Chapter 35 Robyn #3
My breath expelled from my body in a shocked cry as his body folded like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Shocked to my core, I tore my gaze from him to Lucy who now stood, arm outstretched, holding the small handgun she’d just used to kill Fergus.
Holy shit.
Lucy looked at me, eyes fierce. “I started carrying after the freezer. Moron didn’t even think to pat me down.”
“Oh thank God.” I wanted to slump with relief, but there was no time. “We have to get Lachlan out of these cuffs. I think McCulloch must be the one working with Fergus. We’re on his land.”
“Okay.” Lucy nodded. “He has the keys.” Her eyes widened on me, as if she’d just realized what she’d done. “I can’t …”
“It’s okay.” I gave her a reassuring, tremulous smile. “I’ll get the keys. You stay there.” I moved over to Fergus’s body and avoided looking at his head as I bent to pat his pockets.
Something hot and hard pressed against the back of my skull, and I heard Lachlan’s muffled yell of outrage behind me.
No.
“Stand up slowly. Don’t make any sudden moves,” Lucy ordered.
Oh no.
Tears clogged my throat.
I did as asked, the pressure of the still-warm gun painful against my head as I stood.
I felt the heat of her at my back and then she grasped hold of my neck, nails biting painfully into my throat as she moved the warm muzzle to my right temple.
She turned me to face Lachlan, and my horror was mirrored in his eyes.
“You were my friend,” I whispered lamely. Because that’s all I could think to say.
My mind screamed a huge fat fucking NO.
Not Lucy.
“Yes,” she said softly in my ear. “And I hate that it’s come to this.”
Lachlan yanked at his arms, but they’d been entwined around the chair’s back before they’d been handcuffed. His muffled shouts of Lucy’s name over and over were breaking my heart.
“Shush, Lachlan, and stop moving.” She pushed the gun into my temple so hard, my head pushed to the left.
He stilled immediately. I couldn’t stand the bleakness in his eyes.
If she killed me in front of him, he’d never get over it.
But I had the sudden, horrifying realization that she truly planned to kill him too. There was no way out of it for her unless we both died.
Stall her. “Why has it come to this?”
“I didn’t think it would,” Lucy said, bitter sadness in her voice. “I promise I didn’t think it would. At first, I just wanted him back.”
Lachlan’s eyes widened as I stiffened against her.
“You’re the only one who deserved me, and I’m the only one who deserved you,” she told him, affection clear in her tone.
“I’ve been used and abused since I was a kid, and I naively thought escaping to Hollywood, becoming someone, would give me back my power.
But there are always people with more power, more control, no matter where you go.
They used me too. And I let them. It was only when we got together I realized I could deal with all of it, if I had you. ”
It was hard to know if what she said was true. Hard to believe anything out of her mouth because she’d played her part as our friend so convincingly.
I shuddered and realized I was going into shock.
I couldn’t let that happen. If I could just distract Lucy long enough, I could get out of her hold without losing half my head.
A trained killer would have popped us both and gotten on with their plan.
However, Lucy had proven herself the consummate actor, a lover of drama, and she’d want us to know why this was happening before she concluded her plans.
I had to keep her talking for as long as possible. “You told him you just wanted an affair.”
“I lied. Like you lied. Like most of us lie. I thought he’d come around.
See what I could see. I’m America’s sweetheart.
Royalty in my own right. And Lachlan is not just an actor.
He’s a gentleman with a pedigree few men in my life can match.
The industry was falling all over themselves to be a part of his club, and that was the type of man I deserved to be with.
But he couldn’t see it like I could. So I tried to move on. But I chose wrong.”
Her nails scored across my throat lightly, and I sucked in a breath. “Slept with a married actor, and his wife caught us. Ever heard of Rozette Donelly?”
Yeah, hadn’t everyone?
Rozette Donelly was the head of one of the major studios.
“Yeah. That Rozette Donelly. I fucked her young husband, and she found out and blackballed me.” Lucy laughed with an edge of hysteria.
How did we not know?
How is it possible we missed this?
“I haven’t been taking a break or casually meeting with directors and producers.
She killed my career!” Lucy yelled right at my ear, and I winced.
I felt her body shudder as she tried to control herself.
“Bitch killed my career. Every person I reach out to, she finds out about it and kills any chance of work.”
There was no remorse in her voice for sleeping with Rozette Donelly’s husband. She didn’t see herself as anything but the victim in this scenario. And while what Rozette did was vengeful, I realized Lucy couldn’t recognize her own blame.
Lachlan stared at Lucy like he’d never seen her before in his life.
I felt the same way.
She deserved a goddamn Oscar for her performance at Ardnoch these past few months.
“I thought if I could come back to Ardnoch, I could make Lachlan see that only he was equal to me. But he was so distant, off screwing that Scottish nobody down in Glasgow. I got angry. I thought maybe if I made things difficult at the club, he’d need me more.”
“The creepy stalker notes.”
“Exactly. I saw the way Fergus watched Arrochar, and I heard the bitterness no one else seemed to hear when he spoke about Brodan. So I slept with him to try to lower his defenses, get him to confide in me, and lo and behold, our little mechanic had a gambling problem.”
“You paid him?”
“Yeah. I paid him very well to do all the dirty work. He killed the deer. Trashed the studio. Left the notes. I hired a hacker back in the States to infiltrate the security system on the estate. And everything was going smoothly until Fergus got it in his head to stab Mac.”
I seethed at the reminder.
“Not only was it completely off plan, he pissed you off. Which derailed everything because our darling Lachlan got attached.”
Lachlan’s gaze locked with mine, a silent plea in his eyes. He wanted me to take her out. But I needed her fully distracted, or I could lose my head.
