48. Cody

FORTY-EIGHT

I jarred awake to the pounding at the front door, confused as I blinked into the murky light that covered Hailey's room. The covers were rumpled beside me, and I didn't have time to grumble about the fact she wasn't there to wake up in my arms before another round of battering railed at the door.

That was right about the time a call started buzzing from my phone where it rested on the nightstand.

Ezra.

Shit.

No doubt, I was about to get clobbered for not calling the dude yesterday to let him know what had gone down, and I wasn't so sure that statement was in the metaphorical sense. He was bound to be pissed.

But the last thing I'd needed was my mother rushing down to that hospital terrified. Thinking she was going to lose another man in her life.

I needed to show up at her door, whole and alive, and tell her myself.

Blowing out a sigh, I scrubbed a hand over my head, trying not to wince at the blister of pain that throbbed from every inch of my bruised body. The good stuff they'd pumped me full of yesterday had long since vacated my system, and I would be a liar if I said I wasn't hurting.

Instead of grumbling about it, I thanked fuck that I was still standing.

That these legs could carry me from Hailey's bedroom and toward the front door that was getting battered again, the damn thing rattling on its hinges.

I was looking around, wondering where the fuck Hailey was if she wasn't in bed, my chest stretching in a bid of worry when she wasn't already there to answer the door.

"Hailey?" I called, figuring Ezra banging at the door had woken up the entire house, anyway.

Footsteps pounded, but it was Lolly who made it to the end of the hall at the same time as I was peering through the peephole to verify it was in fact Ezra.

"What's going on?" Lolly muttered, her face still bleary from sleep.

"Don't worry, Lolly, it's just Ezra, one of my best friends. Pretty sure he caught wind of what happened yesterday afternoon."

"Well, you'd better let him in before he busts that door down and wakes up the entire neighborhood."

I undid the locks and Ezra barged in the second I turned the knob, the giant of a man storming into the house raring mad.

"What the fuck, Cody?" he demanded the second he saw me. In a flash, his attention had skated over my frame, categorizing my injuries.

One second later, he was crushing me in his arms in some kind of bear hug. "Fuck, are you okay?"

"Yeah, man, I'm okay."

"Good, then I'm going to kick the crap out of you for not calling me," he said as he stepped back, eyes scanning me again. "What the hell happened?"

"Was getting in my truck at the end of the day. I opened the door and everything went boom."

Fury gritted Ezra's teeth. "This Pruitt bastard?"

I pushed a shaky hand through my hair. "Likely."

"Shit," Ezra spat. "I'm going to get with the Sheriff of Hendrickson, and we are going to nail this fucker."

"Yeah. We have to take this monster down. Before he gets to Hailey."

That sent my gaze roving, and another bite of unease rolled through me when Hailey still wasn't standing by my side.

"Do you know where Hailey is?" I asked Lolly.

Her head barely shook. "I just came out of my room to see what the commotion was about."

Ezra sighed. "I'm not sure what's going on here, Cody, but Savannah just called as I was pulling up out front. Said Hailey had been at the house and needed to talk to me. She's on her way back here."

Trepidation thudded deep. "Why the hell would she leave without telling me?"

I didn't know who I was asking.

Ezra.

Lolly.

Myself.

The only thing I knew was things weren't sitting right. The energy this morning felt off.

Our rhythm off beat.

It climbed from the depths of me and into my consciousness, a warning that had started to blare.

"Do you know what it's about?" I pinned Ezra with the question.

His exhalation was heavy. "I'm not even supposed to be saying anything to you since she asked to talk to me in private, but no, I don't."

That trepidation spiked. Daggers of unease.

"Fuck," I rumbled toward the floor.

"I'm sure it's about what happened yesterday. Her ex. I'm sure she's blaming herself right about now," Ezra surmised.

"None of this is her fault." Lolly's voice was haggard, worry flooding out on her raspy voice.

Both Ezra and I swiveled her way.

