Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Victor?” His weight crushed into her. The boom of the two gunshot blasts echoed in Melody’s ears. “Victor?” Her hands grabbed for his arms.
She felt something wet on her fingertips. Wet. Warm. Blood.
“Gun,” Victor whispered.
Yes, yes, she’d gotten that someone had a gun. Hard to miss that. The person had just shot Victor. The person had—
“Take,” he rasped.
Her eyes widened. He covered her almost completely, and her hands slid down his body, moving as quickly as she could.
Melody ignored the blood on her fingers as she shoved her hand under the edge of his coat.
He’d never even taken off the coat when they came into Mage Industries, and she hadn’t realized that he was carrying a gun.
But she felt the holster near his left arm. Her fingers inched toward it.
“I just don’t get why you couldn’t have stayed gone,” Olivia said.
Her heart froze.
Victor’s eyes were closed. His body seemed to slump harder against her. No, no, no.
“I mean, you weren’t dead. It’s not like I wanted my best friend dead. What the hell am I? A monster?” Olivia shut the door. A soft creak.
Melody had taken the gun from the holster. She gripped it tightly. Victor’s body hid the gun.
“We checked in on you a few times. You were harmless up there. Working at a diner, living in that tiny hole of an apartment. You didn’t remember anything or anyone, so I thought—why not let you just stay there?
Time kept passing. Nothing changed. You didn’t have to die.
That’s what I kept telling him. You didn’t have to die.
Not like you remembered anything.” She edged closer.
“You could stay there. Sebastian could die. All the plans we had would work. Once Sebastian died, we’d have everything.
Except—there is nothing to have! All that time!
All that energy, and this prick Victor has it all! ”
“Victor?” Melody whispered. He didn’t seem to be breathing. The gun felt cold in her grip. He crushed her against the hard floor.
“Get the hell from beneath him!” Olivia snapped.
“I can’t shoot through him in order to hit you.
That’s not how this is gonna work! It has to look like you attacked him, and then you’re gonna shoot yourself.
Like—like you realized what he’d done. You realized that he’d been the one to arrange your kidnapping. So you snapped, and you shot him.”
Melody made no move to crawl from beneath Victor. Even as his body seemed to grow heavier.
“You shot him,” Olivia said again. “And because you have brain damage and guilt and all kinds of crazy shit happening, you shot yourself, too. That’s how the scene will play out.
That’s the explanation the cops will give the media.
I will make this quick, I swear it. You are my best friend, Melody. It’s not like I want you to hurt.”
Please, please, Victor, be okay—
“You can’t just stay beneath your dead lover’s body forever, am I right?”
Not dead. He could not be dead.
“Dammit!” A wild cry from Olivia. Her heels rushed across the floor.
Victor’s body jerked. Olivia—she was kicking him. Tugging at him. She was—
Victor rolled. Hard. Fast. Not heavy and slack any longer. He grabbed Olivia’s kicking leg. Victor yanked her down to the floor. She hit the floor with a scream and landed on her ass. She yanked the gun up, pointed it straight at Victor, and cried, “You bastard! You are dead!”
No, he wasn’t.
Melody leapt up. Her shaking fingers were tight around the gun. She stared at the woman who claimed to be her best friend, and Melody fired the gun. The bullet slammed into Olivia.
Olivia’s pain-filled scream echoed around them.
“What in the hell is happening here?” Detective Angus Clinton demanded as he stormed into the lobby at Mage Industries. He flashed his ID, then shoved it back in his pocket. His gun was holstered near his hip.
Hunter stood beside a glaring Dario. The guards that Victor had hired—Calista and Luis—waited close by. A few of the uniformed security crew from the Mage Industries also shuffled around every now and then, but the building was mostly shuttered.
Quiet.
Safe?
“These bastards are kicking me out of the building!” Dario raged. He gestured toward Hunter. Calista. Luis.
Luis waved at the detective. “Hi. Yes. We are. And, detective, we were waiting for you and planning to make sure Dario leaves and does not return. Pulling double duty. Huh. Maybe triple duty?”
“Victor Alexander is a lying piece of shit!” Spittle flew from Dario’s mouth. “He has been lying to my sister—”
“Stepsister,” Luis corrected.
Dario fired a lethal glare his way. “Victor is trying to destroy Mage Industries! I think—I think he’s upstairs right now, feeding more lies to Melody! You have to go and help her, detective. I have proof that he stole the company right out from under me!”
