Flawless(93)

“The other guys would have been caught and blamed—even with their ridiculous squirt guns—but no. Who the hell wouldn’t think that they killed sometimes and not others, once they were caught red-handed? You went to the damned holdup. On purpose. You heard them talking—you went there to stop it and you did. You’re a little snoop, eavesdropping in here all the time. And you think you’re a superhero! Any decent person, well...no. Some people know that there are consequences for their actions!”

*

The scene had become actively surreal, Craig thought, but he was finally beginning to grasp the truth, or at least what passed for truth in the deluded mind of Jimmy McManus.

McManus had somehow decided that Kieran, not the FBI, had stopped the robbery.

But this wasn’t the time to tell McManus that he’d lost his mind, not when he had his gun trained on Kieran.

“Hey, lady, you lost your gun?” Craig said, still using his best drunken slur. “I’ll help you find it.”

He pretended that he was reaching under the stool.

Instead, he took a calculated risk.

He made a dive for Jimmy.

McManus’s gun went off, and Craig hit the floor.

*

Kieran heard a loud scream, then realized that it was hers.

But she was only paralyzed for an instant. Then she raced toward the drunk lying on top of Jimmy McManus. The impact had knocked the gun from Jimmy’s hand, but it was still within reach, and the bastard was already reaching for it.

The woman was making a dive for it, as well, but Kieran saw that Marty Salinger and the cops had sprung into action, too.

She slammed a foot down on Jimmy’s hand just as his fingers started to curl around the grip of the gun.

It looked like a big gun, too, and then she realized that half of it was a silencer.

What the hell difference did it make what kind of a gun it was? It shot bullets that killed people.

One of the cops was already tugging on the drunk’s body, rolling him over.

The other was wrestling Jimmy onto the floor and putting cuffs on him.

Marty, by the book, was reading the woman her rights as he put the handcuffs on her.

As Kieran heard the first cop call for an ambulance, she hurried over to the drunk, praying that she could do something to save the life of the man who had saved all of theirs.

The first thing she saw was that there was no blood.

How? He’d been shot point-blank in the chest. And then she saw that a patch of facial hair was coming off.

“Craig!” she cried, tears springing to her eyes. “Craig, oh, my God...”

He blinked and looked up at her.

He was alive, but he gasped wordlessly as he tried to talk.

“Get the vest off him. The bullet is in the vest,” Marty told her.

She ripped at Craig’s clothing. When she got to the vest he winced.

“Broken...” he whispered.

“You’re alive, and there’s an ambulance on the way,” she said. She could tell she was going to cry and betray all the fear she was feeling.

“Broken ribs,” he managed.

“Lie still,” she said.

“Hey!”

Everyone went still.

Gary had made an appearance.

“Julie!” he said. “What about Julie?”

Kieran didn’t even have a chance to get up. Declan walked over to Jimmy, grabbed the man by the lapels and said, “If anything has happened to Julie Benton, I don’t give a damn about the law. I’ll skin you alive. You’re lower than a rat, a roach. You’re the worst f*cking piece of crap in the world.”

McManus stared back at Declan with hatred in his eyes. “Don’t be an ass. Gary is so f*cking stupid, he’ll believe anything. All I needed him to do was get in here and get Kieran on his side. We watched him flip out and waited outside until the time was right, and then we were going to take care of you and get out of here for good.” He looked over at Kieran. “She ruined a perfect plan. I wanted her dead.”

Kieran felt a chill sweep through her. She rose and walked over to Jimmy McManus. “You used Finnegan’s. You used this place, our hospitality—you used our friendship. You made us a part of killing people. I hope to God someone knifes you to death in prison.”

“He could get death. This might be a federal case, since it crosses state lines,” Marty pointed out.

“I’m fine if he’s just locked away to rot slowly, thinking about the fact that I’m alive and well and enjoying my life,” Kieran said. She was shaking, and she felt sick. Jimmy had been a customer forever.

He’d probably been using them forever, too, learning things to help him cheat and steal—and kill.

She was glad she didn’t have a weapon, because she was afraid she would have used it, she was so angry.

She spit on him instead.

“Did you see that?” McManus demanded. “I want her charged with assault.”

“You have to be kidding,” one of the cops muttered.

“I didn’t see a thing,” the other said.

“You know what? I didn’t see anything, either,” Marty said, and he grinned down at Craig, who smiled back at him, then started trying to get up.

Kieran watched her spittle drip down Jimmy’s face, then went back over to Craig and knelt down beside him. An ambulance was coming.