Page 7 of Outlaw Ridge: Reed (Hard Justice: Outlaw Ridge #6)

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Reed’s instincts kicked in the moment he saw the flash of the silver blade in the woman’s hand. His eyes locked on the knife, every muscle coiling tight, ready to act. But it was obvious the woman was ready to act as well.

Her wild gaze flicked between them, her movements erratic, but Reed could tell—this wasn’t a random attack.

She was aiming for Hallie.

Reed didn’t shoot her. Neither did Hallie.

Though they would have been justified in stopping her with a bullet, but Reed didn’t think that’d be necessary.

He waited for the blonde to get closer, and when she drew back her arm to lunge the knife at Hallie, he grabbed onto the woman’s wrist with his right hand and used his left to knock the knife out of her grip.

Hallie rushed in to kick the knife away and help him restrain her. Good thing, too, because the woman was fighting like a wildcat and was now trying to bite and scratch them.

“Enough of this shit,” Reed growled when her teeth sank into his arm.

He rolled her over, face first on the ground and pinned her there so she couldn’t do any more damage. Including to herself. The way she was thrashing around, she could end up breaking a bone or two.

“No,” the woman shouted. “I have to stop her!”

But there was another shout, too. From a man. “Charity,” he called out, racing across the yard to get to them.

Hallie shifted toward the newcomer, and while she didn’t take aim at him, Reed saw her get ready to do just that.

Then, Hallie cursed.

“It’s Jay Warrington,” she muttered.

And that made Reed do some cursing as well, but it was indeed the asshole ex-cop who’d botched the investigation of Hallie’s parents, gotten fired and then had tried to make Hallie’s life a living hell.

As if her parents hadn’t already managed to do that.

Jay didn’t appear to be armed but he did have his phone clutched in his hand. It also looked as if he’d dressed in a hurry. His shirt was only partly buttoned, one side hanging lower than the other, and his jeans had been crammed into his boots.

“Charity,” Jay called out again.

“Stop right where you are,” Hallie ordered, again not using her gun to get her point across, but Jay no doubt saw the Glock she had gripped and ready in her hand.

“Hallie,” Jay blurted, and while there wasn’t exactly venom in his tone, his expression conveyed that he despised her.

But that expression changed when he shifted his attention to the blonde on the ground. “Charity,” Jay muttered on a rise of breath. “What the hell have you done?”

“You know this woman?” Hallie snapped. And Reed was certain that would be the first of many questions.

Jay sighed and nodded. “Charity Marlow. She’s, uh, my girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend,” Reed repeated. “Did you put her up to trying to kill Hallie?”

“No,” Jay snapped. “Of course not.”

“The bitch has to die,” Charity moaned out. “She ruined Jay. She destroyed his life. He lost his badge because of her.”

Jay squeezed his eyes shut a moment, and while his groan did sound genuine, Reed figured this could be an act.

Jay could have somehow orchestrated all of this.

He could have gotten this woman to do his dirty work while his own hands stayed clean.

And Reed didn’t have to think of a motive as to why Jay might have done that.

Nope.

Jay hated Hallie, period, and that hate was enough to spur him to do something like this.

“Get this goon off me, Jay,” Charity begged. “Make him let me get up.”

“I can’t, sweetheart. Just stay still, don’t fight back, and I’ll make them understand what’s happening,” Jay insisted. “You’ll be free soon.”

Reed wasn’t counting on Jay saying anything that would make them “free” this woman. She’d be charged with the attempted murder of a police officer and likely wouldn’t get bail.

“I’ve called the cops,” Corman shouted, peering through the front window.

“Good,” Reed replied, but Jay didn’t have a similar reaction.

Jay began frantically shaking his head. “No, please don’t do this. Charity’s been under a lot of stress. She didn’t know what she was doing. Just let her up, and we can talk about this.”

“We’ll let SAPD sort that out.” Hallie’s voice had some ice in it. “I’m sure they’ll want to have a chat with you, too. You knew your girlfriend was coming here to try to kill me?”

“No. Hell, no.” Jay threw up his hands in frustration. “And she wasn’t trying to kill you.”

“Yes, I was,” Charity snarled, clearly not helping her cause. “She needs to pay for what she’d done.”

“What exactly is it that I’m supposed to have done?” Hallie asked. “And how did you know I’d be here?”

The questions seemed to frustrate Jay, and he dragged a hand over his face. “Look, I still have a few friends at SAPD, and one of them told me that’d been Corman’s sister who was murdered and that you’d be coming here to talk to him.”

