2. Shattered Glass

Metal crushed into metal and the sound echoed through Hal's brain. 

He backed his truck away from her smashed vehicle and drove away as quickly as he could.  His work was done here, certain that the crash killed Lili. 

He was elated as she would never again mess up his plans. 

There was no morality left in Hal's tortured soul as he briefly thought, 'I will miss the sex but not the bitch!'

The bitch was dead!

He was gloating in his own glory, never thinking that he was too far gone.  He was unaware that he was the one that was broken and not Lili.  

His heart had been consumed by evil and he was lost to the world.  

As he raced down the road, the decided to listen to the police radio.  He wanted to hear that Lili James Maloney was dead from injuries sustained in a hit and run accident.  

Oh, how he was waiting. 

It took about ten minutes for the call to come in and for the emergency crews to be dispatched. 

He was confused becasue they were not saying that she was dead.  

Through the static he heard, victim, female, life-threatening injuries, but that she was alive. 

Oh, no! He needed to change that.

Quickly turning his truck around, he raced back towards the scene. His heart was pounding in his ears as the adreniline flowed through his veins.  

He was single focused as he came upon the accident scene again, thinking 'Hell! this was no accident.  The was a targeted action to defeat his enemy!'

The ambulance was on sight and he watched in horror as Finn sat in the back of the amulance with her, with his hand on her shoulder. 

He had no freaking right to do that.  Lili belonged to Hal up until the moment he killed her.  

The driver closed the back doors and climbed into the front, turning the emergency lights on.

Something snapped inside of Hal.  An evil that was under the surface was fermented in his brain and it took control as evil thoughts overrode his logic. 

Once Lili was dead, then she would be nothing but a mistake in Hal's past.  One that he was more than willing to get rid of.  He barreled his truck through the lame police barricade and leaned out of the driver's side, shooting several rounds at the ambulance. 

He could hear yelling and shouting as he created beautiful chaos; then he smiled as he fired the gun.  

The bullets hit the glass and the window exploded into the ambulance just has he rammed his truck into the back of it. 

He was a bit disoriented but shook it off and kept firing as the ambulance drove away.  

Hal sliced through the airbag and gunned his truck to take off again following Lili to finish the job.

He wanted her dead! 

Oh! How he wanted this bitch to die. 

How dare she try to escape from his clutches and into that low-life's arms?

Who the hell did Finn think he was holding her and caring for her?  She should have been dead.  What was going on?

While Hal was processing his disbelief, the felt his truck jerk forward and he saw Billy and Jude waving their guns around.

Oh what freaking idiots these two were.  They were useless and now look at them.  

Hal stepped out of his vehicle and turned to Jude and sneered, "You are such an idiot! How did you ever get your badge? Who taught you how to shoot a gun?"

Jude held his gun steady as he contunued to point the gun at Hal, saying "Lower your gun, Hal.  You already did enough damage today."

Hal just taunted them, "Oh, you haven't seen the best of me Jude.  Just watch how this bullet will slice right through you."

He reveled in how Jude's eyes widened with fright and he kept his rude comments flowing.

Billy yelled over, "Drop the gun Hal! Drop it!  You are under arrest."

"For what?  You have nothing on me! Not yet!" Hal screamed at Billy as he slowly pointed his gun at Jude. 

Backing away from Billy, he looked into Jude's eyes and held his gun steady.  It was aimed right for Jude's heart. 

Billy tried one last time to get Hal to put the gun down, "Hal, come on! Put the gun down.  You don't want to do this. It will just be a sensless murder."

Hal glared at Billy and just laughed.  Never moving his gun away from Jude.

He sensed the Billy's gun was aimed directly at him and he turned and look Billy in the eyes. 

Never taking his eyes off Billy until after he fired his gun, left Billy unprepared for his sudden attack. 

Turning his head, he watched with pleasure as the bullet hit Jude square in the chest. 

Jude gasped as his body jerked backwards and falling to his knees.   As the pain and the shock pushed through his consciousness he collapsed onto the asphalt in the middle of the road. 

Turning his attention to Billy, Hal swung his gun around and meant to fire directly into his chest too, when Hal heard the shot ring out into the valley and felt the pain as the bullet penetrated his body.  

Hal was stunned and looked down at the hole in his chest and stumbled to the ground, taking his last breath.

Billy called for backup and raced to Jude.  He picked Jude up and held him in his arms until backup arrived.

"Billy, we need to take Jude now.  You have to let him go." Rodney spoke softly as he knew Billy was still in shock from the events of this morning.

With eyes wide open, he was barely registering the scene unfolding around him.  Hal had already been loaded into the ambulance and would be taken to the morgue at the hospital.  

"No! I need to hold him.  He will be safe with me." Billy stammered.

"Billy, you're in shock.  We need to take Jude now.  You can come with us." 

He released Jude and contunued to sit on the pavement in the middle of the chaos as others processed the scene.  A group of detectives had to come up from Madison, since Billy shot a weapon and killed someone. 

