Chapter Eighteen
Ethan had no choice but to stay low and hope like hell that Anthony didn’t kill him. Because if he managed to do that, it’d make Livvy and Grace easier targets. No way did Ethan intend to let this SOB hurt them and the baby.
“Tell those cops coming to back off,” Anthony shouted. “Or I’ll gun every one of them down.”
Ethan didn’t doubt that one bit, and while he couldn’t see the main road, he figured both backup deputies and the ambulance were there waiting. Waiting for Grace to let them know it was safe to approach. Right now, the entire area was nowhere near safe.
Not with Anthony out for what he no doubt would call justice.
This attack and the others had to be about avenging his mother’s death. Well, probably. It was possible that Anthony had told them a pack of lies about that and he could be doing this for another reason.
Ethan saw the man reloading, and he levered himself up enough to fire a shot at Anthony. It came close, very close, but it ended up ricocheting off the bumper of the cruiser.
Cursing a blue streak, Anthony finished the reload, and Ethan once again had to get belly down onto the ground.
And the shots came.
Mercy, did they.
The bullets were hitting the side of the house, only inches from him and the opening where Livvy had taken cover. Ethan looked at her, meeting her gaze for a split second, and in that blink of time, he saw all the emotions that were in a whirlwind inside him.
He didn’t want this for her. He didn’t want this for their baby. But at the moment, he didn’t have a way to stop it.
“This won’t bring back your mother,” Ethan shouted, knowing he couldn’t reason with Anthony but hoping for the best anyway.
“No, but it’ll punish Sunny and Vernice,” the man spat out.
So, this was about his mother. Considering that Sunny had been the main target of the earlier attacks, it didn’t surprise Ethan that Anthony had mentioned her. But he still didn’t know why the man wanted her dead. And what the heck did Vernice have to do with Anthony’s mother?
“Why Sunny?” Ethan shouted. “She was just a kid when your mother was killed. She had nothing to do with that.”
Anthony fired off a few more shots. “Sunny knows why.”
“I don’t,” she yelled back. Obviously, she was still conscious and feeling strong enough to return verbal fire. “Why?” The volume of her voice and her anger actually went up on that single word question.
“You know why,” Anthony barked. “The folder that Zadie showed you. She told me she showed you, but Zadie wouldn’t give it to me so I could take it to the cops and have that snake, Chloe, arrested.”
“I didn’t see what was in the folder,” Sunny shouted, but her voice dissolved into a hoarse sob. “I swear I didn’t see,” she repeated. “And I told Zadie to take it to the cops.”
“Sure you did,” Anthony said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. He didn’t believe Sunny, though she was telling the truth.
And that led Ethan to a theory. One that he intended to test right now.
“Anthony,” he yelled, “when Zadie didn’t give you the file, you killed her, didn’t you?”
“Damn right I did. Zadie teased me with that file. She told me all the nasty little details of how Chloe had murdered that woman, Belinda. Stabbing her and putting her in that tub while her kid looked on. That’s the person Zadie was protecting.
A cold-blooded killer like Chloe. So, I finished them both off.
Justice for my mom and for that other woman. ”
No, it wasn’t justice. It was payback. Chloe would have gotten more punishment if she’d been arrested and had to live out the rest of her life in a cage.
“Now Sunny and Vernice have to pay,” Anthony went on. “Sunny for being stupid and not turning in her sister for staying quiet about that file. And Vernice because she knew all about my mother’s murder. All about it,” he shouted.
Ethan glanced at Vernice, who was still sobbing. What she wasn’t doing was denying any of it.
“I sneaked into New Hope and was looking for that file when Chloe and Vernice came into Chloe’s office,” Anthony snarled.
“I hid in the records room and heard everything you two conniving witches said. I heard you admit to knowing that Chloe had murdered my mother. You knew and didn’t go to the cops. ”
“Because Chloe would have killed me,” Vernice said, her voice shaking so much that it was hard to understand her. “I was pregnant with my daughter, and I couldn’t take the risk.”
