“Maybe I can help.”
“No. Dammit, no,” I snapped. “You aren’t armed. You’re not trained. You are an actor. Jesus. Let the professionals handle this. If I have to worry about—”
Finn held up his hands. “Sorry. Of course. Go.”
“Stay here,” I said again.
He met my eyes. “I promise.”
I let out a breath and stepped out of the vehicle. Gene and the young lady were on the front porch with my SUV between us. Shawn was approaching the pair slowly from behind a pickup truck in the driveway. Gene’s eyes were trying to take it all in, and the minute he saw me, he swung his weapon to point at the woman’s head.
“Easy, easy,” I called. “Gene, that’s your grandchild in there. Your family. I know you don’t want to hurt them.”
“I don’t, but I don’t want you fuckers out here neither! Get away. Leave us be. We were fine before all you showed up.”
Kimber stood behind him, shaking her head and wringing her hands. “Gene, this isn’t fine. Let her go. This isn’t you. You don’t want to do this.”
Gene swung the weapon toward his wife. Shawn took the opportunity to move to the side of the house and edged a little closer. The movement caught Gene’s eye, and he swung the gun back around toward Shawn and then me. I unholstered my weapon and moved away from my vehicle to get Finn’s location out of the line of fire.
“Let’s talk about this,” I urged. “Put the gun down and we can talk.”
“Like hell! You took everything from us. You and those other bastards,” Gene slurred. “I want my boys back. I want my brother back.” His voice cracked on the words. “And you can’t do that. I want my baby boys back home. They did what they did because of me.”
The arm holding the weapon waved around wildly as he spoke. The one around his daughter-in-law’s throat tightened until she was standing on her toes to keep from choking. Her face was pink and blotchy, and tears streaked down her cheeks. I pressed the call button on the radio and calmly requested an ambulance to the address.
“Gene, I’m going to have the EMTs take a look at your daughter-in-law.” If only I could have remembered her name. “Just to make sure the baby’s okay, alright? When the ambulance gets here, we’ll have them check her out.”
He looked confused by my words, as if he couldn’t figure out how they were going to do that while he still had a hold of her.
“I don’t think so, Deputy Stone,” he said when he finally decided it was a trick. “You took my boys away. You stole Erland’s job. You stole everything.”
He swung the weapon back to me, but his vision was most likely impaired by drink. I decided to take the chance. I met Shawn’s eyes and said very calmly while pointing to my chest with my free hand, “10-53.” Person down.
The rest happened in a blink.
As soon as Shawn nodded, I dropped to the ground, and Shawn rushed the pair of them, shoving the woman back into the house and grabbing for Gene’s weapon. The gun discharged, and I heard the pop of a bullet striking the passenger-side door of my SUV.
Finn.
Shawn shouted, “Clear! Suspect in custody,” as I radioed for Penny to give me an update on the bus.
My heart jackhammered in my chest as I scrambled to my vehicle. I’d told Finn not to move from the passenger seat, and then the bullet had gone right into it. Fuck, fuck, what if he’d been hit?
I wrenched open the door and saw an empty seat.
“Over here,” a small voice said from the other side of the vehicle. I raced around to see Finn crouched on the ground outside my driver’s door. His arms were over his head, and his eyes were wide enough to see the whites all around.
“Fuck,” I croaked, grabbing him and searching his body for any sign of injury. “Fuck.” It was all I could say. My brain was completely logjammed with fear.
His voice shook. “I’m okay. I’m sorry.”
I stopped manhandling him and stared. “You’re sorry? Why the hell are you sorry?”
“You told me not to move. I didn’t listen. When I heard how mad he was, I got as far away from that gun as I could.”
I grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard. “N-no, you did good. So good. You did the exact right thing. I’m the one who’s sorry.”
I wanted to say more, to kiss his face off and hug him until my heart stopped thundering, but I couldn’t. The shrill peal of the ambulance siren cut through the clearing as the bus came storming down the driveway.
“You’re okay?” I asked, just to make sure. He nodded. “Okay. Stay here.” I took one more good look at his face and gently brushed the messy hank of hair out of his face before forcing myself to walk away to help Shawn and make sure everyone else was okay.