Meredith Delbert stared up at her, pure hatred blazing from her eyes. “Your fault! This is all your and your mother’s fault! I’m glad I killed her! I am! And you deserve to die, too! My life was destroyed because of you.”
This woman had killed her mother! Autumn pushed the horrifying information away, determined to stay focused. “Don’t move.” Autumn pressed the tip of her gun against Meredith’s forehead. She’d noticed the weapon was still clutched in Meredith’s hand. “Drop it or I’ll shoot.”
The sirens were louder now, less than a minute away. Meredith finally tossed the gun aside, then groaned. “You shot me!”
Autumn backed off, but didn’t holster her gun. It was difficult to think clearly after hearing Meredith confessing to murdering her mother, but she forced herself to stay on task. “Do you have other weapons on you? A knife or another gun?”
Meredith shook her head, then looked down at the blood seeping from her abdominal wound. Her face contorted and she was suddenly sobbing. “Don’t let me die. Please don’t let me die!”
Autumn finally holstered her weapon and knelt beside her. She took a moment to pat her down, verifying she wasn’t hiding more weapons. Finding a full clip of ammo, she tossed that aside, then gathered Meredith’s coat and pressed it against the bleeding wound.
“Why did you kill my mother?”
“Do you—know—how awful foster care is?” Meredith grimaced with pain. “You looked so happy at summer camp, while I was miserable. It wasn’t fair that I was treated like dirt!”
“But killing my mother didn’t change that.” She wasn’t following this woman’s logic.
“An eye for an eye… Isn’t that what the Bible says?” Meredith winced, and her voice grew faint. “An eye for an eye. Your mother deserved to die the way my father did. And you needed to suffer the way I did…too…” Meredith’s voice trailed off. Her body slumped as she passed out, succumbing to her injury.
* * *
Upon hearing the police sirens, Jordan knew Autumn was in trouble. Despite his pounding headache, which hadn’t subsided as much as he’d told Autumn, he scooped Cutie in his arms and headed out to his truck.
He mentally berated himself for kicking Autumn off the ranch. As he covered the distance to her place, his gut clenched when he saw two police squad cars pulling into her driveway.
His heart pounded with fear. What if she was gone, forever? He pulled in behind the squad cars and slid out from behind the wheel. He didn’t run, as his head hurt too badly for that. Cutie jumped down and followed him to the house. The front porch light flashed on, nearly blinding him.
He turned away, fighting the urge to throw up. Nothing hurt his head more than bright lights. Shrill sirens were a close second. After a moment he straightened and moved away from the door.
Hearing voices, he moved to the backyard. Bear came over to greet them, and Cutie wiggled with excitement at seeing her crush.
The two officers were crouched beside a woman lying on the ground. Autumn?
He moved forward just as Autumn stood. A wave of relief hit hard as he realized she wasn’t hurt.
Or worse.
Thank You, Lord Jesus!The prayer came unbidden, filling his heart and soul. In that moment he realized how much he loved her.
He shouldn’t have gotten upset about Durango’s bucking him off. Or the near miss that could have harmed his stallion.
And he really shouldn’t have sent Autumn away. None of this was her fault. And if something bad had happened to her, like it had Jenny, he’d never forgive himself.
“Jordan?” Autumn stared at him in shock. The dogs were running around playing, despite the police officers huddled beside the fallen suspect. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard the sirens.” He took a step toward her, then stopped. After the way he’d acted, she might not welcome him with open arms. He frowned when he saw the blood. “Are you hurt?”
“What?” She glanced down in surprise. “Oh, no. It’s not my blood.”
He relaxed. “You got him?”
“Her.” Autumn sighed. “Meredith Delbert. She confessed to killing my mother. Her father died in jail recently, and that must have been the trigger for her to come after me. My mother arrested her father, and she ended up in foster care.” She looked down at the fallen woman. “Sounds like she suffered during that time. I feel bad for what she went through.”
More sirens filled the air.
“That’s the ambulance,” Autumn said. “You’ll need to stay back, Jordan. Bear, Cutie, come!” Surprisingly the dogs wheeled and came running toward her. “We need to go out front. This is a crime scene.”
He turned, then abruptly stopped upon noticing the multitude of bullet holes piercing her house. The window was shattered and the door looked as if it had been hit by a shotgun blast.
