Wicked and True (Wicked & Devoted 4)

“Stop,” Zy snapped, gun pointed her way as he barreled down on her.

“Always did think you were an asshole,” she choked out.

Suddenly, Johnson grabbed Zy’s ankle mid-stride and held him back. Blood dripped from his mouth. Hate poured from his eyes.

Zy nearly stumbled as he tried to pull free from the other man’s grip. Hector refused to let go.

Aspen stood, trembling. Her gun wavered erratically. “Stop. Or I’ll kill all of you.”

“No, you won’t.” Trees sounded annoyed.

“Before I kill you, I’ll shoot your balls off for shooting my husband.”

“Your husband is a rapist,” Trees growled. “Let go, Johnson.”

He didn’t.

“Fuck you,” the dying man growled.

“No. Fuck you.” Trees took aim. “This is for Laila.”

Then he fired again, straight into the back of Johnson’s head. The hand around Zy’s ankle went limp.

Aspen cried out, launching herself straight for Trees, hobbling and bleeding all over the rug, as she aimed in his direction.

“Final warning!” Zy stepped into her path, weapon pointed.

With a snarl, she came at him and pulled her trigger without even blinking. The shot sounded deafening in the small room. Zy jerked.

Tessa watched in horror as he hissed and gripped his arm. Blood seeped between his fingers as he raised his gun again and fired at Aspen.

He missed.

She laughed. Tessa’s heart thudded and chugged as the other woman scowled in concentration and fired again. Zy feinted, making the shot go wide, but he stumbled, tripping over Johnson’s body.

His temple struck the coffee table with a sickening thud.

He stopped moving.

“Zy!” Tessa panicked. She couldn’t hurdle the sofa and get his gun to shoot Aspen while protecting Hallie. But she didn’t dare wait to see what Trees would do. She had to do something besides standing here and watching him die. Even if he didn’t choose a life with her, she wanted him to live and be happy.

“Now I’ve got you,” the woman cackled at his prone form. “You pricks took from me. I’ll take from you. An eye for an eye.”

No. Not now. Not like this. Not with so much vengeance and hate.

Tessa grabbed the first thing she could use as a weapon—a big candle in a heavy glass jar—and threw it with all her might at Aspen’s head.

The woman didn’t see it coming until it was too late. It struck her in the cheek. She grunted in pain and swore before glaring daggers her way. “You should not have done that. I’m going to kill you and your brat. And I’m going to enjoy it.”

“Because it’s easy, and you can feel like you did something big and bad?” Trees mocked, aiming at her head. “You’ll have to kill me first.”

“Oh, you’re getting yours. After this bitch.” Aspen wrapped her finger around the trigger again, her face alive with evil glee.

Before she could fire, Zy, despite being bleary-eyed and shaky, managed to raise his head and pull the trigger.

This time, he didn’t miss.

Aspen stumbled back and blinked down at him in shock. “Damn it…”

Then she crumpled to the ground face-first, a gushing hole at her back.

Dead.

Zy fell limply to the carpet again, gun falling from his lax hand.

Had he saved her with his final breath? No, that couldn’t be it. She had to help him.

Tessa’s calm broke. She trembled uncontrollably as she hugged Hallie, pressing grateful kisses to her head, even as she ran to Zy, tears falling. Please be okay. Please be okay.

She dropped to her knees in front of him and applied pressure to the wound in his arm. It looked like a flesh wound. It shouldn’t be fatal, so why wasn’t he moving? “Zy?”

Nothing.

Vaguely, she was aware of Trees barking into the phone for an ambulance.

She pressed around his neck to feel for a pulse. It seemed fast and faint. He was bleeding—a lot. He wasn’t conscious.

Oh, god… Had he saved her and Hallie’s lives at the cost of his own?

Hours later, evening shadows began to slant through her windows as Tessa sat in her recliner, cradling her sleeping daughter. Hallie was now clean, well fed, and had been thoroughly checked out by the pediatrician on call in the emergency room. She was fine. She was safe. And Tessa was profoundly grateful.

But she hadn’t had much word about Zy since they’d taken him away, and it was killing her.

“I think that takes care of everything, Ms. Lawrence,” Matt said, screwdriver in one hand as he settled his signature cowboy hat back on his head with the other.

“Tessa,” she corrected automatically. “And thank you. You didn’t have to install a new security system for me.”

In fact, she really had no idea why he had. He’d asked her out yesterday—it seemed like weeks ago—and she had turned him down. Nicely, but…it had still been a refusal. Now he was helping her?

“Yes, ma’am, I did. Walker told me what happened to your daughter. We can’t have that again.”