Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

34. Salem

THIRTY-FOUR

SALEM

Panic flooded my bloodstream.

A surge of terror that rose high and swept me under, but it was the heartbreak that would do me in.

Jud.

It seared me in two.

Cleaved me in half.

Jud had been there that night. He’d been there, and he’d tried to stop it.

As soon as I’d accused him of working with Carlo, of tricking me into falling for him, I’d known it was wrong. I felt Jud’s agony just as sure as I felt my own.

Those aching pieces of myself that were barely held together were obliterated in his pain.

In this torment that I couldn’t fathom.

Couldn’t process.

It was gutting.

Shattering.

It only spiked the anxiety farther. The rush of adrenaline—of awareness—that promised I had to get out of there.

Leave it behind.

That for me and Juni, there was no such thing as home .

Jud couldn’t fix this. It was only going to destroy us all.

My mind spun with every horrible possibility. There had to be a bigger reason I was there in Redemption Hills. A bigger reason I had found Jud. A reason we had come together.

It spiraled with every gut-wrenching scenario of how Carlo had found us.

I knew it. I knew he had. I knew he was there.

Watching.

Waiting.

Sickness clawed and crept and seeped all the way to my bones.

A cold dread that shivered and froze.

This time when I pressed down on the accelerator, I forced myself to ignore everything else around me.

Every call and every claim.

I couldn’t give thought or reason or purpose to Jud’s pleas as he chased behind us. As he tried to break through the disorder the same way as he’d done last night, although right then, I knew we’d already ended before we’d ever really begun.

Our destinies had already been carved in stone.

“Salem…just listen…you can’t leave like this. Fuck, please, don’t do this.”

Juni whimpered from the backseat, more afraid than I thought she’d ever been, while I mashed the accelerator to the floor. The SUV fishtailed as I skidded out of the Iron Ride parking lot and onto the street.

My hands cinched around the steering wheel as I prayed. As I prayed for a moment. For a break in time. For a fighting chance.

For escape.

Tears blurred my eyes as I sped down the street, barely slowing as I took a sharp right.

I flew past Absolution then took a left at the next intersection.

Prayed these wings would give us flight.

I barreled down the roads of the small town, spinning it into chaos, the brightening sky ominous as the sun lifted on the mountain.

As the glimmering rays gave way to a new day that I was terrified would be our end.

How could this happen? How could I let this happen? I’d known not to come here. Not to become complacent. Not to fall.

I took the few quick turns before I made the last left onto the sleeping neighborhood street. My aching heart was lodged in my throat, and my stomach was twisted in knots of terror as I quickly approached the narrow driveway of the small house that had come to mean so much.

I knew Darius and Mimi had wanted to give us this home, while home had begun to feel like it was in the arms of a man who I’d left behind on the other side of this city.

This sweet, hopeful town that now felt like a trap.

An ambush.

I rammed on the brakes and came to a jarring stop.

Juni cried out through the bottled fear. “Mommy.”

“I know, sweetheart, I know.”

My entire being shook uncontrollably as I rushed out of my seat and yanked open the back-passenger door. I fumbled to remove my daughter from the straps—my reason, my purpose, my life—knowing I’d only have to put her right back in them.

I hated it.

Hated it.

I guarded myself against the pain, against the coming hurt and loneliness, and focused on what I had to do.

Run.

With my daughter in my arms, I jogged up the sidewalk. I was barely able to get the key into the lock. When I finally managed it, I tossed it open. The wood slammed against the interior wall, shaking the little house like an earthquake had come to toss it from its foundation.

I wondered if it had.

The door banged shut behind us, and I bolted toward the suitcase I’d shoved in the corner. One I had believed I would never have to use again.

A fool.

A fool.

I set Juni onto her feet and began to stuff our necessities inside.

“Mommy, no, I don’t wants to go on another adventures. We like it rights here, remember? We gotta stay here forever, and the bads man can never come here because it’s the bestest place we ever gots.”

For a beat, my eyes squeezed shut, wishing it were true. That I could offer it to my daughter.

Give her the life that she deserved.

“We’re going to go someplace extra fun, Juni. I promise. Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry.”

“Mommy, no.” She pressed her little fists to her eyes.

God.

How could I keep doing this?

But I had no other choice.

We’d left that night under the cover of darkness. Amid the agony of leaving half myself behind. The cutting away of life that had scourged me to the soul.

My son lost to a battle he never should have had to fight.

I’d been helpless to change it.

Helpless to do anything but fight for my daughter.

I’d been running ever since. Unsure if Carlo was one step behind me. My gut had told me he’d never believed the reports that we’d all perished that night, even while I’d prayed that he was gone himself. That when he’d disappeared, he’d disappeared from this earth.

He’d never stood trial.

Had never been held accountable.

