His face pales as I lean in, closing the gap between us so he can feel the hellfire in my breath. “They aren’t your children. I’m the only man they’ll call Daddy, and I’ll make sure you’re completely forgotten, you fucking waste of space.”
He jerks in my grip, and from above me, Hope screams. “Zane, he’s got a?—”
I catch his hand before he can point the gun at me. Wrenching his wrist so hard I hope he feels that I broke it, I point the muzzle at his own guts and help him pull the trigger.
The shot is so fucking loud, my hearing whites out.
Everything that happens after that is a funny blur.
The back door crashes open. My brother fills the doorframe like a wall of granite. He’s followed by Jasper Lane, gun drawn.
I stagger backwards, my hands up.
Hope races between us, waving her hands. Screaming that it wasn’t me, I wasn’t armed.
Didn’t need to be, still killed him dead, I think distantly before I crumple to the floor.
Chapter 32
Hope
I drop to my knees beside Zane and find his wound, pressing against it.
My fingers are shaking, I’m shaking, but I don’t let up. I don't fall apart. I can do that once an ambulance arrives. “He’s been stabbed,” I manage to get out. “Please help him.”
Ridge tries to move me as the cop with him says something into his radio. Then he introduces himself. “Ma’am, I’m Sheriff Jasper Lane.”
“Mercy’s brother,” Ridge snarls. “But that doesn’t make him someone to trust.”
Zane groans and opens his eyes. “Hey, City Girl. What’s up?”
“Don’t try to pretend this is a vasovagal response,” I snap.
He grins at me, even though he’s pale. “I love you.”
That pulls a sob out of me. “I love you, too, you big dummy.”
"Hope—"
Cash comes through the door next, glaring at the sheriff, who doesn’t try to stop him.
He takes one look at the blood all over my hands and goes to the kitchen, coming back with a couple of clean towels. “Here,” he says. “Let me press with this.”
Reluctantly, I let him take over, hovering next to Zane until the paramedics arrive.
It’s only when they get Zane onto a stretcher that I allow myself to look at the body just past him.
Nobody else seems bothered at all that there’s a dead man on the stairs.
Now that I’ve noticed Derek’s lifeless form, I can’t stop staring at it.
“I’m not leaving without her,” Zane snaps, his voice strained but firm. “Hope, come with me in the ambulance.”
Jasper tries to intervene. “I need to take her statement.”
“Then do it fucking fast,” Zane says. “Or follow us to the hospital.”
Jasper nods. “I can do that.” He glances at Ridge and Cash. “I’m sending out another car to secure the crime scene. Don’t fucking touch anything.”
