All the Broken Pieces: (Broken Series Book 3) (40 page)

“So, tell me, the pussy still any good after what I did to it? I swear man, last time I fucked her I damn near ripped her shit in two. Fucking blood everywhere. It’s a good lubricant though, so I kept right on pounding her.”

My blood turned to ice in my veins and I spun around just as the deafening sound of a shotgun blast rang out across the valley.

The sound echoed into infinity as everything switched into slow-motion and I watched Isaac’s bloodied body fall back into the open grave.

•••

Brant

The flashing blue lights were making my head throb. People were moving all around me but I just stood there, numb, silent, and completely unremorseful. I only wished I could have shot him twice before he fell in that fucking hole.

The cops had ushered us both to the waiting paramedics to be assessed, Lauren was fine, of course. And now she always would be. A fresh-faced medic with blindingly white teeth dabbed antiseptic on my split lip and checked my various scrapes, all incurred during my initial skirmish with Isaac, during which he managed to get in a couple of good punches. I was pronounced stable—at least physically—and asked to move aside, presumably so the team could recover Isaac’s sorry carcass.

I would have left him for the buzzards, but it wasn’t my call.

Lauren stood at my side, not talking, not touching me. Just quietly watching the flurry of activity around us.

Eventually, a cop with a clipboard came over and nodded for the two of us to step over to the front of his cruiser. “So, who wants to go first?”

Before I could open my mouth, Lauren spoke up. “I will.”

He nodded for her to continue, only asking her to clarify the spelling of her last name before letting her get started. Another cop stepped over just as she began and nodded to her in a friendly manner. I thought I recognized him from the diner.

“I came out here to visit my uncle’s grave. Brant was following me, as was Isaac, apparently.” She motioned to me. “I didn’t want to come out here alone, so we agreed to meet here. I guess Isaac was sneaking up behind me when Brant caught up with him.”

I was careful not to let the surprise show on my face.

What the hell was she doing?

“As you can see from Brant’s injuries, they fought.” She motioned to my bruised face. “Brant managed to get his gun from him and I was just about to call you guys when I heard the sirens.”

He nodded. “We got a call from a passerby, saying they thought they saw two people fighting out here.”

Lauren didn’t seem surprised. “I had just started back toward the road to flag you down when Isaac lunged for me. Brant had no choice. He shot him to keep him from finishing what he started.”

The familiar cop looked at his buddy. “She’s the one who was nearly kidnapped at the gas station across town.”

The first cop quirked a brow. “I remember that.” He nodded to me, his expression softening. “You did a number on him, from what I heard. Good job, miss.”

He turned his attention to me. “That about the gist of it, sir?”

I blinked stupidly for a moment, awkward me making an appearance. I nodded, swallowing thickly. “I had to protect her.”

“Well, you sure succeeded. Ruined his whole damn day, you can bet that.”

I frowned, confused at his flippant tone. “Yeah, getting killed will do that, I guess.”

Both officers looked at me for a minute, and then the friendly cop called out to another uniformed guy standing near the ambulance, the shotgun in his gloved hand. “Charlie! Come here a minute.”

Officer Charlie waltzed over like he didn’t have a care in the world, like he wasn’t holding the still-warm weapon I’d just used to kill a man. I knew cops could get desensitized—had to in order to deal with the shit they saw on the job—but fuck. This was cold, even to an unrepentant murderer like me.

Friendly cop pulled on a glove and held out his hand. Charlie handed him the gun, along with the spent shells that were in a small baggie taped to the stock. He pointed the barrel at the ground and motioned Lauren and I closer, pointing at the baggie. “You see those?” He thumbed the shells through the plastic.

“Yeah?” I looked at Lauren who was as perplexed as I was. “So?”

“Target load. Bird shot. Lots of small pellets that didn’t get much deeper than half an inch into his skin. He’ll live. He’ll never be pretty, not that he was in much danger of that to begin with, but he won’t die.” He shook his head, running his hand over the barrel. “Old man Hargrave reported this thing stolen out of his hunting truck yesterday. He was out gunning for squirrels.” The cop made a face. “Puts the damn things in everything. Remember that if he ever offers you stew. If he insists, take it and toss it in the nearest dumpster. He’s a nice enough old man but he can’t cook for shit. Damn pellets floating all in that stuff.”

