Rebecca’s face went pale.“How did you… how could you… how—” she sputtered.
“I knew there had to be a reason Augusta was taking the blame for killing Sebastian and Callie.I might’ve believed her killing the man responsible for pushing Billy over the edge, but Callie?Augusta knew how much she loved Billy, how his death had shattered her from the inside out.She’d seen it firsthand at Billy’s funeral.”I shook my head.“I didn’t believe for one second that she killed the girl.”
Rebecca’s expression was filled with the desperation of someone in way over her head.She looked like she wanted an out.
“You have your mother’s eyes,” I said gently.
Her face twisted.“You don’t understand,” she pleaded.“I didn’t…”
Gilly tried reasoning with her.“I’m really sorry for all the bad that’s happened to you.To your brother.”She put herself between Rebecca and Callie.“But killing that terrible man wasn’t going to bring him back.”
“No,” a voice rasped behind my friend.“But it brought me so much joy.”
I pivoted, just in time to see Callie raising the oxygen tank up high, aiming for Gilly’s head.
“Look out!”I yelled.
Gilly ducked the blow just in time, slamming her elbow into Callie’s gut.At the same moment, Ezra launched himself at Rebecca.The taser came loose from her hand and slid across the floor as they went down.
Gilly and Callie were on the ground now, both wrestling for control in a tangle of limbs, rolling across the tile as Callie clawed and thrashed, fighting like hell.Ezra and Rebecca struggled as well.She was taller, well-trained, and dangerous.But Ezra was a skilled fighter, too.He managed to pin one of her arms, but she twisted, leveraging her weight, and suddenly, he was the one flat on his back.
I snatched up the taser, my hands shaky but unwavering.Ezra had let me shoot one into a dummy once at their training facility.This wasn’t a dummy.
Rebecca’s hand went for Ezra’s throat.
I didn’t hesitate.
Fifty thousand volts shot through her, the charge locking up her muscles as she went rigid.She spasmed and collapsed sideways, her body still twitching.
Ezra scrambled to his feet.
“Help Gilly,” I pleaded.“I got this one.”
About the time they had Callie—who turned out to be hella scrappy—under control, FBI agents Paul and Lynn Maigret came bursting through the door.
“What the heck happened in here?”Lynn said, taking in the chaotic scene.Then her gaze dropped onto Callie.“Oh my gosh,” she muttered.“She’s alive.She’s still alive.”
“Uhm, yeah,” I said, taking the lead with Lynn while Ezra helped Paul restrain the two women and read them their rights.Gilly ran out to check on Scott.
“What can you tell me?”
“I’m fuzzy on a lot of the details, but I’m fairly certain Callie killed Sebastian, and Rebecca moved the body, and I’m really confused by what they planned to do when we arrived in Cozumel, but I think Hansen was going to offload her with her husband’s corpse.”
“And Augusta Frank?”Helena asked.What’s her role in all this?”
My brow pinched between my eyes.“Just a woman who wanted to be a good mom, but it was too little too late.”
“What are you, a middle-aged Spiderwoman?”the female FBI agent asked.“You have one heck of a developed spidey sense.I couldn’t hardly believe it when your friend told me what you were up to.When I wouldn’t get on board, she tried to make me believe you were some kind of psychic.”She scoffed.“As if.”
My smile felt feral as I looked down at her wedding rings and said, “Where’s the pear-shaped diamond your husband gave you when you got engaged?”
“How?What?Oh my gosh.”She held out her hand and looked at the rings.“The real engagement ring cost Paul almost a year’s salary.I don’t wear it when we’re undercover.”She gave me an assessing stare.“How in the world did you know?”
I touched my nose.“I have a gift.”
“And a curse,” Gilly said.
“And a gift,” I added.To Lynn, I asked, “What will happen to Augusta?”