Had never paid for the sins that he’d perpetuated because the only choice I’d had left was to run. To protect my daughter.

Trust no one.

I grabbed Juni’s shot records and the few documents that I had, my sight blurring over as the hope dimmed from my sight.

The hope of her going to school.

Of living a normal life.

Of having a home.

A family.

For the joy I could feel fading away.

“What are you doing?”

A tiny scream got free when the voice caught me unaware, and I was on my feet and swinging my attention toward the hall.

Darius stood at the end of it. His arms were stretched across the length, and he hung onto either side, like he was holding himself back, like he’d been caught up in the turmoil, too.

“Leaving,” I told him.

I hated that it was true.

“What? No. You don’t have to be afraid, Salem. Told you that you were safe. That you don’t have to run anymore.”

My head shook as grief fell down my face in hot streams of despair. “He found us.”

Darius’ brow curled and he roughed a hand over the top of his hair. “What?

What are you talking about? You’re fine, Salem. Just calm down.”

“I…” I trailed off, unable to form the words. The trust Jud had given me, the truth he’d confided in me.

I’d had to stomp all of it under my feet.

“Tell me what the fuck is goin’ on, Salem.”

“Jud…he knows Carlo.”

Darius blanched before awareness raced in to take over his expression. Groaning, he scrubbed both palms over his face. “Shit. Knew this was gonna happen.”

Ice froze me to the spot, and I blinked through the stupor. “What?”

Darius let go of a harsh sigh. “Warned you to stay away from him. Told you he was trouble.”

There was something in the way he said it.

As if he were annoyed rather than panicked.

Dread slithered down my spine, a slow awareness that I didn’t want to take hold. “What do you mean? Tell me what you’re talking about, Darius.”

Darius shook his head and took a lumbering step forward. “I told you I was gonna make it right for you.”

My brow twisted, and I took a step back. “I don’t understand. You’re scaring me.”

Darius slowly approached. The words dropping from his tongue were daggers that pierced me through. “Carlo found me, Salem. He promised he wasn’t after you. He only wanted the man who killed his brother. The one responsible for him losing his son.”

“No.” I stumbled a step back farther. Dull blades sliced through my middle. Pierced me to the core.

Darius wouldn’t. He wouldn’t.

“It was time, Salem. I had to do it for you. For Juni.”

“Oh my god.” Horror gusted from my lungs, and I pressed my hands against the cavern carved in my chest like I could hold myself together as the panic multiplied tenfold.

There was no question then.

Carlo was there.

He’d been watching.

The car.

It was him.

It was him.

Darius kept coming my way. “All I had to do was get in with Jud. Find his weaknesses, Salem. See what was gonna hurt Jud most, and you’d be free. But first, I had to prove my loyalty. That’s why I brought you here. To convince Carlo that you and Juni were still alive but no longer a threat to him. In exchange, you and Juni are free to live your lives in safety.”

“You’re lying. You’re lying. You wouldn’t do that to me. To us.” I begged it.

“Do it to you? I did it for you.”

“No, Darius.”

“You were supposed to stay away from him, Salem. I’d hoped last night…that the fire would remind you of what was important. That you’d realize you didn’t belong there. That you’d come to your senses.”

“I can’t believe you’d?—”

The words clipped off when I felt the commotion at the end of the hall, and my attention whipped to the right to find Mimi shuffling into the living room. Confusion was written on her face, her aged eyes darting between us, though hurt was written there as she caught up to Darius’ confession.

She hadn’t known.

Darius had done it.

He had set us up, and I wasn’t sure we would be able to get out.

I grabbed Juni’s hand. “We have to go, sweetheart.”

“No, Mommy, no more adventures. Please.” She tried to yank her hand free.

Agony lanced while the betrayal whipped.

How could he do this to us? When we’d finally had a chance?

“I can’t believe you’d do this to us. I can’t believe it.”

My gaze jumped to Mimi, and I felt my heart breaking all over again. “We have to go, Mimi. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Old sorrow spun through her eyes, but it was pained disbelief when it shifted to Darius. She looked back at Juni and me. “I understand, sweet girl. Don’t be sad. I’ve cherished these months with you two. Months I never thought I’d be given.”

Tears streamed, and I tried to hold back a sob, but it was so big it busted through and banged against the walls.

“Come on, sweetheart,” I begged.

Darius hustled behind me as I dragged the suitcase and tried to coax my daughter into following.

She cried and whimpered and tried to dig in her heels. “But this is our specialist place, Mommy. We gots to stay with Mimi and Gage and the Motorcycle Man.”

My teeth gritted, and I forced out, “We have to go.”

Darius moved forward and grabbed me by the wrist. “No, you don’t, Salem. You’re safe. Carlo gave me his word. You’re safe. He just wanted the details of Jud’s family, how to hurt him most, in exchange for your safety.”