Lauren chuckled softly. “He was in the diner a while back offering tips on our Brunswick stew. I just gave him the standard smile and nod. He gave up eventually.”

“Just wait a goddamn minute, will you?” I held up my hand to silence them both while the other two cops smirked at my outburst. “Can we discuss soup later? Right now I’d like to hear more about how I didn’t just kill someone.”

“Stew.” Lauren muttered, averting her eyes when I turned to glare at her. Was she actually smiling?

Friendly cop laughed. “Nope. Not dead. Pissed off and looking a bit like Swiss cheese, but not on his way to hell just yet.” He leveled his gaze on me. “Why? You wishing it’d been buck shot?”

“Wouldn’t you be after all he’s done to her?”

Nods all around but not one verbal confirmation. They could sympathize with the situation but none of them would ever admit to agreeing with that.

The first cop stepped up and handed us each a sheet of paper. “If you’ll sign off on your statements, you can be on your way. No need to hang around and get snowed on all day. I think this is pretty cut and dried. With his history and the fact that there’s already a federal warrant out for him, we really don’t need much from you at this point. And if we need more from you, it won’t be until the courts reopen after the holidays anyway. You try to enjoy your holiday and don’t worry about him ever getting the chance to bother y’all again. He won’t be getting released a second time, you can bet that much.”

Lauren thanked them and took me by the sleeve, pulling me toward my truck as I kept mulling it over in my head, trying to figure out how the fuck I just got to walk away from all this unscathed.

When we reached my truck, Lauren fished my keys out of my pocket and looked at me for a long moment. Then she held up a finger telling me to wait a minute and ran back the way we came. A few minutes later, she returned with her bags in her hands, presumably having taken them from her car.

“They are having an officer take my car back to my house for me.” She tossed the bags in the back seat and ushered me into the passenger side of my own ride, and I complied without comment. Was this what shock felt like? I was kinda numb and felt floaty, like I wasn’t really attached to my body all the way. It was bizarre but I couldn’t even muster enough emotion to be concerned about it.

All that mattered was that it was over.

I’d shot a man, fully intended to kill him, and the truth was, I was sorely disappointed that I hadn’t.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Lauren said, causing me to look up through the windshield.

When had we started moving? I didn’t know.

I blinked over at her and waited for her to continue since I couldn’t find the words.

“You still want him dead. You want to go back to the beginning and fill that gun with shells that would take down a rhino and you want to shoot him all over again.”

I nodded, head feeling impossibly heavy.

“It’s no different than when he grabbed me in that parking lot. I wanted to cut him more, rip him to shreds. Remember?” She was talking so slowly, so evenly that I wanted to close my eyes and listen to her speak forever.

“Brant? Do you remember what you told me about that? When I said I was fucked up for wishing I’d hurt him even more?”

I didn’t answer, just closed my eyes.

“You said you were proud of me. That it was okay to want to hurt him because it was me defending myself. And today is no different. You were defending me.”

“Was I?” My voice was a pitiful croak. “He didn’t lunge for you like you told the cops. We both know why I shot him. I snapped. He said those vile things and I could see it in my head, the way he hurt you, and all I wanted was to watch him die. So I shot him.”

“He’s not going to die.”

“But I shot him not knowing that. I assumed when I pulled that trigger that the man on the other end would cease to exist.”

“And that’s hard for you to accept?”

She didn’t need to know how far it had gone before she showed up. I would never tell her how long I traded punches with him just to have the satisfaction of hearing his bones crunch under my fists or how I marched him all over that graveyard at gunpoint in search of a shovel so I could make him dig his own grave. How much I enjoyed watching the fear in his eyes. Was it hard to accept that I tried to kill a man? “Not in the slightest. I just wish I’d shot him twice. Even with bird shot, maybe that second time I would have gotten an artery.”

“Oh.”

