Page 108 of Brooke's Bliss
Noah.He’d figured out that the first shot had been to stopNoah from leaving.
Noah was dead.His whole soul ached for Jamie and Hope.Howwould they go on?
Kingman got to one knee in front of him, his eyes narrowslits.“I want to know where your brother keeps his frilly drawings.Son of abitch apparently drew a shitty picture of the last time anyone saw Meli Smith.”
Andy shook his head.“It was a pretty good picture, Boss.That’s what I was telling you.He even got you in the background holding thehammer you used.”
Why were they talking about a drawing?“I thought this wasabout the guns I saw.”
Kingman slapped Andy upside the back of his head beforereturning his attention to Shane.“What guns?What are you talking about?”
Dennis stepped back as though he knew he would be the nextto get a slap from the boss.“Uhm, it was the shipment the MC ordered.TheP90s.I needed help storing them, and Shane was around.In my defense, we hadtalked about bringing them in.”
“I told you I would bring this dipshit in but not Bay, and Ithen explained he would never leave his brother behind,” Kingman argued.Hesighed.“It’s why I was planning on letting them go before they saw too much,but you needed help.It doesn’t matter.The fact is we killed a bunch of peoplein that barn, and we’re not going to get another shot.I need that drawing.Shetold me her parents kicked her out, but damn they’re determined to find thewhore.”
“What do you mean you killed them?”Shane’s whole body hadgone cold.Brooke had been in the barn.
Kingman snorted.“Killed as in shot and dead, and now wegotta haul them all the way back home because I’ve got a place no one will everfind.My own killing ground, which is where you should be right now, but yousomehow figured out we were on to you.Mostly I like to do the killing rightthere, but we’ll transport the bodies and the cops won’t have any clue.”
“I assure you they will, and if you killed everyone in thatbarn, I won’t help you.I won’t save you.If you killed everyone in that barn,I’m already dead and nothing you do to me will make me talk.”Shane feltsomething hollow open in his gut.Brooke.She couldn’t be dead.He couldn’thave brought this to her.
In the distance, he heard another crack of gunfire.
Was that her?Had she managed to hide and now she’d beenfound and everything that was glorious and amazing about her was gone?
Kingman got in his face, taking his jaw in one hand andforcing him to look up.“We’ll see about that.Let’s see how much pain you cantake, you little shit.You and your brother think you can take me down.”
“We weren’t thinking about you at all until you pulled thisstunt, you dickhead.”Shane wasn’t afraid of pain.He’d had enough of it toknow it was simply one more thing to get through.But what this fucker hadtaken from him was more than pain.It was his whole heart ripped out andshredded on the ground in front of him.His soul would go with hers.
Kingman slapped him.Like bitch slapped him hard, making hishead turn, but Shane didn’t make a sound.
If Brooke was dead, he wanted to go with her, but he wasgoing to take Kingman with him.
Kingman stood, and Shane felt his whole body tense.
“This is a clusterfuck,” Kingman announced.“Someone go andsee if Jones needs help.I’m serious about getting those bodies out of here.Idon’t know who was in that barn, but I don’t want to leave evidence behind.”
One of the men started outside.There had been nine in hereat one point, including the three who had come out for the interviews, butShane had figured out Kingman had sent one to murder everyone in the barn.
The barn where Noah had been teaching Henry and Nell.
Where Brooke and Lucy had been with Henry and Nell.
Nell, who was a do-gooder pacifist pregnant with her secondchild.
Henry… Henry, who had once been a killer trained and paidfor by the Central Intelligence Agency.Bay didn’t believe the hype aboutHenry.He thought it was all Bliss antics.Brooke, too.They’d talked about itone night while they laid in bed and Brooke told stories about the Bliss of herchildhood.She thought he’d likely been an analyst or some sort of consultant.But that’s not what Shane heard.
Henry was a ruthless protector, trained in a way very fewpeople ever were.
Henry might be smart enough to figure out what was happeningand turn it back on his attacker.
Shane felt a surge of hope as Kingman railed on about howthey might as well burn the place to the ground and then they wouldn’t have toworry about Bay’s drawings.Someone mentioned he might have it on him and theywere debating that when Shane saw the hint of movement outside the window.Itwas nothing more than a flash of brown hair as someone moved past the kitchen,obviously toward the basement walkout.He could access the house from there.
Henry fucking Flanders.
If Henry was alive, there was a shot that Brooke was, too,and that she needed him.
“I know where it is,” Shane said quietly.“You could burndown both houses and the barn and the dorm and not find it.”
