Seamus chuckled. “I’m me.”
“Seriously. I didn’t think I’d totally lost my touch.”
Seamus took a gulp of his beer. “You asked me about the weapons room. I thought you might have the place rigged.” He sniffed. “The tough part was explaining to Snookie why she had to step over a tripwire. Is it tied to a grenade?”
“What? No. It’s just an alert. You think I’m trying to blow the legs off the FedEx guy?” Declan ran his hand through his hair. “Maybe it’s better you’re here. I might need the help. But you can’t endanger your lady friend.”
“Yes, he can,” said a woman’s voice.
Snookie pushed open the bedroom door, holding a badge in her hand. “I’m FBI.”
“Really?” Seamus’s initial expression of surprise shifted to a leer. “Is it wrong that turns me on?”
Declan scowled at him. “What is wrong with you?”
Snookie chuckled before returning to business. “We know about Moriarty. The office asked me to swing by Charity for a nose around. You’re saying you’ve seen her?”
Declan shook his head. “Not exactly—”
“Are you guys having a party I wasn’t invited to?” asked Charlotte, appearing at the end of the hall.
Declan motioned to Snookie. “She’s FBI, here for Jamie.”
Charlotte couldn’t resist it. “Agent Snookie?”
“Hot, isn’t it?” asked Seamus.
Declan slapped him in the chest with the back of his hand.
“You and Jackie broke up?” asked Charlotte.
Seamus nodded. “Something about me being a royal pain in the ass.”
“Sounds about right,” said Charlotte.
Snookie and Seamus exchanged a flirty glance and Declan frowned. “Can we take this out of my bedroom?”
Charlotte led the way back into the living room. “What now?” she asked Snookie as they gathered near the sofa.
Snookie opened her mouth as if to speak, but hiccupped instead.
“Whoops. Excuse me.”
She cleared her throat and started again. “Tell me what you know.”
Declan began. “Jamie’s here and she wants us dead, according to her daughter, Stephanie.”
Snookie frowned. “I talked to Stephanie. She claimed she didn’t know anything about her mother.”
“She’s not really the forthcoming type,” said Charlotte.
“According to Stephanie, Jamie hired a sniper to try and kill us once already,” added Declan.
Charlotte’s focus shifted to him. “What? When?”
He winced, realizing he’d been so busy getting Corentine to safety he’d forgotten to tell Charlotte about the sniper.
“Turns out that lamppost at Angelo’s didn’t just explode.”
Charlotte raised her hand to her mouth. “Thank goodness he was a lousy shot.”
“That might have something to do with Stephanie. I think she interrupted him.”
“How?”
“I wasn’t allowed to ask.”
Charlotte swallowed. “So, we probably don’t have to worry about him anymore.” She turned to Snookie. “We think Jamie tried to frame another woman, so she could blame our deaths on her afterwards. Jamie might have killed two people in town already, setting that up.”
“We sent the woman she was framing away,” added Declan.
Snookie frowned and strolled toward the sofa. “At this point, I think we need to—”
A loud crack! made the group cower in unison. The sliding glass door leading to the back yard spidered into a network of white cracks.
Like a dancer, Snookie pirouetted and collapsed onto the sofa.
Declan heard a howl behind him. The wind whistled across a hole in the center of the shattered, but intact, impact resistant glass.
“What was that?” asked Charlotte, lowering her arms from where they shielded her head.
Declan grabbed her arm and pulled her lower to the ground.
“Stay down.”
Seamus leapt to Snookie’s side. She lay slumped on the sofa, her eyes wide, her hand placed over her heart as if she were saying the pledge of allegiance.
“Is she okay?” asked Declan.
Seamus barked at him. “Stay down.”
“Was it a stone?” asked Charlotte.
He shook his head. “A bullet.”
Seamus pulled Snookie off the sofa to the ground.
A red stain grew below her left shoulder.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Definitely a bullet,” said Snookie through gritted teeth.
Seamus slid Snookie to the floor as she muttered obscenities.
Abby started barking and Declan and Charlotte both raised their heads to investigate why. Finding no intruders, Charlotte grabbed the dog’s collar and ran her to Declan’s bedroom to shut her in where she’d be safe. She couldn’t have the dog underfoot while they were taking fire.
“Sorry sweetie,” she said as Abby protested from her prison.
Charlotte sprinted back toward the living room, staying low even in the hall. As she reached the end she groaned, remembering again she’d left her phone in her smoky bedroom.
She glanced around the corner.
“Who has a phone? Someone call 911.”
Declan had repositioned himself beside the slider windows, gun in hand.
“I’m taking her to the guest room,” said Seamus.
“Gun,” said Snookie, sounding as if it hurt to talk.
Seamus stroke her hair from her face. “I know, darlin’. I’m afraid I’ve brought you here at a bad time.”
“My thigh. Gun.”
“You’re shot in the leg as well?”
Snookie shook her head. “Take my gun. You’ll need it.”
Seamus’s hand slid up Snookie’s skirt and Charlotte saw him gasp.
“Yer packin’.”
Snookie bit down. “Of course I’m packing.”
“Apologies,” said Seamus, his second hand riding higher on Snookie’s leg. He fumbled there a moment before pulling a gun and garter holster from beneath her skirt.
He kissed her forehead. “Is it wrong I’m even more attracted to you now?”
Snookie laughed and then winced. “Keep me alive and we’ll discuss that later.”
“Deal.” He looked at Charlotte. “Help me get her back there. Stay low.”
Tucking Snookie’s gun in his belt, he scooped her by the shoulders as Charlotte wrapped her fingers around the woman’s ankles. Together they carted her to the guest room and laid her on the bed.
“Shutters,” said Seamus.
Charlotte ran to the other side of the bed