Hallie and Reed had indeed let SAPD know that they’d be on their turf to interview Corman so that meshed with what Jay had just admitted. But Reed wanted to know the name of the cops who were feeding that kind of info to Jay.

“Charity heard me talking on the phone about you being here, and before I could stop her, she got in her car and drove off,” Jay explained, his gaze flitting between Hallie and Reed and Charity.

“I guess she got Corman’s address from the internet or something.

I went after her and got here as fast as I could.

She’s upset. She didn’t know what she was doing. ”

“It certainly looked as if she knew exactly what she was doing,” Reed disagreed. He tipped his head to the knife. “She had that, and she charged right at Hallie.”

Jay groaned again. “Yeah, but you saw her eyes, right? She was scared out of her mind.”

Again, Reed could argue that. “She didn’t seem scared. Only determined to get to Hallie.”

“Because that bitch is trying to kill Jay,” Charity wailed, and she broke down into a hoarse sob. Since she had quit struggling, Reed eased the grip he had on her.

“What is she talking about?” Hallie demanded.

Jay blinked as if doing a mental doubletake. “The note,” he said as if that explained everything.

It didn’t, and Reed made a circling motion with his free hand to prompt Jay into continuing.

“Seriously?” Jay snarled. “You’re saying you don’t know about it?”

“No,” Hallie replied. “Tell us.”

Jay didn’t look as if he bought her denial, and he huffed again before he answered. “This morning someone left a note on my car. It said, Welcome back to hell, Jay. You’ll soon be dead, and you can thank Hallie for that .”

“Welcome back to hell,” Hallie muttered.

Those had been the exact words in the note left at the crime scene. So, either the killer had left the note for Jay. Or Jay was the killer, and this was a sick, deadly game he was playing.

“I’m a target,” Jay continued. His nostrils flared, and he took a deep breath, as if trying to contain the anger bubbling inside him. “And I want to know why.”

“Hallie sent the note,” Charity cried out.

“I didn’t,” Hallie replied keeping her attention pinned to Jay. “What did the police say when you took the note to them?”

Jay shifted uncomfortably. “I didn’t tell them. What good would it have done?” he tacked onto that. “No way would the cops come after their precious golden girl.”

Hallie gave him a flat look, and Reed wondered if she was on the verge of reminding him that her life had been anything but golden.

“You know what I mean,” Jay went on, and he glanced in the direction of the street when there was the sound of a police siren in the distance. “You’re untouchable because some people feel sorry for you and because you’ve somehow managed to have a decent solve rate for murders.”

“It’s eighty-four percent,” Reed volunteered. “A hell of a lot more than just decent.” And it was. The average was closer to fifty percent in most cop organizations so Hallie was a superstar in her field.

“Whatever,” Jay barked, obviously dismissing that. “The point is that the powers that be are blind to Hallie’s shortcomings, and—”

“Everything you’re saying right now is a red flag that you incited your girlfriend to try to kill me,” Hallie interrupted.

“Jay didn’t do that,” Charity shouted, and she started to struggle again. “It was that article about you. I read it, and I know what you are.”

Reed’s gaze whipped to Jay to see his reaction to that, and there was some smugness now mixed with the anger. “Yes, the article did…upset Charity.” Butter wouldn’t melt in the asshole’s mouth. “I’m sure you’ve read it. Oh, wait, maybe you haven’t since it was just posted an hour ago.”

“What article?” Hallie asked, sounding plenty tough. Reed hoped that the asshole wasn’t about to put a dent in that toughness.

“One from that reporter, Luther Crowe, who’s helping your mother,” Jay said. He was clearly pleased to inform her about this. “You should read it, especially the reply your father had his lawyer post for him.”

Hell. There was that dent in Hallie’s resolve. It was barely noticeable, hardly more than a flinch, but he saw it well enough.

“Here, let me show you,” Jay went on, pulling up something on his phone. He turned the screen toward Hallie as he approached her. “There it is. All for the world to see.”

Jay came close enough for Reed to get a look at it, and it didn’t take him long to spot the reply that had been posted. Jay had obviously memorized it because he began to recite it aloud.

“On behalf of my client, Kip McQueen, here’s his response to this drivel of an article.

My wife, Tami, and her lackey reporter friend are liars.

Tami is a lying bitch and so is my daughter Hallie.

No matter what she says, Hallie knew exactly what her mother and I were doing, and she did nothing to stop it. All those deaths are on Hallie’s head.”

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