Need Me (Dark Obsession 3)

Avery just glared at her.

“You tried to kill my sister,” Julianna said. “That means…you’re done.”

But Avery’s lips twisted in a taunting smile. “I’m not even close to being done. That would be your dear sister. She’s the one with bullets in her. Maybe she should have just followed orders. All she had to do was say for you to come by…for a nice, friendly little visit. Just come by…”

“The police are coming,” Julianna told her softly. “We called them on our way over here. You remember Detective Faith Chestang? She’ll be here soon. She’ll make sure that you’re locked up.” Julianna considered that for a moment. “She’s very good at her job,” she added, aware that her voice came out too wooden. Her emotions were all wrapped up, far too tightly, inside of her. If she let her control slip, even for a moment, Julianna feared that she’d be the one killing.

Avery laughed. “Why arrest me? There’s no evidence…none.”

“Carly will testify—”

“Carly’s going to die on the operating room table, if she’s not dead already.” Avery inched a bit closer to the gun. “And it’s not like anyone will believe you—you’re the woman who killed her husband. Stabbed the bastard thirteen times! No one will believe you…” She gestured to Devlin. “Or the new lover that you have.”

Julianna cocked her head to the side. “There’s the flash drive.” Actually, she wasn’t sure it still existed. Maybe Ethan had already destroyed it, but Avery wouldn’t know that. “It will provide plenty of evidence.”

Avery blanched but quickly recovered. “You don’t want that getting out, no more than I do. You want your dirty secrets buried…”

Julianna had put all of the missing pieces together. “You wanted the flash drive very badly, didn’t you? That’s why you were at the house that day. And that’s why you sent your partner back the other night. You even gave him a key, didn’t you? A key and the alarm code so he could get inside and search for those files.”

Avery’s eyes glittered with her rage. “Where are the files?”

Long gone.

“What did you do?” Devlin asked Avery. “How’d you wind up on his blackmail list?” He moved closer to Avery and he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his jacket. He’d had the handcuffs—and the gun—secured in his car. Apparently, the agents at VJS believed in being prepared. Julianna was very grateful for that fact.

“Everyone was on his list,” Avery retorted, apparently feeling that there was nothing left to hide. “He had to control everyone! So he found out that I…I was sleeping with a friend’s lover. He said he’d tell her. That he’d ruin everything! Like he even knew what my big plan was…”

A friend’s lover? Why the hell would that matter to Jeremy? That hardly seemed…

Avery’s gaze shifted behind Julianna. The other woman smiled.

Oh, hell.

“I’ve got a gun pointed at the back of your head,” Hugh Bounty announced, his voice carrying and easily recognizable. “And my finger is just itching to pull the trigger.”

Devlin’s head whipped around, and, in the same instant, he lifted his gun and pointed it at Avery’s head. “And I’ve got a gun pointed at your lover’s head,” he snarled right back. “Do anything to hurt Julianna, and you and Avery are both dead.”

Silence. That really thick, scary kind.

“Guess that means we’re at a stand-off,” Hugh said, smiling. “Or maybe…” Now he lunged forward and locked his arm around Julianna’s throat. “Maybe I don’t give a shit about what happens to Avery at this point. See…she wasn’t supposed to sleep with Jeremy fucking Smith. That wasn’t part of the plan. But I know what she did…I know. ”

“Hugh!” Avery cried, her mouth dropping open in horror. “What? No! I can explain! I did it for us! Just like you did—like you did with Heather!”

They were a damn twisted pair.

And as she felt Hugh’s arm lock even tighter around her neck, as she felt the rough strength in the body against hers, Julianna knew he was the man who’d attacked her the other night. He’d been in her house, searching for the files that Avery kept rambling about.

“The money is in my account,” Hugh said as he put the gun barrel to Julianna’s temple. “You transferred it.”

“Our account,” Avery blasted back at him. “Ours! We’re supposed to leave together, we’re supposed to—”

“Yeah, about that…” And the gun moved away from Julianna’s head. It pointed toward Devlin and Avery. “We’re done.” He fired.

“No!” Julianna screamed. But before the bullet could hit, Devlin grabbed Avery. Their bodies twisted as they fell, and the bullet thudded into the wall, barely missing them.

And while they were fighting to live, Hugh jerked Julianna back. He pulled her hard, yanking her toward the door. “I don’t give a fuck about Avery,” he yelled at Devlin. “But I know you won’t even think of shooting at me while Julianna’s near, you won’t think—”

A woman’s low, ice-cold voice called out, “He won’t, but I will.”

Julianna’s breath sawed out. “We—we didn’t come here alone.”