Hell. Ethan refused to feel sorry for this woman. But he did have a question. “Vernice, did you see Chloe kill Ivy, too?”
“No,” she was quick to deny. “But Chloe came to my house to wash up afterward. We were friends then. And she wanted to clean up before going home. I saw the blood on her, and when I asked her about it, she said I’d better stay quiet.
When I heard about Ivy being in that wreck, I figured out what’d happened. ”
“Yet you didn’t go to the police.” Anthony’s face was a mask of rage now. “That’s why you’re going to die. I won’t let you get away with it, Vernice. Time to pay, and then Sunny is next in line. Anyone who gets in the way will die right along with them.”
Anthony bolted out from the cruiser, not coming at Ethan but rather scrambling to get in front of the cruiser where Vernice was cowering. The man was obviously trying to get into a position where he could shoot her, and he no doubt thought he could dart behind cover in time.
He lifted his gun.
So did Ethan.
Even though Ethan didn’t have the best angle for the shot, he was the first to fire. And he didn’t miss.
His shot slammed into Anthony’s chest, causing the man’s body to jerk back just as he pulled the trigger. His shot went wild, blasting into the house right between Ethan and Grace.
And just above where Livvy was.
Ethan cursed, ready to send another shot into Anthony. Ready to do whatever it took to stop him.
Staggering and clutching his chest with his left hand, Anthony turned, trying to take aim at them, but his body could no longer manage that.
He dropped to his knees, his stunned gaze fixed on them.
Even then, he tried to take aim again at Vernice, and once more, he failed.
Anthony gutted out another of those feral sounds before he crumpled onto the ground, his gun clattering onto the ground.
Ethan was up in a flash, hurrying to Anthony so he could kick the weapon out of reach. Anthony was bleeding and the wound was probably fatal, but that didn’t mean the man still wasn’t dangerous.
Behind him, Ethan heard the hurried footsteps, and Grace and Livvy stepped up by his side. They, too, had their weapons aimed at Anthony, but it was obvious the man wasn’t going anywhere.
“Kill Vernice for me,” Anthony said, looking up at Ethan. “If the town rumors are true, you hate her as much as I do.”
Ethan’s feelings for Vernice hadn’t been hatred.
Not until now. Not until he’d learned the truth about what she’d done.
The woman had witnessed Livvy’s mother being murdered and hadn’t done a damn thing about it—before or after the fact.
Worse, she’d left a traumatized child there with her mother’s body.
Vernice hadn’t had the decency to make an anonymous call to the cops so that someone could have protected Livvy.
Yeah, that made Vernice despicable as far as he was concerned.
“I hate what Vernice did, and what she didn’t do. But I won’t kill her,” Ethan spelled out. “I’ll let the justice system hand out her punishment.”
Vernice sobbed again, but he ignored her. She wasn’t getting a drop of his pity.
“I’ll let the deputies and EMTs know it’s safe,” Grace muttered, stepping aside to make the call.
Ethan glanced at Livvy, at the shell-shocked look on her face, and he wanted to pull her into his arms. Hell, he wanted to kiss her and tell her that everything was going to be all right.
But now wasn’t the time. Especially since Anthony was likely dying, and this might be their last chance to get some answers.
“Was Franklin involved in any part of your plan?” Ethan asked him.
Anthony laughed, but there was absolutely no humor in it. “Not a chance.” He coughed and dragged in a ragged breath. “When I was hooking up with Zadie, I tried to wheedle info out of Franklin, tried to see if he knew anything about what his sister had done, but the man was clueless.”
Maybe. Ethan figured it was possible that Franklin could have had an inkling of what his sister had done, but he probably couldn’t have imagined that she’d murdered not once but twice. And all because she’d been jealous of her cheating husband.
“Sunny knew,” Anthony insisted, the words tumbling out with his breathing.
“I didn’t,” Sunny protested from behind them.
Ethan glanced back at her. She was on her feet now, but mercy, she had lost a lot of blood.
Her whole right side was soaked with it.
The moment the EMTs arrived, she’d need to be rushed to the hospital.
