That sent a shot of anger spearing through Owen. Laney had already been through too much to have this piece of slime threaten her.
“It’s okay,” Laney whispered to Owen. “Better me than Addie.”
He hated that she would even have to consider that. But he was also thankful for it. She was putting his daughter first.
“Give him the keys,” Emerson insisted when the man eased up on the choke hold. He sputtered out a cough. “If not, he’ll just kill us and take the keys.”
Owen stared at him. “You seem pretty cooperative for someone who’s being used as a human shield.”
Emerson looked Owen straight in the eyes. “I don’t want to die. I don’t know who’s doing this, but we need to get this would-be killer out of the house. My niece is upstairs.”
It twisted at Owen to hear Emerson say that. He didn’t know if Emerson had genuine concern for Addie the way Laney did or if this was part of the act. Either way, if Emerson left, it would get the gunman away from Addie.
“The truck keys are on the foyer table,” Owen told the gunman.
Owen saw the man’s gaze immediately go in that direction. The keys were indeed there, and Owen was going to let him take them. Let him go outside, too. And then he would do what he could to stop him so that ambulance could get onto the grounds for Jeremy.
The thug got Emerson moving and he was careful to keep Emerson in front of him. “Take the keys,” he growled at Emerson when they reached the foyer table.
Emerson did. His hand closed around the keys just as a shot rang out. For one heart-stopping moment, Owen thought the thug had shot Emerson, but the gunfire had come from the back of the house.
Hell.
The other gunman.
Maybe Kellan hadn’t disabled him, after all.
The gunman jerked back, snapping Emerson even closer to him as he put the gun to Emerson’s head. Obviously he didn’t think the shot had come from his partner.
“I said I’ll kill him, and I sure as hell mean it,” the gunman yelled, but he wasn’t speaking to Owen. “Stay back or the DA dies.”
There was another blast of gunfire.
Then another.
Owen cursed and glanced around, trying to figure out who was doing this. Not Kellan. No. His brother would have called out to them to stop from being shot by friendly fire.
“I think the shooter’s near the back stairs,” Laney whispered.
That was Owen’s guess, too, and it sent his heart to his knees. Because the gunman could be heading up to get to Addie.
“Eli, watch the back stairs,” Owen called out to his brother. He knew Eli was already doing that, but he wanted him to have a heads-up.
“Eli won’t let a gunman get into the bathroom,” Laney reminded him.
Owen believed that. Eli would do whatever it took to protect the little girl, but that didn’t mean a gunman couldn’t get off a lucky shot.
“I swear I’ll kill him,” the gunman repeated. With his choke hold still in place, he maneuvered Emerson into the doorway.
Just as there was another shot. This one hadn’t come from the back stairs, though. From the sound of it, the gunman had fired from the living room. That meant he was coming closer.
But something wasn’t right.
If this was the second gunman, why did the one holding Emerson suddenly look so concerned? Maybe because he thought it was Kellan.
No. It was something else.
“Move,” the gunman ordered Emerson. The thug got him onto the porch as another shot came their way. This one slammed into the door frame right next to the gunman’s head.
“Stop or I’ll kill you,” someone said, the voice coming from the living room.
Owen immediately saw the gun the person was holding. Aimed not at Laney and him but rather at the gunman who had Emerson.
And that someone was Nettie.
* * *
LANEY INSTANTLY RECOGNIZED Nettie’s voice. At first, she thought the woman was there only because she’d followed Emerson. But then she saw Nettie lean out from the arched entry of the living room. One look at her from over Owen’s shoulder and Laney knew that Nettie was responsible for the attacks.
Nettie was the person who’d been trying to kill them.
And had maybe murdered Hadley, too.
Emerson shook his head, his expression registering a mix of shock and relief. Then fear. “Nettie, you need to run. This man will kill you.”
Nettie definitely didn’t run, but she did stay partly behind the cover of the wall. A wall she’d easily be able to duck behind if anyone started shooting.
“Boss,” the gunman said, confirming what everyone had already figured out. Everyone but Emerson, that was.