Devlin had cuffed Avery. She was on the floor now, sobbing.

“I told you…” Julianna managed. “We didn’t come alone.”

Devlin lifted his gun and aimed it toward Julianna and Hugh. “I believe you already know Detective Faith Chestang.”

Hugh pulled Julianna even closer. His hard grip on her throat was making it difficult to breathe. “A cop won’t shoot and risk a civilian’s life!”

“She’s not a civilian, though,” Faith said, her voice still icy, “she’s a criminal, just like you. She killed her husband.”

His grip tightened again, and she couldn’t breathe at all. Julianna clawed at his hands.

“Let her go!” Devlin bellowed. “Now!”

“If a killer gets injured,” Faith said, her cool voice a sharp contrast to Devlin’s roar, “that’s something that just can’t be—”

“She didn’t do it!” Hugh shouted. His hold eased, just enough for Julianna to suck in a desperate breath. “She stabbed the bastard—twice, but then she went down. Avery and I were already planning to kill him that night. We couldn’t let him ruin our plans. And when we walked in and the guy was bleeding every fucking where, we knew it was our perfect chance.”

Julianna stopped clawing at him as shock settled over her. She…hadn’t killed Jeremy?

“He was already weak from blood loss. I held him down, and Avery drove the knife into him.”

Avery lunged forward. “Shut up!”

Devlin grabbed her and pushed her back down. “You two…you were running a con. One that involved the step-daughter.”

Hugh laughed. “Not just a con, buddy. The con. I got close to Heather. Avery got in good with the boss man. Only she wasn’t supposed to fuck him! We learned all his secrets, learned just how he was skimming and cheating the company, then we took that money. We funneled it into our own account.”

But something had gone wrong. “He found out,” Julianna managed to gasp out, “that you and Avery were sleeping together. He…”

“He said he was going to tell Heather,” Hugh finished, speaking fast and wildly now. “The transfer wasn’t finished. We couldn’t risk everything blowing up on us—we had to stop the bastard! And then we thought that maybe he knew what we were really doing…that he was coming for us.” He backed up a few more steps, dragging Julianna with him once more. “It’s the law of the business world, right?” He grunted. “Kill or fucking be killed.”

“No,” Faith said softly. “That’s not the business world.”

Hugh shoved the gun barrel deeper into Julianna’s temple. “You can’t kill an innocent victim. You won’t shoot her. And the bodyguard over there…he’s so in love with her that he can’t stand the idea of hurting her. Can’t even let her get a damn bruise without him flipping out!”

So in love with her.

No, that was wrong.

Devlin wanted her, but he didn’t love her.

He didn’t.

But…

Julianna looked at him. Devlin was lowering his weapon. “Don’t shoot, Faith,” Devlin ordered. “Offer the bastard some kind of deal, but don’t shoot.”

“See what I mean?” Hugh’s breath blew over Julianna’s ear. “He knows that if anyone fires at me, my finger will be squeezing this trigger, and you’ll be dead. He can’t let that happen. He needs you too much.”

No, I need him. “Do you love me?” Julianna asked Devlin. She wanted to know, before the next moments passed. Before there was no turning back. No time to think of what could have been.

He put the gun down on the desk. “Yes.”

That was nice. That was…good. “Thank you.”

“Julianna—”

She lifted her right wrist, swinging fast with that cast, and she slammed it back into Hugh’s face. She prepared herself for the blast of gunfire, sure that he’d fire but not willing to take the chance that he’d turn that weapon on Devlin again. But there wasn’t a blast. Hugh swore and his fingers clawed at her throat as he staggered back. So she hit him again with her cast. Harder. She felt something smash—maybe the cast, maybe a bone—she didn’t really care. She hit him again—

Devlin’s arms wrapped around her and he pulled her back, pushing her behind his body even as he drove his fist toward Hugh.

She didn’t flinch away from the violence. She did grab the gun Devlin had left on the desk. She lifted it up, aimed it—

“Freeze,” Faith said. She had her gun inches away from Hugh’s face.

And Julianna had hers aimed at Hugh’s heart.

Hugh froze.

Julianna’s fingers trembled on the gun. Hugh and Avery—a sobbing Avery who was now huddled on the floor near the desk—they’d tried to destroy her life. They’d nearly killed Carly. They’d attacked Julianna again and again. She’d been charged with murder while they stood back and waited for her to spend the rest of her life in jail.

In that moment, she wanted to pull the trigger more than she wanted anything else.

“Baby.” Devlin stepped in front of her gun. “Baby, you’re going to be free now.”

“Carly…” Julianna whispered.

“She’s a fighter, just like you. She’s going to make it.”