Page 188 of Five Mountain Daddies

I want to scream. I back up, staring at him with wideeyes.

His smile is so sickening, so starkly gross, that I can feel nausea bubbling up in my gut. I suddenly know, without a shadow of a doubt, that this man killed my brother, and he’ll kill me next. He murdered Atticus in a horrible and brutal way, an unnecessarily bloody and gruesome way, and he’s about to do that tome.

He stops just inside the room, his smile enormous, swallowing his whole face. “It’s good to see you again,” he says, and he slowly pulls a gun from hiswaistband.

I’m shocked when my mom suddenly moves. I didn’t realize she had gotten out of bed, wine bottle clutched in her hand. She brings it down on Jaxson’s head, coming at him from the side. He clearly was too fixated on me to notice her. She smashes the bottle down hard, green glass cracking and breaking, and he crumbles down to thefloor.

“Run!” my momscreams.

That snaps me out of my haze. I get up, darting up and over Jaxson. As I get past him, he reaches out and grabs my ankle, tripping meup.

My mom is out the door already. I scream as I go down and Jaxson groans, blood running down his face. His eyes are wide and there’s a shard of glass stuck in his scalp as he crawls towardme.

I scream and kick at him. The gun fell out of his hand, and it’s halfway across the room. I know I can’t get to it in time. I kick again, connecting with his nose, making himgroan.

But he grabs my ankle again, not letting me go. His grip is ice and iron. He pulls, coming closer as he crawls like a slug, making this horrifying groaningnoise.

“Cora,” he grunts. “I’ll choke you,bitch.”

I scream again and kick. It connects solidly again, and this time his grip loosens. I shake him off and scramble away on my hands and knees. When I make it over to the broken door, I get to my feet and startrunning.

I keep running until someone grabs me. I don’t know who it is and my instinct is to fight, fight and scream, but he’s holding me tight, saying my name over andover.

It takes me a second before I realize that it’s Wyatt. “Cora, it’s okay,” he says. “It’s me. What’shappening?”

I look around. I’m down in the parking lot. Wyatt’s looking at me like I’m insane. My mom’s nowhere to beseen.

“Jaxson,” I say finally. “In my mom’sroom.”

His face goes serious. “Stay here.” He strides away, moving into a jog. He heads up the front stairs and onto thebalcony.

I can see the room with the door kicked open. Wyatt approaches it a little cautiously. He slowly looks inside, but pulls back as three loud cracks break thestillness.

I recognize the gunshots for what they are. They’re so much louder than I thought they’d be. I fall down to the ground, but I can’t stop watching Wyatt. He drops backward, flat against the wall. He yells something, but it’s lost in thegunfire.

He falls back. I watch him open his room’s door and step inside just as Jaxson emerges from my mom’s room. Jaxson looks around, bleeding and clearly dazed. He stumbles down the ramp, toward thestairwell.

Wyatt comes out of his room and yells after him. Jaxson doesn’t hesitate. He fires at Wyatt, forcing Wyatt back into his room. Jaxson stumbles away again, down into the parking lot, and I want toscream.

I’m so afraid he’ll find me. He’s going to kill me if he does, and I’m just crouching down in the parking lot, hands over my ears, eyes wide, tears stinging mycheeks.

But Jaxson doesn’t even look for me. He jumps into an old beat-up green sedan and it peels out, driving away from the motel. I catch sight of a second person in the car, but I don’t recognize whoever it is. I don’t get a good look as the car speeds out into traffic anddisappears.

Wyatt appears seconds later. “Are you okay?” His voice comes through muffled anddistant.

He pulls me to my feet, arms wrapped around me as I sob into his chest. “She saved us,” Isay.

“Who?”

“My mom. She hit him with herbottle.”

“It’ll be okay,” he says, but his voice is flat andexpressionless.

I press myself harder against him, still shaking, fear flowing through me. But he’s here now, and he’s going to keep me safe. It’s going to be okay. It has to beokay.

22

Cora

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