Erica Spindler - In Silence

She shook her head. "Family sticks together. They always stick together."

"That's right," Matt murmured, tone coaxing. "I taught you that." He got to his feet slowly. "You're my baby sister, but you always took care of us, of all of us."

He took a step toward her and she took a step back. "Don't come any closer."

"He's trying to trick you," Hunter said to Cherry, following Matt to his feet. He grabbed the knife and yanked it out of his shoulder. He went momentarily light-headed at the pain, at the whoosh of blood spurting from the wound. "He's out of his mind. Look around-"

"Don't listen to him." Matt's expression became pleading. "He's not one of us. He left us, remember? He broke our hearts."

"I remember," she whispered. "The two of you fought that night. Something about school. And Avery. It always scared me when you got like that, Matt. When you got like…this."

Her gaze flicked to Hunter. "Dad was working. Mom had been on edge all day, then had gone out. I went to bed but couldn't sleep. I was scared. It felt like…everything was falling apart"

She drew in a broken breath. "That's when I heard Mom. She was crying. I crept out of bed…I saw the blood. Heard everything. About Dad…his girlfriend…that Mom had…hurt her. Matt told her not to worry, that everything would be all right. I saw him get his car keys.

"I sneaked outside, climbed into the bed of his pickup. Pulled the tarp over me. There…I sneaked in after Matt. I saw what he did."

She'd only been ten at the time, Hunter thought. He imagined her terror. Her confusion. If only he had been home, she could have come to him.

It all made sense now. The way they had withdrawn from him, shut him out. They'd all been a part of the same secret club.

It all made sense.

"I kept quiet." She shifted her gaze from Matt to Hunter. "I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid. I didn't know what would happen if I did. They'd split us up. Send Mom and Matt away."

Hunter ached for his little sister, alone with her terrible secret. Frightened and vulnerable. No wonder she had been so angry with him.

"I'm so sorry, Cherry," he said. "I didn't know. I didn't know you needed me. If I had, I would have been there for you. I promise."

"But he wasn't," Matt said sharply. "He abandoned you. Abandoned us. While I stayed. What I did was for all of us."

Cherry turned the shotgun on Hunter. "It wasn't his fault, Hunter. Don't be angry with him. I was there, I saw. He was pushed into doing what he-" Her words cracked on a sob. "That woman was awful. A cheap whore who had stolen my daddy.

"When Avery came back, I was so happy. I thought, if she and Matt got back together, if she would just stay and love him, everything would be okay. The way it was before. But now…I wish she'd stayed away. I wish you had both stayed away. You've ruined everything!"

"It's not true," Hunter said quickly. "Nothing's been okay since that night. And nothing could be. You've been living a lie, all of-"

"It's all their fault," Matt cut him off. "They're outsiders. Traitors to the family. To Cypress Springs."

"Ask him about Karl," Avery called out, voice high, desperate-sounding. "He didn't go to California! He's here, in this room. Ask Matt if it's true."

Cherry looked at Matt. "What's she talking about?"

"I need you, sis. You take care of me. Of all of us. Don't abandon me now, not when I need you most."

"He killed him, Cherry!" Avery struggled against her restraints. "Like he's going to kill all of us. Ask him about Karl and the cause."

"Matt?" Cherry whispered, voice shaking.

"He put the cause before love, sis." Matt held a hand out. "You can't hold that against him. The cause is everything."

Matt glanced toward the table as if for verbal confirmation from the other man. Cherry followed his gaze to the circle of the silent, a look of horror crossing her face. She took a step back, her hold on the shotgun slipping.

"No." She shook her head; her voice rose. "No!"

Matt used the moment and leaped forward. Hunter shouted a warning and dived for his own gun. Avery screamed.

A blast shattered the quiet. Hunter turned in time to see the force of the shot propel his twin backward. Matt seemed to hang suspended a moment, standing yet weightless, before he went down.

The shotgun slipped to the floor. Sobbing, Cherry fell to her knees beside their brother.

In the next instant the room filled with the sound of police sirens. Minutes later, a contingent from both the state police and the West Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Department stormed the factory.

Avery had learned that Lilah and Cherry had called the state police; it had taken some convincing, but they had agreed to send a trooper to the cabin. While waiting, Cherry had remembered that her father carried a shotgun in the trunk of his cruiser. She had retrieved it and gone to back up Hunter.

If she hadn't, Avery knew, she and Hunter would be dead. Like Gwen. Buddy. Her father. And so many others.

Avery and Hunter had been transported by ambulance to West Feliciana Parish Hospital in St. Francisville. She'd required fifty stitches to her face and head. A CT scan had revealed neither blood nor swelling to her brain, but the doctor had decided to keep her overnight for observation anyway. Considering, she had come through relatively unscathed.

Unscathed. Tears flooded her eyes. She would never be the same. She hurt deep down, in a way no amount of pain medication, no doctor's skill, could relieve.

"Hello, gorgeous."

Avery turned her head toward the doorway. The pillowcase crackled with the movement. Hunter stood there, fully dressed, smiling at her. "What are you doing up?" she asked.

"Been released."

"No fair." She winced, thinking of Matt's knife sinking into Hunter's shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"Just a flesh wound. Real ugly, lots of blood. No real damage."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know."

His gaze held hers. In his she saw reflected the horror of the past hours. Hers, she knew, reflected the same.

"The police talk to you, too?" he asked.

"Yes." She had been questioned by both the state police and sheriff's department. She had answered questions until her words had begun to slur from fatigue and pain medication. The doctor had stepped in then, firmly insisting that the rest of their questions would have to wait until morning.

"You want to go for a ride?"

"A ride? Are you busting me out of here?"

"That's an idea, but no." He disappeared; a moment later reappearing pushing a wheelchair. "I've got a surprise for you."

He rolled the chair to her bedside. After locking the chair's wheels, he lowered the bed rail and helped her into the seat.

"You know I don't need this thing."

"I know no such thing. And quit being so independent. It was hard enough getting the nurse to approve this trip."

She looked up at him, ready to argue. He stopped her by pressing a quick kiss to her mouth.

Hunter rolled her out of the room and down the hall, toward the nurses' station. The night nurse smiled as they went past. They moved by the empty lounge, with its drink and snack machines, then stopped at a patient's room. The door stood ajar.

Hunter nudged it the rest of the way open and wheeled her in.

A woman lay in the bed. Dangerously pale, hooked up to monitors and by IV to all manner of bags and drips.

But alive. She was alive.

"Gwen?" Avery said, her voice a husky croak.

The woman's eyelids fluttered up. She looked their way, staring blankly at Avery a moment, then her mouth curved into a weak smile. "Avery? Is that…really-"

"Yes, it is." Tears of joy flooding her eyes, Avery climbed out of the chair and moved slowly to the other woman's side. She caught her hand, curled her fingers tightly around Gwen's. "Matt told me you were dead."