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The blue lowers his weapon. “This true?”

“Yeah. Detective Sadie Hopkins out of Bayfield. My badge is in my purse. It’s probably still up in the living room. The injured party is my father, Curt Hopkins. He brought me down here at gunpoint.”

“And the gun that shot him?”

“His own.” She lifts the flared part of her jeans. “This is mine.”

“You were able to overpower your father?” the first officer asks.

“Yeah. I’ve got the same training you guys have. It wasn’t easy, but I managed. Plus, he’s drunk.”

“He’s alive.” The second officer goes over and holds his hand to Curt’s neck. “The bleeding doesn’t look life threatening yet, but he needs an ambulance.”

“Already called,” another blue says, walking down the stairway. They must have called in shots fired or something, getting backup. “I’ve got the other lady in custody.”

Good. That woman needed to go to fucking jail. Jesus, she stood in the kitchen smoking a fucking cigarette while Sadie was down here defending herself from her gun-toting father.

“You work with Bryant?” the officer asks Sadie. “He’s a good man.”

Sadie nods. “He is.”

“Detective, I’m sorry you had to go through all of this. Jones here will stay on the scene until the ambulance comes for your father. I’m going to need you to come down to the station and answer some questions.”

I pull Sadie back into my body. “Whatever you need. But my woman isn’t going anywhere without me. Ever again.”

28

SADIE

“He was stumbling a little, obviously drunk,” I say, as the intake officer, Luis Reyes, makes his report. “I’m trained to read people, as you know, so I took a chance. As soon as I saw him waver, I clutched his wrist quickly, twisted it, and forced the gun out of his hand. He lunged at me, but I was able to grab the gun off the floor. He continued advancing toward me, so I had no choice but to shoot him.”

“You're a good shot, Detective,” Officer Reyes says. “You knew just where to hit him so you wouldn’t do any lasting damage.”

“It was tempting,” I say, “but he is my father. And I don’t want a dead body on my conscience, for sure.”

Reyes nods. “A lot of us cops have been there. It’s not pretty. But you did good, Detective. Sheriff Bryant is lucky to have you.”

“Thank you.”

I’m aware of how robotic my voice sounds. I’m still reeling from the events of the afternoon. I’m just stating facts, giving the details I know he’ll want for his report. The emotions and feelings pushed to the side. Miles sits beside me, holding my hand.

Miles, the man I love. The man who loves me back.

“What’s going to happen to my father?” I ask. “I mean, after he gets out of the hospital.”

“He’ll be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon of course, unless you don’t want to press charges.”

I don’t reply at first. He is my father. But he’s somehow involved in what’s going on with Joey and the Bridger family, and it needs to be investigated. We need to prove Chance’s innocence, and I personally want to prove Joey’s, if I can. It’ll all be a lot easier if Curt Hopkins is out of the way. Or at least talking.

“I will be pressing charges, Officer. I want to know why he did it. I was pushing him for answers he didn’t want to give. Hopefully jail time will get him to spill.”

“Good,” Reyes says. “I didn’t want to have to talk you into it. I don’t like to see a fellow officer dealing with the same shit we go on calls for day in and day out and then not press charges.”

I nod in understanding.

“What will happen to Rainey?” I ask.

“Rainey?”