Page 55 of The Fear
They both went down. Hala screamed when the knife sent fire screaming across her arm. Coming too close to her neck.
She fought. For herself, for the two children—for thehopeof a future with Grady.
Hala just keptfighting.
Until a man was there. She looked up, hope filling her. There was blood all over her. Some of it was hers.
But it wasn’t Grady standing there. It wasn’t.
It was a man she didn’t know at all. He just stood there, staring at Hala like she was nothing more important than a dead mouse on her own floor.
“Fuck, Jess. Just get your damned kids, and let’s go. I’m not waiting around forever—no one is worth me going back to prison. Let’smove. Some guy in a red truck is driving this way. Let’sgo.”
Hala tried to pull herself closer to the open door.
Grady was coming.
Hala screamed. As loudly as she could.Hisname. Because he would come for her. She just knew it.
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Grady parked.Hala was in the middle unit in the end building. It wasn’t a bad place, just older. “Stay there. I’ll come help you down.”
“I’m not helpless, you know. Just pregnant. I’m just fin—Grady!” Greer almost shrieked his name, and scrambled out of the truck. Grady followed the direction she’d been looking.
That’s when he saw the little boy standing there.
Next to the damned road. At first…at first he thought it was Ryan.
Then he realized, the little boy was a lot younger and smaller than Hala’s nephew—who took after Hudson in height. Grady scooped him up when the little boy reached for him. He felt so damned fragile. “It’s okay, it’s okay, buddy. You’re okay. You’re safe.”
The little boy was crying for his daddy so hard he was almost shaking apart.
Greer was there. “It’s Brenton Ryce’s son. BJ. His name is BJ and he shouldn’t be here. His mother doesn’t have custody any longer. And…BJ, where is Wynnie? Baby, where is Wynnie? They live right behind Hala, Grady. Right behind her.”
Her words froze his blood in his veins—as the sound of a woman screaming almost drowned out his sister’s words. Grady handed Greer the little boy. “Get him in my truck, get the engine running. Lock the doors. Go, Greer. Go!”
49
Hala’s door stood open.Grady could see that as he ran up her small trio of steps to her little front porch. She’d put a wooden daisy cut-out sign that saidWelcomeon the front porch. It was so epicallyher.
“Hala!” He yelled her name, feeling like his heart was being ripped out. “Honey, where are you!”
“Grady! She has a knife!”
He burst through the front door, almost tripping over a stack of boxes.
That’s when he could see them, on her dining room floor. Hala. That damned Jessica Curtis from the diner. That woman who had always bullied and taunted Greer, just because she thought she could. She was on her knees—pullingat Hala’s arms.
There was blood everywhere. Grady slipped, almost going down to his knees.
Hala had her arm up—covering the dark-haired little girl in her arms. Trying to protect.
As the child’s mother brought the knife down.
Hala screamed.
Grady just lunged.
