Not Until Moonrise by Heather Hellinger Read Free Book Online Page A

stupid, Jack. Do you hear me? Let’s just get out of here. Please. Let’s just leave, you and me.”
       Kate drew in a deep breath, opened her eyes. The memory cracked like a shell, but beneath the fragments she felt armor-hard. She was not a victim now.
       She got her feet under her and reached for the top rungs of the ladder. She was lowering herself onto the rickety structure when she saw a glint in the straw—her knife. She grabbed the blade in one hand, just as the rotten wood under her boots cracked and gave way.
       Splintering wood jammed into the palm of her hand as she plummeted downward. Kate held her breath, and kicked away from the falling ladder. She hit the ground hard, wincing at the shocks that ran up her shins as she rose.
       The night was a pale rectangle against the barn door. She stumbled through it.
       Her step-brother stood in the moonlit clearing of the barnyard. He wore a huge yellow windbreaker and kept one hand tucked in the pocket.  In the other he held a brown paper bag. Kate tried to guess how much money was in it—a hundred, a thousand? How much were decade-old sins worth?
       Jackson stepped out of the shadows ahead of her, a dark figure cut against the night.
       Howard had never looked more insignificant than next to him, nothing but a sweating man full of fear. He wiped his upper lip on his sleeve, avoiding his swollen nose, and tossed the bag. It landed in the grass half a dozen feet from Jackson’s boots. “There it is, every dollar. Come and get it.”
       Kate stood in the shadow of the barn, torn between the urge to flee the scene, and the need to join it. She’d had a dream once, about revenge. But it had been daylight in the dream, and she was alone with Howard. When she accused him, his flesh began to sizzle and burn in the light.
       Don’t kid yourself, he said smugly in her memory. You want this.
       Under the sweat, Howard was still smug. He was smiling. Kate couldn’t imagine how, as Jackson started toward him. Warnings fired in her brain. She opened her mouth to cry out, but realized she didn’t know who she meant to warm. When had Jackson ever been the victim? She swallowed back his name, dug her nails into the barn doorway until splinters stabbed into her fingers.
       Jackson was one step from the bag when Howard pulled a shotgun from the pocket of his windbreaker. He raised it, drew a straight bead between Jackson’s eyes.
       Jackson stopped walking.
       Howard smirked. “Got you, motherfucker.”
       “Stop!” Kate darted into the light of the crescent moon, heart beating a tattoo behind her ribs. “Howard, put the gun down, you idiot.”
       His gaze flicked over her contemptuously. “Hey, sis. You’re late to the party. Romeo here’s just about to get himself blown to bits over some teenage whore’s justice fantasy. I guess you won’t care much. You’ve still got the rest of that money, huh? Got it in the truck, or did you hide it somewhere?”
       Kate stared at him, her stomach sour and her muscles starting to tremble slightly.  “A fantasy… Is that what you think this is? Three people dead over a fantasy?”
       Behind Howard’s back, Jackson glided one step closer, and another. Kate didn’t look at him.
       “It’s what you always wanted, isn’t it? To make us pay for wronging you? You were always a sick bitch. I knew it was you as soon as I heard. The way you killed them…” His eyes narrowed. “How did you do it? Make the cops think it was an animal attack? Just what did you have planned for me?”
       The night shimmered. Revenge—suddenly it seemed a tangible thing, much closer than Kate had ever imagined. But it wouldn’t be golden.  It would be dark, and angry. It would be blood for blood.
       Jackson took another step, and this time she matched it. 
       “Stop right there.” Howard brought the gun to bear on her. “Stop right where you fucking are.”
       Her fingers