“Run!” Brett yelled at her. “Get Thad.”
But instead she scooted behind Dan just as Brett cleared the counter in one leap, then had to almost twist into a pretzel to keep from landing on Dan’s back, which had been his intended target. He’d meant to pin him down and kick the gun away. But at the last second, he realized the reason Dan had suddenly had what looked like a violent seizure.
He had demon kitty lodged on his back, nails dug in deep, looking more terrified than she had when she was trapped two stories up in a tree.
That’s what Kirby had seen. The stool clattering over, then Dan jumping up and swinging the gun up must have set the cat off. Literally.
“What the hell is that? Get it off me!” Dan was screaming.
Brett kicked at the gun in Dan’s hand, sending it skittering as Kirby stepped in with a dish towel to trap the kitten.
She pried the cat loose and Brett hauled Dan up by his shoulders, prepared to level him with a knockout punch if that’s what it took to keep him from doing any more harm. To them or himself.
Dan took a swing at Brett, but at that point he was pretty easy to subdue.
When Thad arrived seconds later, Brett had Dan face to the wall, arm pinned behind his back. Dan was sobbing, completely broken. And Brett’s heart was breaking as well.
Thad stepped in, and though Brett instinctively moved forward to protect Dan, despite what had happened there that night, Thad quietly but firmly told him to step back and then clear the room once the reinforcements had come into the house as well.
“I’ve got it from here,” he told him.
“He’s…not well,” Brett said, not knowing what else to say. “Don’t-just-he’s done, okay? You don’t have to-”
“We’ve got it under control,” Thad reassured him, still stern, but clearly signaling with the stern set to his face that Brett needed to move back.
Brett did, and he felt what was left of his heart shatter as they cuffed Dan and took him outside to the squad car. Another officer retrieved the gun. Several others stayed behind to ask questions. Kirby was still cradling the bundled cat.
Brett took the towel and went out back on the porch and to the backyard. He crouched down and carefully opened the bundle. The kitten tumbled out, then arched her back and hissed once she was free. “Thanks for the assist, hellion,” he said as the kitten continued to yowl. “We’re even. Now git before you get impounded as evidence or something.” He watched the kitten take off back up the hill, hopefully toward home.
When he turned back around, Kirby was standing in the doorway, arms folded protectively against her middle. Her face was expressionless, but he could hardly blame her for being numb. He wished he was, too.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as he climbed the steps and came back on the porch.
He paused on the top step. “My best friend holds you at gunpoint and you’re telling me you’re sorry?”
“It’s…sad. He’s…he’s not a well man. It’s not your fault, Brett. I know you’re going to think you could have done something to prevent this but you couldn’t possibly know if he hadn’t told you.”
She opened the door and he came inside, but before they could say anything else to each other, Thad stuck his head through the kitchen door. “Your turn. We need your statements.”
Kirby slipped her hand in Brett’s as they stepped inside. It was that small but monumental thing that brought everything into crystal clarity for him.
He tightened his grip, squeezing her hand, wanting to say so many things to her. But first they had to get through the rest of this.
In retelling their story to the police, it settled things inside Brett’s mind, if not his heart. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen to Dan. The only piece of good news was that Maks was actually going to be okay. Apparently Mr. Big’s skills didn’t extend to the medical field. He’d missed the pulse because he’d been checking in the wrong place. So, while Dan still faced some very serious charges, thank God one of them wasn’t going to be manslaughter.
Morning light was starting to creep over the horizon, the sky as gray as his emotions, as they watched the last squad car pull out from the front driveway. Kirby shivered as they stood, arms around each other’s waist, on the front porch.
“What happens next?” she asked quietly.
“I don’t honestly know anymore, Kirby. I just don’t know.” He was past angry and sad. By now, he just felt…hollow. His whole world had been turned upside down…for good. Then flipped over again with this.
Then she turned in his arms, slid both of hers around his waist. She looked as tired as he felt, but her gaze was steady, her voice certain. “We’ll figure out what’s best to do. For him. For you.”
Brett touched her face, humbled by this woman. But never more certain about where he was supposed to be. “I thought you’d have me packed and out of here. I’m so sorry, Kirby. I didn’t know. I’d have never…” He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers, trying to shut out the memories of the night before. “When I thought you might be in trouble…I haven’t been that terrified since I was a kid.”
“I was okay. I was talking to him. I didn’t think he’d hurt me. He was just…mixed up, and hurt, and confused. He’s going to need help. More than legal help, I mean.”
Brett nodded, then squeezed his eyes more tightly shut as another thought hit him.
“What?” she asked gently, pulling him closer and touching his cheek as she lifted his head up.
“Dan’s dad. This…it’ll break him. I-I should call him.”
“I think they’re already doing that. I heard one of the deputies say they were trying to reach him.”
Brett swore under his breath. “How in the hell did it get that out of hand and I didn’t know? I don’t miss much, Kirby. And I completely missed this. He’s the closest friend I have, and I never saw it. I was so wrapped up in my own crap, I never-”
“Hey,” she said, framing his face. “You tried to help him and he was too stubborn, too full of pride, to accept the kind of help that would have put him back on the right path. He’s a grown man. He could have chosen the smarter, safer path, even if it meant swallowing his pride. He’s the only one to blame here. Not you.”
She’d said it quite fiercely, and that, more than anything, cut through his grief and got his attention.
“Brett, we’ll figure out how best to help him, if we can, but he’s got to help himself now. You do know that?”
He nodded and then held her face in his hands. “We?” he asked.
She held his gaze. “We.”
He pulled her tightly into his arms and buried his face in her hair. “When I thought I might lose you, that you might be hurt…” He pushed her back enough to look in her eyes. “I don’t want to ever lose you.”
And though there was still the residual pain and ache from the toll the evening had taken, her mouth smoothed, then finally curved. It was a smile of confidence. And of hope. “That’s good, because the man I want is the man I saw today. Who didn’t back down when things were hard. The hardest, maybe. Who wanted to protect me…and a lifelong friend. We’re both misfits, of sorts, you and me, you know that. From backgrounds that weren’t easy. But I think that’s what makes us strong. And what makes us value what we have, what we’ve earned. I think that’s why we fit, you and me, almost from the moment you climbed off that bike.”
“You do fit me, Kirby.”
“Are you still planning on staying here? I mean, with Dan’s stuff and-”
“I’m not going anywhere. You’re right, we’ll figure out what we can do for him. For his dad. The company, whatever that might take. But this is where I belong now.” He pulled her up close and hiked her up into his arms so their faces were even. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he held her tightly against him. “And one thing I’m not going to do is just play house with you, Kirby. I want to marry you. And I don’t want to wait ten years. Or maybe even ten days. I love you, Kirby Farrell. And I want the whole world to know you’re mine.”