Page 106 of Bad Decisions & Back Roads

She hadn’t meant I’d inherited the better genes in the family.She’d meant Jimmy wasn’t my biological father.Relief punched through me first, hot and dizzying, but it was quickly followed by something uglier.That truth lowered my value to him even further.It also explained why he’d never tried to track me down when I left.Good riddance to Valerie’s first child, the bastard he’d been forced to claim.

When we reached Hurst land, Jimmy proved he wasn’t stupid.He didn’t pull up to the main house.Instead, he stopped near a cluster of trees farther down the driveway, keeping cover around him so no one could line up an easy sniper shot.

Please, let Jackson be out here.The man could sniper shoot a nail off a fence post from unreasonable distances.

Then he shoved Misty and me ahead of him, using us as shields as he marched us up the driveway toward Timothy’s black truck.

Timothy stood beside the truck, rigid with tension.Even from a hundred yards away, I could feel it rolling off him in waves.He wore sunglasses, like a poker player hiding emotions.

Jimmy stopped us.His fist twisted in the back of my shirt like a leash.Misty hung off my arm as if the effort of walking was too much.

“What’s your play here, Jimmy?”Timothy called out, his voice calm in a way that felt far more dangerous than shouting.“Wipe out your whole bloodline?Spend the rest of your life rotting in prison?”

“I want you to watch me destroy your life,” Jimmy snarled.“Just like you destroyed mine.”

Timothy huffed a low, humorless laugh.“Jimmy, you destroyed my life long ago when you tried to kill Gia the first time.”His head tilted slightly.“Everything after that?You getting caught for bigamy, drugs, all of it?That’s just consequences finally catching up to you.”

Jimmy pushed Misty and me hard in front of him such that I stumbled.I felt the shift in his body stepping away.The rise of the gun.

Misty must have too.

The shot cracked through the air at the exact moment Misty spun toward me.

Her body slammed into mine.

For half a second, my brain refused to understand what had happened.The force of her rocking forward knocked me backward into the dirt.Misty collapsed over me.Warmth splattered across my chest.

Timothy lunged and grabbed the barrel of the gun before Jimmy could shoot again, wrenching it out of his hands.He punched him hard enough to crack his nose.Jimmy swung back, catching him with enough force to push him backward.The gun fell between them.

Another shot rang out.I knew in my bones it was aimed at Jimmy.I heard his body hit the ground.I noted him not moving.

“Misty?”My voice broke on her name.I pushed upright and dragged her head into my lap.Blood spread fast across her pink T-shirt, soaking through my hands no matter how hard I tried to hold it in.“No, no, no?—”

Sirens screamed somewhere in the distance.Gravel crunched.Doors slammed.None of it mattered.

Misty looked up at me and smiled.Actually smiled.The relief on her face was so pure it shattered me.Tears blurred my vision.

“Doesn’t hurt,” she whispered through uneven breaths.“This…” Her lips trembled.“This has dignity.”

A sob tore out of me.All her life, people had hurt my little sister.They’d used her.Made her feel small.And now she was dying like this, saving me.

I clutched her hand tighter.“I love you.”

Her fingers weakly squeezed mine.

Behind her, I saw sheriff’s department cars flooding the driveway.An ambulance.Timothy running toward us with a look on his face so destroyed it nearly undid me.But Misty held my gaze like I was the only thing she wanted to see before she left this world.

“Marry him,” she whispered.“Live… Love.Dad…can’t hurt you more.”

My tears fell onto her cheeks.“I will.”My voice shook apart.“If we have a little girl someday, I’ll name her after my favorite sister.”

Her lips parted in the faintest, broken smile.

I whispered, “I’ll give her the love we never got.”

Then they were loading Misty onto a gurney.I never released her hand but choked out, “She has a DNR.”

“Are you okay?”Timothy asked me.