“No…”
Again he mentally asked what the fuck?
He realized he was about to get his answers, and he knew he wasn’t going to like any of them when Deke stood up from behind the table and addressed Jack. “Hey, Cousin!”
Cousin?
“Why the hell are you shooting at me? Why’d you shoot Thomas? And what are you doing here? I thought we agreed we’d split the money when we met at the—”
He didn’t get to finish his statement because Jack shot him. He died with a look of shock in his expression.
Dan couldn’t move. He still couldn’t breathe. “Cousin? What the hell are you doing, Jack? Let go of my wife!” He tried to yell, but all that came out was breathy mumbled sentences.
Much to his surprise, Jack drew closer and looked down at him. He shoved Justine to the floor next to Dan.
“Dan! Oh, my God, you’re shot!” She scrambled to his side trying to see his wound.
Dan grabbed her wrist. He couldn’t let her give away the only card he had to play even though the tears in her eyes made his chest hurt more. It didn’t take a genius to see what was happening here. But maybe if he was lucky, he could keep Justine safe.
“Leave her alone,” Dan said, his words tight and harsh, each one causing more pain.
Fuck, it hurt to talk.
Jack pointed the gun at him, and Dan thought his heart would stop without Jack ever pulling the trigger. “I deserve an explanation.” he forced out. He felt the warmth of his own blood pouring out of his shoulder and seeping into his back on the floor.
“I’m sorry about this, Dan,” Jack said, still looking down.
“Sorry about what? Why don’t you explain what you’re doing?” Dan’s ribs were on fire. Maybe if he could get Jack talking, he could buy them some time.
“I just needed to know where the money was. Thanks for telling me, by the way.” Jack looked at Justine. “I like your wife. She’s so tight and hot. I was thinking I’d take her with me to Mexico as soon as I get the money.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you, you bastard.” She grasped Dan’s hand.
He moved away. His laughter was cold and calculating. “You didn’t think I was such a bastard when you fucked me.”
“I didn’t fuck you. You—you—I don’t even know what you did.” Justine let go of Dan’s hand long enough to pull off the sweatshirt she wore, revealing the tank top underneath. She tried to stop the bleeding in Dan’s shoulder with pressure. Tears still poured from her beautiful eyes.
“All I did was serve you a bit of wine, trying to get you to talk,” Jack admitted. “But it wasn’t enough, was it, Justine?”
He went on not allowing Justine a reply as he addressed Dan. “You see, a couple of years ago, when my dear cousin, Deke, told me about you and what you’d done, Dan, I applied for a position with the department as soon as one came open. I’ve been trying all this time to find out where the money might be. Neither of you seemed willing to tell me. Hell you didn’t even live like you had any money.
“Since I’ve come to Landston, I’ve been watching and waiting to see if I could help take some of the guilt and money off your hands. Then when I met your pretty wife, I thought I might try and take her off your hands, too. She’s pretty devoted to you, Dan. Since the wine wasn’t enough, I had to give her a bit of a roofie, too, just to make things easy. And even though it was a great fuck and she wasn’t really an eager participant, I still never found out where the damned money was.”
Keep talking, you prick. I’ve about got my wind back.
“Deke and Thomas and I were all tired of waiting and playing this stupid game. Deke spent weeks following you. He came up with the idea of kidnapping Justine, I told him I thought it would work. I didn’t think robbing Mike’s Supermarket was the way to do it, though, taking you in broad daylight. When he called me to say that plan suddenly came to him, I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t listen. He was growing desperate for his money, unpredictable and stupid. And I’m tired to trying to keep him out of jail. Every time I turn around, he’s asking me for help. I certainly couldn’t give him his cut and expect him to keep his mouth shut about me.”
Justine met Dan’s gaze as she continued to try and stop the flow of blood from his shoulder. “I’m so sorry Dan. He came over while you were at work. I only remember answering the door. I wasn’t even certain something had happened. I couldn’t keep my thoughts straight. I’m sorry. You have to know I would never cheat on you. I love you.”
