“They told the Rangers that I killed her?”
She lifted her chin, trying to angle her face so she could see his expression. “Yeah.” Her throat hurt like someone had taken sandpaper to it. She’d never been a good liar because of the way her body reacted to the pressure of saying the fib.
But for this?
She’d do it over and over if that’s what it took.
“They said you were the one.”
Her voice started to ache, but so did her heart.
She was purposefully drawing his ire onto her.
Making herself a target.
The back door squeaked open and that turned Tony’s head in that direction.
The moment he started to lift his gun in that direction, she lunged at him, and the gun went off.
* * *
DUVAL
When the call from dispatch came in, the whole team was in their Bearcat tactical vehicle on their way to serve a warrant.
“Major West? Major West, this is dispatch.”
West reached over for the radio handset and called back. “This is West.”
“We have a call from your wife at the HomeCenter off of the 10. The man you’ve been searching for? Tony Coolidge? He’s got an undetermined number of people hostage in the Garden Center part of the store.”
“Tracy’s there?”
“Yes, sir. Your wife and daughter. Duval’s mother and sister and-”
“Noelle.”
Duval’s heart stopped right then. Seized in his chest.
When he’d heard the dispatcher list the people involved, it only took a moment for him to remember that the ladies were headed out to the garden center to pick out plants for West’s garden.
He reached for his cell phone and pulled it out as it was vibrating with an incoming message.
He prayed, honest-to-God prayed, that he’d read an all clear message on the screen.
MOM: We’re at the store. Tracy’s calling dispatch. We’re all out
He pulled in a breath, ready to tell the team that everyone was okay, then he saw the three little dots on the screen.
As he stared at them, he didn’t know what to expect.
MOM: except for Noelle
He squeezed his phone so hard he waited for the sound of it cracking to reach his ears.
Jack pulled the phone out of his hand and read the message in a moment.
She reached out and tapped West’s shoulder. “Noelle’s inside.”