Shattered Hearts A MFM Love Story

~ ~ Maddy ~ ~

My heart wrenched like someone had ploughed through my ribs and squeezed it.

Casey’s eyes wouldn’t leave my mind and the effects of what I’d seen stuck like an itch I couldn’t scratch.

My attempts to save her had been nothing more than wishful thinking and an ill-fated attempt at stupid heroics.

Like I knew anything about guns. What the hell had I been thinking?

In truth, I hadn’t been thinking straight all night. Colossally stupid. I should have gone to get help.

Cursing to myself, I couldn’t wallow in a pity party for one. Casey needed me. I breathed through my nose, struggling to stay composed. Tears blurred my vision, and it was difficult to look him in the eye. When I did, it felt like looking at a stranger.

Cooper moved back a little and just stared at me.

Unsure what he was waiting for, clammy beads of sweat snaked down my temples as I watched Cooper’s expression shift from smug to almost bored-looking. Taking a breath, I had to ask. “What is it I need to do to stop what they’re doing to her?” I resigned myself to all possibilities, including begging and the unthinkable.

He waved the gun in my general direction. “Put your hands down. I ain’t fixin’ on shootin’ you.” One of his thick eyebrows curled up. “Well, not yet anyways.”

Some things never changed. Cooper loved his sick little mind games. He was like one of those kids you saw using a magnifying glass and sunlight to burn insects, watching them suffer.

I slowly lowered my hands, fetching them together to clasp in front of me, my fingers wrestling with one another. It was a nervous tic and did nothing to help calm the rapid beating of my heart or stop the tears that fell like a summer shower.

Cooper cocked his head to the side in thoughtful contemplation. “Huh. You really want to save her—your sister?”

Sister? I swallowed, eyebrows furrowing, not following. “Save Riley Jo?”

There was a disbelieving scoff in his response. “You haven’t figured it out, have you?”

I kept quiet.

“Christ. You’re either stupid or you’re really fucking stupid?”

My jaw set and I had to look away for a second and breathe when what I wanted to do was walk straight up to him and throat-punch him.

And then shoot him.

“How do I put this so even you can understand?” He mocked whilst shifting his weight more to his left side.“Your daddy and the Reilly’s whore of a mama were a thing way back when.” He chuckled. “Still need me to draw you a picture?”

My mouth fell open and my mind shot off in all directions. I had another sister?

Shared a half-sister with Logan and Jackson?

It made sense and yet, no sense at all.

But then I started connecting the dots. “It was you.” My hands parted as one raised to swipe the tears from my hot cheeks and the other pointed a finger at him. “You. It was you that told Casey—but how did you know?”

“Maybe when you were telling her, she shouldn’t dance with the wicked man. You should have also mentioned not talking to him, neither.” He rolled his eyes before enlightening me. “I just so happened to be in the same bar when her and that friend of hers came looking for a good time. And me being charming n’ all, offered to buy them a drink, and then we got to talking and I asked about her family and it got real interesting when she said her mama told her she might find her daddy here in Lockwood.... Banks."

Banks. I repeated the name in my head.

Cooper held out his arms to the sides, looking around. “And I see no other Banks around these parts.” He flicked his chin up. “She just hadn’t spotted the link between your surname Lockwood and your daddy’s.”

Why hadn’t she mentioned this before? Franklin Banks was my daddy’s family name, but me and Riley Jo carried the Lockwood family name as Mama wouldn’t have it any other way.

Cooper let his head tilt back and laughed. “Daayum, Princess, you should have seen your mama.” He blew out a whistling sound. “She lost her shit right there. Your daddy didn’t stand a chance against her. What is it they say? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?”

It was as obvious as the nose on my face why she shot him.

And then the memory of her words came back to me like a slap in the face.

She’d asked Cooper to get rid of the problem.

The problem being Casey.

She wanted to bury the secret. Protect her precious family name and its reputation.

“My mama asked you to get rid of her, Casey, right?”

He winked, as the left side of his face smiled. “Ding. Ding. Ding.” Slowly shaking his head. “And trust me, she didn’t sugarcoat what she wanted.”

My shallow breaths came faster. “No. This ain’t right. You have to let her go, Cooper. She ain’t done nothing to you—never hurt anyone.”

Shrugging with a scoff. “I don’t have to do a damn thing you say, Princess.”