“And you’re a fool if you believe that’s true.”

Dismay pulsed through my being, the thought of Jud or his beautiful family being harmed in any way. The people who’d accepted me and my daughter as if we were one of them.

Good, kind people.

I had to warn them.

Darius tightened his hold. “No. You were the fool for falling in love with a man you don’t belong to. A fool for leaving Carlo to begin with.”

Shock cleaved through my being. The treason my brother had meted nearly dropped me to my knees.

“How could you say that?”

Pain curled his face and a strained breath wheezed from his lungs. He flung a frustrated hand out into the room. “Because you and I both knew what would happen if you left him. The lengths he would go to get you back, and you agreed to testify against him, Salem. Took his children and went into hiding.”

He swallowed hard. “I’ve been terrified for years, searching for a way to make this right. To take back what never should have happened in the first place. But I couldn’t do a fucking thing. Carlo had claimed you as his and there was nothing I could do. Nothing I could say. It didn’t matter you were my sister. He was the boss. So now, all these years later? If I had a way to finally give you the life you deserved, to set you and Juni free? I had to do it.”

I tried to yank free of his hold. “No, you didn’t have to do it,” I shouted. “You didn’t. You lied to me. You lied to me.”

I rushed toward the door. He grabbed me again. “What did you expect me to do, Salem? Let you keep running forever? What kind of life would that be? For you and for your daughter? How was Juni ever going to feel secure? Grow up? Go to school? How? I had to do something.”

Disbelief coiled in my spirit. “And what you did was destroy our chance.”

I whipped the door back open and rushed out, hauling Juni behind me. Darius followed, coming around to my side, trying to get in my face. “Listen to me, you’re safe. He gave me his word.”

The vile, cruel laughter that echoed from the end of the walk had me freezing in place.

Ice slipped down my spine.

My hand curled tighter on my daughter’s hand.

“It’s been such a long time, Pupa. Look at you…as beautiful as ever.” Carlo’s voice was close to casual from where he leaned on the driver’s side door of my SUV, wearing a suit, his hands mindlessly stuffed in his pockets as if he weren’t there to destroy.

I knew better.

Terror seized me.

Rocketed through the air in fiery bolts.

I tried to breathe, to think, to plan.

Because I wasn’t going out without a fight.

I screamed when Darius was suddenly yanked back and forced to his knees with his hands behind his back. A gun was pressed to the back of his head by one of Carlo’s men.

Another man lurked behind them.

“What are you doing?” Darius seethed. I could feel his fear rush through his muscles, the way they bunched and sweat dripped down the side of his face.

Carlo laughed a condescending sound. “It seems I’ve had a change of heart.”

Darius thrashed. “No. You promised. I gave you the information you wanted on Jud. You have him. Now let Salem go.”

“I’ve learned there’s something he wants more.” Cocking his head, Carlo grinned at me.

Without another warning, a gunshot rang out. Darius slumped to the sidewalk, blood pooling around him.

A scream ripped from my soul.

A scream of agony.

Of disbelief.

Of horror.

Of fear.

“No,” I whimpered as I grabbed my daughter and hid her face against my body, desperate to protect her from the cruelty that had found us.

My eyes darted everywhere as I looked for a path. For a direction to run. For a way out of this place.

I would fight.

I would fight.

“Come here, Pupa,” Carlo quietly coaxed, as if I were precious. “Bring my daughter to me. I’d like to meet her.” His head cocked to the side and his mouth twisted in an annoyed sneer. “As for you…it’s a shame you already used your second chance. We could have been so good together.”

“No.” My head shook, my veins filling with a frenzy as I searched for a way out.

He tsked.

In a flash, I scooped up Juni and took the chance.

I ran, my feet frantic as I raced across the lawn in the opposite direction of Carlo and toward the street with my daughter in my arms.

Mimi shouted, and out of my periphery, I could see she was running for Carlo with her arms waving above her head.

Oh god, no.

“Mimi, no!” I shouted into the air, still running, praying for her to come to her senses.

Another shot rang out.

A grunt and a crash and her voice was silenced.

Agony ripped through me.

Staggering.

Unimaginable.

But I kept running.

I had to. I had to.

Another shot. This one from the other side of the street. Then shots began to fire from every side.

What was happening? What was happening?

A disorder engulfed. Chaos.

I curled down and kept rushing away, my arms around Juni’s head as if I could protect her from the hail of bullets.

Through it, I somehow saw as both of Carlo’s men fell.

It was one second before Carlo’s arms wrapped around me from behind.

He yanked me against him. Hard and vicious.

A scream yelped from my throat.

We toppled to the ground in a heap, the vicious man’s arms chains around my body.

But not before I let Juni go.

Not before I screamed, “Run, Juni, run! Run and don’t look back.”