“All this lovey dovey talk might make me puke,” Jack said. Then he grew serious and looked at Justine. “But if you want, you can stay here and die with him instead of joining me on a trip to Mexico. It’d be so heroic of you both.”
He wanted to kill Jack. “You drugged my wife and raped her. You really are a prick. I’m going to fucking kill you.” He thought she’d cheated on him. Hell, even she’d seemed to think she cheated on him. He remembered the night he came home to find her so disoriented and just thought she was sick. He’d been too tired to see all the signs he should have recognized.
“Oh, I gave her what she needed given all those late nights you worked until four in the morning.”
Dan closed his eyes and prayed for a miracle. The rage that boiled through him tore his thoughts apart. He had to work to keep his head together if he was going to have any chance of getting them out of this. He didn’t believe he’d come this far to fail them both. He certainly didn’t want to die by the hand of a man who had pretended to be his friend. That would be far worse than dying by the hand of some thug robber like Adam did. Jack was the worst form of a criminal since he pretended to be an officer of the law.
He saw fingerprint bruises on Justine’s neck where Deke had obviously tried to choke her. Right then, Dan wanted nothing more than to get his fingers around Jack’s throat and finish this. He coughed.
“It’s getting harder to breathe, isn’t it? Deke shot you square in the chest. You probably have a bullet in your lung. I’m surprised you’re still alive.”
Dan coughed again, trying to think of something to say, still stalling for time. Justine held his hand and pressed on his shoulder. He didn’t want them dying. He wanted her and the baby to live. He wanted a family.
He could not lose her now. He could not lose them.
Behind her, Jack pulled up a floorboard and let out a curse when he didn’t find anything.
“Where is it, Dan?”
Dan would have shrugged, but it hurt to move. “That’s where I left it. Maybe someone else found it in the last decade.”
Dan looked up at Justine again. Then he looked at Jack. “How exactly do you plan to get away with this?”
“Easy. I know Deke had her call you. I’ll bet her call is on your cell. I’ll tell everyone it had to be how you knew where she was. Her kidnapper obviously told you to come alone and you did, but being the great friend and colleague I am, followed you. I met you in the woods and tried to help, but damn, the two of you got caught in the crossfire. It was very sad. I did everything I could to save you. It was a horrible thing and was just another reason for me to leave this career and do something safer somewhere else.”
“You’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you?”
“Right down to calling for back up, which I already did,” Jack said. “I told the chief you flew out the door and I followed you, even told him I tried to call and see where you were going, but your phone went to voicemail. Thanks for not answering when I called you before.”
“I hope you burn in hell,” Dan said, his voice raw and breathy. He looked at Justine and whispered, “Run.”
“I won’t leave you. You’re losing so much blood.” She pressed against his wound, unable to keep his blood from spilling out.
“You don’t have to kill us. You could let us go. We won’t tell anyone,” Dan tried.
“Yeah, right.” Jack said. “I would have killed you already, but I want the money in my hands first.”
“What am I going to do? Tell my boss I robbed a bank? Hell, Jack, I kept the secret of the bank robbery for ten years.”
Jack stopped trying to pry up another floorboard.
“No,” Jack said. “But I will make your deaths quick and painless if you tell me where the damned money is, Dan. Time’s wasting. Our friends will be here any moment now.”
“Why should I tell you? I think maybe I’ll just wait for them.”
“Tell me and I’ll kill you quicker, end your pain. But if you really want to take your secret to the grave, I can give you some motivation to spill it. Like this.”
He shot Dan just above his knee. “I can shoot you with this one, right? I’m guessing you got this one from Thomas, right Justine? So the ballistics will add up when I tell them Thomas shot you and I shot him.”
Dan would have screamed, but he couldn’t seem to get enough air, and all that came out was a panting breath.
Justine screamed for him. “No! No! Stop!”
