Where Angels Rest by Kate Brady Read Free Book Online

know that he was accused of killing a young wo—”
    “Wilson McCormick has been coming to Hilltop since we opened and is one of my wife’s most loyal patrons,” Huggins interrupted. “He’s not likely to be bothered by your ranting and raving.”
    “Listen to me,” Erin grated out. She looked at the McCormicks behind him. “You have to understand.”
    “All they need to understand,” Huggins said, “is that you are a poor, misguided woman who believes her brother’s lies instead of the facts. I’ve told you before, Dr. Sims, I didn’t murder Lauren McAllister. And I will not let youruin my reputation or hurt my wife again by spouting your lies.”
    Erin gritted her teeth. The
bastard,
standing there, pointing a shotgun at her and somehow making himself appear the victim. “So what are you going to do, shoot me right here in front of God and everyone?” She glanced at the younger McCormick, who’d gone wide-eyed, then the elder, who had the phone pressed to his ear and occasionally said something into it. She had to make them listen. Somehow—
    “Jack.” The front door swung wide. The newcomer stopped short when he saw the stand-off. He was forty-something, and looked like he’d just stepped out of the casual section of
Gentleman’s Quarterly.
He glanced around, keeping one eye on the gun. “What’s going on?”
    “I’ll tell you,” Erin jumped in, but they spoke right over her.
    “This is the woman I told you about, Dorian,” Huggins said.
    “His real name is John Huggins—”
    “She’s the reason Margaret and I changed names and—”
    “He killed a girl and let my brother go to prison for it.” Fury carried Erin forward. As if in some sort of out-of-body experience, she realized she was walking toward him, right toward the shotgun. She didn’t care; he wouldn’t shoot her. That wasn’t his style and there were too many witnesses. But they weren’t listening to her. No one believed her.
    Listen to me, Mom. You have to believe me.
    “I want her arrested, Dorian,” Huggins said.
    “It’s you who should be arres—” A hand clamped over her mouth, cutting off her breath. Panic struck and sheflailed, then realized it was the younger McCormick who had grabbed her from behind.
    “Stop it, lady,” he ground against her ear. “He’s got a gun.”
    She writhed, trying to yank free, and everything dragged into slow motion. Sirens whined outside the door. Boots stomped in, voices shouting over one another. A handful of strangers appeared on the stairwell and the man from
GQ
kept talking and wagging a finger and Huggins’s wife came in from the back, still strikingly beautiful and standing in front of her masks wringing her hands. Huggins’s shotgun finally came down and Erin shook off the hands that held her.
    She caught her breath and glanced at a clock over the mantle: seven-thirty. Nearly two days gone of Justin’s seven, but she was on her way. She’d identified Huggins and the police were here. Next would come the media and soon people would hear the truth and Justin would have another chance.
She
would have another chance. To do what she’d never been able to do before, even when they were children.
    To protect him.
    “I want to see Sheriff Nikolaus Mann,” she said, to a deputy who might have been twelve. He had red-blond hair that stuck up like an elf’s and had been reaching for his belt when she spoke. For handcuffs, Erin realized.
    He seemed startled by her demand but relaxed his hand. “Uh… Okay. Come with me.”
    Huggins intercepted them. “Deputy Jensen, this woman is trespassing, committing slander, and in violation of a restraining order.”
    “I’ll take care of it, Jack,” Jensen said, and walked her out, seeming in a hurry to have it over. Erin heldHuggins’s gaze as they passed him, and his blue-green eyes bore into her like daggers.
    She shook it off and they stepped into the cold night air. Erin noticed the two deputies’ cars, both with blue lights