Rodney finally helped Billy into the back of the ambulance and heard Billy start to cry out, "No! You can't cover his face.  Not Jude! Noooooooo!"

It was a long ride to the hospital as Billy was in denial about Jude's fate. It hit him hard and he wasn't prepared to see Finn standing there in the hallway, discussing something with a nurse. 

Something happened to Billy as he looked into Finn's eyes.  It was like his soul snapped back together and he was made whole. He needed to be strong for Finn. 

Finn looked directly at Billy noticed that he was covered in blood.  Finn bareked, "Out with it!"

Billy shook his head and let out a soft cry, "I am so sorry.  Finn, I.."

Finn saw abject pain in Billy's eyes and was gettign impatient as he watched Billy struggle with the news.  

Starting to feel sick to his stomach he wanted to outright pass out when Billy started talking again, thinking something horrible about Lili's situation. 

"Finn, it's just that, well..." Billy pounded on his leg and finally looked Finn in the eyes and said, "Hal showed up and shot the ambulance, as you are well aware.  When the ambulance turned the corner, we had our guns out and were ready to shoot him."

Billy looked away and took several deep breathes before contunuing, "We tried to reason with him, but he kept his gun pointed directly at Jude's chest.  While looking directly into my eyes, he shot Jude in the center of his chest and he, well Jude, he's ..."

"What happened Billy?  Where is Jude?" Finn asked as dread filled him to the core.  

Not Jude.  Not his best friend.

This was not the news that he wanted to hear.  This just bad.  WTF!

Crying out, Finn yelled, "What the hell! No! Come on, Billy.  This can't be!"

Billy placed his hand on Finn's shoulder and spoke again, "Finn, he didn't suffer as the bullet traveled right through his heart.  It's not much consolation but it's something small."

Finn cried for his best friend and felt like he was living out a nightmare.  How the hell did this beautiful sunny day turn into hell wihtin just mere seconds?

"Billy, did you get the bastard?"

Letting out a crooked smile, Billy said, "Yeah! I shouldn't be happy about this but somehow, someway, well it feels like justice was served for Hal's victims."

"Good, because I was going to get him myself after what he did to Lili.  I don't know all of the details but he physically abused her and then tried to run her off the road as she was trying to escape.  He wanted to kill her."

Billy smiled and replied, "I thank my lucky stars it was me that fired that shot in the line of duty because if you had killed him, I would have gotten myself fired for not arresting you."

Changing the subject Finn asked, "Hey! I need clothes from my place.  Can you run by and pack a duffel bag for me? Oh and my truck?"  He asked cringing and hoping for the best.

"Truck is parked at your apartment building and yeah, I can grab you some clothes.  Say within the hour."

Finn nodded and was about to say something when Dr. Emery walked in with charts and paperwork.  Billy took his cue and left and he heard the doctor as he was leaving, "We can discharge you now if you feel up to it?  You have multiple deep cuts on your back and shoulders, so no heavy lifting for several weeks."

Finn shrugged knowing that he wasn't going back to work yet anyways, "Yeah, just need clothes and Billy will be back in an hour.  More importantly, when can I be with Lili?"

Dr. Emery had a strained look on her face and she pierced her lips into a straight line.  

Finn's heart started to race again.  Why wasn't anyone telling him about Lili? Was she dead?

She just stared at him and asked, "So what kind of man are you Mr. Finnegan? Are you the kind that beats up and abuses his girlfriend? Because if you are the one that tortured Lili's body, I will be calling Sheriff Billy back to throw your behind in jail."

Finn was flabbergasted.  

The doctor was obviously oblivious to the situation with Hal, so Finn calmly replied, "I would never abuse a woman that I was dating in that manner but Hal would.  He was dating Lili and she was being abused for sometime.  I was the one to rescue her today, first on the accident scene."

Emery started to put all of the images of the day together and believed Finn's story.  "I am sorry for accusing you, but I hope you understand.  Lili was violently raped and abused and now she's on life support and in critical care.  I couldn't allow her abuser in there alone with her."

"I understand.  No hard feelings but I really need to get back to her, but Dr. how bad is she? Life support?  What happened?"

The doctor's face grew red with anger as she looked directly into Finn's eyes and said, "That bastard beat her, restrained her and forced himself into her.  Her body was so badly beaten before she ever got into her SUV today to escape him."

Finn was going to throw up as the news hit him like a lead balloon and try as he might not to, he ended up getting sick.  Before the doctor could leave to get help to clean it up, he questioned, "So why is she on life support?"

With a steely tone, she replied, "Because he had hit her head over and over again and she had sustained a concussion and other brain injuries.  We put in her in a medically induced coma for her brain to take time and heal."

He clenched his stomach again but he just dry heaved and he heard Dr. Emery say on her way out, "I will put you on her approved visitors log and send someone in to clean this mess."

Alone again, his mind was wandering.  How could someone have done this to her?

If that bastard wasn't already dead, he would have taken his vengence and sent the man to hell, even if it meant that he was going to go to hell with him.  

He was past caring about that, for he was well past redemption.

No one better go near Lili - ever!   

For revenge would be his.