Page 100 of The Wish List
“Everybody shut it,” Dave hollered and continued up the aisle until he was a few feet from her. “I’m here to meet my son and talk to my girl.”
“I’m not your girl,” Trinity said, forcing her voice to remain steady. She held up a hand. “Don’t come any closer, Dave. You have no right to be here.”
“Au contraire,” he said in an exaggerated Southern accent. “Show me the baby, Trin.”
She shook her head and held Thomas more tightly. To her relief, he’d fallen asleep and didn’t seem to notice the ruckus surrounding them. “How did you find me?”
“Your sister led me to you.” He pointed the knife in Freya’s direction. “Imagine my surprise when I stopped by a gas station to buy a pack of smokes on Christmas Eve and saw my mousy little Trinity on the TV behind the register.”
“No,” Freya breathed. “I’m so sorry, Trini—”
“Shut your fancy mouth, too, Hollywood.” Dave drew lazy figure eights in the air with the blade of his knife.
“I’m not yours.” Trinity squared her shoulders. “And neither is this baby. You need to go, Dave. This is your chance to walk away with no consequences. I don’t want anything from you so—”
“I want something from you. I want you and that baby to come home with me.”
“I am home.”
He growled low in his throat. “Not if I say you aren’t.”
“You have no power over me.” She spoke the words slowly, so he couldn’t mistake her meaning. “I won’t let you hurt my son or me.”
“Myson.” He smacked an open palm against his chest.
“There isn’t a chance in hell I will let you near this baby, Dave.”
“What happened to you?” Dave inclined his head as he studied her. “Where is the sweet, docile woman I knew?”
She swallowed down the humiliation of her past showing up to threaten her future. She could see Shauna holding her boys tight and Ash nudging Michaela nearer her grandmother as he inched closer to the end of the pew.
The police chief was out of uniform today, and she highly doubted he was carrying a weapon to her baby’s baptism. Even if he had a gun, what would he do with innocent people on every side?
She tipped her chin as she glared at her ex-boyfriend. “You beat the sweet right out of me, Dave.”
May gave a small cry behind Trinity, but she didn’t turn around. As much as she wanted to rely on Ash or her sisters or mother to help rescue her, she knew she had to stand up to her abuser if she was going to truly move forward, no matter how this standoff ended.
She also knew it would end with Thomas safe. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for her son.
“We can try again, Trin.” Dave’s tone had turned sickly cloying, the way it used to when he was attempting to wheedle his way back into her good graces.
She’d left good and grace behind in Montana with her old life.
He mistook her silence for assent and held out a hand, beckoning to her. “Come with me, sweetheart. We’ll be a family. You’ll see. I’m not leaving here without you, Trin.”
It felt as though the entire church held its breath, waiting to see what would happen next. She wasn’t fooled or tempted but didn’t know how to ensure no one got hurt when her answer was sure to enrage her unstable ex.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Ash’s dark gaze. He gave her a barely imperceptible nod, which was all the encouragement she needed.
Yes, she could do this alone. But she didn’t have to.
“I don’t belong to you, Dave. I’m not your girl or your woman or your victim any longer. I belong to me and to my son. You will not take another thing from me.”
His face went mottled with rage, and then everything happened in a blur of motion. Greer, Ash and Declan all seemed to move at the same time. Declan jumped up from his seat and grabbed Dave’s arm as Ash rushed toward them.
Greer stepped directly in front of Trinity, blocking her from Dave’s line of sight. She felt the arms of both her sisters come around her and willed herself to stay lucid despite the adrenaline rushing to her head. She needed to protect Thomas.
She heard a scuffle, the sound of flesh pounding against flesh and Dave crying out in pain along with a low curse that sounded like Declan.
