Page 38 of Beautifully Shattered (Secrets & Scars #3)

S he doesn’t even flinch at the sound of the gunshot, her eyes catching on the flock of magpies that soar from the trees at the sudden disturbance.

Something has flipped inside her. It was already teetering when she laid her heartache bare with her old man, making sure he knew the full extent of his actions. Or lack thereof.

But what she learned about Daniel… Fuck! Her own fucking cousin!

Yeah, that’s the shit that tipped her over into this cold, dead version of herself.

My eyes meet JD’s, and he gestures his head back towards the house, so I nod, and he turns, walking back inside.

Abbey watches him go, but doesn’t say a word, just slips into the car and closes herself in .

“That was some heavy shit,” Jols mutters quietly next to me, and I meet her concerned gaze and nod.

“People should need a licence to have kids. Her parents should never have been allowed to have them.”

“Yeah, but then you wouldn’t have her.”

“Yeah.” I let out a rough fucking sigh. “She deserved better than what she got.”

“She’s got you now. Us. Let’s help her get through this, and then,” Jols shrugs, her lips kicking up, “we all get to show her how fucking amazing life can be.”

The slam of a house door draws our attention back to the house to see JD striding back towards us. When he gets closer, I lift a brow, and he gives me a single nod, telling me everything I need to know.

Colin Delany took the parting gift his daughter left him, and put himself down.

Slipping into the car, we all buckle up, Abbey’s seat belt already in place as she stares out the windshield.

“Is he dead?” Her voice is empty, her big doe eyes flicking to me.

“Yeah, Angel. He’s dead.”

She nods once, settling back into her seat as I fire up the engine, and her gaze shifts out the window, staring at the houses on her street as we drive away.

“JD, shoot Riggs a message and get him to contact Officer Zimora,” I mutter, my eyes meeting his briefly in the rearview mirror. “Tell him there’s been a suicide and give him the address. ”

“On it.” JD shifts in the backseat, taking out his phone, and I focus on the road as we meet up with our escort and wait for the second vehicle to catch up.

I consider that maybe what Abbey’s learned today is already enough. Maybe even too much. That maybe we should head to the compound for the night, or the Redfield Lake safe house. But she’s determined to find her sister, so I push on to the next stop on our list.

The Stone residence.

Abbey remains quiet, staring out the window as we drive through the streets of Fox Pines. Her leg isn’t bouncing anymore like it was before we went to her house. She almost looks calm. Like she’s in a trance.

The moment we pull up outside Daniel’s house, she perks up, straightening in her seat as recognition flashes across her face. Before I’ve even got the car in park, she’s unbuckled, her hand on the door handle, ready to leap out.

“Hang on, Angel. We need to think about what you want to do if anyone’s in there.”

Her eyes flick to mine, then drop to the console where I left my gun, and she gives a single nod.

“You’re right.”

Snatching up my gun, she’s out of the car in a heartbeat, sprinting up the front path before I can even start cursing.

“Fucking hell,” I snap, trying to unfold myself from the car faster than my bulk wants to move, with JD and Jols scrambling after me.

In my periphery, I see Riggs and his team piling out of their cars, but I’m locked on Abbey as she jabs the doorbell over and over .

“Angel!” I call, but she fucking ignores me as I charge towards her.

The next fucking second, the door swings open, and Karl fucking Stone appears, wide-eyed and gasping as he comes face to face with the barrel of a gun.

Shit.

“Hello, Uncle,” Abbey snarls, shoving Karl, who stumbles backwards as my wife forces her way inside.

“She’s a fucking badass right now,” JD chuckles, wagging his brows as he rounds me and follows Abbey inside.

“You have to admit,” Jols giggles as she follows JD while I stand frozen on the path, fucking stunned, “she’s kinda hot right now. I’d do her.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I mutter, raking a hand over my face before turning to Riggs, who’s only a few feet behind me.

“Keep an eye on the street and have your men ready to leave in a hurry.”

Riggs smirks, his gaze flicking to the door. “It’s like a monster has been unleashed.”

He’s talking about my wife and I can’t even deny it because he’s spot-fucking-on.

All the pain Abbey has kept buried is spilling out, and fuck if her monster doesn’t match my own.

Following my team inside, I close the front door, finding Abbey in the living room, looming over Karl as he shakes violently in his armchair, the barrel of the gun pressed to his forehead.

“When Daniel introduced me to you, did you already know who I was to you?”

“Y-yes.”

“And you didn’t think, hey, these two are cousins, maybe it’s not a good idea if they date ?”

Karl’s head twitches in a tiny shake, his eyes pleading as he stares up at my Angel, who right now, resembles more of a demon.

