A Dark Horse

by Cooper, Blayne

  “Arrested me?”

  “I-I…” Adele’s mouth worked helplessly, but it was clear she couldn’t deny it.

  “Xavier has wanted you for years, you know. So bad I think he tasted it. But I told him you’d never go for it and made sure he left you alone. I could at least do that much for you.”

  Adele could only stare, her pain palpable.

  In that moment, Natalie realized that she’d never understood someone less than she understood Detective Alonzo Rice. Were it not for his arm holding her firmly in place, she was sure the look on Adele’s face alone would be enough to send her crashing to her knees. How could he stand it, knowing he was the cause of that look? Knowing that he’d wrecked her?

  Al took a handful of heartbeats to collect himself. He lifted his chin. “You’ve been a cop long enough to know that everyone has a shitty story, Ella. So what?”

  “You could take me with you instead. One hostage is as good as the next.”

  Natalie’s skin turned clammy and panic seeped into her bones. “No.”

  Al openly scoffed. “You’re kidding me, right, Little Mama? You’d be more trouble than this one, and that’s saying somethin’.”

  “Al, for God’s sake let me help you now! Please. Please,” Adele begged without hesitation. “There’s got to be some deal to be had. I’ll tell the DA you helped me bring down Xavier. I’ll tell him we’ve been working together to take him down because you want to make amends. You can give up whoever the other stooges are under Xavier’s thumb. The DA will need that and will be willing to work something out.”

  “I’m not spending the rest of my life in jail.” Al’s voice made it clear that he thought Adele had lost her mind. “I’m going to fuckin’ Florida! Put down the gun. You know I’ll shoot her if you don’t.”

  Natalie whimpered, too stunned to even cry. Adele wasn’t going to talk him out of his gun. He really was going to kill her and all she could think about was that she couldn’t die now. Everything in her life was still unfinished. She’d only just started with Adele. It couldn’t be over before it had really begun. Yet Al was tearing out the remaining pages of their story faster than they could write them.

  “Al, sweetie, we both know you won’t leave her on the side of the road,” Adele admitted quietly. “She’ll end up facedown in some swamp with a bullet in the back of her head if you walk out of this house with her tonight. That can’t happen. I won’t let it.”

  Suddenly, Al removed the gun from Natalie’s head and pointed it straight at Adele.

  Natalie began to struggle but his grip was like iron. “No!” The room began to spin. “Don’t shoot her!”

  “Don’t make me shoot you, Ella!” Al sounded as desperate as Natalie felt. “Don’t make me!”

  “Let her go. I love you, and I will always help you.” Adele’s words were astoundingly gentle in contrast to Al’s coarse bellow. They were a mother’s comforting hug, a sister’s warm kiss on the cheek, the extended hand of a true friend. “Even now it’s not too late. You just have to let her go.”

  Al sniffed and Natalie wondered if he was actually crying. “You know I can’t. I passed ‘too late’ years ago. Put down your weapon.” There was something in his tone that hadn’t been there before. Finality. They were done talking.

  Tears streamed down Adele’s cheeks and when her glistening eyes found Natalie’s they looked right into the bottom of her soul. An icy fist closed around Natalie’s heart.

  “I love you, Natalie, and I’m sorry.”

  And then she understood.

  No! “Don’t! Don’t put the gun down! He’ll shoot you!” Natalie began to thrash wildly against Al’s grip with renewed strength. She opened her mouth but before she could utter a word, a gunshot detonated like a bomb between her ears and the floor flew up to meet her.

  Natalie’s ears rang with a continuous buzzing sound. For a terrifying second, she thought the wall behind her had collapsed. Then she realized that it was Al lying on top of her, his body pushing hers into the floor. Unable to breathe, and rattled beyond all reason, she panicked. “El—la. S-s-say something!” Natalie lifted her face off the floor and could tell that it was painted with hot blood.

  It took another few seconds to fully understand that most of it wasn’t hers. “Ella?”

  Wriggling madly, Natalie shoved Al’s heavy, limp body away and pushed herself to her knees.

  Across the room, Adele was lying flat on her back. A bright red blood spray pattern marred the wall behind her and a bullet hole was visible in the plaster.

  Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Natalie’s head spun. She tried to push all the way to her feet, but quickly ended up back on the ground. She braced her arms against Al’s bed to keep from toppling over.

  One gunshot, but they were both down? How?

  Natalie heard pounding footsteps downstairs and then Adele’s voice, gravelly and urgent. “Shut the d-d-door.”

  Snapping out of her haze, Natalie scrambled over to Adele on her hands and knees, eyes like saucers. “You’re alive! But, oh God, you’re bleeding, Ella. A lot.”

  Footsteps were on the stairs now.

  “The door!” Adele screeched an octave higher than normal. “Monique and Damien. They can’t…they can’t see this!”

  She’s alive. She’s alive. Natalie staggered to her feet, but before she could make it to the door, Landry burst into the room, his gun leading the way. He grasped Natalie by the forearms and held her firm so she wouldn’t fall. “Ms. Abbott?” His tone of voice made it clear she was the last person he expected to see at Al’s house.

  Adele awkwardly sat up, using only one hand for leverage, and slipped a little in her own blood. Her face contorted in pain. When she was steady, she wrapped her hand tightly around her bicep. Blood poured between her fingers, and her face wrinkled in confusion. “Landry?” she croaked. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

  Landry let go of Natalie, moving her a little behind him as he continued to scan the scene for danger.

  Nonsensically, Natalie’s mind stalled on a tiny detail. Landry’s sideburns and the edges of his temples had turned silver since the last time she’d seen him.

  Landry shut the bedroom door behind him and ran a hand over his bristly chin. “Jesus Christ.” With a disbelieving expression, he surveyed the room again. “I called Amelia to make sure you went straight over to pick up Logan, and when she said you hadn’t been by yet, I turned right back around. When you didn’t pick up your phone, I knew in my gut where you’d gone.”

  He looked furious with Adele until he took a step around a chair that was blocking his full view of her. “Are you—? Shit, Ella, I can’t believe…Al shot you? Should I—”

  Adele waved him off.

  “Let me—”

  Adele just glared.

  For a second Landry looked like he would argue, but he bit his lip instead. “Keep your hand on it then.” His outraged gaze swung over to Al and to the gun on the floor next to him. “A silencer? Damn.”

  Still wobbly on her feet, Natalie rushed back to Adele’s side and dropped to her knees. Hands quaking, she ran them down Adele’s body, her groggy mind finally able to start to make sense of things. She’d only heard one gunshot because of the silencer. Adele had been shot in the arm, not the body or head. She wouldn’t die unless she bled to death. But there was so much blood. I can’t lose her now.

  Natalie pressed her hand over Adele’s, directly on top of the wound. She interlaced their fingers, the cloying scent of gunpowder mixed with blood making her gag.

  “Nat? Your face?” Adele glanced up and instantly went frantic. “Did I—?”

  “Shh…no.” Natalie realized how she must look and with her other hand sluggishly lifted the hem of her shirt to wipe her cheek and hair. “I’m okay. Most of this is Al’s blood. You didn’t shoot me.” At Adele’s uncertain look she said, “I promise.”

  For a split second Adele’s entire body relaxed, then contracted in obvious pain. “Landry, the kids in my car?�
� She hissed as she scooted back to lean against the wall, taking Natalie and their joined hands right along with her. “Shit! This hurts.”

  “Safe and sound with an old neighbor who was coming home just as I pulled in.” Landry pulled out his phone. “That prick Morrell’s still locked in the squad car.”

  “Watch out for Al’s wife.” Adele grimaced and the cloudy, faraway look on her face told Natalie that Ella was thinking of another crime scene. “If she finds us like this, there will be trouble.”

  “Ella?” Natalie watched her closely. Adele’s breathing was growing faster and faster and her eyes had the same glazed look they held when she was fresh from a nightmare and still half dreaming. “Stay right here. Right here, Ella! With Landry and me. Today.”

  Adele’s eyes darted to Natalie at the sound of her voice. “Yeah,” she said quickly, licking her lips. “Okay. Today. Right.”

  Landry nodded at Natalie and locked the bedroom door so there wouldn’t be any surprises. “What happened here?”

