Page 80 of Blackwood

Sheriff Crow loomed above me, one hand wrapped around my breathing tube and the other pressing a knife into my throat.

“Shh. It’s just you and me now.”

The tube blocked my air flow as I tried to take a breath. I was suffocating, Sheriff Crow’s fist squeezing the life out of me as I tried to pull his hand away.

“No, no. It’s got to be this way.” He kept his voice low and gave me the same friendly smile that I’d first seen at the diner. “No witnesses. I can pin it all on the mayor, easy. But not with you around.”

Garrett.I searched the room for him. He was gone. Where?

My lungs convulsed, desperate for oxygen, but none was coming. I scrabbled for the nurse call button, but the sheriff grabbed my wrist. I used my other hand to try and push him away. Nothing. He was too determined, and I hadn’t recovered enough. I glanced to my closed door, hoping for the trooper.

“Trooper’s on a smoke break, sweetheart. Just you, me, and the heart attack that’s about to kill you.” He crimped the tube completely in half.

My lungs seized again, and I sucked in violently, this time catching some air from around the tube.

The sheriff frowned. “That won’t do.” He grabbed the tube and yanked it off, the tape ripping and my throat turning to fire as it pulled out.

I sputtered but only got a small breath before he slapped his palm onto my mouth and used the other to pinch my nose.

A door squeaked open. A roar ripped through the room. And then chaos. Garrett had walked out of the small bathroom and tackled the sheriff. Both men rolled on the floor, knocking over hospital equipment as Garrett screamed and fought like a wild creature.

The door opened, and the nurse stared, perhaps just as unable to believe the sight as I was.

“Call the trooper!” She dashed around the struggling men and came to the other side of the bed. Yanking my bed to the far wall, she put her arms around me, as if that would defend against the sheriff. “Get security!”

Sheriff Crow swung his knife and caught Garrett in the arm, but it didn’t stop him. Garrett slammed his elbow into the sheriff’s face. The man howled and tried to roll away.

Garrett grabbed him by the hair and yanked him down onto his back. Straddling him, Garrett grabbed the sheriff’s knife hand and beat it on the floor.Smack, smack, smack.The sheriff gave up, and the blade clattered loose.

“Lillian?” Garrett roared. He grabbed the sheriff’s head and slammed it down, blood spurting across the white tile. “Elise?” Another slam.

The nurse screamed as two more people in scrubs crowded at the door. The sheriff bucked and grabbed for something on his belt. Garrett swung wildly, fury in every vicious blow.

“Garrett!” I screamed as the sheriff sprayed Garrett in the eyes with something noxious.

The sheriff took the opening to shove Garrett off. Horror crawled around inside me, trying to scratch its way out of my throat.

Sheriff Crow, his back to me, reached for the knife as Garrett swung blindly.

I moved, slowly at first, the pain telling me I couldn’t do it. I ignored it and shook off the nurse’s clutching hands, but not before I grabbed the syringe from her pocket. Agony ripped through my abdomen as I struggled off the bed onto my unsteady feet. Surging forward, I ripped the IV free from my arm.

Sheriff Crow grasped the knife, then raised it over Garrett as he continued trying to wipe the spray from his eyes. I lunged forward and stabbed the syringe into the sheriff’s temple. He screeched and grabbed my wrist, but not before I depressed the plunger.

Dragging me to the ground next to Garrett, Sheriff Crow screamed and raised his knife again, though this time his arm wobbled. Garrett swung and landed a blow on Crow’s jaw with a sickening crunch. The sheriff dropped the knife, and his left pupil, near where I’d stabbed in the syringe, blew—the growing black hinting at his soul underneath.

With a shudder, he fell backwards and began convulsing on the floor. Garrett pulled me into his arms and rose to his feet. The sheriff stopped moving, his mouth slack and his eyes open wide. Backing away, Garrett and I both stared at him, hoping he was dead, fearing he wasn’t.

“I’ve got you, Red,” Garrett whispered into my hair. “I’ve got you.”

My nurse rushed around the bed and hit her knees next to the sheriff as others poured into the room. Garrett went against the grain, leaving with me in his arms, where I belonged.

Epilogue

The scentof earthclung to me as I hefted my shovel over my shoulder.

“Go easy there.” I stared at one of my undergraduate workers. “If you were to hit a piece of pottery, you’d shatter it.”

“Right.” She sat back and wiped the sweat from her brow.

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