“D-Daniel h-had d-done exactly w-what I’d asked h-him to d-do.”

I can only see the side of my wife’s face, but the way she tilts her head to the side is fucking creepy… and hot.

“And what the fuck did you ask him to do?”

Fuck, why do I love it when she swears like that?

“M-make y-you fall i-in love with h-him. T-told h-him that c-courting y-you would help h-him to move u-up the r-ranks in the c-church.”

“It’s a cult, Karl. Call it what it is!” she yells, and he flinches.

“It’s not a c-cult, it’s a churc—”

Before any of us know what’s happening, Abbey snaps the gun to Karl’s thigh, and pulls the trigger.

He howls in agony, which is the fucking opposite reaction to what I’m having.

Fuuuck. My cock is rising like a vampire rises for the setting sun.

“Stop whining,” I snarl at Karl, flicking my eyes to JD. “Take Jols and search the house.”

They nod and slip out, leaving the living room echoing with Karl’s spluttering whimpers, his hands slick with blood as he clamps them over the gushing wound on his leg.

For a long moment, Abbey just stares at Daniel’s dad, taking in his dishevelled appearance .

He was that way when he opened the door, and clearly Abbey is thinking the same.

“Is Daniel here? Your wife?” Abbey asks, and Karl shakes his head.

“J-just m-me.”

“Why are you here?” Abbey lowers the gun to her side, her scrutinising gaze raking over Karl.

“I’m here because of you!” he seethes through gritted teeth, and Abbey’s brows shoot up.

“Me?” she scoffs, pointing to herself.

“You fucked everything up,” he continues. “All you had to do was marry Daniel, and this would all be over.”

Abbey is quiet for a few long beats, and then she bursts out laughing, manically.

“Oh, I’m sorry .” She slaps her hand dramatically to her chest. “I didn’t feel like marrying my fucking cousin! ”

The gun is quickly pressed to Karl’s other leg this time, and she pulls the trigger again.

The bang is loud as fuck in this tight space, but my wife doesn’t flinch. She just shoves the barrel up under Karl’s jaw, forcing his head back.

“Stop,” Karl sobs, his legs pissing out blood all over his fucking armchair, but my Angel’s not stopping. She won’t until he’s dead.

“Why aren’t you with Banes? Your stepdad, right?”

“That bastard cast me out!” Karl seethes, voice cracking.

“After all the years I supported him! He fucking kicked me out because Daniel shared you with his mates, knocked you up before the sacred ceremony could be done, and then,” Karl’s lip curls, “you went and married another man. You ruined everything, and my beautiful…” He trails off on a sob.

“My beautiful mother is the one who paid.”

“Blame me all you want.” Abbey snarls in his face, her caramel eyes wild. “As you can see, I don’t give a single fuck. But I am interested in your pathetic story. So please tell me all about what my grandfather did to your mum. And why?”

For a long beat, Karl remains silent, his gaze flicking to JD and Jols as they return to report the house is clear.

Then, as if he knows his fate, he spills all the sick and twisted details.

“I did it all to save my mother,” he sobs, his eyes going distant like he’s remembering a different time. “He kept her locked up for years, using her as a fucking incubator for his spawn.” His hands slip in the blood coating his legs as he tries and fails to stop the bleeding.

“When my stepfather… Banes… learned Daniel might not be the father of your baby, I knew it wouldn’t end well for my family. He needed the pure bloodline.”

Abbey scoffs. “Don’t you mean tainted? If Daniel was the father of my baby, her veins would be pumping with incest.”

“Not in the eyes of the church,” Karl rushes out. “In Symme, conceiving from the same bloodline is the purest form of creation.”

A shudder ripples through my Angel as she takes a step back.

“So the cult is just one big incest ring?” she says, her voice dripping with disgust.

“Eve was made from Adam’s rib,” Karl mutters, his breaths heavy as he tries to ignore the pain in each of his legs. “They shared the same DNA. They then created life. Children, who then had children together. That is purity. The natural path. ”

For a long beat, the room is silent, Karl’s eyes never leaving Abbey’s. Then, to everyone’s shock, she bursts out laughing.

“Fucking hell, Karl,” she snickers. “Do you hear yourself? What a load of bullshit.”

“It’s not bullshit!”

“Yeah, it fucking is!” Abbey keeps laughing, and I catch Jols’ and JD’s eyes briefly, because shit, my wife is a little more unhinged than I thought.

“So, is Elizabeth your sister? Or cousin?”

Karl shakes his head. “No. My betrothed was meant to be your mother, Priscilla, but our father wanted to have a child with her first, and she kept losing them. When he cast her out, I had to go outside the church to find a vessel as my other female cousins were already promised to others.”