The Beautiful Thief (Stolen Hearts #2)(54)

“Give me the girl,” ordered Forbes.

“Why don’t you come out here so we can settle this? Oh, that’s right. You know you can’t take me....”

Damn, Adam. The confidence was sexy, but please stop egging him on. Melody opened the back door and tried to be quiet, but considering that the men were shouting at each other, it really didn’t matter.

Ben was still in the truck and crouching down, either to hide from sight or from stray bullets. He shooed her away with his hands but she just rolled her eyes as she stepped into the truck and reached behind the seats, feeling the long plastic case. “You paranoid hick,” she whispered as she quietly opened the case in the back. “I could kiss you right now.” She pulled out the gun and the box of shells, careful to keep them from making noise as she loaded five into the single barrel.

The shotgun wouldn’t be accurate, but it would get the job done. And right now it was one hell of a job. She started to climb out of the truck when Ben grabbed her wrist. “Wait, don’t go.”

She stared at him in confusion for a second and then she realized why he had the sudden change of heart. He forgot he had the shotgun. Now she was leaving with his only way to defend himself. “Just stay there. No one cares about you.” In hindsight, it wasn’t comforting at all, but it was all she had.

The sight as she came around the hood of the truck was heart-stopping. Adam was standing there, holding out the useless handgun, and he was surrounded by the three men. No wonder Forbes wouldn’t fight him. There was no need to when he was that outnumbered. The only reason Adam wasn’t dead was because they needed to find her.

Well, it was about time she made her presence known. The second she cocked the shotgun, all eyes were on her; then she took aim at the closest man and fired. From this distance, the buckshot probably wouldn’t kill, but it would sure as hell maim. The man closest to her went down like a bag of bricks and then all hell broke loose.

Adam lunged for the man closest to him while Forbes’s eyes locked on her. She cleared the shell out of the gun and fired again, but Forbes seemed to predict her movements and dodged the blow. Before she could fire again, he was on her. He grabbed the barrel of the gun, and even though she tried to tighten her grip, he ripped it out of her hands and slammed the butt into her head.

Melody stumbled back and waited for another blow to come. She brought up her arms to try to block it, but they felt like cinder blocks. But when the room stopped spinning, she realized why Forbes hadn’t hit her again.

He aimed the shotgun at her and smiled. “Oh, how I dreamed about this.”

“Keep dreaming,” said Melody right as Adam grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and angled it away from Melody.

Forbes put up a better fight than she did for the gun, but Adam’s eyes were bright with an almost inhuman anger. Every blow Forbes tried to land did nothing as Adam ripped the gun from his hands.

Then Adam rammed it into Forbes’s forehead. Melody knew she’d been hit hard, but she could hear the bone cracking under the force of the blow and sucked in a breath.

“That’s for Mel,” he said as Forbes fell.

Then Adam slammed his foot down on Forbes’s arm, causing the man to scream in pain. She hadn’t heard anything snap, but that had to break something.

Then Adam held the shotgun right up to Forbes’s forehead. “And this is for Isobel.”

“That’s not your revenge to take.”

Toni’s voice came as a shock to them both, but Adam didn’t even look away from the man below him.

Scott and Toni were both walking toward them, wearing the same jackets as the local police.

“Get out of here,” bit out Adam.

“Mel, call off your guard dog,” said Toni.

“Why? This was always the plan. He killed Mom. He’s a killer and we need to put him down.”

“You’re right,” said Scott as he reached Adam and Forbes. “He is a killer. But he’s killed a lot more people than just Isobel, and those people deserve justice too.” Scott pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket and held it up. “Look familiar?”

Adam squinted at it for a second. “That’s my shot glass.”

“The one Forbes used. The prints on this glass, the ones that aren’t yours, can link him to murders all around the country. Once he’s in a police station, he’s never going to get out.”

“No.” Melody stepped forward, but Toni blocked her path to reach Scott and Adam. “No. This is bullshit, Scott. If this were Sterling, you’d be the one putting the bullet in his head. If this were about your wife and not my mother, you wouldn’t hesitate.”

“And that’s my burden to bear,” he said, not even bothering to disagree.

“You can’t have it both ways,” said Adam. “You can’t be one of us and a cop at the same time.”

“Mel!” snapped Toni. “Come on.”

Melody tried to make sense of what she was hearing. Toni should want Forbes dead more than anyone. Why would she.... Then Melody saw the worried glance Toni shot in Scott’s direction. She was so stupid. This entire time, she’d thought she was the only one being distracted, but Adam had completely called it. Toni didn’t want them to kill Forbes because of Scott.

Melody took a step forward and set a hand on Adam’s arm. “They’ll take care of it,” she said softly.