“Lucy …”
“Don’t.” She choked me lightly, pressing the gun muzzle deeper into my temple.
Just as I was about to take the chance and wrestle out of her hold, she stopped choking me.
“You ruined everything, Robyn. I thought if Fergus attacked you, you might go home, but that night in the trailer, you kicked his ass. I had to pay off a skeevy doctor in Inverness to stitch up the moron’s knife wound.
And that fucker is still blackmailing me. Not for long, though.”
I didn’t even want to know what that meant. Then something occurred to me. “You had Fergus put you in that freezer so you could get Lachlan back?”
“Very astute. Yeah, I did. It was a risk that didn’t quite pay off.
” She said it like she was talking about wearing a risqué dress to the goddamn Academy Awards that got her slammed on the worst-dressed lists.
“And I thought it was working. I thought you”—she spoke directly to Lachlan—“were coming back to me.”
He glowered at her.
“I know.” I could hear the sneer in her voice. “I’m disgusted with myself that I even thought a man could make things better when they have always made it so much worse.”
“And Thane?” Was making me think she had feelings for Lachlan’s brother just a manipulative attempt to keep me off her scent?
Lucy tensed at my side. “I didn’t lie. I’m attracted to Thane, but he doesn’t have Lachlan’s clout. He may be from a good family, but he’s just an architect.”
I heard Lachlan growl beneath the gag.
“Still, it was quite clever of me to use him to make you think I had no interest in Lachlan, wasn’t it?”
Clever? There was no word for what Lucy was. I’d never encountered someone with the ability to become whatever she thought she needed to be to achieve her goals.
“What’s the plan here, Lucy?”
“It was always this. After McHugh’s death—and Lachlan’s defection after I put myself in a goddamn freezer—there was no other choice.
Fergus wasn’t the brightest bulb. He didn’t see it, but I knew the trail would lead to him eventually.
Everything spiraled out of control, and now I have to fix it.
This is the only way. I had Fergus lure you here, knowing that all three of you would have to die to put everything to rights. ”
She leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to my cheek.
I shivered with disgust. “I’ll be the only one to survive the madman stalking the Adair family.
He shot you and Lachlan first, and I managed to get free and wrestle him for the gun.
Of course, I’ll shoot myself in the shoulder to make it look more realistic …
but I’ll be alive. And I’ll be global news.
The person everyone is talking about. Hollywood will be desperate to make movies with me while this is fresh in people’s minds.
I’ll be free publicity. There’s nothing Rozette could do to stop me when I’m that bankable. ”
She was unhinged.
Completely.
“You’re a damn fine actor, Lucy,” I said, the words breaking with emotion.
She caressed my throat. “If things were different, we would have been best friends. I see what he sees in you, I do. I don’t respect or admire many people as they’re never quite good enough, are they? But you’re an equal. I always wanted a friend like you. I hope you know that.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks.
Not just from fear for Lachlan, for myself … but with utter sadness.
Because I’d cared about her.
And all along, I’d missed that she didn’t think like other people thought. She didn’t feel like other people felt.
All those shadows I’d seen and dismissed in her eyes.
“Don’t cry, Robyn. I’ll make it quick—”
The door to the shack blasted open, and the gun muzzle skidded off my temple when Lucy startled.
I didn’t hesitate.
I grabbed her wrist and twisted it with my right hand and at the same time, I slammed my left elbow back into her nose, feeling it crunch beneath the power of the blow.
She shrieked as I broke her wrist, the gun clattering to the ground.
Then I spun around and threw my entire weight behind a short, brutal jab to her face.
Her head snapped back on her neck, and her eyes flickered shut before she tumbled to the ground. Assured she was out, I whipped around and scrambled for the gun, bringing it up only to find McCulloch standing in the doorway with his shotgun at his side.
He looked down at Lucy and then Fergus before his gaze met mine. “Looks like my services aren’t needed after all.”
I didn’t lower my gun.
I’d been taken by surprise too many times today already.
McCulloch’s expression hardened, and he threw his shotgun to the ground with a pointed look. He knelt before Lachlan and when he pulled out a penknife, I lurched toward them but was drawn short as McCulloch cut at the bindings around Lachlan’s shins.
“Do you have keys for these handcuffs?” he threw over his shoulder.
Swaying a little with relief, I dropped to my haunches and checked Fergus’s pockets, finding the set of small keys we needed.
I rounded Lachlan’s chair, shaking violently with adrenaline, so much so that McCulloch gently moved me out of the way, took the keys from my hand, and released Lachlan.
The chair scraped back as he soared out of it and turned to me, ripping off the gag. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Lachlan uttered hoarsely, crossing the distance between us to yank me into his arms.
I sank into his embrace, my fingers bunching the back of his shirt into my fists.
We didn’t say anything.
We just held each other as we struggled to breathe.
Men led by my dad streamed into the shack, and Lachlan reluctantly passed me to Mac. Over my dad’s shoulder, I watched Lachlan tentatively move toward an unconscious Lucy. He lowered before her. When he looked back at me, grief and rage mingled in his expression, and I couldn’t stand his pain.
“One second, Dad.” I pulled out of Mac’s relieved embrace and crossed the shack to Lachlan. I crouched beside him and slid a palm across his hunched shoulders. “None of us could have known.”
“I failed her,” he whispered.
“No. Lachlan—”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” a deep voice intruded. I glanced up in the dim light to see one of the DIs who’d interviewed me several times before standing over us. His expression was grim. “We need to know what happened here.”
What happened here?
Something neither of us saw coming.
I glanced over at Lucy who still hadn’t stirred.
“You might want to put her”—I pointed to Lucy—“in handcuffs before she comes around.”