“Boss?” Emerson snapped. “You idiot. That’s my wife, and she didn’t hire you.” He fired some wild-eyed glances at Laney and Owen before his attention settled on Nettie.
Laney saw the realization register on Emerson’s face. He groaned. “No. Nettie, not you.”
Nettie didn’t deny it. “Let go of him, Stan,” she ordered the gunman.
Stan was making some wild-eyed glances of his own, and there was fear all over his face. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. It wasn’t my fault he came running in here. He crashed his car into to the porch and just bolted in.”
“You should have taken care of the situation before that.” Nettie’s words were arctic cold and so was the look in her eyes. “Let him go.”
So, Nettie was going to save her husband. Maybe. But certainly she didn’t think that Emerson and she could just walk out and resume their lives.
“Nettie,” Emerson said, his voice cracking. “What have you done? What are you doing?”
“I’m cleaning up your mess. You weren’t supposed to be here. I told the housekeeper to sneak you a sedative, that you were going off half-cocked and would do something stupid to ruin your career. Your life.”
So that was why Emerson had looked drugged. Because he had been.
“I’m trying to fix things,” Emerson pled. The gunman tightened his choke hold when Emerson tried to go to Nettie.
“No, I’m fixing things,” Nettie argued. “Again. First, with that bimbo you were seeing and now with the mess from those pictures.”
“Hadley?” Emerson said. “You knew about Hadley?”
“Of course I did,” Nettie snapped. “She called me crying, and said you’d broken off things with her, but she wanted me to know all about your relationship. That’s what she called it. A relationship. Well, I showed her the price she had to pay for sleeping with my husband. I ended her miserable life.”
Oh, mercy. Laney felt as if she’d just been punched in the stomach. Nettie had been the one to murder Hadley. It didn’t make it easier, but at least now she knew.
“Damn it, I’m your wife,” Nettie snapped, aiming a glare at Emerson, “and you cheated on me.”
“I’m so sorry.” Emerson’s eyes shimmered with tears. “God, I’m so sorry.”
Nettie dragged in a breath. “I know, and that’s the reason you’ll live through this.” She looked at Owen now. “But not you. Not Laney. You were smart to tell Eli to stay put, because that means he’ll live, too. Or rather, he will, if you cooperate.”
“Cooperate how?” Owen’s voice was just as cold as hers, and while Laney couldn’t see his face, she suspected he matched Nettie glare for glare. “You came here, firing shots, ordering your hired goon to fire shots, and each one of those bullets put my daughter in danger. And why? Because you got your feelings hurt when your husband slept with another woman?”
No more coolness for Nettie. The rage tightened her face and, for the first time, Laney saw the hot emotion that had spurred Nettie to not only kill but to plot to kill again.
“Hadley didn’t just sleep with my husband,” Nettie growled. She didn’t shout, but
there was a low, dangerous edge to her voice now. “She tried to blackmail me. Blackmail! I wasn’t going to let her get away with that.”
“So, you murdered her,” Owen said. “And then you killed Joe and Nancy.”
Nettie didn’t deny that, either. “Cleaning up messes—again.” Her mouth went into a flat line. “I didn’t know that Nancy had put the pictures on a server.”
“How’d Nancy even get the key for the box?” Laney asked.
“From me. I took it that night from Hadley, but I didn’t know which bank. It took me a while to find that. But none of this matters. People will forgive Emerson when they learn of the affair.”
Laney nearly laughed, and it wasn’t from humor. “Do you honestly think that Emerson and you are just going to walk away from this?”
“Yes, because Terrance will get the blame. I’ve set all of that up.” Nettie shifted her attention to Stan, her hired gun. “Let go of my husband.”
Stan shook his head. “If I do that, what’s to stop you from killing me? You might think of me as part of this mess you want to clean up.”
Smart man, because that was no doubt exactly what Nettie was thinking. She could kill Stan, Owen and Laney, and walk out. In Nettie’s delusional mind, she might actually believe that everything would be fine.