  It was Natalie who answered, though her thoughts and words were slower than normal. “Al…he asked me over. He didn’t want…he tried to kidnap me to keep Ella from coming after him. Which is so stupid. That would only make her c-come faster. He-he was going to shoot her. Or me. Or both of us.” She shook her head, willing away the muddled feeling. “There was no choice. I mean, Ella had no choice.”

  Landry sucked in a breath between clenched teeth.

  Adele scrunched her eyes tightly closed, devastation marring her beautiful face. “Damn-Dammit!”

  The broken roar caused Natalie to jump and her guts to boil with an awful sensation—hatred. She despised Al for hurting Adele so profoundly that it was sickening to watch. She felt a beast inside her chest clawing to be free and howling with rage. Irrationally, she wanted to bring Al back to life so she could kill him herself.

  “Gimme your belt,” Natalie instructed Landry, her voice a low growl as she extended an impatient hand.

  Adele shifted in a futile attempt to get more comfortable. Landry’s eyes found the startlingly large pool of blood that had formed next her and partially soaked her jeans. He instantly abandoned his phone and unclipped his weapon, holster and gold shield from his belt and tossed them on the bed. He yanked off his leather belt so quickly it cracked like a whip.

  He passed it to Natalie, who dragged a pillow from the bed and stripped off the pillowcase. She inadvertently decorated it with bloody red handprints, and it looked like a messy child’s macabre art project.

  “Move your hand, Ella.” She began to pry Adele’s fingers from the wound, swallowing hard at the sight of the torn flesh. “I need to put this on so we can stop the bleeding.”

  Without warning, Adele bent at the waist and groaned, her face tinged green.

  Natalie knew what that look meant, and there was nothing to do but scramble out of the way.

  “I’m gonna…” Adele turned her head and vomited violently on the floor.

  “I know. It’s okay,” Natalie murmured, doing her best to hold the pillowcase tight against the wound with one hand, while rubbing small circles against Adele’s back with the other. The damp jacket hydrated the blood on Natalie’s hand and made an even bigger mess.

  “So-so-sorry about that,” Adele said roughly when she was finished, obviously embarrassed as she wiped her chin against her shoulder.

  Natalie affectionately ran her fingertips down Adele’s cheek. “Honey, I don’t care about that.” With quick but clumsy hands, she continued to bind the bullet wound.

  Landry dialed 911. “This is Detective Landry Odette, Baton Rouge PD, at two-oh-four Oliver Street. I need a bus.” He moved back toward Al and continued to speak in hushed tones.

  “How is Al?” The wistful hope in Adele’s voice was nearly more than Natalie could bear. She knew Adele knew the truth, but had to ask anyway.

  Unable to stop herself, Natalie glanced over her shoulder at Al. She was blocking most of Adele’s view of his body. The bullet had hit him just above the eye and blown a small fist-sized hole out of the back of his head. The wall behind him was covered in gore and gray matter, and still the anger she felt toward him didn’t lessen. If anything, it grew and expanded like she’d swallowed hot coals that were scorching her throat and belly, their heat spreading wider and wider. Of all of the possible outcomes tonight, this would hurt Adele the most.

  Natalie exchanged worried glances with Landry as Adele tried to peer over her shoulder. Natalie repositioned herself even more fully in front of Adele and rose off her haunches so her lover couldn’t see behind her no matter how she shifted. “No, Ella. Look at me. At me.”

  Adele’s eyes were glassy. “But, I need—”

  “No, you don’t. You need to look at me instead,” Natalie commanded as she adjusted the belt around Adele’s arm. The wound was still bleeding, though not as badly as a moment ago.

  The coppery scent of the hot blood…Adele’s blood…rushed up into her nostrils and Natalie fought hard not to add to the vomit pool. Keep it together, she told herself. Her mouth filled with saliva, a precursor to throwing up, but she gulped it back, pushed through the nausea and tied off the belt as best she could.

  Hands finally free, Natalie cupped Adele’s cheeks and, ignoring her split lip, pressed a firm kiss to Adele’s temple, leaving behind a bloody pink imprint. The much-needed contact grounded her, but Adele seemed to soften under her touch. “Al is dead, honey.”

  Tears spilled over pale cheeks. “Maybe…”

  Lower lip trembling, Natalie shook her head resolutely. She pushed Adele’s rain-matted hair from her brow and placed a lingering kiss there, then a third kiss on the cheek, letting her lips graze Adele’s skin as she spoke. “No. He’s dead. I’m so sorry he made you do that. I’m so sorry that I came here tonight and that you had to follow.”

