“You shot at Melanie!” I yelled.
“I gotta erase –”
“Colt wouldn’t shoot at Melanie!” I yelled over him, he went stock-still and his face went funny, not a good funny, a bad funny.
“What’d you say?” he asked quietly.
“I said Colt wouldn’t shoot Melanie. And he wouldn’t have hacked up Angie. Or Butch. Or even Pete. Colt’s about good. He’d never hurt anyone. You’re not supposed to hurt anyone!” I shouted.
“I’m not Colt,” Denny told me. “I’m Alec.”
I shook my head again, short, fast, all the while blinking. I didn’t understand.
“You’re Alec,” I said to him.
“I’m Alec,” Denny agreed.
“And Alec is Colt.”
Denny shook his head then he grinned. This wasn’t a good grin either, it, too, was a bad grin and it scared me to the depth of my soul.
“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 fuckin’ 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 fuck’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 fuck 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 fucked 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.
Three shots fired.
Three women who’d shared part of his life might have taken a bullet.
And in between that time, the only thing he could hold onto was the sound of Feb shouting.
But she wasn’t shouting anymore.
“Stand down, Colt,” Chris grunted as Colt pushed against his and Sean’s weakening hold.
“He’s got hostages, Colt. You can’t go tearin’ in there,” Sean said.
Did he? Three shots. Three women. No further noise.
Did he still have hostages?
Colt shoved Chris aside and Sean shifted, planting his feet behind him and putting all his weight into Colt.
“Morrie, relax or I’ll have you cuffed,” Sully threatened Morrie who was struggling five feet away.
“My sister’s in there,” Morrie returned, like Colt he was still fighting against the restraining hold.
Colt’s eyes went to his friend and seeing Morrie, Colt suddenly stopped pushing and a strange calm settled over him.
He wasn’t going to get anywhere like this. Not losing control and acting like a moron.
He’d have to find another way in and he had to get in, he had to see, he had to know if February was okay and he had to deal with Denny if she was, and more so, if she was not. He didn’t care if he lost his badge. He didn’t care if he carried on the Colton family tradition in prison. If Feb was gone, out of his life for good this time, he knew there was nothing left to care about.
He looked at Warren who was pulling a loudspeaker out of his SUV and Colt pushed away from Sean and walked to the agent.
“Send me in,” he demanded to Warren.
“Patience, Lieutenant, we got this. Let us open a line of communication,” Warren stated.
They didn’t have this. Colt saw it in Warren’s face, indecision. Shots were fired from a man who was known to favor a hatchet and, thus
far, had taken no hostages. They had no idea what they were dealing with in that house.
“Three shots were fired,” Colt told him, “we need to go in.”
“Patience, Lieutenant. SWAT Team isn’t here and Nowakowski feels he’ll do your woman no harm.”
“Women, Agent, Feb’s not the only one in there.”
“We’re gonna try to talk him out.”
“He wants me,” Colt reminded Warren. “Send me in and I’ll get the women out.”
“Let us deal with this, Colton.”
“We got ears,” someone shouted and Colt’s head turned to a cruiser where Eric, another of the town’s uniforms was folding himself in the passenger seat. Everyone jogged to the cruiser but Colt pushed in close.
“Someone’s called 911, not talkin’, just opened the line,” Eric whispered.
“Sweetheart,” a man said over the radio.
“Stay away from me,” Feb replied and Colt’s neck twisted at the fear he could hear stark in her voice, even muted and scratchy over the radio, but even so, relief poured through him that she was speaking at all.
“Come here, February.” the man demanded.
“You just shot at me!” Feb yelled.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, sweetheart… but you can’t call me that.”
“Don’t get near me.”
“Feb, I need you to listen to me.”
“She’s hurt!” Feb screamed, so loud they could hear it not only on the radio but from the house and Colt’s eyes opened, the dread in his gut had lifted, not much, because either Susie or Melanie had been hit, but Feb sounded strong and Colt looked toward the house.
“We start again here, we gotta start clean,” the man said.
