Yet a heartbeat later the sound of a gunshot ripped through the house. I screamed. The noise and the sinister, horrific implication jolted me. My eyes flew open. Dane reeled backward, plowing into Kyle.
“Dane!” I cried out.
Just as Amano slammed the butt of his gun to Tom’s temple.
Tom Talbot dropped to the floor.
I stood and whirled around to face everyone. Tom’s rifle hit the tiles and Amano kicked the weapon away. I scrambled around the counter as Kyle helped Dane to a chair, which he slumped into.
“Oh, shit!” I stared in shock at the blood gushing from the gaping hole in his shoulder. Kyle bled, too. The bullet must have exited Dane’s shoulder and grazed Kyle’s biceps.
A rush of adrenaline propelled me forward. I snatched two clean linen napkins from the kitchen table where Dane sat and pressed them against Kyle’s arm. “Hold these firmly.”
Then I raced back to the island, jerked open a drawer, and extracted several dish towels. I hurriedly returned to Dane and held the thick material to his wound, applying as much pressure as I could with shaky hands and panic vibrating through me.
Kyle had to help me with his free hand while keeping the napkins to his arm. Dane fished his iPhone from his pocket and hit a speed dial number. Amano was on the phone, too. From the sound of the conversation, I’d venture to say he spoke with Jackson. A man who knew how to handle dire situations such as this.
I certainly didn’t know what the hell to do.
Luckily, Dane had a private physician, and that was whom he called.
Amano also told Jackson about Tom’s wife and daughter being in jeopardy. All the while, Amano kept his gun trained on Tom. Who didn’t so much as flinch. He was out cold.
To be honest, I was surprised Amano hadn’t shot him. It must have tested the very limits of his restraint not to have inflicted mortal injury when it came to someone he’d trusted with all of our lives—who’d betrayed us all. Someone who’d just threatened my life and used Dane for target practice.
“This is getting a little too real.” Kyle’s voice was tense, rough around the edges. “Like, seriously? Now we’ve reached the point of dueling over breakfast—to hell with high noon?”
“Pressure’s on the society,” Dane said. His gaze slid to me. “It’ll get worse before it gets better. So you get your wish. Creek house. And you don’t leave Amano’s or Kyle’s sight. Do you hear me?”
I nodded, not even capable of cracking my usual joke about whether they’d follow me into the ladies’ room. Tears crested the rims of my eyes and streamed down my flushed cheeks. My heart still pounded; my pulse still raged. I was a mess. Though I tried really hard not to show Dane how freaked out I was.
“He could have killed you.” I bit my trembling lower lip, desperately hoping I wouldn’t fall apart.
“Don’t think about that,” he said.
“How can I not?” I quietly demanded. “He actually pulled the fucking trigger.”
“He did what he had to do, without taking it to the next level. He didn’t want to shoot either one of us. Hilliard will make him pay for the screwup. Either before Tom heads off to prison or while he’s inside.”
Dane contacted FBI Agents Daugherty and Strauss, whom he’d worked with as he handed off evidence against the society.
When Dane wrapped up the conference call and shoved the cell into his pocket, I asked, “Could it have been Wayne Horton who was sent in with the snakes? He does seem to get off on terrorizing me.”
“Doubtful. He worked directly for Vale. No paycheck attached to being a lone wolf,” Dane said, clearly fighting a wince of pain. And trying to keep the look of sheer agony from me as he continued to bleed—too much for my comfort. The dish towels were already coated in crimson.
He added, “I can’t imagine Horton would go to all this trouble without a funding source. And Bryn wouldn’t be able to count on him, since Wayne and Vale failed their mission the first time around.”
“Not necessaril
y,” I said. “Wayne could very well have been the one to bomb the Lux.”
Kyle snorted. “Probably hoping Ari was inside. She’s right—seems he’s taken a personal interest in making her suffer.”
“You think he’d come after her for the sport of it at this point?” Dane lobbed the question out there, but he didn’t sound convinced Wayne would pursue this avenue without Vale to provide the directives.
Kyle said, “You didn’t see Horton chasing us up the switchbacks with hairpin turns and no shoulder on her side of the car—just a forty-five-hundred-foot drop into Oak Creek Canyon.”
Dane’s scowl deepened. “Don’t think for a second that I’m letting him off the hook. Not after all the damage he’s done. That asshole’s on my list, believe me.”