“Let go of my husband,” Nettie repeated and took aim at Stan.
“Nettie,” Emerson said, the plea in his voice. “Just please put down your gun. Everyone, put down your guns.”
Laney knew that wasn’t going to happen. Judging from their expression, so did Stan and Nettie.
“Owen?” Eli called out. “Everything okay down there?”
“Tell him yes,” Nettie insisted, her eyes narrowing again. “If you want to save your daughter and him, tell him yes.”
Laney could practically feel the debate going on inside Owen. No way did he want to do anything that would risk more gunfire, but even if he did as the woman asked, there were no guarantees that Nettie wouldn’t just kill Owen, Stan and her and then go upstairs to do the same.
“Tell Eli yes,” Nettie repeated, “or the next shot I fire will go into the ceiling. Maybe into the very room where you’re hiding Addie.”
Emerson frantically shook his head. “No. You can’t do that. Nettie, you can’t.”
Her expression said otherwise, that she would indeed do the unthinkable.
There were at least fifteen feet of distance between Nettie, Owen and Laney with the foyer and the base of the stairs between them. Emerson and Stan were half that distance. Emerson must have realized he was the one who could get to her first because he rammed his elbow into Stan’s stomach. This time, it connected, and the gunman staggered onto the porch before he took off running.
Emerson didn’t run.
He launched himself at Nettie.
And the shot blasted through the foyer.
Chapter Sixteen
Owen cursed when he saw what Emerson was about to do, but there had been no time to stop the man. No time, either, to stop the shot that Nettie fired when Emerson lunged toward her.
His brother-in-law made a sharp groan of pain and dropped down right in front of Nettie.
Owen immediately saw the blood spreading across Emerson’s chest, and the heard the feral scream that Nettie made. A scream that would almost certainly send Eli running down the stairs if Owen didn’t do something about that fast. No way did he want his brother rushing to help. Nettie was still armed and might shoot him.
“Stay put,” Owen yelled up to Eli.
Nettie was still screaming, but the sound of Owen’s voice must have snagged her attention. She looked at him, her eyes dazed. Maybe in shock. But it didn’t last. She took aim at Owen and fired.
Owen shoved Laney back behind the arched opening. It wasn’t good cover since the bullet went straight through a chunk of the drywall, but it was better than nothing.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Nettie said, her voice a sob now. She was obviously crying. “Oh, God. Emerson wasn’t supposed to get shot.”
“He needs an ambulance,” Owen insisted. “There’s one waiting outside. All you have to do is put down your gun and I’ll have Kellan send in the EMTs.”
“Please,” Emerson begged, “do as he says, Nettie. I need help. I’m bleeding out.”
Owen glanced over and saw that Nettie, too, was still behind cover, volleying glances between Emerson and him. Emerson was clutching his stomach, moaning in pain, and yes, he was bleeding out.
Nettie shook her head, obviously trying to decide what to do. If she saved her husband, the man she supposedly loved enough to kill for, then she would be arrested for multiple murders and the attacks.
“I love you, Nettie,” Emerson added. Maybe he did. Or maybe Emerson was just trying to do the right thing and calm Nettie enough to get her to put down that gun.
“I can’t go to jail,” Nettie said. Owen could hear the panic in her voice. “I can’t live without you.”
Emerson tried to speak but his eyelids fluttered down.
“No!” Nettie yelled and fired a shot at Owen. “He’s dead. He can’t be dead.”
“He’s not,” Owen assured her while he glanced out from behind cover. He kept his attention nailed to Nettie. “Look at his chest. You can see he’s still breathing.”
Owen had no idea if that was true. Emerson could indeed be dead, but if so, there was nothing Owen could do about it. However, he could do something about Nettie. He got that chance when the woman hurried to her husband. That was all Owen needed.
“Put down your gun, Nettie,” Owen warned a split second before he stepped out and took aim at her.
Nettie shrieked, bringing up her own gun, and he saw the madness and rage in her eyes. She was going to kill him. Or rather, she would try. And that was why Owen made sure he pulled the trigger first.
