Page 111 of Steadfast
There was a sudden, earsplitting crash. I fell backward, and it was just like in a bad dream. My arms were confined so I couldn’t break my fall. I landed on my father, our heads knocking together.
The pistol fired and somebody screamed.
One second after that I was rising through the air again as Griff Shipley lifted me up off the ground, leaving my father on the floor.
Behind him stood my mother, a broken lamp in her hands.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Jude
When I heardthe gun go off, I couldn’t stay in Griff’s truck one second longer. I threw open the door and powered up the walkway to the house. In the open doorway, Griffin sort of passed Sophie to me. The moment my arms closed around her she sagged against my body. “Oh my God,” she whispered.
“Shh, it’s okay.”
And it was. Griff dropped down to the floor and actually sat on the Chief of Police, holding down his arms so he couldn’t start swinging.
“Get the fuck off me,” the chief complained.
“No can do.”
“My weapon discharged. I’m hit.”
“You grazed your ass, I think,” Griff said. “Your wife is calling 9-1-1.”
Mrs. Haines had the phone pressed to her ear. “The chief was involved in a domestic disturbance,” she said to the dispatcher. “Send an ambulance and a county sheriff.Notone of his police officers. There’s a conflict of interest.”
“Go, Mom,” I whispered into Sophie’s ear, and she turned to me wide-eyed.
Sophie had temporarily lost the ability to speak, and she was actually shaking. So I steered her out the door and toward Griff’s truck. Lifting her gently, I set her on the passenger seat and then climbed in beside her, pulling her into my arms.
“Dad was… I got caught snooping,” she stammered.
“Okay. It’s okay now.” I rocked her.
“My mother broke a lamp over his head.”
“Your mom is a badass.”
Sentence fragments were still pouring out of her. “He pulled his gun on me! I just can’t even… What anasshole!”
“Shh, shh, shh,” I said, stroking her arm. “It’s over now.”
“Griff came to the door? I was so confused.”
“I know.” I pushed the hair off her forehead. “He wouldn’t let me do the knocking.”
“Because my father would haveshot you.”
“No he wouldn’t,” I tried, just so she could calm down.
“Tonight he would’ve.” She gave a big shudder in my arms.
“Didn’t happen, though,” I whispered.
We heard a siren, and a few seconds later an ambulance pulled up behind Griff’s truck. The driver hopped out and approached us. “What’s the scenario inside?”
“The police chief’s gun discharged accidentally,” I said with a calmer voice than should have been possible. “He’s bleeding. But my friend is restraining him because he threatened his daughter with a gun earlier. And then his wife broke a lamp over his head.”
