All The Pieces (Pieces of Lies 3) by Angela Richardson

Norah who was now standing next to the dresser near her bed. Once I was by her side, she quickly opened the top drawer and in one swift movement, she withdrew her gun and pointed it at Clint and Samuel.
    WHOA!
    “EEEEEEASY, Len,” Samuel said, stepping closer to Norah, not at all surprised by this turn of events.
    “See, I told you it would look bad,” Clint hissed at Samuel.
    “Please lower your weapon. We are here to help,” Samuel said as calmly as he could.
    “No you are not! I know alright! I know!” Norah was yelling at them both.
    Know what?
    “Josh told me about what he did to you both, and I’m sorry guys, very sorry that happened.” Norah lowered her eyes and her gun as she said it, but then squeezed her hands and lifted it back up to the guys, holding it even tighter. “Is that why you are here? Are you going to use me to get close to him and take him out? Is that your plan?”
    Wait, what did I miss? Josh did something to Clint and Samuel?
    Both guys didn’t move. They didn’t say yes and they didn’t say no. They just looked like they were caught out and didn’t know how to respond.
    “I can tell by the looks on your faces you two know exactly what I’m talking about.” Norah’s hand was shaking. I had absolutely no fucking idea what was going on, but the fact that Norah had a loaded gun pointed at her two ex-boyfriends who may have been here under false pretenses, was certainly not good. This couldn’t end well, and I had to do something to calm her down. I couldn’t let Norah get blood on her hands after everything she had already gone through. She deserved so much better than that. I moved closer to Norah and put my arm around her shoulder as her hands, and then her body began to shake. She did however, relax a little in my grip. I could sense she really needed the support and with my arms around her, it seemed to give her some kind of mental relief.
    “It’s not what you think Len. Really. I know how it must look and I know you don’t believe us, but we are here to help. You need to take a second and remember what your Dad just told you. He would never lie to you. Not about this. He told you to trust us, didn’t he?” Norah’s hand was still jerking from side to side but I could tell she was thinking hard about Samuel’s words. Samuel stepped forward ever so slightly and made a movement with both his hands, bringing them from his chest and raising them down to his hips, almost like he wanted Norah to follow the same movement with her hand and the gun.
    “Now please Lenorah, lower your gun. I promise you, Clint and I are not the enemy here. We are here to help you,” Samuel pleaded, and as his words sank in, Norah slowly lowered the gun. Clint breathed a huge sigh of relief as Norah appeared to at last be seeing sense of the situation.
    Suddenly, Norah lifted the gun again, and began waving it towards both guys. Both backed up a few steps in sheer shock, not sure if this was about to escalate.
    Norah’s voice was low and harsh but steady as she spoke. “If I find out either of you are deceiving me...if you are here to hurt Josh...if I’m sideswiped by some big huge gigantic lie...I WILL SHOOT YOU BOTH! Do you understand me?”
    They both swallowed and nodded.
    “Answer me!” she yelled at them.
    “YES,” both guys said in unison.
    Norah immediately lowered the gun. “Good. Then I’ve made myself perfectly clear on the matter. Now let’s get moving and go see your sister Clint.” She paused, taking a second to breathe steadily and compose herself. “Please.”
    Norah then strode back into the bathroom, gun in hand to go get her backpack. She yelled out to me as she walked away. “Tess, come into the bathroom with me and I will fill you in on the details about Josh. You should know about what he did so you can help me keep an eye on these two.”
    I nodded and went to follow Norah into the bathroom but stopped when I saw Clint glance at Samuel with a look of dread on