Chapter 34

The flashbang grenade in the living room was an optimal idea.

I took the front and Chase took the back. I had hoped for something less violent and bloody, but Colby’s men didn’t give us a choice. Four bullets were enough. Chase had a bit of trouble with his opponents at first, but he managed to take them both out.

My heart is racing, blood whistling like steam through my veins as we meet in the hallway. It’s been only a handful of seconds since we broke in.

A handful of seconds since four lives were snuffed out of this world so that Halle might have a better shot at survival. Wyatt has the kids. At least they’re safe.

“In there,” I tell Chase, pointing at the bedroom door.

He gives me a hard look and a nod. We can hear the commotion inside. Shoes scraping across the floor. Halle’s voice, fractured by fear and despair .

“In here!” she screams, and the sound of her voice calling for help sends shivers down my spine.

“Go, go,” I gasp.

Chase is about to kick open the door when bullets burst through. The projectiles get embedded in the wall behind us. Wood splinters fly out. They all missed him by mere inches. We’re forced to pull aside and flank the door.

“You’re surrounded, Colby!” I shout. “There’s no way out for you.”

“Fuck you! If you come any closer, I will kill her!” he shouts back.

“Colby, please, this has gone too far,” Halle tries to plead with him.

“Shut up!” he snarls.

I listen to the sounds. The footsteps. The voices. Chase looks down at the floor. There’s a beam of light coming through the bottom of the door and a shadow moving along. We have their relative position in the room, so I give Chase a subtle nod and hand signals. He knows what will happen next. We don’t have a better option at this point.

“The police are on their,” I say. “There’s an entire federal task force coming for you, Colby. You’ve made it this far, so pat yourself on the back and call it a day, huh? It’s not gonna end well, no matter what you do.”

“I’m not going to prison! I belong with my wife!”

Chase clenches his jaw as his arm slowly moves up, hand reaching for the doorknob. One twist is all it takes, and the two of us burst through the door, weapons drawn and ready to fire. Colby wasn’t expecting us to come in so quickly. He hesitates, his hand trembling as he grasps the Colt revolver.

“Don’t shoot,” I say. “Or I will shoot back, and believe me, I’ve got a better aim.”

“Stay away!” Colby replies.

He looks like shit. Red-faced and sweating, despair deepening the creases under his tired eyes. His hair is a mess, his clothes disheveled. There’s a spatter of dried blood across his beige shirt. It coincides with the small cuts and bruises I notice on Halle’s face. She is terrified. He’s holding her too close to him for me to get to her in time if he decides to pull that trigger. She’s so vulnerable right now, fragile. So easy to break. This shouldn’t have happened. But here we are.

“Think about it,” I say, trying to reason with the raving lunatic. “Where will you go? What are you gonna do? The whole city is looking for you. That warehouse fire was the last nail in your coffin, Colby. You can’t make that go away.”

“It wasn’t supposed to burn like that!” he says, his voice broken and trembling.

The man is beyond erratic. The slightest trigger might make him do the unthinkable. I have to be careful. Chase, on the other hand, watches him like a hawk, gun aimed straight at Colby’s head. I’m not sure he has a clear shot from his angle, though. If Colby decides to move, the bullet might find Halle first.

“But it did,” I reply. “There are consequences, Colby. What kind of a man are you if you’re not willing to face the consequences of your actions?

”

“I don’t care about any of them,” he roars. “I have my wife and my kids. We’re gonna be a family again, and none of you fuckers are going to get in our way!”

“You don’t have your kids,” Chase cuts in with a flat tone. “We got them out a minute ago. They are safe and out of your reach.”

Colby stares at him for a moment. “How did you find us? Nobody knows about this place.”

“Your mother,” Chase answers. “Did you think she’d cover for you forever? After what you did? Honestly, I can’t blame the woman for giving up on you. It must’ve been hard for her, raising a narcissistic little psycho, having to always clean up your messes because you never had the balls to own up to your mistakes.”

“What are you doing?” I whisper and give my brother a worried look. We’re supposed to calm the fucker down, not piss him off. Chase knows that.

“Trust me for once,” he whispers back. He sounds sure of himself.

“My mother,” Colby gasps, the truth settling in with clear irritation. “She told you I’d be here?”

“She most certainly did,” Chase replies. “Because she is fucking tired of paying for your reckless mistakes, for your over-inflated ego. You’re a serial arsonist and you’re a spineless sack of shit who beats the woman he claims to love.”

“I don’t—”

“Look at her!” Chase snaps and cuts him off. “Just fucking look at her.

”

Colby blinks a few times, as if he’s waking up from a bad dream. He glances down at Halle and seems to finally become aware of the cuts and bruises on her face. “I… I didn’t mean to,” he mumbles.

“But you did it anyway,” Chase says. “Look at her! Your wife, as you call her. Is that how a real man treats his wife?”

Halle knows to keep quiet at this point while we try to figure a way out for her. But why am I being so quiet? Why is the blood so quick to freeze in my veins while my finger tightens over the trigger? Why am I so calm, so eerily detached, as I look at her? I can no longer feel myself; I can no longer hear the heartbeats drumming in my ear. Where is my fear? Where is my consciousness? Why does everything feel like a movie I’ve seen before? A movie with a familiar ending.

“Stay away!” Colby shouts when Chase tries to step forward.

The echoes of police and ambulance sirens swell in the far distance. We only have a few minutes left, and we have to find a resolution before it’s too late. Colby is so unhinged and out of his mind he can barely deal with the two of us. He’ll flip out when he sees the SWAT teams coming in. I can’t risk Halle’s safety like that. I can’t lose her, or I will lose myself.

“I’m not moving,” Chase says. “Look at me, Colby. Look at me.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” he replies. “You’re not taking her away from me.”

“It’s over,” my brother insists. “Can’t you hear them? They’re coming. They’re coming for you. It’s done, man, you’ve got nowhere to run. Your own mother sold you out. Your children have run away from you. Nobody wants you. Look at Halle. She’s fucking terrified of you.”

He looks at her with a softness in his gaze that has me confused. “She’s not terrified of me. She’s terrified of all these guns.”

“No, Colby, I’m terrified of you,” Halle confirms. “You’re scaring me.”

“You don’t have to be afraid,” he says, his tone suddenly sweet. “We’re gonna have a baby. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“What the hell did you just say?” Chase blurts out.

Halle glances our way and I see it. The revelation. The truth shimmering in her big, smoky blue eyes. I see the truth trembling on her bruised lip. “She’s pregnant,” I whisper.

“That’s my child she’s carrying! Mine!” Colby yells while pointing the gun at her womb. It’s meant to be an innocuous gesture but the mad man forgets what he’s pointing with. “My child. Not yours! You had your fun. Now, get the fuck out of our lives. I’ve got a family to take care of.”

Chase gives me a sideways glance. There is genuine fear in his eyes. I know that fear. I know it all too well because I feel it too. Halle is pregnant. One of us is the father. That’s our baby growing inside her while Colby has an arm locked around her neck and a Colt aimed at her belly.

The stakes just changed altogether.