Page 59 of One Cry Too Loud
“Because our amateur isn’t as amateurish as you thought,” I said, motioning to my ear so the others knew what was going on.
“You’re right about that,” Tag said. “I don’t know if I’m being paid for this, but if I am, I deserve a bonus. When I couldn’t hear from you guys, I knew it wasn’t good. So, I counted the area for cyber anomalies, and wouldn’t you know it. There’s a big old one that I could trace back to Holly’s folks’ house. I can’t believe that old dude is Nefarious. I would have pegged him as someoneyounger. I guess assuming really does make an ass out of you. Anyway, the police are on the way. Also, the door's open.”
I looked up and watched as the red light above the door flickered off.
“Give me the gun and get to the sides of the room,” I said, grabbing the gun from Holly.
“Where are you-”
“They still have our weapons,” I said to Kat. “I’m going to end this.”
I moved to the door and pulled it open, ducking to the right side.
As I expected, bullets began flying through the open doorway. Thankfully, the others were on either side of the room, pressed against the walls and away from the bullets’ paths.
I reached around and shot a couple of times myself. When I didn’t hear the return fire, I moved forward. Walking through the door, I fired a few more times. Duncan and Caroline were outside, running in the other direction. Duncan fired back at me twice, but missed both times. He tried once more, and the gun clicked, letting us all know that he was out of ammo.
Duncan turned quickly and started running as fast as he could. For her part, Caroline darted in the other direction. I still had the gun in my hand, and I assumed there were still bullets. I didn’t need them, though. The old man might have been running as fast as he could, but he still had at least twenty years on me, and I had been chasing people my entire life. I was uniquely qualified for this.
My legs pumped hard as I bridged the gap between us. I hit Duncan hard in the back of the head with the butt of the gun. He went down.
Turning on his back, the old man put his hands out in front of him. “Don’t shoot!” He screamed as he looked up at me. I had the gun pointed on him as sirens filled the air. Looking up, I sawa few police officers coming toward me. Then, in the distance, I heard a gunshot.
My heart skipped a beat as I turned toward the source of the noise. It was coming from inside the shed, where everyone else was.
“God, no,” I said, and took off toward the shed.
Entering it, I saw that Kat had Caroline pushed against the far wall. A gun was on the floor. God, she’d had one of the guns.
Looking forward, I saw Joe sprawled across the floor. He was covered in blood and he had his head in Holly’s lap.
“She tried to kill me,” Holly said, weeping. “She said I wasn’t worthy of being her daughter and she shot at me.” She looked down at Joe. “He jumped in front. He saved me.” She was brushing his hair back with her hand as she continued. “You’re going to be okay. You’ve got to be okay.”
“I wa-want you to know,” he said weakly. “I might have done wrong, I know I did, but I-re-really did love…”
His eyes closed and his body went limp. He was gone.
CHAPTER 39
“How are you holding up?” I asked, looking over at Holly with a drink in my hand. It had been a little over two weeks since that awful day in Dorset, and in that time, I hadn’t had a chance to talk with Holly about everything that had happened. So much had gone down since Cindy was kidnapped. It had realistically upended all of our lives, and it had taken a few weeks to get everything back on track. That was where we were today; at an impromptu beachside gathering to celebrate the fact that-after everything, we were all still okay, all still together.
“I’m alright,” the woman said, though there was a wistfulness in her voice that told me the truth was somewhat grayer. How could it not be after everything she had gone through? Those few days had seen her learn of the death of her father, the betrayal of her mother and mentor, and the death of her first love at the hands of the woman who gave her life. All that, and she met the daughter she gave up for adoption, the most important person in the world to her. If her head wasn’t spinning, she wouldn’t be human.
“I’m always here if you need to talk,” I said. “Or, if you need something a bit more formal, Kyle is-”
“I don’t need therapy, Jack,” she answered. “I don’t know that I need anything honestly. It’s been a lot. I can’t lie to you and say it hasn't, but the truth is, I think I’m okay. I spent so many years regretting so much about my life, about the choices I made and the way everything worked out. There was something about this, though-about seeing everything laid bare, that brought me some peace. Cindy is okay. She has a mother who loves her and a life that she can be happy in. I even talked to Alice. She told me that, if I ever wanted to see Cindy, the door was always open.”
“That’s fantastic,” I said.
“That’s not all, though,” Holly lamented. “There was something else, something about seeing what my mother did, the way that she thought. It forced me to come to terms with who she really is. She’s a monster, Jack. I see that now, and I can let it go. I don’t have to wonder whether or not the things I did were the reason I don’t have a relationship with the woman. The truth is that there’s nothing I could have ever done to have made things okay. I don’t want a relationship with that woman. She doesn’t deserve to know me, and that’s just fine.”
“I get that,” I said, raising my bottle to her. “I am sorry about Joe, though.”
“I am too,” she said. “We had a complicated relationship, right until the very end. I’ll tell our daughter about him, though. I’ll tell her how he saved both our lives.”
“All things considered, that’s a hell of a legacy,” I replied.
“Look at you two,” a voice sounded from behind me. I turned to find Tag walking in our direction. He had a fruity drink, something with an umbrella and a pineapple, in his hand. He smiled smugly as he settled in front of us. “Don’t you guys make a cozy looking couple.”