Hunter rolled his eyes. This guy was really a piece of work.
One that was getting on his last nerve. He’d never been a fan of privileged, arrogant assholes who thought they were owed the world on a silver platter.
Hunter had done his research on all the major players involved here long before he’d ever agreed to take the case.
He knew Victor had worked his ass off for years.
While Dario had just been coasting on his stepdad’s fortune.
He also knew plenty about Detective Angus Clinton.
The man had been lead on Melody’s case for most of the last year.
He’d partnered with the Feds, and he’d turned up jack shit.
From what Hunter had determined, Angus had never worked particularly hard to find Melody or her abductor.
He’d spent too much time thinking Victor was guilty as sin or telling everyone that Melody had left of her own accord—no crime there.
“Detective.” Calista sighed as she stepped forward. “This man broke into Victor’s private office. I think he should be thoroughly questioned about Melody’s disappearance.”
Hunter nodded. He thought an interrogation with Dario was a stellar idea. Bonus points for the lady.
“Bullshit!” Dario’s teeth snapped together. “Detective Clinton, let me tell you this. Sebastian Mage is a straight-up murderer! He confessed to killing Melody’s mother. And Victor, hell, we know he nearly beat that Colton Crane guy to death that time!”
Hunter wasn’t rolling his eyes any longer. He was narrowing them and sharpening his gaze on Dario.
Dario smirked at him. “Oh? Didn’t know that your boss was fucking unhinged?
He is! You aren’t doing Melody any favors by leaving her alone with him.
” He pointed toward the elevator bank. The younger security guard, Hayward, stood near the elevators, shifting from foot to foot.
“Victor is violent, he’s obsessed with Melody, and she just found out that he’s a damn liar.
He’s up there now, alone with her, and who the hell knows what he is doing to her?
You need to get up there, detective, and help my sister. You need to get up there now.”
“Melody chose to stay upstairs,” Hunter said.
His gaze weighed Dario. “How do you know about Colton Crane?” Hunter knew about the bastard because he made it his job to be thorough.
Before the Ice Breakers had signed on to investigate Melody’s disappearance, they had truly ripped apart Victor’s life.
The guy had been the most likely suspect in Melody’s disappearance, after all.
But while Hunter had gotten access to info about Colton Crane and the assault, the case reports should have been sealed to the general public.
Hunter’s access hadn’t exactly been obtained through legal means.
No way should Dario know about Colton Crane.
“Olivia told me,” Dario muttered. He yanked a hand through his hair.
Hunter peered around the lobby. “Where is Olivia?”
“I—” Dario stopped. Seemed to notice her missing for the first time. Unease slithered across his face.
“You say Sebastian Mage committed murder?” Detective Clinton asked. He advanced on them, hands heading to his hips. “You are sure about this?”
“Yeah, yeah.” A quick nod from Dario. “He confessed to Olivia. Look, I bet she’s upstairs. We need to all go and talk to her, right now.”
“No way.” Hunter moved in front of him because the guy was not getting back on an elevator and going upstairs. “You are not going back up there. Victor wants you out of the building, and you are getting out.”
“Everyone, calm down. I’ll go up and talk to Victor. And Melody.” The detective rolled back his shoulders. “I’ll get to the truth.” He shot a frown at Dario. “Why don’t you go outside? Or, better yet, head to the station? I can take a full report from you as soon as I am done upstairs.”
“When you’re done upstairs, you’ll be arresting Sebastian Mage!” Dario nodded vigorously. “That’s what you’ll be doing.”
Detective Clinton pushed the button for the elevator. “Keep an eye on all of them, will you?” Angus Clinton said to Hayward right before the doors opened. Then the detective ducked inside. He pressed a button on the control panel. His hands went to his hips as he turned back to face them.
The doors began to slide closed.
Dario barreled for the elevator. “I’m coming up, too!” One hand jerked up angrily. Something gleamed in his fist. “That sonofabitch Victor isn’t going to get away with—”
“Knife!” Hayward yelled. The kid was sweating, and his eyes were wide as he grabbed for the taser on his hip.
The elevator doors closed, sealing the detective inside.
Hunter surged for Dario. He tackled the bastard even as Hayward fired his taser. And 50,000 volts were suddenly pumping through Hunter’s body.
