Page 70 of Game Changer

Molly sniffs. “So are the police.”

“And our boys,” Phoebe whispers.

“Please pass the same information. If I’m not there first, that piece of shit has now fucked with my ex, my forever, and my little girl.”

“I need five myself—that’s our everything,” Cory says so calmly it raises the hair on the back of my neck.

That’s when Molly breaks, and the others console her.

Cresting the hill, we see the Jeep. I throw on my hazards and nose my vehicle to it. Then I throw it in the park as I lay eyes on Lily, and when I kill the engine and get out, I can hear her singing and fucking crying, and it shatters any bit of hold I have on my anger.

“Lily girl, Daddy’s here, and so are the ladies and Poppa,” I yell to her as I cross the road.

I don’t slow when I see how steep of an incline it is, but it’s steep as shit.

“Cory,” I yell, knowing he’s behind me. “It’s fucking steep, man.”

I quickly spot the boot tracks where he stepped and broke through the snow frozen over.

“Don’t forget he’s armed, kid,” he calls to me. “You have a little girl with a mother already in a coma; no one would hold it against you if?—”

“I’d hold it against me, and Lily would. She told Syd she loved her last night—she’s not losing her.”

Farther down, I see blood and tracks like someone is being dragged.

“I told you I was sorry, you stupid bitch,” rings through the air. “Told you I wouldn’t do it again, and I told you I’d fix this. Those cunt cousins of yours think they’re better than everyone else, and now, so do you.”

I hold a fist up and crouch down to see if I can figure out how far they are from us. That’s when I see Sydney with her arms around a tree.

“Do they know you’re a little whore, like them? That you gave me an STD and threw yourself down the stairs to kill our baby?Do they?” He fists her hair and pulls her head back, his mouth at her ear. He then licks up the side of her face.

“Tastes like sugar, but you’re getting fat again. He’ll quit you then, just like I did,” he hisses.

I walk as silently as possible with my eyes on them, trying to see where his other hand is, if he has the gun in it.

When I see he doesn’t, I make my move.

Only, by the time I get to him, he does, and he’s pointing it at her head.

A shot fires, a pinch, and Sydney screaming, “No!” all happen at the same time.

That’s all I hear beyond the wildfire of anger and rage in my head as I smash his body into the ground, use his own cuffs to secure him, and do so while looking up at Sydney. “You okay?”

“You’re … you’re … you’re bleeding!”

I see her hands start to shake and stand up, placing my boot between Officer Dickless’s shoulders. “I’m good. We need to get up this hill before we lose our shit completely.” I kiss her hard enough to bring her back to the here and now, but not enough to bruise those pretty lips.

“Lily—”

“Called me, Syd. She got me here, and she needs to see you.”

“Okay.” She nods up and down quickly. “Okay.”

“You with me?”

She smiles sadly as she nods and Cory looks over my arm.

“In and out.”

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