It did.
The man’s head whipped up, and he got another flash of that anger. “I didn’t know you’d be able to link that to her. I didn’t know her friend’s prints would be on the bag. And you shouldn’t have harassed Jennifer for that.” His voice got louder with each word. “I might have just broken into the house to get your phone, but I changed my mind because of way the two of you harassed her.”
“We treated her like a suspect because she was found with blood on her hands at Yvette’s house.”
“She went there looking for Yvette,” Elijah snapped. “Jennifer was in shock, and you damn near locked her up.”
“You added to making her a suspect by buying those drugs from her friend,” Judson pointed out just as fast.
Elijah cursed again, and it was raw and vicious. What he didn’t do was take any responsibility for his fiancée nearly being arrested for murder. “I should kill all you idiot cops for going after her like that. Hell, I still might. Go faster through that sent folder,” he snapped to Addie.
The man was quickly losing it, and that meant Judson only had seconds to stop him. Judson’s gaze connected with Addie’s,and he lowered his eyes, hoping she understood that he wanted her to drop down.
She gave a slight nod and stopped scrolling on his phone. “I took a picture of Yvette’s car, too,” Addie said.
It was a lie. Perhaps a very dangerous one. Because Elijah let out a loud roar, the rage tearing out in that feral sound.
“Where’s your phone?” Elijah shouted, punctuating that demand with yet more profanity. He caught onto her hair and snapped her head back.
“It’s in my purse in the foyer,” Addie managed to say, though she was clearly in pain now.
But she was also clearly thinking straight.
As the last word left her mouth, she dropped, and even though Elijah still had hold of her hair, she fell far enough down that it gave Judson the opening he needed. He stepped into the doorway, and in one quick motion, he took aim.
And he pulled the trigger.
So did Elijah.
Both of them fired, but Judson’s shot was a split second faster. Elijah’s bullet slammed into the door next to Judson. Elijah, however, had no idea that he’d missed. The man had no idea of anything, not anymore.
Because Judson’s shot hit Elijah right between the eyes.
The man was dead before he even hit the ground. And before he hit, Judson had already bolted across the room to Addie.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Addie lifted her face to the shower in the guest room and kept it there for as long as she could hold her breath. She had to wash away the blood.
Again.
This time, not from Yvette but from Elijah. When Judson had delivered the kill shots that had ended the man’s reign of terror, and his life, Addie had gotten hit with some spatter.
It’d been a small price to pay for getting out of the nightmare alive, but she hadn’t wanted the blood to stay on her body any longer than necessary. Nor had she wanted to hold the babies until she was clean. That’s why she had headed to the shower as soon as Rory had bagged her clothes and taken a brief statement.
And after she’d spoken with Judson, of course.
That had been just quick reassurances that they were alive and unharmed. He hadn’t kissed her and hadn’t extended the hug he’d managed to give her right after shooting Elijah. That’s because they had both wanted to rush into the bathroom and check on the babies.
Lily and Rose had been fine, not a scratch on them, and both girls had already gone back to sleep now that the gunfire had stopped. Etta Jean had looked just as shell-shocked as Addie no doubt had, but the woman was holding up. Addie prayed that continued in the aftermath of this attack.
The flurry of activity had started to swarm around the room and the ranch within minutes after Elijah’s death. Priority one had been getting an ambulance for Bennie, but Addie knew that was just the start. The CSIs and ME would be coming in, and Grace and the deputies would be going through Elijah’s place and any and all of his things.
Looking for proof to support what the man had confessed to when he’d been holding Addie at gunpoint.
Even if there was no proof, the confession and Elijah’s actions in the past hour were more than enough to give him the label of serial killer, along with committing other assorted crimes, including the multiple attempts at the murder of police officers. Since Elijah was also the person responsible for abducting Lily and Rose and putting them in grave danger, Addie wouldn’t shed a single tear over the man’s demise.
Just the opposite.
