Chapter 21: On the Dock

Eden's POV

The sheriff took the axe out of my hands himself.

"You can let go, miss," he said. "I've got it."

I looked at my fingers.

They did not want to open.

Two deputies lifted Howard off the logs and rolled him onto his face.

One knee was bent the wrong way, and he swore the whole time.

"That man attacked me," he said. "That cripple drove a machine into my leg. I want him arrested."

"You have the right to remain silent," said the deputy.

"I want a lawyer."

"You'll get one."

They walked him up the boathouse ramp in handcuffs, limping, with a deputy on each arm.

Conroy rolled behind them, very slowly.

His wrist was bleeding where the strap had torn it.

I went after him, and I did not touch him, and I did not let him out of my sight.

Up on the lawn, the lights of the sheriff's cars made the whole bank white.

And behind them, coming along the lane, were headlights I knew.

Three cars of the gala were coming down the dirt road.

The board chairman's wife got out of the first one, in her evening dress and her husband's coat.

Her niece got out beside her, holding up a phone.

"We followed the lights," the wife said. "Everyone followed. We could not stay in that room."

A reporter climbed out of the second car with a camera on his shoulder.

Howard saw them and stopped walking.

He stood on the lawn in the middle of the sheriff's lights.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Return of the Reborn Princess from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.