Hollywood Girls Club (39 page)

Shame. Embarrassment. Sadness. She and Bobby conveyed those tokens upon their only child much like Savannah’s mother bequeathed to her. Savannah’s mouth clenched closed with a force that might shred enamel from her molars.

Dammit, Bobby would speak to her. Savannah raised the butt of the gun to her shoulder and sighted at the bedroom window. Her finger settled against the cold metal of the trigger. She wouldn’t let Bobby cower and hide like a cur. He would answer for what he did to her, to them, to Ash. He’d answer for what he did in the past and what he tried to do to now. She wouldn’t kill him, but she’d flush out the son of a bitch.

Savannah raised the shotgun’s barrel and sighted just over the roof. She squeezed tight on the trigger and the gun butt slammed into her shoulder. A shaker shingle exploded off the roof.

After the blast of two more shotgun shells and the eruption of two more shingles from the Hopkins’ roof a black and white SUV rolled to a near-silent stop. No flashers. No siren. Quiet and still just like that cold Rocky Mountain morning before Savannah’s shotgun blast.

Self-possessed and without fear Sheriff Jennings slowly stepped from his SUV, “Morning Savannah.”

“Wayne,” Savannah said. She didn’t turn. She didn’t lay down her gun. Instead she pressed the butt to her shoulder and considered whether she wanted to squeeze off another shot.

 “I’m gonna’ have to ask you to lay down that gun.”

Savannah closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Adrenaline pounded through her body. Her heart hammered within her chest to the righteous beat of a lover scorned. She pointed the gun toward the ground.

“No problem Wayne.” Savannah leaned forward and lay the gun on the ground as if settling a baby into a bassinette. When she stood she raised both hands in the air. Not because Wayne told her to, but because she figured that’s what you did when you got arrested.

“Thank you Savannah,” Wayne said. “Now I need you to back away from the gun.”

Savannah stepped back—away from Grandma Margaret’s gun, away from the Hopkins’ house, away from her anger.

“I hate to ask you to do this Savannah, seeing as you’re wearing nice pants and all, but you’ve gotta’ kneel on the ground and put your hands behind your head.”

With her hands raised, Savannah half turned toward Wayne. “Really,” Savannah asked. Her shoulders limp and slumped forward—the McGrath fight drained out of her. “Can’t you just come on over here and cuff me?

“It’s procedure,” Wayne said.

Savannah knelt onto the yard. The cold wet mud pressed through the material to her knees. With the click of closing handcuffs and the weight of cold steel on her wrists shame lodged in her heart. Savannah’s bottom lip quivered—what had she just done?

Her head hung low as Wayne lead her to his SUV. She couldn’t meet the gaze of the looky-loos now gathered across the street on Linda Landry’s front yard. Her mass of brown curls fell about her cheeks—but she couldn’t hide—Ash couldn’t hide. Growing up Savannah and her sister endured taunts about their Mama’s bad behavior and now Savannah inflicted a similar humiliation onto Ash.

 “Damn it,” Savannah muttered.

“What’s that?” Wayne settled behind the wheel and met Savannah’s gaze in the rear view mirror.

“Just the hell to pay Ash will have,” Savannah said and looked across the street at the women wearing nightgowns and whispering behind cupped hands.

“Kids can be cruel,” Wayne said.

Savannah caught Wayne’s knowing gaze in the rear view mirror. Both Wayne and Savannah knew from experience just how cruel the kids of Powder Springs, Colorado could be to each other.

 Savannah fought the humiliation that settled in her chest and the tears that brewed in her eyes. “Wonder what Grandma Margaret thinks today?” As if she might erase the last ten minutes, Savannah closed tight her eyes and shook her head. “Me standing on Bobby Hopkins front lawn shooting at the sky?”

“She probably thinks you’re one strong McGrath woman standing up for your own.”

Savannah pressed her lips into a hard line and fought back the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. At least Wayne didn’t think she was half-cracked even if she was sitting in the back of his police cruiser with her hands in cuffs.

Savannah’s sister wouldn’t share Wayne’s sentiment. Tulsa would tell Savannah how dramatic she was, how bad for Ash that Savannah’s behavior was, how Savannah jeopardized custody of Ash to release her own anger.

That was, once Savannah told Tulsa, that Ash’s custody was even in jeopardy.

“Tulsa coming back from LA?” Wayne asked.

Savannah locked eyes with Wayne in the rear-view mirror, “She is now.”

• Chapter 1
  
• Chapter 2
  
• Chapter 3
  
• Chapter 4
  
• Chapter 5
  
• Chapter 6
  
• Chapter 7
  
• Chapter 8
  
• Chapter 9
  
• Chapter 10
  
• Chapter 11
  
• Chapter 12
  
• Chapter 13
  
• Chapter 14
  
• Chapter 15
  
• Chapter 16
  
• Chapter 17
  
• Chapter 18
  
• Chapter 19
  
• Chapter 20
  
• Chapter 21
  
• Chapter 22
  
• Chapter 23
  
• Chapter 24
  
• Chapter 25
  
• Chapter 26
  
• Chapter 27
  
• Chapter 28
  
• Chapter 29
  
• Chapter 30
  
• Chapter 31
  
• Chapter 32
  
• Chapter 33
  
• Chapter 34
  
• Chapter 35
  
• Chapter 36
  
• Chapter 37
  
• Chapter 38
  
• Epilogue
  
• About the Author
  
• An excerpt from The Secrets Of The Hollywood Girls Club
  
• Praise for Can’t Buy Me Love
  
• An excerpt from Can’t Buy Me Love
  
• An excerpt from Courting Trouble