Terror colored her features, so heavy and distinct. Different than I'd ever seen in her before.

"I knew neither of them would let her go." She whispered it like a secret.

That alarm blared louder, a siren that screamed in my ears and ricocheted through my being. "What are you saying, Lolly?"

She looked sick. Her skin pallid and green. Fear throttling the overabundance of life she always exuded. "Pruitt and her father."

Uncertainty pinched my brow, dread gathering fast and overflowing my senses. "Her father? What are you talking about?"

I tried to keep the desperation out of my voice, but there was no stopping the way it whipped from my tongue.

She wrung her frail fingers. "I love him, love him so much, and God knows I tried hard to raise him right, but my son still turned out a bad man. And I was hoping beyond hope that once Hailey came back here, he'd see the error of his ways. Hoped with all of me that he'd changed."

A wave of foreboding crashed against my spirit. My throat thickened as my mind whirred through her implication. Wrought with the insinuation of her suggestion.

The past spun. A blur through my mind that was becoming too clear. "What do you mean?"

The words were gravel.

A plea.

Lolly blanched, and I stood there staring as horror and grief slashed across her weathered face.

Her chin trembled when she spoke. "Hailey marrying Pruitt wasn't an accident. I knew what Douglas had in mind the first time I saw that slimy weasel standing in his office. I knew he was going to force them together. Knew what he was planning. Knew they both were crooked. Wicked to the core. Only someone who is truly evil would pull someone that was as sweet and innocent as Hailey into their schemes."

Sickness coiled in my guts, and awareness hovered like a drone carrying weapons of mass destruction overhead.

"The illegal gambling. Your son was involved?" My question scraped the room.

Lolly tugged her robe tighter as if it could act as a shield. "Involved in it? He's the mastermind. The ringleader. Always one step ahead at keeping his name clean, pinning the blame on those running his dirty deeds. Pruitt is just another of his minions. He'd told me he'd given it up. That he was going clean. He promised."

She choked around the new wound that had been inflicted.

"Obviously, it was a lie, but there is no way my son can continue to hide the way it has tarnished his soul. And I won't pretend like I don't know the extent of it for a second longer."

Horror jumped between us when I met Ezra's eye.

A second later, I was turning on my heel and rushing for the room where I'd left my phone. I snatched it up and dialed Hailey's number.

It rang four times before her voicemail came on. "It's Hailey. Leave a message."

A sinking sensation came over me. One that had me feeling like I was getting dragged to the bottom of the ocean.

Clutching my phone, I rushed back out of the room. "She didn't answer."

Ezra was trying her again before I finished the sentence, and he gave a minute shake of his head when she didn't answer his call, either.

Panic surged, pumping fast with the beat of my blood. "We need to find her. Get to her before someone else does."

That was the second before a scream reverberated from Maddie's room.

My eyes blew wide, and I ran around Lolly and down the hall, throwing Maddie's door open.

Rage blistered.

A forest fire.

Maddie thrashed in a man's hold who'd torn her out of bed, the fucker wearing all black and a ski mask.

This wasn't happening. I wouldn't let this happen.

"You motherfucker." I didn't give myself time to process what I was doing. I simply hurtled across the room.

He lifted his hand and pointed a gun my way. He popped off a shot right as I dove for the floor.

Maddie screamed.

Screamed and screamed.

And my goddamn heart shattered at the sound.

My sweet little Button.

The one who beamed all her adorable, innocent light.

I couldn't let this happen to her.

And I fought harder, reaching out to get the bastard by the ankle just as he angled the gun down.

"Freeze!" Ezra's voice banged through the room, and that point-blank shot didn't come for me.

It was lifted and fired in Ezra's direction.

The fiend kept shooting as he backed out.

Gunshots rang out across the room.

I prayed to God Ezra took cover because there was no chance that he could fire back. Not with the piece of shit using Maddie as a shield. He kept firing the whole way as he jumped back out the window.

And the shots…they just kept coming…just the same as the pain that burst in my body.