“I want to know where the money is, and I think he’s been lying this whole time. I doubt it’s here. I’ll bet he was even lying to you Justine, when he said he gave his cut to the widow of his old, dead partner. I’ll bet everything he told you in the woods when he got here was a lie.”
Jack’s face was flushed with anger and exertion from his work on the floorboards. “Maybe I need to hurt Justine instead.”
Dan couldn’t help it. He laughed. “My chest’s on fire, but damn this is suddenly so funny.”
“Shut up!” Jack yelled, waving Thomas’s gun. “Tell me where the money is right now before I shoot my way up to your head or shoot your sweet wife.”
“Stop it!” Justine screamed.
Jack hit her and nearly knocked her to the floor beside Dan.
It took everything he had not to grab Justine and try to protect her, but Dan laughed harder, knowing his laughter increased Jack’s instability. Right then he was trying to keep Jack’s attention on him. “Jus, run!”
Jack shot him again in the same leg, a few inches above the first wound.
Dan could only groan as he felt more of his blood pour out. Within moments, his pants were as soaked as his shirt was. And Justine, damn her, didn’t run.
Jack looked as if he was going to shoot again. Jack looked him right in the eye. “Tell me where the damned money is!”
When the shot came, Dan was surprised that he didn’t feel more pain. Perhaps he’d reached his limit, he thought, since his chest, his shoulder, and his leg were on fire.
Yet, the look of shock on Jack’s face told Dan instantly the shot didn’t come from Jack’s weapon. It came from Justine. He had held Jack’s attention long enough for her to snatch up Deke’s gun near the turned table. She’d shot Jack right in the chest.
Jack stared at her as if he couldn’t believe she’d actually shot him. Then, he slumped to his knees before he fell forward and landed face down with a heavy thump.
Justine dropped to her knees beside Dan. There were tears on her cheeks. “Dan, I’m so sorry for everything. I should have tried for his gun sooner.” She held on to him for a long moment, then she rose to her feet.
“Where are you going?” he asked. He was suddenly terrified to let her out of his sight.
“Just over here to get my phone and call an ambulance.”
He watched her pull her phone from Deke’s pocket.
Dan lay on the floor and thought he heard sirens approaching in the distance. Help was coming after all, thanks to Jack. Maybe Dan wasn’t going to die.
He shifted slightly and the pain from the movement was like knives stuck into his already bleeding wounds. Slowly, he reached up and tore his shirt open, revealing the body armor beneath. He couldn’t wait to get it off, certain his ribs were broken under it. While it was true he’d lost a great deal of blood from his shoulder and his leg, he doubted any major arteries were involved. But he still felt as if he’d been run over by a truck. “Jus?”
She finished on her phone and set it down, fished her wedding ring from the pile of stolen items and slid it back on her finger. Then she knelt beside him again and put pressure on his wounds. “What?”
“Make sure Jack’s dead. Then, you have to wipe your prints from Deke’s gun and put it back in his hand. You have to take the gun from Jack.” It was getting hard to talk. He had to breathe between words. But he had to protect Justine. “That will be your story. That Deke shot me several times, then Jack shot him and Thomas, but not before Deke managed to get off a shot and kill him. The ballistics have to add up.”
He closed his eyes. The sirens grew closer. He’d saved her. He’d done his duty. He’d stopped the bad guys. He was still the good cop. Only one question still lingered.
“Can you keep the money and the robbery a secret, Jus?” Dark spots danced before his eyes. He fought to stay awake, but he couldn’t fight the darkness that began to swallow him. She didn’t answer his question.
From far away, he heard her say, “Don’t you die on me, Dan Franklin. I love you. I need you.”
Chapter 30
Dan woke to the smell of antiseptic and clean sheets. Justine was sitting in a chair beside him leaning on the bed sleeping. With his uninjured arm, he reached out and placed his hand on the softness of her hair.
She woke with a start and sat up, meeting his gaze in an instant. “You’re awake.”
“I thought I died.”
“You tried, you lost a lot of blood.”
