Page 48 of The Fear (The Hillers of Barratt County #7)

Hala had to let him go.

The knife…she had to get the little baby away from that knife.

She let him go, shielding him as best she could as the little boy, so much smaller than Ryan, found his feet. The sight of his little Scraggle Popps shoes seared into her heart forever. Ryan had those same little shoes. “Go, baby. Run outside. Go! You go outside and find a grown-up. Go!”

Hala turned more fully toward the boy’s mother. And leapt. “Run! Wynnie, go!”

Hala wrapped her hands in Jessica’s bloodied shirt. And lunged, throwing her whole body into the movement. Just like Grady and his brothers and Hudson had taught her and Greer when they’d been little girls so long ago.

All she wanted was time. For Wynnie and her brother to get out.

And for Grady to get there.

Because he was coming.

Jessica’s hand wrapped in her hair, grabbing Hala by the ponytail that Grady played with all the time now.

They both went down. Hala screamed when the knife sent fire screaming across her arm. Coming too close to her neck.

She fought. For herself, for the two children—for the hope of a future with Grady.

Hala just kept fighting.

Until a man was there. She looked up, hope filling her. There was blood all over her. Some of it was hers.

But it wasn’t Grady standing there. It wasn’t.

It was a man she didn’t know at all. He just stood there, staring at Hala like she was nothing more important than a dead mouse on her own floor.

“Fuck, Jess. Just get your damned kids, and let’s go. I’m not waiting around forever—no one is worth me going back to prison. Let’s move . Some guy in a red truck is driving this way. Let’s go. ”

Hala tried to pull herself closer to the open door.

Grady was coming.

Hala screamed. As loudly as she could. His name. Because he would come for her. She just knew it.