Open Wounds (Harbour Bay #2)(74)

“Look at me,” he screamed. “Open your eyes and look at me. I want to watch the life drain from your eyes.”

“Back-up is on the way. If you’re going to kill me, you’d better get on with it. You don’t have a lot of time.”

The bite was back. She was still afraid of him, he could sense that, but that didn’t stop her from going down without a fight. He liked that about her. There was nothing worse than begging and whining. But his Kellie would never beg for her life. No…she was taunting him, daring him to kill her.

Wayne flicked the safety off. The sound had Kellie’s eyes widening. Her body froze, her movements small as she watched him carefully. “Don’t push me, Kellie.”

“Oh, get on with it already. You’re boring me.”

His lips thinned. He didn’t like being challenged. He squeezed the trigger, the bullet whizzing past her face to lodge in the wall behind her. He’d purposely let it go wild and delighted in the small jump her body instinctively made that even the coolness she was trying to project couldn’t hide.

His finger grazed seductively over the trigger and he lovingly stroked it. By the end of the night, Kellie would truly fear him. He would take the fierce woman before him and break her and once he got that acknowledgement from her, he’d kill her.

Suddenly a sharp pain bit into his skin, followed by another one and then another. He felt weak as a chill descended on his body, creeping up from his toes.

Wayne saw his end as if in slow motion. It wasn’t a movie of his life that passed through his mind, a collection of regrets and achievements. It was only the past few minutes that he reviewed, trying to pinpoint where he went wrong, how he’d miscalculated.

Kellie appeared so beaten. He should have known better. She had raised her hand so fast, he hadn’t seen it coming. One moment she had been telling him to end her and in the next she had a gun in her hand and she was emptying the magazine into him.

He fell to his knees, his legs no longer able to hold his weight. His vision blurred and he knew he would soon die. He called himself an idiot for underestimating her. He should have known from the past that Kellie was a fighter.

She had beat him.

The last thing he heard was a female voice telling him to go to hell.

***

Kellie’s hand shook from the heaviness of Amelia’s gun. She would’ve dropped her arm, but something drove her and it took all her strength to keep the Glock straight and not allow it to push back with the force of each bullet exiting the chamber. Soon the gun clicked over, indicating it was empty but she continued on listening to each click as she watched Wayne, his face frozen in surprise, drop to his knees before his face hit the floor.

She startled at a noise behind her and swung her head and the empty gun towards the sound as the overhead fluorescent lights blinked on. Nick held up his left hand in a surrender pose.

“It’s me, Kel. It’s Nick,” he soothed.

She wondered what he saw. She could only imagine the expression on her face. Wild and feral were the words that came to mind. She had just killed a man and she didn’t feel a thing.

“It’s all right now,” he said.

He watched her warily, determining whether she had recognised him enough not to become a danger to him. Kellie dropped her hand along with Amelia’s gun and let out a deep relieved breath as she returned her attention to her bleeding friend.

She watched from under her lashes as Nick moved carefully to Wayne’s body, the barrel of his gun aimed at the figure. As he neared, he kicked the man’s gun away, the metal sliding noisily across the concrete floor. He glanced down at the blood pooling around the body then looked back at her in surprise.

“Jesus, Kel, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

She hadn’t thought so, either. She had no idea where her courage had come from. She’d been terrified. She’d been frozen since the moment he’d revealed himself. She’d barely heard him in the end. It was like she’d been looking into a swirling tunnel and with barely conscious thought, her reaction automatic, she’d picked up Mia’s gun and a force had taken over. Without her usual inhibitions, she’d squeezed the trigger.

Her hands still shook. Sobs welled up inside her and her delicate shoulders shook violently as she began to cry. Somewhere inside her a dam broke and years of bottled up emotions, the fear she felt, the hatred she held for Wayne Burton was released…and she let go.





Epilogue



Darryl shifted on the hospital bed. His whole body ached. He’d been told how lucky he was that none of the bullets had hit an artery or organ. The loss of blood had made him weak and it hurt to breathe, but it was a small price to pay to be alive.

Dick Coleani was dead and so was his first lieutenant, Wayne Burton. Darryl had heard from Dean that the LAC seized all assets belonging to Coleani in an effort to stop his rivals from taking over his business. They would be working overtime to make sure they hadn’t just cut the head off the snake, only for another to grow back in its place. A taskforce was already underway, and this would be a major coup for Harbour Bay. Particularly those who resided in Coleani’s neighbourhood who were now free from his control.

Matt Murphy had come home from his vacation and had visited, bringing along Hallie, who had handed him a bouquet and a ‘get-well’ balloon. An intelligent girl, she aced all her classes and took on extra work most kids her age struggled with. Matt had kept him occupied regaling him with stories of their vacation, mainly his attempt at fishing and how they had ended up eating Hallie’s catch since neither Natalie nor he could get a fish to bite. He also confirmed that Natalie was twelve weeks pregnant and had practically burst with pride when he uttered the words.