“Do you think less of me now? Knowing I tried to kill someone?”

She was quiet for a moment.

“You’re scared of me now, aren’t you? I did this and now you think I’m capable of anything, even hurting you.” My voice was thick with misery.

I looked up just as the truck came to a stop, blinking stupidly at the open field in front of us. She’d pulled onto a farm path. Next thing I knew, she was climbing into my lap.

“I’d never think badly of you for what you did today. You were willing to risk everything to protect me. I don’t ever want you to do that again because you scared the shit out of me, but only because the idea of losing you is my worst freaking nightmare. I know you’d never hurt me, you crazy ass weirdo. You just shot a man to protect me.”

She reached up and took my face in her hands. “You have to stop this. It’s over. To be honest, I think he goaded you into shooting him so he didn’t have to go back to prison. Things worked out perfectly, if you ask me. You got to shoot him and he
still
goes to prison. We win twice. And the best part is he’s got no more hold on either of us.” She kissed the edge of my mouth, careful to avoid my injured lip. “We’re going back to the cabin, calling to tell your parents to expect us tomorrow instead of tonight, and then we’re going to crawl into that huge garden tub and soak until we look like a couple of prunes. And when we wake in the morning, after a long night of therapeutic loving, we’re going to waltz right out that door and into our future without another thought wasted on any of this. You understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I drawled, finally finding my smile, though it hurt my split lip. She was right. It was over. I’d done everything possible to save her; I’d even shot a man, and though I was still disappointed that Isaac survived, I knew he’d never hurt her again. I couldn’t lose sight of that. That ghost in my nightmares was wrong. I didn’t fail. She was safe and sound and mine forever. We really did win— both of us.

She climbed back into the driver’s seat and pointed us in the direction of my cabin. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. She was so much stronger than she’d ever given herself credit for. It was nice seeing her taking charge of her life.

It was even nicer that I knew she wanted me in it.

When we reached the cabin, I opened the console, smirking at the cobra decal as I always seemed to do these days and withdrew the thick envelope inside.

“Before we go in, I want to show you something.”

Lauren turned and cocked her head at the fat envelope. “Okay… whatcha got there?”

“It’s your Christmas present. I was going to wait until tomorrow but I think I need to give it to you now, while it’s just us.” I turned it over and over in my hands, nervous. “I’m sorry it isn’t wrapped. I guess I could have at least put a bow on it or something first, huh?”

She slapped at my shoulder playfully. “Stop. I don’t need any of that. It’s funny, though. What I have for you is in an envelope, too.”

“Is that right?” I smiled.

She watched me with a fond expression. “But you still want to go first, don’t you?”

I nodded and handed her the envelope, watching with a gut full of butterflies as she unfolded the heavy stack and read the first page.

“Wait…” She flipped to the next page, scanning. Then the next. Her eyes darted to mine. “How? And what about…?”

“Ali talked to Marilee a few weeks back, Bonnie wasn’t guarding the phone and she managed to get through. Anyway, she told Ali she’d decided to sell the house. She said it was too filled with memories and she couldn’t bear being there without Teach. She planned to tell you after the holidays.”

She blinked at me then looked back at the papers. “So, she… and you…? How?”

“I wasn’t about to let you lose that place. It’s your home. Teach would have wanted you there. And Marilee does, too. I made her an offer that was way above what she was asking, and got a little help from the bank to push the paperwork through in time for Christmas.” I chuckled a little under my breath, feeling better with each passing second. “I’m not sure what was more fun, being on the phone with Marilee and hearing Bonnie screeching in the background when she found out she was too late to stop the sale or watching Jacob’s smug face fall when he had to help me with the paperwork, knowing who I was giving the deed to.”

“You bought me a house?” Her voice was high, incredulous. “No… really…you bought me a house?”

“No, baby. I bought you a home. And you’ll never have to leave it if you don’t want to. It’s yours. Right down to the shag carpet and slamming storm doors that scare the shit out of people.”

She dropped her head and shed silent tears for a while, and I left her to it. I knew she needed to process. She’d let me know when she was ready for my arms. She always did.