“Once Caroline’s dead, there’ll be no more loose ends,” Kingston announced, and the muscles in his arm and hand tightened. He was going to do it.
Kingston was going to kill her.
Caroline was going to make sure that didn’t happen. Gathering her breath, she directed her anger and fear to her voice and let out a vicious shout as she rammed her elbow into Kingston. She dropped her weight, getting her neck away from that knife. She felt it cut her again, on the side of her head, but she ignored that and scrambled away from Kingston.
Jack moved in. As fast and as mean as a snake.
Caroline had managed to get only a few feet away before Jack was on the porch. He kicked away the knife.
And tossed his gun aside.
When Kingston lunged at him, Jack went after the man with his fists, and Jack was a lot better at it than Kingston. He rammed his fist into Kingston’s face, causing the man’s head to flop back. Jack hit him again. And again. His fists poundingKingston even as the man dropped to his knees on the porch. Jack might have kept it up, but Caroline touched his shoulder.
“Let Gunnar arrest him,” she said, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.
Caroline wasn’t sure that would be enough to get Jack to stop.
But it was.
Jack froze, his fist still poised midair and aimed at Kingston’s face. Kingston was crying now, his breath coming out in wet, loud sobs. Jack stared at the man several long moments before he stepped back. Caroline was right there to pull Jack into her arms.
Gunnar rushed forward. The deputy hurried onto the porch and cuffed Kingston, hauling the man to his feet. “Jack, I’ll take care of this,” Gunnar said, sympathy all over his face. “And I’ll get the ambulance out here for Caroline and Clarie.”
“I’m fine,” Caroline assured him, and she thought that might be true. Kingston had cut her, but it wasn’t serious. Even if it had been, she probably wouldn’t have admitted it. Not now. For now, she needed to hold Jack and get him through this.
“Kingston killed him,” Jack muttered. “He killed him. And he tried to do the same to you.”
“He failed,” she reminded him, and she eased back so he could see her face. Her eyes. She wanted him to know that she was okay.
Jack shook his head like a man coming out of a trance, and his attention landed on her arm, then the side of her head. Where he no doubt saw blood.
“You need the EMTs,” he insisted.
He snatched up his gun, holstering it, before he jumped down off the porch, pulling her down and into his arms. But he didn’t stand her on the ground. Jack started carrying her toward the front of the inn.
“I can walk,” she said.
However, she didn’t fight him on this. It was something Jack needed, and she soon realized she needed it, too. She dropped her head onto his shoulder and let him soothe her in a way that only Jack could. Yes, there were still plenty of things unresolved, but she took these moments of comfort from him.
When they reached the front of the inn, she was thankful to see Clarie up and moving around. Manuel had brought in the other cruiser, and that was where Gunnar headed with Kingston. Clarie was rubbing her head and pacing in front of the other cruiser while she talked to someone on the phone.
“Don’t worry, I’ll let the EMTs check me out,” Clarie immediately told Jack. “I just wanted to fill in Kellan. He’ll meet us at the sheriff’s office.”
Caroline was exhausted, but she knew the night wasn’t over, and she wanted to be there when Kellan booked Kingston. Actually, she wanted to be there for Jack and his brothers.
In the distance, Caroline heard the wail of sirens from the ambulance. But she also heard something else.
A shout.
“You bastard,” someone yelled.
Jack immediately stood Caroline on the ground so he could pivot and draw his gun. But he was too late. The shot blasted through the air.
It took a moment for Caroline to fight through the shock and see what had happened. And then she spotted Grace. The woman was on the side of the front porch, a gun gripped in her hand.
A gun she’d just used to fire the shot.
At Kingston.
