls me out to the porch. I resist, but his grip tightens, and he tugs me forward. Out on the porch, I shiver against the cold that quickly shoots more energy into my system.

I stand barefooted on the cold, wet wood as he kneels and tenderly touches Devon’s face. “Devon? Can you hear me?”

Her eyes flutter open, and a painful moan escapes through lips soaked in blood and torn flesh. Her eyes roll toward me and narrow. Even in this much pain, she wants to kill me.

Those eyes shift to Reece, and she stares directly at him. The look is intimate, the kind shared by people who’ve known—no, loved—each other for years. He brushes back a strand of bloodstained hair from her face and nods. She can’t smile, but even with all the agony racking her body, she relaxes a fraction.

Reece rises and turns toward me, the gun at his side. “I can’t let her go to jail.”

I grip the folds of the shirt as I back up toward the house. “She tried to kill me.”

He shakes his head as his shoulders slump slightly. “She’s always been crazy when it came to Kyle.”

“She’s insane.”

He studies me closely. “You look so much like her. When I first saw you, I thought you were her.”

“Who?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Maybe that’s why Kyle approached me initially. Why he was hell-bent on us having a relationship. “I reminded him of someone else.”

“I didn’t know about the others.”

“How could you not know? You knew what Kyle was capable of.”

“I spent a lot of time away. I didn’t reconnect with Devon until a few years ago.”

“When did she tell you what Kyle had done?”

“We were in bed. She was drunk. I was annoyed with Kyle because he was late paying a construction bill he owed me. She figured I’d feel better if she confessed Kyle had done it again.”

“Did you press her for details?”

“I didn’t have to ask to know what she meant.”

“And when she said I was coming here, was she drunk then?”

“Yes.”

“You knew it was my turn.” I’m clutching flannel folds, wondering why he never called the cops. One phone call would have changed the trajectory of Kyle’s plans.

“I didn’t know that for sure.”

“Come on, you knew. I wasn’t supposed to go home, was I?”

His eyes close for a moment. He radiates shame. “I wasn’t going to let him hurt you. That’s why I was here. I thought if I was around, it would be different this time.”

Devon had protected Kyle and so had Reece. The picture of the three boys flashes in my mind. Reece had said loyalty mattered to him. Clearly, he was devoted to Kyle, Jeb, Zeke, and Devon. He had no allegiance to the women they’d hurt.

He raises the gun toward me. “I’m sorry.”

Chapter Thirty-One

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