Page 117 of Brew
“No!” Bronco shouts, but it’s too late. I by-pass him on the stairs, my eyes landing on Jude; Steven’s other wife. The one Amber punched in the face all those years ago when we escaped.
I hold my hands in the air. “I’m unarmed,” I say. “Let Olive go, we both know you won’t hurt her, she’s a child.”
“Shut up!” Jude roars at me. She’s changed, but she’s also exactly how I remember her.
Angry. Hateful.
“I’ll come quietly,” I say, hearing Amber behind me on the stairs.
“Stop, or I’ll shoot,” Jude still has the gun pointed at my child.
Olive stares at me, her tear-stained face tugs at my heartstrings. Amber halts on the stairs as Bronco pulls her back behind him.
“No,” Amber cries. “Jude, why are you doing this?”
“You?” She sneers. “You betrayed your own brother! So you have no room to talk when you turned your back on him!”
“He was part of a trafficking organization with my fucking husband!” Amber roars. “I think Iknowwhat he was and what he wasn’t.”
“You don’t know him like I do,” she goes on. “You weren’t loyal to him in the face of all the uncertainty that followed. Steven is innocent, and because of your testimony the first time, you helped get him locked up for good.”
“It’s where he belongs,” I say calmly as I hover on the last step, my hands still in the air. “We both know that he’s not a good person. He did terrible things.”
She shakes her head, adamant in defending him. “Liar!”
“Jude, this isn’t you. You don’t want to do this. You don’t want to hurt anybody. What Steven did to you, what he did to all of us, was wrong,” I go on. “Deep down, you know that he never should have had another hearing. The lawyers are grappling with no case to go on, the whole thing was thrown out of court.”
“Yes, because of you!?” Her voice wobbles, and Olive closes her eyes. “After you left, Steven wasn’t the same. He loved you. We all lost something that day, and you just acted like none of us existed.”
I shake my head. “Even after everything you know?” I can’t even comprehend her words. “You’d still take his side? He was an abuser, Jude, nothing you can say will change that. Let Olive go, take me instead, she’s just a child.”
Jude trembles. I know deep down she doesn’t want to do this, but she’s in pain. She loved Steven. Blaming me won’t bring him back to her, but she clearly thinks hurting me might give her some power back.
“Please,” Olive begs. “Aunt Jude, please don’t do this.”
Her words shock me to my core. My baby. Anger boils up inside of me. “Jude.” I grit my teeth. “Let Olive go.”
“If I let her go, I’ve no leverage,” she maintains.
“Yes, you do, you have me.”
She nods to Bronco. “Get your friend to drop his gun.”
I look up to Bronco and nod. “Do as she says, Bronc. It’s alright.”
Bronco looks far from happy. Amber is at his side, with a look of worry and disbelief on her face as she watches on. I give her a sympathetic smile. He lowers his gun.
“Toss it onto the couch,” Jude says, motioning below Bronco. “Do it!”
Bronco complies, muttering profanities under his breath.
“There,” I say. “Now none of us are armed, let Olive go, she has nothing to do with this. She’s innocent and shouldn’t have any part in this.”
“Is that what you tell yourself?” She sneers. “To make you feel better at night?”
Jude has crazy eyes, and we still don’t know what happened outside, judging by the way no prospects have come running in, I dread to think of who took the bullet. I start to feel nauseous just thinking about it.
“I don’t tell myself anything. I moved on, you should too.”
