“Maybe.” Jesse’s radio suddenly crackled, and he lifted the mic. “You got something?”
“A civilian just called in a car crash involving a red Volkswagen Beetle and a Ford Escape.”
“Clara and Briar.” Holden cursed.
“Where?” Jesse asked.
“At the end of Fifth Avenue and Oak Street right in front of the hardware store.”
Jesse sped up. “We’re only a street away. Clara and Briar weren’t spotted?”
“No.”
Holden lifted his Glock, pulse speeding up and muscles tensing, ready to move.
Jesse turned onto the street, and Holden saw it. The Ford had hit the side of Clara’s Beetle, and shit, it looked bad. The side of the Volkswagen had a huge dent, and the Ford’s airbags had deployed. Neither of them would have come out unscathed.
The second Jesse stopped, Holden was out of the car and running. He checked her Volkswagen while Jesse checked the Ford.
“Empty,” Jesse said.
“They’re gone.” Holden scanned the street.
“We need to search the streets. I’ll go this way, you go that way.”
Holden nodded and went to step away, when Jesse called out to him again.
“And Holden, if Briar wasn’t the one to drug Malcolm, and Malcolm didn’t do it to himself, then—”
“There are two of them.”
Clara triedto tell Helen with her eyes to keep going. To not step foot inside the florist.
But the other woman didn’t walk away. She gripped the handle of the door and stepped inside the shop.
Clara frowned, confusion swirling in her belly. Why would she step in instead of running for help? And why was she wearing gloves?
“Is everything okay?” Helen asked.
Briar kept the gun trained at Clara’s head. “You showed up right on time.”
Clara’s heart stopped. They were in on this together?
“This bitch won’t tell me where the USB is,” Briar continued. “But I don’t care anymore. She needs to die, and she needs to die fast.”
Helen nodded, like this was a perfectly sane conversation.
Briar shot a look at Helen. “I got Lauren and Deb. You only took out Malcolm. You owe me.”
Clara’s jaw dropped when Briar handed the gun to Helen. Helen looked at the pistol. Then, she reached out and wrapped her fingers around the grip.
Clara’s heart beat so hard that she could hear it. Feel it through her limbs.
This was it. Helen was going to shoot her.
Briar was just turning back to face Clara when Helen lifted the gun, pressed the muzzle to Briar’s temple, and fired.
Clara screamed and stumbled back, hitting the wall behind her.