“You shot me! You freaking shot me!” Olivia grabbed her shoulder and scuttled backward on the floor.
Victor heaved up to his knees.
Melody raced forward and grabbed the gun Olivia had just dropped, and when she did, Olivia started laughing.
“Now your prints are on it! S-see? Perfect!”
Melody hurried back to Victor’s side. He hadn’t risen fully, was still on his knees, and there was blood. So much of it. She slapped Olivia’s gun on the boardroom table but kept the one she’d taken from Victor.
He was far too pale. The lines on his face cut deeper than she’d ever seen them before. “Victor?”
His gaze raked her. “You’re not hurt.”
No. Two gunshots had been fired from Olivia’s gun. She knew one had hit him, in the back, but what about the other bullet? And just where exactly had that first one hit? Melody tried to peer around him.
“The room is…soundproof,” Victor bit out. “No one will have heard the shots. You…you need to go get help, Melody. Find the security guards. Call…cops.” He weaved a bit. Almost dropped fully back to the floor. “Shit.” He caught himself.
Olivia laughed. “Yes, yes, call the cops! I’ll say—”
Melody ignored her. One hand gripped the gun and the other feathered over Victor’s shoulder. “Victor?”
His head turned toward her. “Go get help.” His breath rasped out. “One bullet is in my back, about…ah, maybe two inches from my spine? Can feel the bastard. Hurts like a mother.” Sweat dotted his forehead. “The second just…went through my arm. Or, hell, could still be in it.”
His right arm. It hung limply at his side. Covered in blood. When he’d grabbed Olivia, he’d caught her kicking foot with his left hand.
Tears stung Melody’s eyes. She shoved the gun into his left hand. “You can still fire, right?”
A nod.
She rushed to the boardroom door and swung it open. “Help!” Melody yelled. “I need help in here!”
Footsteps rushed toward her.
She spun away and looked at Victor. He had the gun aimed at Olivia. Melody darted back toward him.
Just as he slumped onto the floor.
“Victor!” She flew to crouch beside him. “Victor!”
Olivia laughed.
“What in the hell is happening here?” Detective Angus Clinton demanded as he raced inside the boardroom.
Melody whipped her head toward him. She opened her mouth—
“Shoot them!” Olivia screamed. “They attacked me! Shoot. Them!”
Horror flooded through Melody. Frantically, she shook her head. “No, no, Olivia is the one—”
The detective smiled. Smiled. Melody didn’t even get to finish speaking because he was hauling out his weapon and aiming it at her. “Stand down!” he shouted loudly.
They were down. They were. Victor was on the floor, bleeding, and Melody wasn’t armed.
“Hey, Melody,” Angus taunted. “Victor sends his regards.”
A gun against my temple. A man’s rasping voice in my backseat. “No—”
A gun fired.
The detective’s body jerked.
The gun fired again. Again.
The detective stumbled back even as blood bloomed on his chest.
“Yeah,” Victor rasped as he held the gun in his blood-stained grip. “Sure do…send my regards…Hope you…enjoy hell, you sonofabitch.”
The detective fell.
Olivia screamed.
Victor turned the gun on her.
Olivia’s eyes doubled in size. “It was all his idea!” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “He’s the one—it was all Angus! Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot, I am begging!”
More footsteps. Rushing into the boardroom. Only…the detective’s slumped body blocked the doorway. Hunter and Calista had to jump over him to get fully inside.
Calista knelt, her hands going to the detective’s chest. “Damn.” She started trying to cover his wounds. Apply pressure.
Hunter took in the scene, his gaze going from the detective’s prone body…to Olivia’s crying form…to Victor, who still held the gun. Who was bloody and armed and when Melody looked at him, she saw that Victor’s face was twisted with rage and hate.
Hunter had his own weapon drawn.
He’s taking in the scene. Victor looks guilty. Victor looks like the villain.
“No!” Melody lunged in front of Victor. “Victor needs help! Get an ambulance! Get help!”
Hunter stared at her a moment longer, a muscle jerked along his jaw and then…he nodded. Hunter lowered his weapon and yanked out his phone. A moment later, “I need an ambulance…”
Melody’s breath choked from her as she looked back at Victor. But rage didn’t twist his face any longer. He’d sagged back onto the floor. His facial features had gone slack. His eyes closed. “Victor?” She grabbed for him. “Victor!”