Vicious Carousel (Suncoast Society #25)(59)

“Aaannd they’re terrified of Tilly,” Betsy joked.

“No, they’re just intimidated by Tilly. They’re terrified of me.”

“You?” Betsy laughed. “Why?”

“Because I’m one mean f*cking momma bear. I raised two girls and taught kids’ gymnastics for too many damn years, dealing with helicopter parents who couldn’t butt out.”

They cut back from the beach into the trails again, losing sight of most people as they did. The path curved through scrubby land and into some trees.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to go up against you,” Betsy joked. She didn’t honestly see how the tiny, petite woman could possibly be scary.

Betsy first thought maybe it was a large dog that had jumped out onto the trail behind her. The blur of movement caught her eye and she spun around as June let out a scream.

“Fucking cunt,” Jack said.





While Kenny drove, on the phone with Scrye and getting the description and license plate for June’s car, he was relaying information to Nolan, who was still on the phone with Gabe, who was relaying information to and from Bill, who was on the phone with Charlotte County dispatchers, who were also on the phone to Sarasota County dispatchers. The damn key was split right across the middle at the county line. The northern two parks lay in Sarasota, but a patrolman who’d been on the key swung through each of them and didn’t see June’s car or a tai chi group.

So Bill now had deputies scouring the much larger Englewood Beach park, and others heading to Stump Pass Beach State Park. Gabe and Bill were in their car and heading there as well to help with the search.

Kenny had another call coming in and had to put Scrye on hold. “Yeah?”

“Did you find her?” Ed asked.

“Not yet. We’ve got deputies in two counties looking. She’s with June. I’ll call you back.” He switched back to Scrye, who was now laughing.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“I owe my good girl a reward later,” Scrye said. “Wherever they are, she’s packing.”

“What?”

“Carrying,” Scrye said. “She usually doesn’t take a weapon to the beach with her. For starters, depending on where you are, that’s sometimes illegal, depending on county or state park rules. And she hates getting sand in—”

“She’s armed?”

“Yes. That’s what I’ve been saying. Take comfort in the knowledge that my little tiny Tasmanian Devil of a wife has 9mm hollow points on her person, yes.”

“Thank god!”

“What?” Nolan asked.

“June has a gun,” Kenny said to Nolan, who immediately passed the info on to Gabe and Bill.

“You weren’t supposed to tell them that,” Kenny said. “I was telling you that.”

“Oh, sorry. I thought they needed to know that.”

“She gets in trouble for having it in a park, you get to deal with her,” Kenny warned.

“Gee, thanks,” Nolan muttered. Then, after a moment, he said, “Son of a bitch!”

“What?”

“Bill said several reports are getting called in to Charlotte County 911, of multiple shots fired in Stump Pass Beach State Park.”

“I think we just found your wife,” Kenny told Scrye. “You’d better get in the car and head this way. And I think you’d better get Ross and Loren on the phone. She might need an attorney.”





Chapter Twenty


Betsy didn’t have time to think, her reactions welling instinctively from deep within. It was as if time slowed, her focus narrowed, and then all the training she’d had in the classes with Eliza kicked in.

If she’d ever been allowed a little “alone” time with Jack, she thought rage would be the first, primary emotion she felt.

Hatred.

Anger, at the very least.

Instead, it was like cool, calm dispassion kicked in. She spotted the large knife in his hand, which he’d raised as he lunged toward her. Instead of running from him she twisted, her arms coming up to block him and kicking as hard as she could at his knee from the side.

He didn’t go all the way down, but he stumbled with an enraged cry.

She heard June screaming her name, but Betsy didn’t take her eyes off Jack. Instead, she dipped at the knees and scooped up a handful of coarse beach sand from the trail, so that when he turned toward her again she rose and flung it in his face in one smooth, fluid movement.

He screamed at her, something unintelligible, flailing blindly at her with the knife.

And still she wanted a piece of him.

June shoved her hard, knocking her off the path and away from Jack and breaking the spell.

And that was when six gunshots exploded, deafening, ripping Betsy out of that cool, calm dispassion and dropping her into the here and now.

When Betsy sat up and looked, June stood between her and Jack’s still body on the ground. The small woman, nearly two feet shorter than Jack, was breathing heavily. Betsy could see her chest rising and falling, but not hear it over the sound of the gunshots still ringing in her ears.

Guess that’s why we wear shooter’s muffs at the range.

Then June stepped forward and kicked at one of his hands, knocking the knife free even as she kept the gun trained on him. She grabbed it with her left hand, picked it up by the tip, and tossed it closer to Betsy.