“Yeah?” He laughs, but it’s evil. Cold. Spine chilling. “How about you’re clumsy enough to fall into one of my bullets?”
“In a sec,” I say, holding my finger up. “Why’d you do it? The girls? Why’d you kill them all?”
A flash of black hints from the other end of the trailer, and I know we’re not alone.
Jason. Alex. Whoever he is today.
“Why would you kill them? What did they do to you, Eddie? All but one were kids,” I continue. “Did you even feel guilty as you made Jackson poison them? How about as you raped them? How about as you carved satanic runes into their skin? As you stabbed them to fucking death? Tell me, Eddie. Did you feel anything at all?”
I know I’m riling him. I know I’m pissing him off, and I’m baiting him deliberately. I have a sick thrill running through my body right now.
“Did you enjoy their delusional cries of pleasure as you abused them? How about their screams as you stabbed the hell out of them? Did the devil make you do it, Eddie? I want to know.”
“Noelle,” Bek whispers. “Stop.”
A hand with a thumb up pokes out from the end of the trailer.
I’m definitely not alone, and I should definitely get the confession we need.
Time to piss him off even more. And to think—I had no idea being so annoying would ever be this useful.
I tilt my head to the side and put my bottom lip out. “What’s the matter, big man? Fucked up enough to kill a bunch of girls but too pussy to admit it?”
“Shut your bitch mouth,” he finally growls, his gun still pointed at me. “You know nothing.”
“I know you have a record.” Here I go, bluffing again. “I know the semen samples match yours. I know there’s DNA that matches yours. I know you’ll be arrested any moment.”
He laughs. Wildly. “You think you’re so smart. You think you have it all figured out, dontcha?”
I take a few steps back, and he jumps to the ground. The rifle is still trained on me, and my Glock is still trained on him. It’s a scene more worthy of a movie than my little town.
But, by God, I’d fucking die to protect every single person in this town.
And that’s it, isn’t it? I’d take a bullet for everyone I love without thinking about it. That’s exactly why I’m baiting him, why I’m teasing him… Why I’m walking backward.
I’m pulling him away from the best friend anyone could ever wish for.
I’m putting her in safety and myself in danger.
Good thing danger is my middle name.
“Yeah, I know it all,” I tell Eddie. “I know how you lied to everyone. How you forced Jackson into giving some people belladonna. I know how you rallied Alistair and the two of you raped and killed girls in your sick rituals.”
He laughs. Again, it’s wild and chilling and downright terrifying. “Alistair? Alistair?” He laughs harder, almost dropping his rifle. He sobers instantly. “It wasn’t Alistair, you silly whore. It was Damien. He’s a dumb fuck.”
Damien? Damien?
“Your nephew,” I breathe. “He’s who I heard the night y’all broke into my house. It’s why I couldn’t place his voice.”
“Clap fuckin’ clap,” he drawls. “You heard my bitch of a nephew panic. Course we didn’t know you had a fuckin’ gun, did we?”
I grin. “I have three. Sur-fuckin’-prise, asshole.”
“Noelle,” Bek whimpers.
“You look put out, Eddie. What’s the matter? Not used to a poor, little woman outsmarting you? Pissed that I foiled your great plan to rouse the devil?” I lift an eyebrow. “Guess what? The devil is a lie. He’s a story. He’s a nightmare made to give kids something to fear.”
“He’s real!” he roars. A vein bulges in his forehead, and his grip tightens on his gun. “He’s real, and he’ll come to me if I let him!” He cackles with laughter. Crazy, unstable laughter that makes my skin crawl. He stops and tilts his head to the side, his eyes chillingly focused on me. “Four more. Tick tock. You’re next.” He lifts the gun so it’s sure to hit me square between the eyes.
My heart beats ridiculously fast. Fear-riddled adrenaline is sweeping through my body with speed of a comet slicing through the night sky. It only makes me bolder. Makes me stronger.
Jason steps out from behind the trailer, his own gun pointed at Eddie.
I ignore him and meet Eddie’s cold eyes. “Tick tock.”
Then two guns fire.
My bullet flies into his lower leg, and another hits him in the shoulder. The second comes from the person I least expected.
Jackson.
The rifle falls to the floor. It discharges, a bullet smashing through the window of the trailer adjacent to it. I storm forward and kick the gun away of him as he moans in pain. Jason rushes forward, but I shake him off, and with my gun pointed at Eddie’s face, I step on his hand. He cries out in pain, and it’s a sweet revenge.
“Oh, Eddie,” I say softly. “You’re right, honey. The devil is real, except he is a she, and she is called Noelle Bond, motherfucker.”
With that, I kick his hand away and look up at Jason.
“Nice work, Ms. Bond,” he says, dropping to his knees and pressing his shirt to Eddie’s shoulder. It’s bleeding more profusely than his leg—I think my shot barely scraped him.
“Thank you. Now, can someone please call Drake and co. then get me the fuck outta here? I don’t feel like dying at his hand today.”
“Too late,” Drake growls, storming toward me.
Oooooeeee. I’m in trouble.
“I told you to bring Dean or Mike! Fuck it, Noelle! You could have died yet again! Do you have any regard for your safety at all? Do you ever fuckin’ stop to think about what you’re doin’ to the people who love you, you crazy fuck?”
“Oh, shut up.” I grab his shirt and pull him into me, kissing him hard. “Go arrest your goddamn murderers and quit whinin’. I’m goin’ to get a cupcake. Bek?”
Bek looks at all of us, her gun still in her hand. “I—yeah. Sure. What the hell. Why not?”
I have to admit that I’m torn about getting this solved before family dinner. On one count, I’m glad that I get to sit down in the comfort of my parents’ house and eat Nonna’s awesome lasagna without getting interrupted, but also: Gio.
I’ve been filling Dad in on the case for the last hour. He demanded every detail, right down to how I figured it out.
I have to admit that I never did. I didn’t know until it was right in front of me.
Eddie Roy was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds—I really have to stop putting myself into those situations—and Jackson was arrested. Damien Roy was found trying to skip town after driving out in a stolen vehicle and detained.
I guess the IQ apples didn’t fall from the Roy tree at all.
It took a while, but Eddie admitted to killing Dina, too. In a funny-yet-sick twist of fate, he turned out to be the other guy in Dina’s life. Apparently, their affair had been going on for years.
Anyway, he’s now in the hospital after having Jackson’s bullet removed from him and under armed guard. I understand the alarming trend this is starting—I am, after all, three for three—but let’s not get too judgmental, yeah? Yeah.
Damien Roy turned out to be the blond guy Demi had seen Annabelle with. Not Alistair as I’d initially assumed. Alistair’s semen samples were rushed in the light of the arrests and came back negative for matching the ones of the victims. It’s almost as if he were used as a kind of scapegoat for her murder by the way Dina was killed almost immediately after he’d left her apartment.
It all boils down to the fact that we have three killers for six bodies, one scapegoat, and a huge case spanning three or four Texan towns all wrapped up with a pretty bow. Jackson agreed to hand over all the details and admit everything in exchange for a plea deal.
And Sheriff Bates decided that everyone should be stewing in their, and I quote, “bitch-ass cells for a few hours while we all breathe easy.”
I can’t help but agree. Which is exactly how Bek and Jason have ended up at the Bond Family Friday Night Dinner.
“You really have to step your game up,” Drake mutters, spearing a piece of shrimp with his fork. “This is good.”