From This Moment

“Get them on now!” Nick shouts.

Oh God, no. Cade, where are you?

“Tom, you stay here and bring her out when you hear the car.” Nick leaves, shoving my notebook into his pocket as he slips out the door.

The whole time we’re waiting for the car, Tom towers over me glaring, even as I put my boots on.

He’s one creepy guy.

Within a few minutes I hear a car, and just pray its Cade or Daniel.

Tom grabs hold of my arm and drags me to the front door, yanking me through. I can barely maneuver in freezing snow and ice with my injured leg—

“Tom. Let her go.” A confident voice calls out and I catch sight of Daniel with his hand resting on his weapon.

I sag in relief at hearing the sheriff’s voice. As I try to concentrate on what’s going on, Tom lets go of me and I fall the rest of the way down the steps. I scream as I see Tom reaching for a gun.

Then a shot rings out, the sharp sound slamming into my head and bringing my migraine roaring to life again. I barely notice the pain in my body as I roll to a stop at the bottom of the steps . . .

My eyes are on Tom as the bullet slams into him.

He loses his balance on the stairs and drops to the ground beside me. As my vision goes cloudy, all I can think about is that I hadn’t known Tom had a gun.

Like viewing the world in slow motion, I watch as Daniel runs over to Tom and kicks his weapon out of reach, before checking for a pulse. His lips are a hard slash as he focuses on me.

He hurries over to help me up. “Rona, we meet again. Are you okay?”

Ready to burst into tears, I just shake my head. My leg and hip throb. The fall down the last few steps hasn’t helped and has left me ev

en shakier than I was a few minutes ago.

I discover I haven’t the strength to stand. I’m in too much pain.

“Let me help you.” He takes my arm and tries to help me up, but we don’t really get anywhere so he picks me up and carries me inside. Putting me down on the sofa, he grabs the blanket from the back and wraps it around me. “The paramedics are on the way. They’ll get you comfortable, okay?”

“Okay.” Tears roll down my face.

He passes me a tissue. “Rona, I need to take a statement, but that can wait until you get into dry clothes. I’ll help you upstairs once the coroner arrives to remove Tom.”

“Cade’s on his way, he can take me upstairs to change when he gets here. Daniel, Nick is still out there.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“He was with Tom and when they realized I’d made a call, he went to get the car and Tom was supposed to bring me out when he heard it.”

“Give me a minute.” He reaches for his radio to tell dispatch to look out for Nick.

“What did they want?” Daniel probes.

“Nick still wanted money and Tom did as well, but he also wanted Elise.” I take a couple of deep breaths. “They said they’d been selling drugs. Skimming off the top and that the big boss was after them so before he buries them, he was going to disappear. But Nick never mentioned Tom when he talked about disappearing.”

“I need to make a phone call. After you get changed, we’ll have you checked out by the paramedics, and then we’ll take your statement.”

“Will you find out where Cade is, please? I really need him.” I struggle not to cry again, but a couple of tears escape.

“Will do. I’m just going back outside for a few minutes. Will you be okay here?”

“Yes.”