“What’s it doing here?” she asked.
“Mina was letting them run,” said Payne.
The puppy pounced on Payne’s sneaker and clamped its tiny teeth on her laces, growling like an angry munchkin.
Charlotte leaned forward and motioned to Gemma to go around the back of the center staircase and head for the front door. Gemma nodded and jogged around the center stair, using it as a wall between her and Lyndsey’s line of vision through the kitchen exit.
“Go, take him,” said Charlotte to Payne, motioning to the puppy.
Payne scooped up the Yorkie and ran to her sister at the front door, where she conveyed Charlotte’s instructions. Charlotte heard the word Miata twice and felt a little pang of disappointment that Payne didn’t see the Volvo was clearly the safer vehicle to take with a potential sniper at their back.
“Are you sure you can drive the Miata?” hissed Charlotte.
Payne nodded. “We drive it around every time Lyndsey goes anywhere.”
Charlotte held up a finger. “Let me distract her so she doesn’t shoot you through the window.”
The girls grimaced, gazes darting to the Miata. Driving seemed to appear less fun to them.
“Lyndsey, I’m here,” called Charlotte.
“Stay back or I’ll kill her.”
Charlotte peered around the corner to see Lyndsey with her gun pressed against Mina’s head. She had her other arm wrapped around her throat so that Mina’s head tucked into the crook of her elbow.
Charlotte motioned with her left hand for the twins to go and stepped into the archway, her gun at her side. Another puppy sprang from nowhere and landed on her flip-flop to gnaw on the strap between her toes.
“Lyndsey, you wouldn’t hurt Mina. Ow!”
The dog caught a bit of her flesh in its tiny chompers.
She shook her foot to dislodge the dog and continued. “She’s been like a mother to you.”
“I have a mother.”
“But Mina took you in, ow! You little—”
Angry to be unseated, the puppy had pounced back on her foot and begun munching her toes. She could feel its tiny needle teeth working through her flesh and once again she shook the ankle shark loose. The movement of her foot caught the attention of another puppy, who came bounding toward her like a squirrel assassin. The new one slammed into the original attacker and the two of them rolled like a tumbleweed to the left, locked in a high-pitched, growling battle.
Outside, the Miata roared to life and Lyndsey glanced at the window.
“What’s that?”
Freed from the puppies, Charlotte took a step forward, forcing Lyndsey to focus back on her. Lyndsey pointed the gun at Charlotte and then placed the tip back against Mina’s head. Mina’s whole body shook as her lips mumbled something that looked very much like a prayer.
Lyndsey shuffled to the left with Mina to peer out the window.
“They took my car. Those bitches.”
Charlotte decided she’d have to buy Lyndsey a thesaurus as a going-away-to-prison gift. There were so many other options for name-calling. Cows, harlots, jerkfaces, bastards...which they were, technically...
“Get out of my way.” Lyndsey pointed her gun at Charlotte.
Charlotte held up a palm. “Let’s talk about this. You still have options.”
Lyndsey pushed Mina, forcing her to walk forward. Charlotte backed.
I need to keep her talking. Where are the cops? Please tell me Mina called nine-one-one.
“Lyndsey, we all understand why you did what you did. You had to kill your Uncle Miller. He’d left you no choice.”
Lyndsey paused and Mina stopped walking.
“He left me no choice,” she echoed. She pressed her lips together, her eyes beginning to well with tears. “He told me I was his daughter. He was so proud. And then all of a sudden he denied it.”
“It was the disease that made him think you weren’t.”
“He was going to change the will again. Mom said we had to have his money to make our new life. To make the equestrian center.”
“Right. We get that.”
Now backed into the front hall, Charlotte glanced out the door. In the distance, she heard sirens. She never dreamed she’d be so pleased to see Sheriff Carter.
She looked back, in time to see one of the puppies line itself up in front of her, its gaze locked on hers.
Don’t you do it…
The puppy backed up to get a running start and then ran full force at her leg, flipping at the last moment to land on its back on her foot before twisting to chomp down on her flip flop strap.
Every time Charlotte wiggled her foot, the movement only increased the dog’s attack frenzy.
“You can have the money,” said Mina.
Lyndsey tightened her grip on Mina’s neck and pressed the gun against her head. Mina winced, her eyes screwed shut.
“I love you, Lyndsey. Please. I’ll be sure you get it all.”
Lyndsey’s expression appeared trapped between anger and teary frustration. She cocked her head and glanced at the window.
She can hear the sirens now.
Lyndsey pointed the gun at Charlotte. “This will never work. It’s all ruined now. Move it. Move out of the way. I’m taking her with me.”
Another puppy ran by Charlotte into the hall as she took a step back, dragging her most recent fuzzy attacker with her. She held up her hands, her gun pointed to the ceiling.
“Keep going.”
Charlotte continued to walk backwards, clubfooted by the Yorkie until she passed the stairs, providing Lyndsey a clear path to the door.
“You can go, but leave Mina. You don’t need to take her. I won’t shoot you.”
Charlotte lowered her weapon to the ground. As she straightened, the Yorkies on her foot dove off to pounce on the gun, causing it to spin wildly.
All three of the women winced and jumped, yelping as the dog continued to spin the gun, trying to bite
