Deploy, Part One (Rawlings #1)(93)
“Baby, look at me,” he demanded. Finally, she did, but all she saw was them pulling him away, and every wretched emotion in his gaze.
His brothers and father followed him, all yelling different things out. Providence was calm but was led just the same.
Emergency workers rushed in and all crowded around Murdock who was very much alive, trying to raise up, only to fall down.
Justice’s mind kicked into gear when she saw the Sheriff at the end of the hall, paying no mind to Murdock but handing out orders to make sure the Rawlings were locked down.
She ran after the Sheriff. “You can’t do this! He was defending me.”
“Defending you?” the Sheriff said as if she were trash that wasn’t worth fighting for. “I don’t know what you do to get those Rawlings’ boys all exited, but I assure you Declan Rawlings is going to be wishing he never met you ‘fore I’m done with him.”
“Are you threatening him?” she yelled in front of everyone. “He was stopping your son from abusing me like he has for years—more than I can say for you!”
The Sheriff turned beet red then grabbed Justice by the arm and led her through the thick double doors. She thought she had gotten somewhere, that he was going to let them all go, but all he was doing was making sure the packed lobby didn’t hear or see them go at it.
“You listen to me you cheap, loose girl—your bullshit threats are not going to work on me. A Marine by definition is a deadly weapon. That one is a loose cannon who attacked for no reason and did not stop when he was ordered to—I will have him put away for attempted murder and I will keep picking and pushing and piling on the bullshit. I’m sick of the corruption and nonsense all of you bring to my town.”
Justice stared at him wide-eyed, dumbfounded that Murdock had never once exaggerated what his father was capable of.
“Get out of my station before I put you behind bars, too—then send child services up your ass.”
He stormed off.
Seconds later, she made her way back to the lobby red with rage but it could’ve been mistaken for any emotion.
“He wont help. He wont stop it,” she said to whoever was listening, which was a packed lobby full of deputies, half of city hall who had just let out of a meeting, and the federal investigators who were wrapping up their missing person case.
Dawson pulled Justice away and had her in her truck and down the road before Justice caught her breath.
“There’s no way out,” she said on a pant.
“Listen to me,” Dawson said as she floored it. “You and me are going to be honest as the day is long. I can’t help you out of this if you’re not.”
“You can’t change the past.” She looked right at her. “He’s going to kill me. He’s that f*cking crazy. Paranoid.”
She didn’t even have to clarify who she was talking about it.
“The question is why is he paranoid...and how can we use it?”
***
Murdock was enjoying the pain pills that had been dished out to him by the attending. He didn’t feel much pain beforehand, but he was never one to turn down another dose.
Not when it allowed him to sleep deep enough he didn’t remember one haunting night when he threw a baseball and his entire future was destroyed.
He should have run. The second he saw Brent Rose bleeding out he should have bailed, gone home and acted like he’d been there the whole time.
Yeah, the town might have strung up Justice Rose, hell his mother alone would have seen that girl put in jail for years to come. But at least he would not have had to keep tabs on the bitch.
At least he would have been able to bail, leave behind this f*cked town and its dark secrets and pretend it never happened.
But he didn’t run.
No. He stepped up and gave them both an alibi and they had both been paying for it since.
Half the time Murdock didn’t remember where he was or what he had been doing. He’d only made it legitimately through the first year of college, after that point his mother paid off others to help him with his online classes, and more than once had someone sit in for his exams. He didn’t get why she cared. Why anyone cared.
It was all a joke to him.
But now? Fuck. Now he had to deal with this shit. He had to find a way to shut Justice up and get the f*ck out of dodge.
He was pulling on his shirt, marveling at how soft the cotton felt when his father walked in.
“Don’t look at me like that,” the Sheriff said when he saw Murdock’s blazed smile, one that was near manic at times. “What the hell were you thinking? Why were you in my station—anywhere near a Rawlings? Your mother said she had you under control.”
Murdock was sure she did. Her version of under control was sharing her stash with him. Last year he woke in his driveway, with his mother hosing him down, demanding to know who bit him and why.
Months later, when Murdock figured it out...he told her. He told her he needed help. He was too far gone, not remembering shit, and half crazy.
Mary Souter shut him up with more drugs—and cash. She kept him home for a while, and when it was all over she convinced him he had imagined it all. She told him he was just still heartbroken because Justice Rose left him for a Rawlings, and that was normal.
So he tried not to, but then he’d seen Brent’s case on his dad’s desk. He’d hear his parents argue and he’d lose it. He’d try to find Justice just to make sure she had not gotten all righteous on him.