He sent two shots slamming into Nettie’s chest.
Laney stepped out to Owen’s side and pointed her gun at Nettie. But the woman wasn’t down. Despite the bullets Owen had put in her, Nettie might have gotten off another shot—at Owen—but Emerson caught Nettie’s leg and dragged her down to the floor with him.
Owen rushed toward them, ripping Nettie’s gun from her hand and passing it back to Laney. He didn’t want to give Nettie another chance to kill them. But the woman had maybe given up on that. Sobbing, bleeding, she pulled Emerson into her arms.
Despite his heartbeat pounding in his ears, Owen still heard the footsteps and automatically pivoted in their direction at the top of the stairs. It was Eli, who cursed when he looked at the bloodbath in the foyer.
“The gunman ran,” Owen relayed to his brother. “He could still be somewhere on the grounds.”
“I’ll go up and stand guard outside Addie’s door,” Laney offered.
Owen hated to put her in the position where she might have to defend herself, and his child, but he preferred that to sending her out to look for a hired gun. He nodded, wishing he could say more to her, but he would save that for later. Later, when he was certain there was no chance of another attack.
Eli and Laney passed each other on the stairs as his brother came down. Eli took out his phone. To call Kellan, Owen quickly realized.
“I’ll look for the gunman and check on Jeremy,” Eli offered. “But I won’t go far,” his brother added as he hurried out the front door.
Owen didn’t put his gun away in case Stan returned, but he went closer to Emerson and Nettie and tried to figure out what to do to save them. Not that he especially wanted to save Nettie, but he would try. There was no way, though, that he could tamp down the hatred he felt for her. She’d not only tried to kill him, Nettie had endangered plenty of people who he loved.
Including Laney.
That realization came out of the blue and hit him damn hard. But he shoved it away and used
his left hand to apply some pressure to the wound on Emerson’s chest. There wasn’t much he could do for Nettie. The gravelly rale coming from her throat let him know that she was on her last breath.
“I’m sorry,” Emerson said. “I swear I didn’t know she was behind this. I didn’t know she had planned all of this or I would have stopped her.” He grimaced, groaning in pain. “I thought it was Terrance.”
So had Owen. Or at least, Terrance had been one of their suspects but so had Emerson and Nettie. And Nettie had planned to use Terrance’s suspect status to frame him for the murders and attacks.
Owen whirled around at the sound of yet more approaching footsteps—these coming from the front yard.
“It’s me,” Kellan called out to him.
Owen didn’t allow himself to relax because there were still too many things that could go wrong. But he was glad when his brother came rushing in.
Kellan glanced around, as Eli had done, clearly assessing the situation before his attention settled on Emerson and Nettie.
“Nettie did this,” Emerson said and started crying when he looked at Nettie, realizing that she was gone.
“Nettie did all of this,” Owen added. “She confessed to killing Hadley, Joe and Nancy. She hired the gunmen. And she was going to set up Terrance.”
Kellan nodded. “Eli just cuffed one of her guys. Said his name was Stan Martin. He’s talking in case we need any more info.”
Good. But Owen figured they wouldn’t need more. Not with Nettie dead.
“How’s Jeremy?” Owen asked.
“He’s not hurt too bad. He’ll need to go to the hospital, but it can wait for a little while.”
Kellan motioned to someone outside and several moments later two EMTs came rushing in. Owen stepped back so they could start to work on Emerson. He was still bleeding, but he was very much alive, and that was more than Owen could say for Nettie.
“If you’ve got this, I need to check on Addie and the others. Laney,” Owen said under his breath. “I need to check on her.”
Kellan gave him the go-ahead while he stooped down to talk to Emerson. Owen heard Kellan read him his rights. A necessity because even though it didn’t appear Emerson had anything to do with the murders, he’d still obstructed justice and lied during an interview. It might not land him in jail, but it was almost certainly going to cost him his legal license and his job.
A Threat to His Family Page 17
