“It doesn’t end,” the man said, pointing the gun directly at Jayden’s chest. The guy was taller than Jayden. Six-one or so. His beard made it hard to determine his age. His hair was unremarkable. But the baseball cap on the coffee table—it was dark blue.
Jayden’s phone rang.
“Don’t answer it,” the man said. They all listened until the ringing stopped.
Heart pounding, Emma stared at the man. Petrified. Jayden wasn’t wearing his vest. If...
“I’m a prosecutor,” she said. “I can make a deal with you, assuming you give me a chance, a reason, to be able to do so.”
“I know who you are,” the man said, moving his gun toward Jayden’s shoulder almost directly in front of her head. “If you’d been able to convict the bastard the first time around, none of this would have happened. Now. All three of you. Move. Slowly. Right here.” He pointed to the couch with his free hand, without taking his gaze off of them. “Side by side. Sit,” he instructed.
Emma moved first. No way she was going to take a chance on irritating the guy to the point he pulled that trigger. She’d rather be dead herself than lose Jayden.
Or Suzie.
She sat in the middle of the couch. Jayden dropped down on her left, pushing his thigh into hers. Suzie was on her right. Not touching her.
“Please, Kyle,” Suzie begged, not crying but sounding like she was fighting tears. “You know I love you. Deep down, you know.”
“It’s all messed up now,” he said. “If she’d done her job right the first time, he’d never have gotten out. But no, she screwed that one up. And then, when it’s all going to finally be okay, she goes and sticks her nose in things again...”
“It wasn’t okay,” Emma said, not sure why she wasn’t keeping her mouth shut. She just knew she couldn’t stop fighting until he stopped her. “I just got involved two weeks ago and someone beat up on Suzie three months ago.”
Jayden’s nudge was almost imperceptible. Was he telling her to stop? Or that she was on the right track?
“Kyle,” he said, “how old are you?”
“Shut up!” The man roared, swung the gun within a couple of inches of Jayden’s head. Close enough that Emma could see his hand shaking.
And she figured out who he was. The kid they’d all been looking for. Suzie hadn’t lied about his existence. But it seemed she might have been lying about her relationship with him. And about his age, too. This was no sixteen-or eighteen-year-old kid. He was easily in his twenties.
Maybe Bill had been right to question the paternity of his child.
Her entire soul was shaking. She tried to find Ms. Shadow, to hide behind her, but came up empty.
“I know you didn’t hurt Suzie four years ago,” Emma said, just talking. She was going to fall apart if she just sat. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t figure out a plan. She was scared to death. “I know what Bill did to her,” she continued. “It’s why I went for the murder charge. I made a mistake there, though. If I’d gone for battery, I’d have won.”
Kyle, whoever he was, was standing right in front of them, moving the gun back and forth between the three of them. There was no doubt in her mind that if any of them made any kind of move that he construed to be an attempt to help themselves or to get away, he’d shoot that gun. He was ready.
“But I can win this time,” she told him. “Bill’s in custody. That’s what we came here to tell Suzie. That she was safe.”
“You’re lying,” he said, spraying spittle at their feet. The gun jerked a little as he moved it from one to the other of them.
“I’m not lying. I can’t prove it to you without making a phone call, but I can guarantee you that if you turn on the television, it’ll be all over the news soon enough. And we’ve got evidence this time to get a conviction. Hard evidence. They found video surveillance of him buying the lipstick he used to vandalize my back door. Threatening an officer of the court, that’s serious stuff, there.” Her court voice wasn’t in that room. She could hear herself trembling in every word, knew he could hear it, too.
Kyle pointed his gun at Suzie. “Go on,” he said. “Turn on the TV. And then come stand with me.”
This was it. Their chance. Emma realized one second was all they might get. Him distracted, covering Suzie and them, too.
She wanted to make a run for it. If Kyle turned on her, shot her, Jayden would be able to save Suzie. And himself.
All she had to do was to run in the direction opposite from Suzie.
But her limbs wouldn’t move. She was frozen to the couch.
Fairly certain that she was going to die there.
Chapter 24