“By killing Melanie and Susie? Are you nuts?” Feb asked.
“Oh shit,” someone close to Colt muttered but Colt could have said it himself. Denny Lowe was nuts and he didn’t need Feb riling him.
“February…” the man said then he asked, “what’s that?”
“What?” Feb asked back.
“Feb, what’s that? In your shirt.”
Fuck, she had the phone on her and Denny had seen it.
Feb wisely changed the subject. “You just shot at me. I want to go,” she snapped. “I just want to go. And I’m taking Melanie and Susie with me.”
“Lift up your shirt,” Denny demanded.
“I’m going,” Feb declared.
“You can’t go. You’re meant to be with me and to be with me we have to start clean. Now, what’s in your fuckin’ shirt?” The man’s voice was getting agitated, they didn’t have much time. Susie’d already suffered a gunshot wound, God knew the state of her. Melanie was likely up next. And Feb, Feb kept at him like this, Denny would do her too.
Feb stayed on target, keeping his focus off her phone. “Susie’s bleeding, she needs help. You let her bleed to death on her own couch, I swear to God, we’re through, over. You hear me?”
Colt turned to Warren. “Talk to him or I go in,” he demanded.
Warren turned to the house and lifted the speaker to his mouth.
“Dennis Lowe!” he called through the speaker and Colt went around the cruiser to the driver’s side, opened the door, pulled the latch to the trunk then moved to the back of the cruiser, nabbed a vest and put it on while Warren continued. “Dennis Lowe, this is the FBI. We’re outside and we know you’re holding February Owens, Melanie Colton and Susan Shepherd. We know you’ve shot Susan. We don’t want anyone else hurt. Put down your weapons and exit the house immediately. This will be your only warning.”
Sully got close as Colt pressed down the Velcro. “Colt, man, what –?”
Colt didn’t look at him. In fact, he ignored everyone, including the variety of voices shouting his name as he jogged to the house, pulling his gun out of the back waistband of his jeans.
* * * * *
“February, just please, come here,” Denny pleaded.
My eyes went to Susie, her eyes were closed. Either she was dead or unconscious. I’d successfully taken his mind off my phone but I knew I was running out of time.
“Let them go,” I demanded to Denny.
“Why won’t you listen to me?” he shouted.
“Maybe because you’re shooting people and acting crazy!” I shouted back.
For some reason, his eyes went to the door then he lunged toward me.
I was too slow in making a move to avoid him. He caught my arm and pulled me back.
Then the door opened and Colt walked in, carrying a gun, calm as you please. Upon entry, he lifted his weapon, aiming dead on at Denny.
I stared at Colt as I felt the cold steel of the gun hit my temple.
Then Denny said, as if he was hosting a dinner party, “I’m glad you could make it.”
* * * * *
“Let her go,” Colt ordered.
“Drop it,” Denny Lowe demanded in return and he jerked Feb in his hold.
Colt’s eyes went to the gun at his woman’s head and his blood, already boiling, starting singing through his veins.
“I said, drop it!” Denny shouted.
“You won’t hurt her, Lowe,” Colt guessed and he was right.
Denny took the gun from Feb’s temple, turned it on Colt and fired.
* * * * *
I watched Colt’s big, solid body jerk as the bullet hit his vest and I screamed.
Then I turned and threw my weight at Denny. Taking him off balance, we both went to the floor.
My hands circled his wrist, both of them grappling for the gun.
“Get them out, out, out, out!” I shouted at Colt, struggling with Denny.
“Feb, roll away,” Colt demanded, his voice sounding funny, like he was winded as if he’d just run a race.
“Get them out!” I repeated.
“Roll away!” Colt bellowed, obviously getting his breath back.
It would seem I was the kind of woman who listened when a man bellowed because Colt did it twice and twice I did what he said. I rolled away, onto my back. When I did, Denny lifted the gun but Colt was standing over us. Colt fired and Denny grunted in pain before his gun hand fell.
