“Somewhere safe.”
He took her to the Hells Angels clubhouse outside town.
A retired nurse named Doreen examined her.
“Possibly two cracked ribs,” she said.
Hannah's eyes filled with tears.
“I'm sorry.”
Doreen frowned.
“For what?”
“For causing all this.”
Doreen shook her head.
“Sweetheart, none of this is your fault.”
Cole called Linda.
When Hannah's mother arrived, she nearly collapsed at the sight of her daughter.
“Who did this?”
Hannah finally said it.
“Ethan.”
Linda closed her eyes.
Three years of fear suddenly became something tangible.
Something that could no longer be dismissed.
Cole looked at her.
“You need evidence.”
Linda stared at him.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Fight smarter.”
He told her they needed witnesses.
Records.
Documentation.
Someone outside Victor Grayson's control.
Then he mentioned a journalist.
“Patricia Reeves.”
Linda looked at him.
“Can she help?”
Cole nodded.
“She can dig.”
And for the first time, Raven Hollow's sheriff was about to face someone he couldn't intimidate.
The People Who Finally Spoke
Patricia Reeves arrived the next morning.
She listened.
Hannah told her everything.
The bullying.
The threats.
The vandalism.
The dead crow.
The brick.
The assault.
Patricia wrote everything down.
Then Marcus arrived.
He had been one of Ethan's friends.
“I was there,” he admitted.
Linda stared at him.
Marcus lowered his eyes.
“I didn't hit her. But I saw Ethan do it.”
He was terrified.
“If I talk, Sheriff Grayson will destroy my family.”
Cole looked at him.
“And if you stay silent?”
Marcus looked toward Hannah's room.
He understood.
Silence had already destroyed enough.
He agreed to testify.
Then Deputy Dale Whitfield came forward.
For fifteen years, he had worked under Victor Grayson.
He admitted that complaints had been buried.
Evidence had disappeared.
People had been protected.
And he had participated by remaining silent.
Then he revealed something even worse.
He had overheard Victor discussing the diner fire before it happened.
“I know that fire wasn't an accident,” Dale said.
Patricia's pen stopped.
“Will you testify?”
Dale closed his eyes.
“My career will be over.”
Cole answered quietly.
“Maybe your career should end.”
Dale looked up.
“Why?”
“Because you finally have a chance to become the man you should have been all along.”
Dale nodded.
“I'll testify.”
The walls around Victor Grayson's kingdom were beginning to crack.
Fire
The diner burned shortly afterward.