A Beautiful Funeral (The Maddox Brothers #5) - Jamie McGuire Page 0,88
ambulance!” Falyn screamed. “Why are you just standing there? Do something!”
“She’s gone,” Liis said, sniffing.
Taylor sat behind Falyn, holding his wife while she rocked Olive and brushed back her daughter’s stained hair. She let out a combination of a groan, growl, and scream, a sound of utter rage and devastation, one I was sure only a mother who had lost a child could make.
Ellie covered her mouth and then ran inside. Tyler followed her.
I gestured to Val. “Check on the kids.”
Val nodded and jumped over the stairs to the porch, yanked open the door, and ran inside.
“Travis!” Abby called, but he stood next to me, pulling out his sidearm and getting in position.
“No!” Falyn wailed when Taylor tried to pull her away. “No!” Taylor struggled to pick up his wife and Olive’s lifeless body, attempting to carry them both inside.
“Leave her,” I commanded.
“Fuck you!” Falyn spat.
“I’ll stay,” Trenton said, looking down at his best friend.
Camille nodded, holding Trenton’s hand and then Olive’s, closing her eyes, pressing fresh tears down her face.
Taylor finally pulled Falyn away, wrestling her inside as she kicked and flailed, reaching for her daughter.
The Lincoln raced toward us. Chiara sat in the passenger seat, aiming a semi-automatic rifle. Vittoria, now a Carlisi widow, was behind the wheel. As the car came closer, I reached for my sidearm, but it was gone. Dad stepped out in front of me, holding up my gun and aiming it at the Lincoln.
“Dad, get down!” I yelled just as Chiara squeezed the trigger.
Bullets sprayed the yard and house again, but Dad continued to walk forward, shooting at the Lincoln once, twice, and a third time. One of his bullets hit the tire, and the Lincoln swerved, hit the drainage ditch, and cartwheeled into a boat and truck in the neighbor’s yard across the street. The engine caught fire, and we stood, watching it burn.
Dad fell to his knees, and Travis and I yelled his name at the same time. As the fire burned in the background, we helped our Dad to the ground. I pressed my hands against the red circles growing larger than my palms and spreading across his shirt. He’d been hit twice in the chest, once in the abdomen.
My gaze met Travis’s. He looked as panicked as I felt.
The rest of the family filtered outside, spread out and watching the chaos in disbelief. Trenton crawled over to Dad, and I realized he’d been shot in the calf. Falyn fell on her knees beside Olive, cradling her once again in her arms, her cries piercing the air as she suffered unbearable pain. Camille sobbed next to Trenton, Travis, and I. The twins came outside and rushed over.
Val was on the radio reporting the scene and requesting ambulances and the fire department. Hyde ran to the Lincoln, but the heat forced her back. She ran into the neighbor’s home to see if anyone had been hurt and soon came outside waving both arms, signaling the house was clear.
“The ambulance is coming, Dad, hang in there,” I choked out.
Dad smiled. “I’m pretty tired. And I’d really like to see your mom.”
Travis let out a breath, his bottom lip trembling. Trenton used the heels of his hands to wipe his eyes, and the twins stood by, quietly crying.
Dad reached up to touch my cheek. “Stay together. Love one another. I mean it, damn it.”
One side of my mouth curled up, and I felt a hot tear slide over my mouth and down to my jawline. “We love you, Dad.”
“We love you,” Travis said.
“Love you,” Trenton whimpered.
“We love you,” the twins said in unison.
“I love you,” Camille cried.
“Thank you for being our dad,” Abby said, managing a smile.
His gaze drifted to each of us, and then he whispered, “My heart is full.” A single tear formed in the corner of Dad’s eye, and fell away, running down his temple and pooling in his ear. He exhaled for the last time, and he stared into oblivion.
The summer breeze carried the plume of black smoke drifting up from the Carlisi’s Lincoln into the yard, filling the neighborhood. Sirens wailed, matching the pitch of Falyn’s cries, but the roar of the fire stifled both. The heat danced from the flames, creating waves in the air like an afternoon under the desert sun. It looked more like a war zone than the site of my childhood home, the grass soaking up the blood of