Darkness at the Edge of Town (Iris Ballard #2)(109)

“What does the great Iris Ballard think?”

“That many people? Hell no. You’re good, but not forty-people-killing-themselves good. Even your old buddy Jim Jones had detractors. You probably drugged them with your communal dinner and drinks. Then you doused the house with gasoline, turned on the gas, and kaboom. But why so many? Even with five or six you could have achieved the same result.”

“Everyone dying, all the truly devoted, fit my narrative better. We all died for our beliefs. Five or six? I’m just a thug covering up my alleged crimes. Forty-two? I’m a guru who truly believed. Not to mention it would only take one of them to see us leaving to tell the police. I did spare the children.”

“Yeah, you get a brownie point there.” Another tiny step. “And the note?”

“I forged the signatures. At the meeting today I had everyone sign a letter to the DEA asking them to leave us alone. Although they probably would have signed the one you found,” he chuckled. “Fucking morons. I don’t think a one of them read it. Not even Billy boy here.”

“Then why spare him? I doubt you’d risk everything for familial loyalty.” Another step.

“We needed him to get asshole here to open the gate and door,” Mathias said, nodding at Elliot. “Billy here’s the only one of my people with rich relatives nearby. We needed money, real money to last the rest of our lives.” He pressed the gun against Billy’s head so hard Billy had to bend forward. “Plus I planned to have our boy here execute his father. That way he’d be just as guilty as the rest of us. My Betsy could keep her husband, Billy could finally reach catharsis about his father’s abandonment, and if he didn’t obey me…well, I was already going to have three bodies to disappear, what’s one more?”



“You didn’t think we’d link the Grey disappearance and the farm?” I asked.

“Pack a few bags, send a few emails, buy some plane tickets—it’d be weeks before anyone knew they were missing, and we’d be gone. Vanished. Retired. That was always the plan,” he said, voice cracking a little.

“Damn good one,” I said with another step. “Can I say you…have impressed the shit out of me? On more than one occasion you really had me.”

“Really?” he asked.

“Yeah. You did.”

“I almost bested the great hero?”

“Yeah, you almost did.”

“Almost…” He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and smiled sadly. “Well, that won’t do,” Mathias said, voice trembling. He looked back at me, determination locking his face in place. “You…you didn’t catch me. You couldn’t. I was better than you. Smarter. You didn’t catch me. Not even you.”

In one quick movement he took the gun from Billy’s head and put it to his own, pulling the trigger immediately, his brains splattering out the opposite side of his head. Billy screamed. As Mathias’s body collapsed, I leapt toward Billy and grabbed him out of the line of fire. Luke strode into the room, gun on Mathias, as I pulled the hysterical Billy into a hug. “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s over. It’s over,” I whispered.



“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Billy sobbed into my shoulder.

“You have nothing to be sorry about. You did good, sweetie. You did so good.” I kept petting his hair and looked over at our panting father. “You okay, Elliot?”

“He shot me. He shot me,” the man panted. “J-Judith? Maria?”

“Fine. They got out unharmed.”

“Th-Thank you,” my father said. “Thank you.”

“Thank Billy. He risked his life to call me. He’s the real hero here, asshole. And don’t you ever fucking forget that.”

Luke took Elliot’s arm to help him stand. “Come on.”

“You came. You saved me,” Billy whispered as I helped him out of the house.

“I told you I would. I always will. I love you, sweetie.”

“I love you too.”

As I stepped out of that house of horrors with my brother in my arms, I took a deep breath of the wonderful summer air and savored the moment. I didn’t care what Mathias said. We’d done it. We’d saved him. We’d saved them. We’d won. I looked back at Luke with a grateful smile. He smiled back. Better together. I turned back to my brother and kissed his forehead. Better together. Always. Forever.





Chapter 18


We really had to stop holding Ballard family reunions at the hospital. The last time we were all together in the same room was at my bedside after the attack; now it was at Billy’s. Even Gia was there. I called her and she rushed right over. He had no serious injuries, but he had a minor concussion and shock, so they wanted to keep him overnight to monitor him. I was going to have to write another book to cover all my family’s medical expenses. I’d gotten my ending at least, bittersweet, but an ending nonetheless.

The police and ambulance finally arrived at Grey Manor ten minutes later and brought everyone, including Betsy, to the hospital. She was the only one in handcuffs. In the days to come, we’d uncover that she was in on the cult con from the beginning. She and Megan were in charge of the trafficking, even telling the ambassadors where to go. Worse, she was even the one who made the dinner and lemonade laced with enough sedatives to kill a horse. Once Billy told the police that fact, she had no choice but to take a plea deal. Life in prison instead of the death penalty. The offer was mostly to save the families of the victims from enduring a trial and having all the sordid details of what went on in the cult revealed. She gave birth in prison to my niece and goddaughter Iris Grace eight months later and as I’d promised, she never saw the baby again. Billy and Gia raised the girl and eventually gave her a brother. But that night Betsy sat handcuffed to a gurney, sobbing her eyes out. When I passed her room and saw that, I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.