“You just couldn’t give it up,” Ellie said in disgust. “You had to keep pushing and pushing for information. You were bound and determined to get Tommy in trouble.”
Two more steps and she’d make another turn.
“Pushing and pushing,” Ellie kept muttering, and then she spun on her heel to begin another round of pacing.
Standing up, Angie took a flying leap.
George cried out, a warning to Ellie, an encouragement to Angie, she’d never know which. But at the sound, Ellie whipped around.
With Angie in mid flight, Ellie aimed and fired.
The echo of the blast deafened. And everything switched to slow motion.
Angie’s fall to the floor.
The unspeakable burning ripping through her.
She might have even cried out, but her ears weren’t working any better than her motor reflexes. She hurt more than she could have imagined, and her hand slipped into her pocket as she fell, cupping the cell phone as if she could gain some comfort from Sam that way.
Could he still hear?
She hit the floor hard but didn’t feel it. Maybe it was shock, but she lay where she landed, holding the phone, her lifeline, as an odd warmth came over her.
Then everything started to fade to black.
At the un mistakable sound of the gun going off, Sam’s heart all but stopped.
“What is it?” Luke asked as he drove the crowded streets at a wincing speed.
“I think she’s been shot.” Sam strained to hear some thing from Angie.
And got nothing. Instead he heard George, who appeared to be ranting and raving at Ellie.
“Anything?” Luke demanded, simultaneously talking to dispatch.
Unable to speak, Sam shook his head. He didn’t want to believe it, but his gut was always right.
Angie had been shot.
Luke let out a string of obscenities that would have impressed Sam at any other time, and finally screeched into the parking lot of the book store. “Let’s go.”
Sam stared down at his cell, horrified in a way he couldn’t remember ever feeling before. If he’d lost her…my God. He couldn’t even think it.
“Sam.” This was accompanied by a hard shake, and Sam blinked Luke into focus.
“We’re armed and we have backup on the way. Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“No, you’re not.”
He was right. Sam had to be able to shift this aside. He had to focus if he was going to function in there as a cop.
“Sam.”
“Yeah.” He shook his head, blew out a hard breath and very purposely put the thought of Angie, bloody and lifeless, out of his head.
“Better,” Luke said, eyes sharp. “Now. You ready? Really ready?”
A grim calm came over Sam and he checked his gun. “Ready.”
Chapter 13
They entered the eerily silent store with guns drawn. “The office,” Sam said to Luke. “That’s where they took her.”
Luke nodded, and they made their way through an aisle that had a handful of books on the floor of the otherwise in credibly neat store. Sam stared down at the books and knew that’s where Angie had been. Right there, kneeling, innocently browsing. Fists clenched, he moved faster, behind the counter, toward the closed office door.
No sound came from behind it.
Expecting the worst, Sam and Luke charged into the office, guns drawn. Sam was deadly calm. He was a cop.
Just a cop.
And this was a job, a job he knew well. He would do what it took,
For a brief flash, his heart cracked, and the image of Angie came to him, sweet and loving and…dead. This he ruthlessly put aside. He couldn’t function if he put her face to this night mare, he just couldn’t.
Then he saw her. She was sitting on the floor, her sweater covered in blood.
Next to her was Ellie, trussed with rope and a handkerchief stuffed in her mouth.
Above them both stood George, holding a gun on his struggling, furious wife.
At the sight of Sam and Luke standing in the doorway, guns trained on him, George went from disgruntled husband to cool criminal, and shifted his aim to Angie.
Her glasses had slipped off, and besides the fact she was squinting uselessly, she was also wildly bleeding. She had a hand over the spot and as Sam watched, she weaved as if she were going to topple over.
“Don’t come any closer,” George said amicably.
“She’s shot,” Sam said hoarsely. “Let me-”
“No.”
But Sam started to move closer anyway, his mind only on Angie.
“Stay right where you are,” George said very coolly. “Unless you want her to take another one.” George nodded when Sam stopped short. “Yeah. Wise move.”
Sam’s gaze flickered over Angie. So much blood. And God, she was pale, so very pale. But her beautiful brown eyes were right on him, squinting with the lack of glasses, but definitely locked on him. Trusting.
Full of love.
His own burned. “Let’s just let her out of here, okay? She can take an ambulance ride and we’ll figure the rest out without her.”
“Nope.” George never shifted, never showed an ounce of nerves. “But I’ll tell you what. If you stop moving toward me, she’ll live. Don’t underestimate me now, I mean it. You might think I look harmless, but believe me, I’m good and pissed-” he glared at his wife, who screamed in frustration from behind the handkerchief and stomped her trussed-up feet “-and just about ready to see how good my old aim is.”
Sam noted George’s hand didn’t shake at all, and figured his aim might be just fine. “Put the gun down.”
“I don’t think so.” Slowly and purposely George cocked the gun, the noise echoing into the room.
Ellie continued to fight her bonds and make a terrible noise behind her restraints.
“Ellie, shut up or I’ll shoot you next.”
Ellie shut up.
“Good girl. You know, I’m really tired of this, damn tired. I should just shoot all of you and be done with it.”
Sam kept his eyes on Angie. He’d give his own life to be able to scoop her close and hold on forever. He knew cops would be streaming all over the place in a matter of minutes. It wouldn’t be long before Angie would be safe. “Talk to us,” he said. “We know this is about the identity-theft ring. And your son.”
“It is,” George agreed. “How long have you known?”
“Not long enough to stop you.”
“All I ever wanted was to have enough money to go live on a beach some where with a stack of good books,” George said wistfully.
