With All My Heart - Emilia Finn Page 0,61
Wayne’s voice is raspy, broken from a beating and too much alcohol to stave the pain. “You can’t just take someone’s children.”
“Yes I can. I will. I already did. Sign those papers, or you’ll find out what happens.”
“Bullshit.” Pushing the footrest back into the chair, Wayne grunts and inches forward. I take great pleasure in the pain I know he feels, and the way his breath whistles through faulty lungs as he works his way to his feet. Standing taller, but still not tall enough for me not to look down my nose at him, Wayne Hart dares me to prove my point. “I’m calling bullshit. Then I’m calling the cops and getting my kids back here.”
“Bullshit?”
He nods.
“You sure you wanna risk it?”
Pursing his lips, he stares into my eyes and nods again.
Aiming just an inch above his shoulder, I shoot off a round until the ball bearings leave a hundred little holes in the wall and Shirley races around the room like a fuckin’ lunatic. Bringing my aim back to Wayne’s face, I lift a brow in challenge, even while Shirley runs through the rays of sunlight now peeking through the wall. “Want another demonstration?”
“I want my lawyers to look at these papers.” Turning, Wayne picks up the envelope and folds it as through this is something he can put aside at his leisure. So I turn and shoot out his television until sparks fly into the air and the papers magically reappear between us.
With my gun in hand and every fucking intention to shoot these pricks dead if that’s what it takes to walk away with those children, I aim at Wayne’s face and watch him sign his children away like they’re worth nothing more than a TV. “Shirl. Shirley!” He grabs her arm and drags her hysterical ass closer to us. Pushing the pen into her shaking hand, he draws her name for her and looks back up with unfiltered anger in his eyes. “It’s done.”
“Good. Those are my children now. If you so much as speak to them ever again, I will shoot you between the fucking eyes and watch your blood turn black. Do we have an understanding?”
His wide jaw ticks, and his heavy brow pulls low. If the fat fuck took care of his body, his life, and stopped drinking, he’d actually look decent.
“Do we have an understanding?”
“Yes!”
“Don’t come near them again. If you see them in the street, its your responsibility to turn the other way and get the fuck outta there. If I find out different, I’ll remind you what my fists can do.”
Snatching the papers back and shoving them into my pocket, I fire off my final round and blow out their box fridge. “Fuck you assholes for hurting those sweet babies.”
Walking away with a whole new world in my back pocket, I climb into the cab of my truck and smile when a Bryan Adams song comes on the radio. It’s like the soundtrack to everything good in my life. Like the universe is sending me a sign that this was right.
That I risked a lot coming here, but that it was worth it, because they signed, and even if the papers in that envelope won’t stand up in any court, I know in Wayne and Shirley’s hearts and minds, they think they will.
They think I won, and I won’t ever tell them different.
Taking a detour across town and pulling into the house the locals call Popcorn Palace, I climb out of the truck in front of the rotted away home and head around the back with my Winchester in hand.
It’s not a lie if Nelly never finds out, right?
It doesn’t have to break her heart.
It’s a lie I tell to protect those I love. So I bury the hardly used shotgun as deep as I can dig before my shoulders protest, push the dirt back over top and do my best to make the ground look undisturbed, then I head back to my truck and head toward home.
Because home is where I need to go.
It’s where my heart is, and where I belong for the rest of my happy life.
Chapter 20
Nelly – Much, much later
I’ve been a widower since before I turned forty.
Unable to move on from the only true love I would know, unable to let go of the one and only man I could call my soulmate. I made a happy life for myself while I raised three wonderful boys that looked just like my Bry, and