David was on the other side and I shoved him backwards, ready to take him apart for what he’d done to Hunter.
I expected Daisy to yell at me. I knew she was there, I’d seen her out of my periphery when I came in, but she didn’t. As David caught his breath, I looked at her. Her left eye was swelling fast as a fist-sized purple bruise spread around it. Rage doubling and tripling, I turned back toward David.
“You sick son of a bitch,” I snarled. The words were barely out of my mouth before I went after him.
Nobody tried to stop me, not even Sandy. He threw a punch or two, but he was off-balance with a belly full of beer. I knew exactly how he would fight; I’d danced through those clumsy footsteps an hour before. But even if I didn’t, the fucker wasn’t exactly hard to take down. Not with my rage. Not with me no longer giving a damn that he was Daisy’s father, because he was much more than that now. Something bad, horrendous, despicable.
My fist shot forward and I caught him in the ribs, feeling them bend and crack beneath my knuckles. David gurgled in pain, but that did nothing to quell the anger in me. I balled my fists even tighter this time and sailed them hard one after the other right into his gut, spinning out of the way as he vomited. The slight distance gave him the few seconds he needed, and he whipped his phone out of his pocket and smashed the emergency call button with a nasty grin on his face.
“You done fucked up now, boy,” he growled as the phone connected.
“911, what is your emergency?”
“That killer, Kash. He’s…he’s…he’s in my house tryn’a finish the job,” David howled. “He hit me and my daughter and now he’s after my wife! Hurry! 696 Poplar Court! No, Kash, please stop, I--!”
He cut himself off and ended the call. He shook, his grin a wavering toothy worm over his blotchy, bruised face.
“There,” he said breathlessly. “You gonna go back to prison, now. Hope you liked that meatloaf, because it’s the last damn home cooked meal you’re gonna get for a long, long time.”
The sirens were two minutes away at most. I didn’t say a word to him or to Daisy, just turned around and went back out to the truck.
“You can’t run, boy! They’re already here!” His voice and his footsteps followed me within a few feet of my truck.
I jerked the glove box open and grabbed a paper napkin from the floorboards. I wrapped the zippo carefully and held it tight.
Holding my freedom tightly in my hand, I stared David down.
Chapter 27
When the flashing lights lit up the trees lining the road, David tossed himself dramatically onto the ground and started his howling again. If anything, it made me want to punch him even more. Maybe even stomp his head into the floor with the heel of my running shoes.
“Get him!” David howled. “Before he kills my daughter!”
I stood still. The two cars pinned my truck in as they parked, and the cops stepped out with their hands on their holsters.
“What’s goin’ on here?” The sheriff said.
“This crazy boy’s trying to kill my whole family!” David screamed. “He already killed one of my kids, now he’s after the rest of us!”
The sheriff looked at me. I met his eyes calmly.
“David killed Hunter,” I said flatly. “I’ve got the evidence right here.”
David’s eyes locked on my closed hand. He stood, weaving on his drunken feet, then lunged at me. I stepped out of the way and he crashed into the truck.
“I hit him because he did that to Daisy,” I said, nodding toward where she stood in the doorway, her face blooming petals of red and blue.
The sheriff raised his flashlight to her face, and she winced.
“These two can’t agree on who hit you,” the sheriff said to her. “Maybe you can clear it up for me, Ms. Daisy.”
She pointed, her fingers unmistakably in the direction of her father. “My dad did,” she said.
David lumbered to his feet and shook a finger in her direction. “You provoked me, you little slut! Screwing around with this felon behind my back and telling me to shove my head up my ass! Nobody talks to me that way, especially not my own damn kid!” He huffed and shook his head at her. “When’s it ever been a crime for a man to discipline his own damn daughter? Huh? Huh?”
“Is that why you killed Hunter?” I asked. “Did he talk back to you too?”
In the distance, I heard a moan rip right through Sandy and had just enough time to catch the shock in Daisy’s eyes before David swung at me. Unfortunately for him, he was off-balance and a little bit too far. The deputy caught his wrist and twisted it behind his back, snapping handcuffs in place without really getting down to the nitty gritty of what was happening here. But I guess even if he didn’t like me, even if I’d made a bad name for myself in this town, he was smart enough to know that in this situation, I wasn’t the damn enemy.
“You got the wrong guy!” David shouted. “I didn’t kill my kid for talking back!”
“Then why did you?” I held the evidence up, reminding him that I had it.
“David. No!” Sandy screamed. She was taking strides toward him now, pushing right past the cops. “That’s not true. That’s not true. You would never…”
“He wouldn’t hit Daisy either,” I reminded Sandy, “and yet…”
She glared at David, her gaze so powerful it was like she was attempting to exorcise the truth out of him. Seemingly, she saw just what she needed to
