Darkness at the Edge of Town (Iris Ballard #2)(108)

We left the door open and turned toward the stairs. Now we were on an equal playing field. Two against two. I listened on the phone for a second.

“Great job, Elliot,” Mathias said.

“They’re still up there. He’s almost done,” I whispered.

Luke took the lead toward the staircase, my purloined .38 revolver pointed in that direction. Two to go.

And then our luck ran out.

Luke was on the first step when Ken walked into view on the landing above. He was far more on point than Betsy. Two steps out he immediately sensed us, and his gaze whipped down. His gun swung in our direction a millisecond later. On instinct and training, Luke and I leapt into cover on the side of the stairs just as Ken fired for the first time. The bullet hit the bannister not an inch from Luke’s head. Without hesitation, we immediately returned fire through the rungs of the bannister.



“What happened?” Mathias shouted between the shots.

“Get back!” Ken shouted before firing again.

We shot again, then Ken. He was behind cover too, using the edge of the hallway. He had the tactical advantage with the high ground, not to mention we had to worry about Mathias in the office with my brother and father. We had to get up there. Fast. No choice. “I’ll draw him out. Cover me,” I said.

“Iris, don’t—”

Five feet. Only five feet.

I leapt out of cover, running toward the other side of the stairs. Ken peeked out to get a shot at me, playing right into our hands. He aimed at me, ready to shoot, but Luke fired before he could. When I gazed up, Ken was slumping to the floor, the hole in his forehead still smoking. Fortune favored the bold yet again. Luke and I, guns still trained on Ken and the hallway, quickly ascended the staircase. Even though it was obvious the man was dead, Luke kicked away the nine-millimeter by Ken’s hand and nudged the corpse. No movement.

Two down, one to go.

“Kenny? Ken?” Mathias shouted from three doors down.

Guns trained down the hall, Luke and I hurried in that direction. Time to end this.



“It’s over, Mathias,” I said as we reached the open door. “Surrender, and that will be taken into consideration at your trial.”

A bullet went through the door and into the back wall. “Fuck you.” When I moved across the door to get on the other side of it, there was another gunshot just as I reached safety. Too fast for him. Thank God. I very, very carefully peeked inside the office. He held my trembling brother in front of him, using Billy as a human shield. Worse, he had a gun pressed to Billy’s head. Elliot sat with his back against the wall, beaten to a pulp, with blood pooling around his mangled foot. I mouthed to Luke, “Do you have a shot?” but Luke shook his head.

Fuck. I checked my gun. Empty. The man was unhinged. Desperate. I had to get Luke a shot. I had one play that never failed with psychopaths. Hubris. “I’m tossing my gun into the room,” I said to Mathias. “I am unarmed otherwise.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Luke whispered. “Iris—”

I slid the revolver into the office. I looked at Luke. “Wait until the gun’s off Billy,” I whispered. Then I announced, “I’m coming in, Mathias. Unless you’re afraid to face me like a man, just know that the 2010 FBI Marksman of the Year has a gun pointed straight at your head. But it doesn’t have to end that way. Nobody here wants it to. I’m coming in.” I lifted up my shirt to my bra so he could see I was unarmed.

“Iris, don’t—”

I slowly stepped into the doorframe. I was almost shocked that he didn’t shoot me there and then. I think this move unnerved him, overtaxed his brain. He actually pressed the gun harder against Billy’s head. “I’m lacing my hands behind my head, okay?” I said as I did so. “I’m just here to talk.”



Mathias chuckled. “You are ballsy, girl. You really must trust your boyfriend with your life.”

“Hell, fuck my life, I trust him with my brother’s.” I took a tiny step to the left. “You okay, Billy?”

“Yeah. Yeah,” he panted.

I stared Mathias square in his hard eyes. “Come on, man. It’s over. We both know it. Even if you kill us all, you’re caught. So just let Billy go. He’s the father of your great-great-grandchild. If you wanted to kill him you would have left him at the farm.”

“Where’s Betsy?” Mathias asked.

“Downstairs. Tied up. She’s fine, I swear.”

“And Ken?” Mathias asked, his voice shaking.

I frowned. “Took a bullet to the head. He’s unconscious but alive,” I lied. “I don’t know for how much longer. Maybe half an hour. So you need to let Billy go so we can call an ambulance and get him to the hospital.”

Mathias chuckled. “As if the police aren’t already on their way.”

“They won’t be here for a while.” I took another tiny step left. “They were all at The Apex when a neighbor called 911 about suspicious activity here,” I lied. “We have a good thirty minutes.” Another small step sideways. “My friend Joyce at the station called me on the off chance it was related. Guess the universe wanted you caught, huh? All those innocent people you killed tonight to cover your escape, all the planning, all made moot by a nosy neighbor. The whims of the universe, huh?” Another little step. He turned a little too. “Did your followers know? Was it suicide? The history books will want to know.”