For You (The 'Burg #1)(185)

“No, Feb. I’m Alec. I’m yours, Alec has always been yours. But Colt, he’s different. He’s wrong. He hurt you and, for that, he’s gonna die.”

* * * * *

Colt pulled in, parked, exited the truck and scanned the surroundings.

There were four cruisers which had lined up at angles to the house as well as Sully’s unmarked car, Colt’s truck and Warren and Rodman’s black SUV.

“Go in low,” Colt ordered Morrie who’d come around the back of the truck to Colt’s side. Colt bent double himself, running nearly in a squat to Sully who was crouched behind a cruiser.

“What’ve we got?” Colt asked.

“The SWAT team’s en route, they’ll be at least another ten minutes,” Sully answered.

This was not good. Ten minutes was a long time, too long.

“Any visual?” Colt asked.

“Curtains just been pulled, he’s seen us,” Sully replied.

“Hard not to see,” Morrie muttered and they heard more sirens in the distance so Morrie went on, “and hear.”

“Fed’s said go in hot.”

Colt lifted up and looked at the house, curtains drawn, door closed, no visual, then he crouched low behind the cruiser.

“You see Feb?” he asked Sully.

“Nope, just Denny.”

“Fed’s plan?”

“Talk him out.”

“So, are they gonna do that tomorrow or just after they take a tea break?” Morrie asked, his eyes on the conferring Warren and Rodman that were crouched behind another vehicle, Warren on the phone.

“Denny’s gone rogue, he’s off plan. They don’t know what to do with him. They’re talkin’ to Nowakowski,” Sully said as he lifted up and looked through the passenger windows at the house before he went low again.

“What –?” Colt started but stopped, his muscles petrifying instantly when they heard gunfire inside the house.

* * * * *

“Oh my God. Oh my God,” I chanted as Susie’s eyes came to me, pain and fear etched in them.

Then she slumped to the side, blood oozing from her chest.

Melanie was whimpering, she’d thrown herself off the couch and was trying to crawl away, not an easy thing to do on your belly, in a panic, with your hands tied behind your back.

My first thought was to help her but Denny turned to Melanie, aimed the gun, and I had to move fast. I lunged at his arm and caught his wrist, jerking it upward when he fired.

“Stop shooting at them!” I screeched.

Denny threw me off again and glared at me. “Gotta get this done.”

“We need to call an ambulance. You’ve shot Susie,” I yelled.

“Shoulda started with her first. World could easily do without Susie Shepherd,” Denny declared.

“That isn’t your call,” I snapped. “You’re not God.”

He tired of the conversation, looked over his shoulder at the windows and, with utter yet bizarre calm, he announced, “We gotta hurry, cops are here.”

And thank God, thank God for that.

“Give me the gun,” I demanded, moving to him again, putting my hand to his wrist but he pushed me away.

“February, stop f**kin’ around.”

I shook my head, I needed to help Susie and this needed to end. She was alive, I could hear her groaning. Her head was to the armrest, her eyes on me, her hands still behind her back, blood coming out of her, staining her couch. I couldn’t let Susie Shepherd die on her own couch with her hands tied behind her back and the gag I’d tied around her mouth still in place. I couldn’t. I had to do everything I could to stop it.

Denny rushed forward and pulled the slithering Melanie back several feet using her hair to do it. She cried her pain out from behind her gag and the sound of it, the sight of her head jerking back in that awful way, made my stomach roil.

“Stop it!” I screeched, going for Denny but he pushed me off again, let Melanie go and turned his body and his gun on me.

“What the f**k’s the matter with you?” he snapped.

What did I say? How did I play this? How did I buy the cops time to get in here and stop this madness? And why the f**k weren’t they coming in?

I had no idea but I had to come up with something.

“Alec wouldn’t do this. Not my Alec. He’s good and gentle and kind. He doesn’t shoot people and pull their hair,” I told him.

“We can’t go back to the way we’re supposed to be if they aren’t erased.”

“We’ll never go back to the way we’re supposed to be if you don’t stop this!” I shouted. “Let me take Susie out so they can get her help. Let Melanie go. And then, after we let them go, you and me, we’ll start over.”

“Can’t do it unless it’s erased.”

“I’m tellin’ you, Denny, we won’t do it if you erase them!” I screamed.

He blinked and I knew I f**ked up. I called him by his real name.

Before I could take it back, he lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.

* * * * *

Colt tore at Chris and Sean as Morrie did the same with Rodman and Sully.

“Shots fired, shots fired,” someone said into their radio.

Three shots.