Chapter Seventeen #2
Elijah cursed, clearly growing more impatient, but he answered.
“I needed that trail,” he spat out. “After Yvette was dead and the cops started digging, I needed there to be some kind of reason why Yvette was spurred to take the kids. I figured the cops would think it was because of her conversations with Rowena. I didn’t expect Shane to start going with her on those visits,” he added in a grumble.
“What about Courtney?” Judson pressed just as Elijah got to the phone.
Hooking his arm around Addie’s throat, Elijah reached down, and with Addie in tow, he snagged the phone and shoved it into her hand.
“Sugar, find that picture,” Elijah ordered her. He gave her a third jab, no doubt to prod her to be quick about it.
Judson didn’t want quick. He needed some time to try to figure out how to put an end to this jerk. And all the backup wouldn’t help with that. In fact, backup could make things worse for Addie.
“Courtney,” Judson repeated. “How does she fit into this?”
“She doesn’t. She was collateral damage. A total accident, I swear,” Elijah explained, his attention on Addie as Elijah tried to open Judson’s phone. “What’s your PIN?” he barked out to Judson.
Judson rattled off the four numbers. The real ones. Because while a false answer would buy him some time, it might set Elijah off. The man obviously had a short fuse on that vicious temper.
“Where was I?” Elijah muttered as Addie unlocked the phone.
“You were saying how Courtney’s death was a total accident,” Judson provided, and no way did he sound convinced of that.
“Oh, yeah. It was,” Elijah insisted. “She was there at the house when Yvette and I got back. I was going to convince Yvette to take her own life and leave that suicide note. But that social worker was there, and she demanded to know if we took the babies. She was going to call the cops, so I had to stop her.”
“But you didn’t stop her,” Judson pointed out. “She got away.”
A flash of that quick temper darkened Elijah’s face.
“She did, but that was thanks to Yvette, who tried to hit me with a damn lamp. She gave me a hard knock on the head, and then she ran off, too. That’s when I decided I’d have to find both of them and silence them for good.
Courtney died on her own, bless her heart, but Yvette took a little more work. ”
“You gunned her down on the road,” Judson spelled out.
Another shrug from Elijah, but he seemed to be getting more and more frustrated that Addie hadn’t gotten to the picture he wanted. Since it was one of the last ones Judson had taken, it shouldn’t have taken her long to find it, which meant Addie was stalling, too.
“And now with Yvette dead, Jennifer and Shane will inherit her money,” Judson added, hoping to yank Elijah’s attention back to him. “Were Shane and Jennifer in on it?”
“No, hell, no. Shane blabbered on and on about doing something to cut Trevor out of his mommy’s life, but he’s all talk.
No way does he deserve a penny of that money.
And it’ll be hard for him to collect with his sorry butt in a jail cell.
There should be enough evidence to point to him murdering Trevor. ”
“But Shane didn’t kill Trevor,” Judson said. “You did.”
“The man was in the way. He wanted justice for Yvette. Oh, boo-hoo,” Elijah mocked. “So, now he’ll help make me rich by being dead, and Shane will be going to jail for his murder.”
Judson didn’t know what evidence Elijah had planted, but he was sure the CSIs would find it when this was over. And he intended for this to be over with Addie alive and this SOB either under arrest or dead.
“There,” Elijah said when Addie got to the picture. “Delete that and check for others taken from a slightly different angle. Then go to his sent folder to make sure he didn’t forward them to anyone.”
There had only been that one picture, and he hadn’t sent it to anyone, but Judson was glad Elijah was searching for others. It bought him more time. Time he needed, because he still couldn’t figure out how to get that gun away from Addie’s head.
One possible move would be for Addie to drop down, to give Judson a clean shot to take out Elijah. That was a hell of a risk, but anything they did at this point was. Once she made it to the end of the photos and Elijah was certain there hadn’t been any forwarded copies, he would kill them.
“You shouldn’t have used the drug dealer with a connection to Jennifer,” Judson threw out there, unsure if it would distract.
It did.
The man’s head whipped up, and he got another flash of that anger.
“I didn’t know you’d be able to link that to her.
I didn’t know her friend’s prints would be on the bag.
And you shouldn’t have harassed Jennifer for that.
” His voice got louder with each word. “I might have just broken into the house to get your phone, but I changed my mind because of way the two of you harassed her.”
“We treated her like a suspect because she was found with blood on her hands at Yvette’s house.”
“She went there looking for Yvette,” Elijah snapped. “Jennifer was in shock, and you damn near locked her up.”
“You added to making her a suspect by buying those drugs from her friend,” Judson pointed out just as fast.
Elijah cursed again, and it was raw and vicious. What he didn’t do was take any responsibility for his fiancée nearly being arrested for murder. “I should kill all you idiot cops for going after her like that. Hell, I still might. Go faster through that sent folder,” he snapped to Addie.
The man was quickly losing it, and that meant Judson only had seconds to stop him. Judson’s gaze connected with Addie’s, and he lowered his eyes, hoping she understood that he wanted her to drop down.
She gave a slight nod and stopped scrolling on his phone. “I took a picture of Yvette’s car, too,” Addie said.
It was a lie. Perhaps a very dangerous one. Because Elijah let out a loud roar, the rage tearing out in that feral sound.
“Where’s your phone?” Elijah shouted, punctuating that demand with yet more profanity. He caught onto her hair and snapped her head back.
“It’s in my purse in the foyer,” Addie managed to say, though she was clearly in pain now.
But she was also clearly thinking straight.
As the last word left her mouth, she dropped, and even though Elijah still had hold of her hair, she fell far enough down that it gave Judson the opening he needed. He stepped into the doorway, and in one quick motion, he took aim.
And he pulled the trigger.
So did Elijah.
Both of them fired, but Judson’s shot was a split second faster. Elijah’s bullet slammed into the door next to Judson. Elijah, however, had no idea that he’d missed. The man had no idea of anything, not anymore.
Because Judson’s shot hit Elijah right between the eyes.
The man was dead before he even hit the ground. And before he hit, Judson had already bolted across the room to Addie.