Grace must have realized that, too, because she hurried out onto the road in front of the house and motioned for the ambulance and cruiser to hurry.
“Why did you stage Zadie’s body the way you did in the tub?” Livvy asked Anthony. Ethan was surprised that she’d managed to keep her voice steady and strong. All cop.
“To frame Chloe,” Anthony admitted without any hesitation.
“Zadie had told me enough about what was in that file for me to know that’s what Chloe had done to that other woman she killed.
I figured if Chloe couldn’t be punished for the two murders she committed, then she could be punished for this one.
” He laughed again. “But you cops didn’t arrest her.
You let her walk around, free as a bird.
Well, now she’s dead, and I hope she’s burning in hell. ”
Ethan was having a hard time not wishing the same thing. And since Anthony was obviously spilling all, he pushed with another question. “Was it you who hired Hank to go after Sunny?”
“Yeah.” Again, no hesitation. “Too bad he failed.”
The ambulance and two cruisers pulled to a stop in front of the house, and despite the sounds they were making, Ethan still heard the shuffling movement to his left. He whirled in that direction.
And he saw Sunny pick up Anthony’s gun.
“Put that down,” Ethan ordered.
But Sunny didn’t listen. The woman was trembling from head to toe and there wasn’t a drop of color in her face, but she managed to turn the gun on Vernice.
“If you’d turned in Chloe all those years ago, my sister would be alive,” she sobbed. “You need to pay for that. You need to die.”
“Sunny,” Ethan and Livvy shouted at the same time.
If Sunny heard them, she showed no signs of it. She just kept the gun pointed at Vernice, who was now screaming and trying to scramble away. Ethan had no doubt that Sunny was about to pull the trigger, and if so, there was no way Vernice would be able to take cover in time.
He lunged at Sunny, and in the same motion, he tried to push Livvy aside. Out of the possible line of fire.
But he was too late.
Sunny fired. The bullet hit what was left of the wooden fence, ricocheting off a rock or something metal.
Splinters flew and chunks of debris flew up, and something, maybe even the bullet itself, sliced across his forehead.
Ethan couldn’t focus on that though. He couldn’t let himself think that Livvy might have been shot.
Or soon would be if he didn’t get the gun. He just focused on stopping Sunny.
Sunny was clearly focused, too. On killing Vernice. And she took aim again, shifting the gun at Vernice, who was still trying to escape.
Ethan charged at Sunny, ramming into her and clamping his hand on her right wrist. He shoved her arm up into the air. Still, Sunny got off another shot. Then another that he heard ricochet off something. He prayed that Livvy and the others had gotten out of the way.
With all the shouts and the chaos, over Vernice’s screams and Grace’s orders for everyone to get down, Ethan heard Anthony laugh.
What Ethan didn’t hear was any sound from Livvy.
Sunny tried to fight him, tried to use her body to shove Ethan out of the way, and she fired again before he shoved her back, hard, and they tumbled together onto the ground.
He tossed his own gun aside so he could use both hands to take control of Sunny’s wrist and Anthony’s gun.
Ethan had to wrench it from her grip, all while Sunny was cursing and sobbing.
Ethan heard the movement around him, and he whirled around again, bracing for the worst.
Fearing the worst.
Terrified that he had lost Livvy and their child.
But he hadn’t. Livvy was right there, looking a whole lot stronger than she had just seconds earlier.
The relief hit him hard, robbing him of his breath. He had to take a moment, then another, just to steady himself.
Livvy got him started on the steadiness by touching his arm. Just that. Just a brief touch. Before she then reached down, taking Anthony’s gun and handing it off to Grace.
“Sunny, I have to put these on you,” Livvy said, cuffing the woman. Sunny didn’t protest, didn’t attempt to stop her. All the fight had vanished.
Ethan stood, and Livvy and he backed away so the EMTs could rush in to help Sunny.
“It’s all right,” Livvy murmured to him. “It’s over.”
She stopped, her eyes going wide, and she cursed under her breath when she looked at him. “Oh, God, Ethan. You’ve been shot.”