Page 10 of Outlawed

He squeezes my hand tightly, an apology of some kind as he airs my dirty laundry. The truth is, it was always laid out for people to see. They were the ones who closed their eyes to it.

“I looked beyond the case that convicted a traumatized sixteen-year-old girl of murder, delved further back to her childhood to see what could have been done differently. What could have saved my girl from losing fifteen years of her life?”

“She shouldn’t have shot her daddy!” someone yells.

Shepard turns his head slowly to look at whoever called out, but I can’t see who it is. “You shot at a man who accidentally trespassed on your land because one of your signs had fallen down. You walked away with a year’s worth of probation after nearly killing an innocent person. Calliope shot the man who had spent most of his adult life trying to beat her to death. It blows my mind that you all knew. That you saw this child beaten and broken on a regular basis, and you did nothing. Calliope wasn’t this town’s downfall. You were. You see, Martin Hart wasn’t the only man to abuse Calliope.”

I tense, but he smooths his thumb over the back of my hand. “Sheriff Andrews did too, every time he joked about her bruises. The doctor at the clinic abused her when he failed to report his findings, again and again. The teaching staff at the high school pretended nothing was amiss when a beaten and bloody Calliope came to school, only for them to stand back and watch her get bullied further by her peers. Adults avoided her or called her names in the street. People spat at her,” he chokes out. Though it’s true, I have no idea where he got all this information.

“You see, I’m not sure I can protect you all anymore. Right now, I’d love nothing more than to watch you all burn in hell for what you did.”

“It’s your job,” someone heckles as the rest of the room absorbs the blow he just delivered.

“My job is also to arrest anyone who breaks the law. And looking around now, I can see I’ve been far too lax with you all. If you think I don’t know about the moonshine, illegal hunting, fishing, and under-the-table cash payments for goods so you don’t have to pay your taxes, you’re out of your minds. I’m done being the nice guy, so I hope you all have your affairs in order for when I come knocking.”

“You can’t—” someone starts to call out, but Shepard turns on his heel and leaves, dragging me along with him. The others follow behind us, Riggs at my side.

Once we spill out into the early evening air, Riggs steps up to Shepard and squeezes his shoulder. “You good?”

“Fucking fantastic,” he snaps before snorting. “I will be. I’m done with all this bullshit—Sarah’s right. Something’s gotta change. We’ve gotta change.”

“I really like hearing how right I am all the time,” Sarah pipes up, making him laugh. She squeezes through to hug me before getting up on her tiptoes to kiss Shepard’s cheek. “Well, I for one am proud of you, Sheriff.”

“Here, here,” Jackie says, clapping her hands. Before you know it, the crowd that followed us out joins in.

Dawn moves up beside me and gives my hand a squeeze. I look around and, despite the ugliness of before, I see the change Sarah was talking about already taking place.

I don’t even try to hide my grin as Riggs looks down at me with a smirk of his own. “You want to tell him what we were up to today, or should I?”

Shepard groans. “Oh god. What did you do?”

I look around at the people watching us with interest and think, fuck it. In for a penny, in for a pound. “I may or may not have bought a few properties.”

“Wait, what? Where?”

I turn and point. “Right there, the three on the end. I figure I could open a store to sell my concoctions, which I’m hoping Dawn will help me run,” I add as I look at her.

Her mouth drops open in surprise. “Really?”

“Hell yes. I could think of no one better. I was thinking of turning the shop next to it into a florist and then the one beside that,” I turn to look at Jackie, “into a pie and tart shop. If only I could find someone who’d be interested in running the place.”

“Me? You want me to run it? You’re serious?”

I nod. “It’s time for change.” I wink at Sarah, who flushes. “And on that note, I think Sarah should run for mayor.”

The crowd starts cheering, much to Sarah’s shock, which has me shaking with laughter.

People move away, giving me and my guys some space. Shepard wraps his hand around the one Dawn just let go of, while Riggs slides his hand onto my hip. I smile. Today turned out to be a good day after all.

And that’s when gunfire erupts.

Chapter Four

People scream and start running. Riggs tackles me to the ground as Shepard does the same to Jackie. Henry yanks Sarah down and covers her body with his. I look around to see where the shooting is coming from and spot Dawn on the ground, gasping for breath as blood pools around her.

“No!” I scream, trying to yank myself free. Riggs refuses to let me go. I use my powers to shock him before rolling away. I lift my arm toward where the shooter is firing from and send a gust of wind so ferocious it knocks them flying. I scramble over to Dawn as Shepard jumps to his feet and yanks out his gun.

“Shots fired. I repeat, shots fired on Main Street. I need backup and EMS ASAP,” he shouts into his radio before turning to Riggs.