****
Fear poured through Zoe stealing her strength and making her limbs rubbery, her breathing harsh. Please, don’t let Brett come in here. Derrick’s grip on her jaw tightened. Though her mouth was uncovered she couldn’t utter a sound. Tears stung her eyes and her vision blurred.
“Damn you, tell me,” Derrick said and turned the barrel of the .357 Magnum against her side. All the facts about the gun Brett had recited day after day flashed through her thoughts. If he pulled the trigger there was no way she would survive. Zoe raised a trembling hand and pointed toward the hall. Derrick twisted her around, his arm around her neck holding her back against him. He forced her forward.
Brett came out of the bedroom down the hall. He jerked to a stop when he saw them, his lips parted in shock. He recovered quickly and his eyes went flat and hard. “Let my sister go, Derrick.”
“Not until I’ve seen Marjorie.”
Zoe tried to shake her head, but Derrick dug the gun into her waist and gave her jaw a painful warning squeeze.
“Don’t do this, man. You’re just digging yourself a hole you’ll never be able to climb out of.”
Derrick’s muscles bunched. “Shut up, Cutter. Get Marjorie, or I’ll twist your sister’s head off.” His voice sounded hoarse.
“I’m here, Derrick,” Marjorie appeared in the doorway. Her eye looked grotesquely swollen, her cheekbone, eye, and temple purple. The rest of her face looked paper white. “Let Zoe go. I’m here.”
Where Derrick’s brutal grip hadn’t rung tears from her, the weary acceptance in Marjorie’s features had them welling up and sliding down Zoe’s cheeks.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you, baby. I swear I didn’t.”
“I know, Derrick. But you did.” Her voice sounded weary. “Let Zoe go. This isn’t between you and her, it’s between you and me.”
Derrick released Zoe and shoved her forward. Her legs unsteady, she staggered and would have fallen had Brett not caught her.
Brett scowled. “God Damn it, Derrick. What is wrong with you?”
“She should have kept her nose where it belongs, just like you should have.”
Brett’s eyes narrowed and he pushed Zoe behind him. “You want to put that gun down and come over here and shove me around?”
Fear, abrasive as steel wool, scratched its way up along Zoe’s nerves. From behind, she grasped Brett’s arm and squeezed it tight. Didn’t he know better than to bait an unstable man?
Looking over Brett’s shoulder she noticed how haggard Derrick appeared. His eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, his jaw shadowed with beard stubble. He held the gun next to his side yet didn’t take his finger off the trigger. All he’d have to do was raise it and fire and one of them would be dead.
“Come out from behind, Cutter so I can talk to you.” Derrick motioned at Marjorie with the gun.
Marjorie shook her head and her body trembled visibly. “Not until you put the gun away. I’m afraid of guns, you know that.”
Zoe laid a hand on her arm, offering her what comfort she could.
Derrick focused on Marjorie, intent, unblinking. “You went to the police today, didn’t you?”
She hesitated, her eyes straying to the gun. “Yes.”
“You didn’t have to do that.” There was accusation in his tone.
“Please put the gun away, Derrick.”
“You didn’t have to do it,” he shouted, his voice cracking. The sound thrummed through the narrow hall making both Zoe and Marjorie jerk as though a jolt of electricity had leapt through them.
Brett reached out a hand to ease Marjorie further behind him.
“Get out from behind Brett and face me, damn it.”
“No--No,” Marjorie started crying in earnest. “You’re going to hurt me again. You’re going to kill me. I’m afraid--I’m afraid.” She clenched part of Brett’s shirt and cowered against his side as close as she could get.
“I’m not going to hurt you, but if I have to go through him to get to you, I will, Marjorie.” Derrick cocked the gun at his side. The soft snick echoed over and over in Zoe’s head growing louder and louder. The hallway seemed to shrink and become claustrophobic.
“I wouldn’t have hurt you but--You won’t be here when I get back. You won’t stick it out. You’ll be with some other guy, laughing with him, touching him, sleeping with him. Doing things with him you’re only supposed to do with me. I thought you were already.”
