was difficult to manage the angle and keep Hector covered at the same time. I succeeded only in pushing Hector’s gun closer to Gran.
She was already back on her feet, had hung on to a corner of the nightstand as she’d pulled herself upright. Now her glasses were in place and her eyes were more focused. But she was trembling, and she looked very frail.
She bent over and picked up the gun before I could stop her. Stood with it pointing at the floor. And stared at Hector. Still a bruised and battered elderly woman, but now potentially very dangerous.
No cop likes to see a gun in a scared civilian’s hands. Even if that civilian is their grandmother. He’d terrified her, I thought. Made her feel vulnerable. Probably for the first time in her life. So I acted accordingly, kept my voice soothing and my eyes on Hector.
“It’s okay, Gran. I’ll take care of this.”
“Yesterday, you said that you could do the job. Handle any trouble he made.”
“I am handling it,” I said, reacting to the accusation in her voice. “I came as fast as I could. And now I’m arresting him, Gran. He’ll go to jail.”
She shook her head.
“There’s only one way to protect women from men like these,” she said. “I thought you understood that. That’s why I gave you your chance last night. So you could prove that you’re strong enough to take over for me. That you can do things the way they need to get done.”
I stared at her, horrified. Thinking of how close Hector had come to raping me the night before. And knowing now that Gran—not Katie—had sent him after me.
“He’s just like them. Those men you found,” she continued. “They were the worst of the abusers. So I dealt with them. Just like I expected you to deal with Hector.”
I choked out a single word.
“How?”
She smiled. Unpleasantly.
“It was difficult the first time, but I got better at it with practice. And I figured out to ask for money. To help us with our work. I phoned each of them, promised to show them where their women were hiding. For a price. They could have said no. Accepted that their wives—their lovers—were bound for a better life. Away from them. But they didn’t.”
She sounded reasonable. So terribly reasonable.
Hector shifted his weight, and I jabbed him in the spine with my gun. Just to let him know that I still knew he was there. Knew, and wondered why Gran was talking so freely in front of him. But I wasn’t going to stop her. I had to find out what she’d done.
“I’d meet them somewhere public. Lately, at one of those big outlet malls. And I’d tell them to leave their cars parked, so they wouldn’t be recognized. Then I’d drive them to Camp Cadiz. I’ll show you where she’s hiding—that’s what I’d say. There’s an old cabin not far from here. In the woods. So they’d follow me. And I’d cast them into hell for their sins.”
She was still holding Hector’s gun at her side.
In the hallway, I heard running footsteps. And Katie and Aunt Lucy’s urgent voices. But my attention was already consumed by Gran and Hector. Of the two, I feared that she was the more dangerous.
I had to stop her before she killed anyone else.
“Let me help you, Gran,” I said, struggling to emulate Aunt Lucy’s unflappable calm. “Give me the gun, okay?”
“When you found them, I thought it was a sign,” she said. “I thought you were ready. You were supposed to kill him. And find a safe place to discard his body. Just like you did with Missy. But you let me down, Brooke. I can see now that you’re weak, too. Just like your mother and Lucy. Just like Katie.”
Behind me, in the hallway, Aunt Lucy gasped.
I ignored the sound.
Because Gran had lifted her gun. Pointed it at Hector.
Her hands weren’t trembling any longer.
“For the Underground,” she whispered.
Gran’s finger tensed on the trigger.
That’s when Hector threw himself against me. Using the same strategy that had saved his life minutes earlier.
The impact drove me to the floor.
He landed on top of me, his elbow in my stomach. Knocking the breath out of me. Then he rolled aside and made a grab for my gun.
I couldn’t breathe, but I could still shoot.
My bullet hit him in the head.
But the bullet that Gran had meant for him sped, unimpeded, across the room.