I tried to think of any leverage I might have. But honestly, I didn’t have any, but I had to ask repeating my earlier question. “What can I do or give you to let her go?”

I didn’t have any money, but I knew one phone call to my Nana Em and she would organise funds in a heartbeat—Logan and Jackson, too. Not that I could ask them because they would want to know why.

Cooper’s eyes lazily trailed over me and I thought his answer might be vulgar, but it wasn’t. “I already told you. There’s nothing I want from you. In fact. My family has everything now thanks to your mama being a greedy, money-loving, power-mad, crazy bitch.”

Huh?

“You honestly think I married you because I wanted to?”

Again I kept quiet.

“Well, let me tell you a few things ‘bout that family of yours. And trust me when I tell you, yours is more fucked up than mine ever will be.” He closed the distance between us and tapped the gun on my nose as I kept still, holding my breath. “Your daddy has been living it up for years, gambling, women and I'm sure Casey upstairs isn’t the only Banks offspring walkin’ around these parts.”

Stella had already told me that, but it didn’t make sense. “I’m not following.”

“No, and I doubt you ever will.”

“Can you just hurry this along? Then we can get to negotiating what it will take for you to let Casey go free.”

“Negotiation? Is that what you think we’re doin’ right now?” he shook his head. “Are you not listening?” This time he tapped the gun to my forehead. “Does this not work?” His smug face came closer. “My family will own this town soon.”

I shifted my head back just a fraction so I could stare right at him. “What do you mean?”

“The land?” He paused, his eyes widening, as if I should know what he meant. But it was as clear as mud. And when I stood there looking blankly at him, he rolled his eyes and with a sigh carried on talking. “The land that Lockwood sits on is rich in oil and natural gas.” He took a step back.

His words were acid on my tongue, burning beneath waves of abject pain. My family and his were wrapped in slimy, poisonous truths. “You want the land?”

“Look at you. Not so stupid, after all.”

“What and you think my mama is gonna sign it all over to you?”

“She will if she wants to stay out of jail for shooting your daddy.”

He obviously didn’t know about Nana making changes. Mama got nothing. And whilst Nana was alive, there was no way she would allow drilling on the land.

“We just have to finish what we started with your Nana Em...” He sucked in a breath. “She’s proving to be a tough old bird, that one.”

A hard notch formed between my eyebrows. “Are you saying it wasn’t an accident? Her falling?”

He glanced at the floor, chuckling to himself before lifting his head back up. “I’m not saying anything of the kind, Princess.” His cruel smile said differently.

“You won’t get away with all this!”

He shot me a look like I was the crazy one. “Everyone will think your mama shot Casey as well as your daddy and we pretty much own the Sheriff’s department. They will go along with whatever story we feed them.”

“And you expect me to keep quiet ’bout all this?”

“Oh, Princess. You don’t get it yet—do you?” He started laughing again, but it was the happy, jovial kind. “You ain’t gonna be warning no one because tonight, no matter what, you ain’t leaving this house.” He winked. “Alive.”

An awful sinking feeling fell through me before panic began to rise.

“Heck, Princess, you’ve made this so easy for me, just showing up tonight has given me everything I need to walk away from this looking like the victim here.”

What the hell?

He read my confusion.

“I mean all I will tell everyone is that your mama told you I shot your daddy, and you came rushing on over here threatening me with my own gun and when you tried to shoot me.” He paused for effect. “Well, I had to act in self-defence now, didn’t I?”

I stepped back, horrified at his words and the realisation that my fingerprints were all over his gun.

All this had been a trap.

But what about Logan and Jackson? “You may have the town fooled, but Logan and Jackson -”

He cut me off. “Logan and Jackson,” he repeated, and I hated that smirk of his. “Those hicks? Dumb as posts, those two haven’t even figured out what’s going on, on their own land.” He ran a hand across his stubbled chin. “Vandals, huh?” he clucked his tongue and then waved his gun again. “I’m hoping they want revenge. Turn up at my doorstep—guns blazing. Yeehaw!”

His hand and expressive facial movements were so dramatic. He was enjoying all this like it was some kind of theatre and we were all the puppets.

Holding up his gun, he pretended to fire it. “Bang. Bang. Dead.” His eyes found mine. “You’re getting this, right?”

I was gonna be sick. He would shoot them, too. “Leave them alone. Don’t you think you’ve done enough if you plan on killing me and their sister?”

