“Let me help him.”
“Why?” The cold tone of his voice crawled across her skin.
“You don’t want him to die. That… that’s a murder charge.”
As soon as she said the words, it hit her.
Those words wouldn’t help.
Tony smiled at her. “What’s one more when you know they’re going to put the blame on me… for her.”
She wanted to say more, but she knew how dangerous that would be.
“And I saw the news…” he took a step in her direction, “youwere trying to find me.”
“I was asked to give you a face. So they could know what you look like now.”
“The pictures they posted on the news?” He smirked at her. “They weren’t even close.”
She wanted to argue with him.
But he was the one with the gun.
And he was angry.
Obvious concerns, but that didn’t make them any less true.
“I’ve spent years…years,” his voice rose with the repetition, “keeping out of the light and you… you tried to drag me into the public eye. For what? A lonely bitch?”
Noelle’s hands fisted and she bit into her cheek.
She’d never met Aracely, but she felt like she knew her.
She knew women like her.
And his words…
They made her angry.
“You need to let someone help him,” she gestured toward the manager. “It’s better for you if you do. You’ll show that you’re-”
“That I’m what? Innocent?” He snorted, a sound that rattled her more than it should. “I know that they’re going to convict me no matter what.”
“You can show that you’re human,” she countered. “You can show that you can do the right thing.”
Tony lifted his arm, pointing the muzzle of the gun at her face. “Why start now?”
* * *
DUVAL
He stood helplessly by as he stared at the feed from the security cameras that were visible on the monitors in their Bearcat vehicle.
Fox held the phone to his ear waiting for the gunman to pick up the phone in the garden center.
They’d all seen the reactions on the screen when the phone started to ring.
Noelle tensed, her head turned to look at the cashier stand.