  Guilt nearly swallowed Natalie whole.

  “You couldn’t have known,” Adele whispered, visibly starting to unravel.

  Adele’s chest lurched with a sob and Natalie pulled her into a crushing hug and held her tight, pressing their cheeks together. “He’s dead, and this is all over. And…and…and this is a horrible time to tell you,” Natalie whispered brokenly, burying her nose in Adele’s hair and sucking in a greedy lungful of air that smelled faintly like sweat and rain and Adele. Heaven. “I love you, too. So very much.”

  They sat that way for a long moment, with Adele silently weeping and Natalie simply holding her close, feeling helpless and wishing somehow she could turn back the clock.

  Landry awkwardly wandered over and squatted down next to Adele, rubbing the back of his neck with a large hand. “How are you, darlin’?”

  Natalie reluctantly eased away from Adele and sat back on her heels, but not before wiping away Adele’s tears with shaky fingers.

  Adele smiled gratefully, and turned her attention to Landry. “I sh-shot…I…” Her words seemed to trail away without her permission. With a grimace, she redirected the conversation and glanced down at her own arm. “Through and through. Burns like there’s a hot poker in there, but the bleeding has slowed. And thank Christ, because you know how much I like the sight of my own blood. I’m sure I’ll be upchucking again soon.”

  They shared a watery private smile.

  Adele patted his shoulder weakly. “You need to go, Landry. Go get him now so we don’t lose him.”

  Their eyes dueled fiercely before he nodded and rose to his feet. He retrieved his gun, holster and badge from the bed.

  “What do you mean go?” Natalie leveled a blistering glare at Landry. “What about all the cops that are going to show up here any minute? They hate her!” She couldn’t believe he would even consider leaving when Adele was hurt and before the ambulance arrived. “What if the police arrest Adele instead of taking her to the hospital? They’re going to see a dead police detective and she won’t be safe!”

  Landry slid his badge in his front pocket, and removing the gun from its holster, tucked it in the
waist of his pants. “I didn’t tell them about Al. I said Ella was bleeding from an injury to her arm, and then my phone went dead. That pesky cell phone reception,” he deadpanned. “You’ll want to tell the ambulance crew what happened, and the police will come, but hopefully you’ll be on the way to the hospital by then.”

  “Landry,” Adele scolded, but looked pleased. “You’re going to get into deep trouble for that.”

  He lifted a challenging eyebrow. “We need every minute.”

  Adele took Natalie’s hand and started to stand.

  Landry steadied both women as they rose.

  Adele straightened with a broken groan. “Natalie, we’re going to go downstairs and wait for the ambulance. I can’t be in here with Al for another minute and not go crazy, okay?” Her face was tense with physical and emotional pain.

  “Anything you need.” Natalie would have promised to rob a bank to make Adele feel better.

  “We’re both going to wait for an ambulance. You probably have another concussion. We gotta take care of that beautiful brain of yours.”

  Adele’s tender concern made Natalie want to cry.

  “Am I going to have to buy you a helmet?”

  Natalie sighed. Another concussion. Of course. No wonder she felt so awful. They started slowly walking toward the door. “Only if I get to buy you a suit of armor. They’re going to run out of thread stitching you up tonight. Your other cut, which hasn’t even had time to completely heal, is soaking wet and looks like crap.” The bandage near Adele’s wrist hung from her in a bloody wet pile.

  “Deal. But now Landry has to go arrest my old lieutenant before word gets out about what happened here.”

  “Take Al’s bags,” Natalie told him. “Josh’s phone is in there with a voice recording you’ll want, and a bunch of papers Al took out of his safe, and more cash than anyone would normally keep at home.”

  Adele pinned Landry with a severe look as he darted across the room to collect the bags. “You can’t take on Xavier alone.”

  “I won’t. It’s good not to be the only cop in my family. I’ll call my brother and cousins.” His green eyes flashed with determination and poorly veiled rage. “My lieutenant, and anyone else who he decided to bring with him from Baton Rouge, are already on their way, too. We’re going to get Xavier, Ella, and he’s going to pay for what he’s done to us all.”