Page 49 of The Prez’s Daughter

He was going to marry her.

And then he took his aim and fired.

Chapter Fifteen

“You’re a fucking piece of shit. You know that, right? The town hates all of you. They’ll keep using you, draining every last resource...”

Charlotte gritted her teeth, as tears fell, but she was getting angrier rather than scared. She wanted to kill this man. He’d hurt Martha Bernadette, and she had to watch as he punched the older woman and even pulled her hair. In fact, in his cruelty, he’d even cut her hair, which was thin, and she knew Martha had been trying to thicken it.

He ranted about his inheritance. How he was due to have what was coming to him. He wanted to know what Maeve had done to win the heart of the old bag. Maeve told him to fuck off, which earned her a slap across the face.

Charlotte couldn’t believe they were in this mess, and she had no idea how to get them out of it. There was no time to text Savage. Her cell phone was in her pocket, and she’d been trying to alert him, but he’d demanded they put their hands on their heads, which they had done, and now they were waiting.

He kept pointing the gun between them. At first, he taunted that he would kill her first, and then move onto Maeve, so she got to see her stepdaughter die first. Andy didn’t do that. He then had the gun pressed against their temples, and shouted at them, and still, the gun wasn’t going off.

Once again, it was pressed against her temple, and she gritted her teeth, not wanting to die. She wanted to be with Savage and have the time for her dad to forgive her, or for her to at least forgive him. He was her dad, and it was his prerogative to not like any of the guys she dated. That was fine. It was all fine. But it still sucked, really bad. She didn’t want to not have a relationship with her father. She loved him, just as she loved her mother.

Tears streamed down her face, and when she heard the sound of a gunshot, she couldn’t help but scream and turn to Maeve. She expected to see her best friend dead, but Maeve was kneeling beside her. She quickly looked to Martha, and she was also alive, but the two women were looking at Andy. At the same time, she heard her father coming up behind them.

Andy’s chest was suddenly red with blood, and he dropped his gun, holding onto his chest.

“My money,” he said. “It was all my money.”

She watched her father move in, gun poised, ready to make that final shot, only Andy coughed, and blood spilled from his mouth.

Charlotte kept her hands behind her head. She wasn’t sure what had happened. Had her father killed Andy?

There was another exasperated breath, and then nothing. Andy was dead, and her father kicked his body, just by giving it a nudge with the tip of his shoe. No movement, then he put his gun away and pressed his fingers against the man’s neck. Doc nodded and looked toward herself, and then Maeve.

Charlotte finally lowered her arms and Doc moved forward. She expected him to go for Maeve, but instead, he actually grabbed the two of them. She didn’t mind.

“Fuck me, I thought I had lost you both.” He kissed them, Maeve on the lips, and Charlotte on the cheek.

She pressed her face against her father’s shoulder, and held onto him.

“I love you, sweetheart,” Doc said. He pulled away, and then cupped her face. “And I may not always like it, but you have my blessing. I’m so freaking sorry for everything. I just want the best for you, and you know what, Savage is the best for you. He will always be the best for you.”

She could be stubborn. Argue with him. Hurt him. Push him away, but what would that achieve? She knew how fragile life was, and not because she saw Andy die. Her own brother had lost his life so young.

Life was too short and too damn hard to hold grudges, and she pulled her father into a hug. “I love you,” she said. “Thank you for coming to save us.”

“Don’t thank me, thank Savage,” Doc said, pulling away, and that was when she saw Savage coming up the dirt path, as well as the sound of the bike.

“But I don’t understand,” Charlotte said, pulling away from her father to go toward Savage.

He put his arms around her. “Paulie told me about the text you and Maeve had gotten, but more importantly the location. I was able to track you guys down and get here before anything serious happened. I took the shot,” Savage said, pointing toward the tree line. “I wasn’t going to have a gun pointed at your head. I wasn’t going to risk him taking you away from me.”

Charlotte went to him, throwing herself into his arms and holding on tight. At that moment, Martha let out a little grunt, and Maeve quickly rushed over and removed the binding across her mouth that was silencing her.

“Thank you, what a terrible human being,” Martha said.

Charlotte tensed as she thought Martha was talking about Savage. Only, she moved toward Andy and did as Doc had done and kicked him with her foot. “Thank you, all of you. I don’t know what I would have done if I had to put up with another moment of that ... nonsense.”

Martha explained that Andy had gone off the deep end when he realized more people were aware of Maeve being part of Martha’s inheritance. Also, the fact Betty couldn’t be found, and he couldn’t contact the two guards he had placed on her. Charlotte listened as Doc revealed that Grim had gotten to Betty’s location, removed the problem, and extracted Martha’s niece without a single hair gone from her head. Everything had worked out.

“Not everything,” Savage said, and while her father witnessed, Charlotte was in shock as he got down on one knee. “Charlotte, marry me. I don’t have fancy words, or a big speech. I love you. Every single part of you, and there is no one I want more than you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Loving you, now and forever.”

“Yes,” she said. “For a guy who didn’t have a good enough speech, that was pretty epic.”