Maybe he didn’trememberwhy, but apparently somewhere in the recesses of his brain, he did know.
Which meant he knew what he had to do.
“She’s got nothing to do with it,” Cal said, gesturing at Jill.“She doesn’t know anything.”Cal kept his hands up, trying to look as unthreatening as possible while his heart beat too loudly in his ears.“Just let her go.”
Everly looked from Cal to Glenda, definitely considering what Cal was saying, but his grip on the gun never loosened.
Cal couldn’t even look at Jill.He was afraid that might break this tenuous grasp on control he had.
Because it all felt a little familiar, especially when he looked into Glenda’s light-green eyes.
“You want to hold a gun on someone, hold a gun on me,” Cal said firmly, pressing whatever advantage he could find.“I seem to be the one you have a problem with.”
“Or me,” Glenda rasped.
Shh.Don’t tell.
Shh.Be still.
Shh.
Cal heard the echo of a gunshot and jerked.
But nothing happened.
There was no echo.He looked around, fazed, realizing… that sound had been a memory.Not a reality.
The sound of that gunshot.Not the here and now.Something before, and even if he didn’t remember it, something to do with Glenda and Mr.Everly.
But he couldn’t afford to get lost in another memory.Not when a gun was pressed to Jill’s head.Get her out, defuse the situation, then… they’d deal.
Yeah, he knew how to do that.He could.He would.He had before, even if he didn’t remember the details.
“Look, too many people know this is you now.You can’t hide that anymore.Let’s not make it worse by hurting innocent bystanders.”
Everly snorted.“People know?Like Hayes’s kid?”He said it so dismissively, like Hayes wasn’t a detective, a police officer, but still just akid.
“Yeah, and my brothers,” Cal said evenly.“And pretty soon every police department in a hundred-mile radius.Whatever you’re looking to accomplish, you can’t.It’s over.Let’s leave it where it is while everyone is still unscathed.”
“You think I don’t have a plan?”Everly replied, like Cal was particularly naïve and maybe stupid to boot.“I always have a plan, Cal.Ialwaysdid.”
Cal ignored the headache, the nausea, the whispers of memories trying to take hold.He focused on the gun and Jill’s temple.
“Fine.You have a plan.She’s not part of it,” Cal said.He took another tentative step forward.Maybe if he got close enough he could do something.“She’s not part of this.Let her go.I’ll stay, if you need another body for yourplan, but you let her go.She’s not part of it.”He didn’t remember how or why, but he knew.“Iam a part of this.Take me.Leave her.”
Everly looked from Cal to Glenda then back again.There was some consideration in his gaze.Maybe he did have a plan, but if he did, he was recalculating it now.
“Drop your phone,” Everly ordered, jerking his chin toward the coffee table Cal stood next to.
Cal had to let his breath out carefully.It meant Everly was going to take him instead.It had to.He pulled the phone out of his pocket, placed it on the coffee table.
“Go out the front door—but stay where I can see you.Grab the bag by the door.”
Cal hesitated, but he saw something in Everly’s eyes.A kind of dead-eyed determination.This was not a situation like last summer, when some hot-headed kids full of grief and a little too into drugs wanted to cause some damage.
No, this was a man with a plan.
Cal would thwart it, but for now he had to make sure no one died.He moved carefully to the front door, opened it, and stayed where Everly could see him.He scanned the front yard, didn’t see Sam.He inwardly swore.