“Those are quite the shiners you’ve got there, Counselor.”
“That’s what happens when someone pops you in the nose with the butt of his gun.”
“You’ve still got a beautiful nose and beautiful eyes. But you’re all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“And the baby?”
“The baby, too.”
He tried to look around.
“Don’t worry. We’re alone.” Justine took his hand.
“You told them what I told you to say?”
“Yes. So far, I think they’ve bought it. But I killed him.”
He heard the pain in her voice.
“I have to live with that,” she said.
“We have to live with it. It was him or us. I’m glad it wasn’t us.”
“Me, too.”
He nodded. The action sent a zing of pain through his shoulder that he tried to ignore. He squeezed her hand. “I see you got your bracelet back.”
“It was in your pocket when the emergency team cut your jeans off to get to your wounds. Where’d you find it?”
“At the campground.” He held her hand tighter, closer to his chest near his heart. “About the money—”
She reached up quickly with her other hand and put her fingertips to his lips to shut him up. “I told them Deke talked about ransoming me because I was a public defender after he took me hostage. He gave us the alibi by robbing the store. I don’t want to know anything more about the money, where it is, or what you plan to do with it. If I don’t know, I can’t do anything about it. Understand?”
“Yes. But can you keep the secret?” It was the question that burned in him.
“Yes. But we will never speak of it again. Never,” she said.
He hadn’t spoken of it in a decade. He supposed he could keep quiet for a few more. Maybe he might even move it to a safer place as well as make certain Deke didn’t have any other relatives who might come after them. He’d have to consider it as he healed. No doubt his colleagues would watch him for a while, too, so he’d have to be careful. “You’re sure the baby’s all right?”
“Yes.” She looked down for a long, quiet moment. When she looked up again, her eyes swam with tears. “How did you know I cheated on you? Because of the wine and whatever he gave me, I wasn’t even certain what happened. All I remember is opening the door when he rang the doorbell. When the fog cleared, I was on the floor and my clothes were off. I thought it was a nightmare, only I couldn’t seem to wake up and know what was real
. Even after I showered for an hour.”
“You should have told me.”
“He always flirted with me and made me laugh. You saw that. He was your friend. I was afraid and I was confused, and he was angry. I remember him ranting and not making sense and I was afraid of him. It was like bits and pieces that I couldn’t put together. He called me a cheating bitch and said I didn’t deserve you.”
“You didn’t cheat. He raped you. When was this?” It took every ounce of will power he had to keep a curb on his rage. The bastard was dead, and that still wasn’t good enough as long as Dan was concerned. He sucked in a deep breath, working to keep his anger from her. She had to deal with being raped, violated. Maybe it was better to not make her remember. She didn’t need to deal with him.
“A little over two months ago, the night you came home and found me in the kitchen and made me tea.”
“I would have believed you.” At least he liked to hope he would have. Maybe he wouldn’t have. After all, when he discovered she was pregnant, he was certain she’d cheated on him. He hadn’t even considered the possibility that one of his own colleagues might have raped her.
“That’s what I want to ask you.”
He shifted so he could hold more of her than her hand. He pulled her over against his chest and put his arm around her. “What?”
“No lies between us. I don’t care what we have to tell the rest of the world. But there can be only truth between us. Understand? You kept your childhood from me as well as a horrible part of your past that could have gotten us both killed. And I kept that night from you. We can’t do that. Ever. Promise me.”
He met her gaze. He’d never loved anyone more than he loved Justine. She was his heart, his soul. He wanted nothing more than to give her everything. Forever. “I promise. And if anything ever happens to you, even if you aren’t certain—”
She leaned over against his bruised chest. It hurt, but he held her to it anyway and ignored the pain. “I promise too.”
Then she moved and kissed his lips. Soft. Wonderful. The world felt right again. When she broke the kiss, she leaned back, met his gaze and grew serious. “How did you come to the conclusion I cheated on you?”
A Twist of Betrayal Page 20