“What?” Millie asked.
“Alex found the cat.”
Elation whipped through Millie. That morning, she’d called everyone she’d ever met trying to find him, putting the entire town on alert. “Oh my God. Thank goodness. We’ve been looking all over for him.”
“Come on. Alex’s bringing him over—he said the animal is a little the worse for wear.” She moved toward the doorway to the kitchen, which opened to the path between the twins’ homes.
Millie hurried toward the kitchen but stopped cold at the sight of June sprawled on the floor with blood pooling around her head. “June!” she cried out and then halted. Wait a minute? She turned around to find Verna pointing a gun at her. “What in the world?” Millie took a step away from the pregnant woman.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Verna said. She glanced toward the front window and Scott’s SUV. “We need to go out the back.”
* * * *
Scott clicked off, fully irritated again. He just might fire this bonehead. He mulled over what Wolfe had said as they’d hunted for Kat. Maybe Wolfe had a point. Perhaps Scott needed a change, but if so, what did he want to do? He needed to strategize to keep his mind engaged, and not many jobs actually involved strategy. He couldn’t be less interested in the stock market or real property investments.
He peered through the front window of the charming one-story white clapboard cabin and didn’t see any movement, not liking the quiet. He really didn’t like that June was inside. If she was facing money problems, and if she had truly been dating Clay, then she could be a danger to Millie. Perhaps she had gotten jealous enough to kill him.
Sitting in the vehicle didn’t work for Scott.
Knowing that she’d be ticked off, he stepped out of his SUV into the blustering wind, then paused at the sound of voices. They’d moved outside into the chilly day? That made zero sense. He ducked low against the brutal breeze and bolted around the side of the cabin near the greenhouse to where he could hear better.
“Millie?” he called out. If she’d gone outside to speak with June alone, he might just spank her this time. She had promised to stay inside with the other women.
“Scott?” she called out, her voice high-pitched.
He barreled around the corner and stopped cold at seeing Verna Montgomery pointing a gun at Millie. The sight of the obviously pregnant woman in light pink with a deadly Glock in her hand had him reeling.
“What the hell?” He moved to the side, his arm dropping to his hip, close to where his gun rested, nestled at the base of his spine.
The woman looked up, her eyes cold. She edged to the side, keeping Millie between them. “If you have a weapon, drop it,” she ordered, her voice harsh.
“I don’t,” Scott lied.
Millie looked at him, her eyes wide in her pale face. “June is inside,” she whispered. “She lay unmoving with blood all around her.”
“We’ll figure this out. Verna, you haven’t hurt anybody yet. I’m sure June will be fine,” Scott said soothingly.
“Huh? I cracked her head hard enough that I heard her skull fracture,” Verna hissed. “Sorry, but you’re in my way.”
Scott moved then. She fired instantly. Pain exploded through his chest, and the force threw him back. He landed hard on his shoulders and hips, causing wet mud to squish out from either side of his shoulders.
“Scott!” Millie shrieked.
He fought the darkness, coming in and out, swamped by memories of other bullets impacting his body. Grunting, he forced himself to roll over and shoved himself to a seated position. He wavered, looking around. Red dotted the edges of his vision, and he tried to focus. Where was Millie? He couldn’t see her.
The sound of a small motorboat pulling away from the riverbank caught his attention. Shit. He rolled over again to all fours, and forced himself to stand. Pain ripped through him so quickly his breath stopped, maybe forever, but he forced himself to plod along the side of the house toward his vehicle. He wrenched open the driver’s side door, using the handle to hold himself upright, and leaned in to scrabble for his phone.
Blood had flowed down his arm to his hand, making it slippery. He pulled the phone out and let himself drop to the asphalt. He pressed a button.
“Wolfe,” his friend answered.
“Wolfe, I need backup. Now.” He barely got the last word out as he fell to the side. He didn’t feel a thing when his head hit the driveway.
Chapter Forty-One
Millie huddled in the bottom of the metal boat, staring up at Verna as the pregnant woman expertly maneuvered upstream. The rain had ebbed, leaving her more conscious of the damp air and chilly wind. “Verna, what are you doing?”
Verna watched the river, the gun casually on her knee and pointed at Millie. If Millie lunged at her, she’d get shot. She was also too far down in the boat to be able to leap over the side without Verna at least getting off one round. “Just be quiet. You’re upsetting the baby. We’ll be there in a minute.”