“Get Melanie out,” Colt told me as he kicked at Denny’s hand and the gun went skidding across the room.
“Colt.”
“Feb, now!”
I got to my feet and went to Melanie, pulling her to hers. She didn’t waste time and, still whimpering, ran directly toward the door.
I didn’t see if she made it, wasn’t paying any attention because Denny had scooted back then he was up, unarmed but charging Colt. When he did, Colt south-pawed him, holding nothing back, his shoulder dipped, his torso twisting at the waist building momentum, he connected direct in the wound at Denny’s shoulder.
The sound was sickening as Colt’s fist struck the seeping flesh. Denny let out a rough howl of pain, fell back and then, like the crazy man he was, without hesitation, he charged Colt yet again, growling like an animal the whole way.
Colt planted his feet, lifted his now bloody left hand and caught Denny by the throat, his fingers curling under his chin and around his jaw. With what looked like little effort, he cocked his elbow and flung Denny away.
Any man in normal circumstances would be humiliated by the ease of Colt’s defense. Colt was essentially fighting with one arm tied behind his back as he hadn’t dropped his gun. But Denny just went reeling, several feet, his good arm windmilling, before he righted himself.
“Lowe, it’s over, stop,” Colt ordered but Denny came right back at him.
Colt didn’t touch him this time, he dodged him and Denny flew by.
“Get outta here,” Colt ordered to me, sounding impatient but his eyes never left Denny. He was focused but he knew I was there and not leaving.
Now Colt brought his gun up, his head cocked to the site and he aimed at Denny and I knew he was finished fucking around, even if Denny was no longer armed. Denny was bent double, one hand to his bleeding shoulder, the other ha
nd dangling useless. His eyes, seething with palpable hate, were on Colt and he was panting like a dog.
I didn’t do as Colt asked. I went to Susie and pulled her dead weight up. I managed to get behind her and grabbed her under her pits, trying to be careful and failing because I was panicked. I pulled her around, yanked her down and she thudded against the floor.
I was bent double, dragging her across the floor, still watching Colt and Denny as Denny grabbed the axe with his good hand, not giving up, so insane he didn’t know he’d lost or not caring. His right shoulder was bleeding, even if Colt didn’t have a gun, he could do little harm with a gunshot wound and an axe in his left, non-dominant, hand.
Then, suddenly, coming from everywhere, the room was filled with men.
“Drop it, Lowe,” Sully demanded but Denny raised the axe unsteadily in his left hand, his eyes on Colt, a half a dozen guns aimed at him.
I fell to my knees then back to my ass as someone else shouted for Denny to freeze and I pulled Susie into my body, between my legs, protectively wrapping my arms around her ribcage. I didn’t know why I did this but I did.
And I didn’t know why I did what I did next.
But I did.
“Don’t, Denny, please, don’t,” I whispered, Denny froze, everyone froze but only Denny’s eyes came to me.
I shook my head at him. “Please. For me?”
“We hafta be together,” he told me.
God, he was totally fucking crazy.
My head was still shaking. “You don’t stop, you’ll get hurt.”
“His has to be the worst,” Denny declared, his eyes shifting to Colt and me, back and forth, back and forth, so fast, he was making me dizzy.
“It has been, Denny. I promise. It’s been the worst, for both of us,” I said and his eyes settled back on me. “When you took me away from him all those years ago, he’s been living with twenty-two years of the worst. So have I.”
“He hurt you.”
“He never hurt me, Denny.”
“He cheated on you with Amy,” Denny told me. “I saw him, you saw him.”
I tipped my head to the side before saying, “You know he didn’t do that. You know.”
“He did.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“February –”
“You took away my life,” I whispered.
His head jerked, his face grew slack for a second as if not comprehending then that crazy light lit in his eyes again and he said, “Don’t you see? I’m tryin’ to give it back. We had everything, Feb. You and me. We had it all. We were happy. So fuckin’ happy, we laughed all the time. You laughed all the time. I made you laugh. I’m your Alec, you love me, you always did and now I’ve come back.”