“Done enough?” his expression flipped from amused to cruel as his mouth turned downward. “This is all your fault. Y’know that right? You just had to go and humiliate me and fuck them there brothers, didn’t you?”

What? So all this was about some kind of stupid pride?

He was waiting for me to say something. Dispute it. But I rolled my lips together, keeping my mouth shut.

He sighed, sounding almost bored now. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. If they’re out of the way, then their land becomes easy pickings because they won’t sell, that’s for damn sure.” He hitched a shoulder. “Maybe we might change the town’s name... Stanton Creek—got a nice ring to it. Hmm, Don’t you think?”

He was crazy. For sure. But I still held my tongue, to the point I was shocked I didn’t chew it off.

“Now, do you have any last words?”

I held my hands up out of instinct, taking a step back as he lifted his gun, aiming it at me. To say it scared me was an understatement.

Petrified.

“You don’t have to do this, Cooper. You can let me and Casey go.”

Something caught my eye over his shoulder, a dark head of hair, but in a blink, it was gone.

I must have imagined it as my eyes returned to Cooper’s who was still ranting.

“I could. You’re right, but I ain’t gonna.” He raised the gun, closing one eye as he looked down the barrel at me. “I would love to say it was nice knowing you. But we both know that ain’t true.”

“You’re crazy.”

Cruelty bled across his expression and gleamed in the determined set of his jaw.

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

He aimed with the gun and I heard him crow, “Last chance, Princess...”

I knew whatever I said would not make any difference as Johnny Cash’s wise words filtered through my thoughts, may you rot and burn in hell. “You can kiss my go to hell Cooper Stanton.”

He chuckled. “Very fitting.”

The gun going off pushed me backwards, and I looked down.

Stillness suffused the room. Blood roared in my ears, pulsed in my neck, and throbbed painfully in my abdomen.

Red.

Blood.

My blood.

I stumbled backwards, and then I crumpled to the ground. My lungs convulsed into sudden, agonising wheezes, billowing my chest and shortening my breaths. My limbs shook uncontrollably, and spasms contracted the muscles and arteries around my heart.

I fought off more tears because I’d given this man too many of mine already.

“Bye-bye,” I heard him say as I managed to lift my head to see the gun still aimed at me.

Letting my head fall back to the ground, I stared up at the ceiling as the gun went off.

"Ohhh, hayelll, no. Shit. Don’t you dare...”

Was that Riley Jo?

I blinked, clearing the blurriness as her eyes met mine.

Was I dreaming?

Was I dead already?

“Hold on, Maddy.” She had her phone pressed to her ear as her other hand took hold of mine. “Don’t you dare quit on me!”

I wasn’t dead. Not yet, anyways.

“C’mon. C’mon. Pick up!!” I heard her say, then quickly followed by yelling and cursing at someone down the phone. I guessed calling for help.

Pain sliced up and down my body, as I hissed through gritted teeth, shifting my head just a fraction to see Cooper lying on the ground not two feet away. His eyes were wide and unseeing, with blood running from his nose.

“Help’s on its way, Maddy,” she said with panic and quivers, shortening her breaths.

It hurt to move my eyes now. I just wanted to shut them. Go to sleep.

“I mean it, Maddy.” Her hand squeezed mine so tight, it forced my eyes to open. “Don’t you dare shut your eyes—you listenin’ to me?”

My throat and mouth were bone dry as I tried to speak. “Casey...” I croaked.

“What?” She moved closer, hovering right above me now. “Casey? Where is she?”

“U-up-upstairs. Hurt.” I gasped. “Last bedroom. Left.” Hissing through the pain, forcing out the words. “Men. Three. H-h-hurting her.” Riley Jo’s eyes flashed with fire. “G-g-go s-save.”

Riley Jo let go of my hand and moved out of my line of sight for a second. It sounded like she was loading her gun. But I couldn’t see. Her face came back into view. “You die whilst I’m gone and I will bring you back and kill you myself—you hear me, Maddy?”

I would have laughed if I wasn’t trying to keep conscious as now waves and waves of vicious agony crashed upon me.

She dashed from the room, and I slow blinked up at the ceiling.

It felt like a lifetime before I heard shouting and screaming and then more gunshots going off.

My eyelids fluttered with the darkness creeping in on me.

So this was what dying felt like. The shattering, unstoppable separation between life and the unknown.

And as my heartbeat slowed, I let my last thoughts be of them... Jackson and Logan.