Her eyes locked on her father, cold and furious. “This is all your fault,” she said, her voiceshaking with fury. “You did this. You couldn’t just let us go. You had to control everything.”
Hale didn’t respond, and Delaney thought he might be in shock. He stayed on the floor with Noah applying pressure to his gunshot wound.
Vivian’s voice cracked as she blurted, “It was me. I arranged it. I used Ava’s phone to set it up. Kent sent the last text like I told him to.”
Silence dropped like a weight.
Delaney barely had time to register the shock on Eli’s face before Ava gasped and staggered backward. Jason caught her, steadying her as she pressed both hands to her mouth.
“You brought me here?” Ava’s voice was small and hollow. “You brought me here to kill me?”
“No,” Vivian cried. “God, no. Never. That was never the plan.” She twisted, trying to reach for her daughter. “You were never supposed to be in danger. Kent was supposed to make sure of that. He promised.”
Delaney’s eyes cut to Kent. He was way too pale and looked on the verge of unconsciousness. “I—I did. I followed everything she said. I kept her safe.”
Vivian groaned and collapsed to the floor. Eli dropped beside her to keep her from hitting her head, but she didn’t fight anymore. Her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, tears sliding down her cheeks.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” Vivian whispered. “He controlled everything. Everydollar. Every decision. Grant tried to help me. He was the only one who stood up to my father. So Lawrence had him killed.”
Lawrence certainly didn’t deny that. “You idiot, you pathetic excuse for a human being. I should have killed you years ago.”
Ava made a hoarse sob and buried her face against Jason’s chest.
“I knew Hale had done terrible things,” Vivian murmured. “But Lawrence protected him. Always has. When I found out he was going to have me declared incompetent, I panicked. I thought… if I could show what kind of man he really was. If I could get him to show up here. Make him look like he set this up. I didn’t want anyone hurt.”
Delaney could feel Eli tense beside her. This wasn’t just desperation. It was recklessness.
Vivian looked at her daughter, her expression broken. “I swear, Ava, I only wanted to protect you. Both of you.”
But Ava said nothing. She just stood there, clutching Jason and shaking her head. The betrayal hung in the air like smoke, thick and choking.
Lawrence let out a howl, raw and savage. In one swift motion, he snatched up the gun the sheriff had disarmed him of earlier. Delaney saw the gleam of metal and lunged forward, her voice ripping through the air.
“Gun!” Delaney shouted.
Too late.
Lawrence fired.
The first shot missed, but the second hit Eli square in the chest. The sound of the impact was sickening, a heavy thud that echoed louder than the gunfire itself. Eli staggered and dropped to his knees, his face contorted in pain as he gasped for air.
“No,” Delaney whispered, frozen. For one heart-stopping second, she thought he was dead.
But then Eli’s head lifted. He sucked in a hard breath, jaw clenched tight. The Kevlar had stopped the bullet, but the hit had knocked the air out of him.
And he was still moving.
Eli raised his weapon, steadying it with both hands. His arms shook, but his aim didn’t waver.
He fired.
Lawrence jerked, a bloom of red spreading across his chest. He dropped the gun. Then his knees buckled, and he collapsed in a heap on the cold concrete floor. His lifeless eyes stared up at the crumbling ceiling as silence closed back in.
Delaney rushed to Eli, dropping to her knees beside him.
Lawrence Melborne was dead.
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