“You didn’t go to Jessica’s, did you? You didn’t hurt her did you?” Marjorie asked a note of panic in her tone.
“Fuck her. Why did you go running off to her the minute I was gone?”
“Because I missed you, Derrick. I needed to have someone with me.”
The open pain in Marjorie’s voice punched through Zoe making her chest ache and her throat tighten. With Derrick standing just a few feet away, threatening and unstable, the words she and Hawk spoke outside his office seemed mundane and useless. Why couldn’t they have said something important to one another? Why hadn’t she told him she loved him?
Brett’s muscles grew taut as he tried to cover them both with his body. “She’s terrified, Derrick. Put the gun down and we’ll all sit down and talk,” he said, his tone soothing.
Derrick’s face grew flushed and he scowled. He took two strides toward them, raising the gun as he came. He pressed the barrel of the weapon against Brett’s forehead with enough force that he had to tilt his head back. “Shut the fuck up, Cutter. If I wanted your advice, I’d ask for it. Stay the fuck out of my business or I might just finish what I started in Iraq. You should have never put that kid between us, Cutter. ”
Brett braced his feet apart to maintain his balance. “What kid, Strong Man?” Brett’s conversational tone belied the fact he had a gun pointed at his head.
Derrick’s eyes narrowed. His tone grew scoffing. “Always the hero. That can get you killed real quick, you know.”
Derrick reached for Marjorie’s arm and Brett blocked the attempt with his own. “What do you mean, Derrick?”
Distracted, Derrick’s aim wandered away from Brett’s head and Zoe drew a shaky breath as the gun pointed at the ceiling.
“That kid would have just as soon killed you as looked at you.”
“What kid?”
Derrick’s gaze grew steady and dark as though he were focusing on some distant place inside his own head. “It doesn’t matter now, you don’t remember, and I’m never going to tell you. You’ll just have to figure it out for yourself.”
He lunged at Marjorie grabbing her arm. She squealed in protest and tried to pull away. Brett knocked the gun aside and twisted to one side in an attempt to shove Derrick back.
Zoe staggered back against the wall. Brett struggled to gain control of the gun. The barrel of the 357 swung toward Zoe’s face. With a frightened cry, she grabbed both Derrick’s wrist and the barrel of the gun. She tried to twist it from his grasp.
The front door crashed inward and Langley appeared in full body armor as Hawk stepped in from the kitchen doorway, a taser raised and ready. He fired and almost simultaneously the Magnum leaped in her hand as it discharged blowing a hole in the wall next to her. The magnitude of the sound jerked a startled yelp from Zoe. Sheetrock dust and insulation flew through the air. Derrick screamed and fell to the floor his body jerking from the electrical current as though he were having a seizure.
Doc, Bowie, and Langley, battle ready and armed, rushed into the hall. As a unit, they pointed their guns at Derrick. After holstering his weapon, Bowie whipped out plastic handcuffs, rolled him over and secured his hands behind his back. Langley retrieved the Magnum from the floor, while Doc bent to check Derrick’s pulse. The only sound in the hall were the dispassionate, well-trained replies of “target is secure” and “clear”
Hawk shoved the taser into Brett’s hand as he pushed passed him and Marjorie. He reached for Zoe.
With a sob, she went into his arms. His Kevlar vest, stiff and rough, pressed into h
er breasts and his utility belt dug into her stomach. She didn’t care. They were all safe and his arms held her close.
She drew back to look up at him, her vision blurred, and blinked away the tears that continued to fall. His gaze had never been more intent. His hands trembled as he ran them over her shoulders and arms as though checking for injuries and brushing the tufts of insulation away. “I love you, Zoe. I love you.”
His voice sounded muffled beneath the ringing in her ears, but she heard him. A sweet tangle of emotion rushed through her, and she smiled through her tears. “I love you, too.”
When Hawk bent his head to kiss her, her arms went around his neck and she rose on tiptoe to meet him halfway.
As their lips met, one word rang out behind them in a masculine chorus.
“Hooyah.”
CHAPTER 28