Holding on to Tommy’s ankle, Santiago slammed his fist into Tommy’s opposite knee, and the younger man went down hard.
Lauren stood, moving to Santiago in jerky motions. Veronica screamed and jumped on Lauren’s back pulling her braids as if she were trying to wrench her head off her body. Laurencareened out the door and stumbled down the stairs beyond Sam’s body and the two women were swallowed by mist.
“Shit!”
He had Tommy on his stomach with a fist full of his hair, pressing the man’s face into the floor. He dug his knee in the small of Tommy’s back as he pulled his second pair of cuffs. A figure suddenly loomed over him, and he reached for his gun?—
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Julian shouted, hands up as Santiago aimed at his head. “Trying to help here.”
Holstering his gun, he tossed the cuffs to Julian and raced outside.
He could barely make out Veronica and Lauren, but he sure as shit heard them.
“You want to own this home so bad?” Lauren shouted, dragging Veronica toward the water. “Let’s see what the original owners say about that.”
Footsteps pounded through the house as Sonny ran to him. Red and blue lights flashed at the front of the house, and Roan walked along the side of the house moving toward them.
Veronica got to her feet and threw herself at Lauren knocking them both into the shallow water.
Roan gasped, taking a step back as Lauren stood, water pouring down her body.
Around her ankles, the water churned and frothed as if she was standing in a pool of starving piranhas.
Veronica’s body thrashed in the water.
Lauren leaned down as if to pull Veronica free from the lake, but she stumbled, blood seeping from her chest.
Santiago ran and grabbed her before she fell into the water again, pulling her farther up onto the shore.
Checking the injury, he saw the bullet was still lodged in her shoulder near the clavicle.
Cutter and two EMTs moved toward them.
“Everyone stay out of the water,” Santi ordered.
“Who the hell does he think he even needs to say that to?” Roan asked. No one approached the lake.
Santiago held Lauren against him. “You’re going to be okay,” he said. “And that’s a fucking order, Ms. Green.” He lay her on the ground as one of the EMTs kneeled beside her. The other one checked Julian’s head while his neighbor joked about trying to rescue the damsel in distress yet ending up needing to be the one rescued.
Wading into the lake, Santiago pulled Veronica onto the shore.
The waters calmed.
Both EMTs converged on Veronica’s body to perform CPR.
“Where’s McIntyre?” Santiago asked.
“He’s already heading down the mountain with the first ambulance,” Sonny said. “Either Tovin or Sam Ferriday stabbed him multiple times. He was bleeding out when I got to the front of the house.”
“Did I just kill someone too?” Lauren asked, looking at Veronica
“Did you see what the hell just happened?” Roan asked, dumbfounded. “What just fucking happened?” she shouted.
“Looked like Mrs. Archer kinda boiled to death—but without heat or being burned…maybe she was eaten by microscopic water creatures…I don’t…what the fuck,” Sonny breathed, rubbing a hand back and forth over his head.
Santiago learned that Tovin, the tow truck driver who’d towed Veronica’s car after the crash, was the man who’d attacked Sonny at the front of the house. Turned out he not only worked with Tommy and Eddy at the garage, but along with Sam Ferriday, helped to dispose of a few residents that didn’t cooperate with Veronica Archer.
Lifting Lauren into his arms, he carried her to the ambulance. On the second story balcony, he was certain he saw the outline of a little girl. The figure was gone before he completed the thought.
