Avery just glared at her.
“You tried to kill my sister,” Julianna said. “That means…you’re done.”
But Avery’s lips twisted in a taunting smile. “I’m not even close to being done. That would be your dear sister. She’s the one with bullets in her. Maybe she should have just followed orders. All she had to do was say for you to come by…for a nice, friendly little visit. Just come by…”
“The police are coming,” Julianna told her softly. “We called them on our way over here. You remember Detective Faith Chestang? She’ll be here soon. She’ll make sure that you’re locked up.” Julianna considered that for a moment. “She’s very good at her job,” she added, aware that her voice came out too wooden. Her emotions were all wrapped up, far too tightly, inside of her. If she let her control slip, even for a moment, Julianna feared that she’d be the one killing.
Avery laughed. “Why arrest me? There’s no evidence…none.”
“Carly will testify—”
“Carly’s going to die on the operating room table, if she’s not dead already.” Avery inched a bit closer to the gun. “And it’s not like anyone will believe you—you’re the woman who killed her husband. Stabbed the bastard thirteen times! No one will believe you…” She gestured to Devlin. “Or the new lover that you have.”
Julianna cocked her head to the side. “There’s the flash drive.” Actually, she wasn’t sure it still existed. Maybe Ethan had already destroyed it, but Avery wouldn’t know that. “It will provide plenty of evidence.”
Avery blanched but quickly recovered. “You don’t want that getting out, no more than I do. You want your dirty secrets buried…”
Julianna had put all of the missing pieces together. “You wanted the flash drive very badly, didn’t you? That’s why you were at the house that day. And that’s why you sent your partner back the other night. You even gave him a key, didn’t you? A key and the alarm code so he could get inside and search for those files.”
Avery’s eyes glittered with her rage. “Where are the files?”
Long gone.
“What did you do?” Devlin asked Avery. “How’d you wind up on his blackmail list?” He moved closer to Avery and he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his jacket. He’d had the handcuffs—and the gun—secured in his car. Apparently, the agents at VJS believed in being prepared. Julianna was very grateful for that fact.
“Everyone was on his list,” Avery retorted, apparently feeling that there was nothing left to hide. “He had to control everyone! So he found out that I…I was sleeping with a friend’s lover. He said he’d tell her. That he’d ruin everything! Like he even knew what my big plan was…”
A friend’s lover? Why the hell would that matter to Jeremy? That hardly seemed…
Avery’s gaze shifted behind Julianna. The other woman smiled.
Oh, hell.
“I’ve got a gun pointed at the back of your head,” Hugh Bounty announced, his voice carrying and easily recognizable. “And my finger is just itching to pull the trigger.”
Devlin’s head whipped around, and, in the same instant, he lifted his gun and pointed it at Avery’s head. “And I’ve got a gun pointed at your lover’s head,” he snarled right back. “Do anything to hurt Julianna, and you and Avery are both dead.”
Silence. That really thick, scary kind.
“Guess that means we’re at a stand-off,” Hugh said, smiling. “Or maybe…” Now he lunged forward and locked his arm around Julianna’s throat. “Maybe I don’t give a shit about what happens to Avery at this point. See…she wasn’t supposed to sleep with Jeremy fucking Smith. That wasn’t part of the plan. But I know what she did…I know. ”
“Hugh!” Avery cried, her mouth dropping open in horror. “What? No! I can explain! I did it for us! Just like you did—like you did with Heather!”
They were a damn twisted pair.
And as she felt Hugh’s arm lock even tighter around her neck, as she felt the rough strength in the body against hers, Julianna knew he was the man who’d attacked her the other night. He’d been in her house, searching for the files that Avery kept rambling about.
“The money is in my account,” Hugh said as he put the gun barrel to Julianna’s temple. “You transferred it.”
“Our account,” Avery blasted back at him. “Ours! We’re supposed to leave together, we’re supposed to—”
“Yeah, about that…” And the gun moved away from Julianna’s head. It pointed toward Devlin and Avery. “We’re done.” He fired.
“No!” Julianna screamed. But before the bullet could hit, Devlin grabbed Avery. Their bodies twisted as they fell, and the bullet thudded into the wall, barely missing them.
And while they were fighting to live, Hugh jerked Julianna back. He pulled her hard, yanking her toward the door. “I don’t give a fuck about Avery,” he yelled at Devlin. “But I know you won’t even think of shooting at me while Julianna’s near, you won’t think—”
A woman’s low, ice-cold voice called out, “He won’t, but I will.”
Julianna’s breath sawed out. “We—we didn’t come here alone.”
Devlin had cuffed Avery. She was on the floor now, sobbing.
“I told you…” Julianna managed. “We didn’t come alone.”
Devlin lifted his gun and aimed it toward Julianna and Hugh. “I believe you already know Detective Faith Chestang.”
Hugh pulled Julianna even closer. His hard grip on her throat was making it difficult to breathe. “A cop won’t shoot and risk a civilian’s life!”
“She’s not a civilian, though,” Faith said, her voice still icy, “she’s a criminal, just like you. She killed her husband.”
His grip tightened again, and she couldn’t breathe at all. Julianna clawed at his hands.
“Let her go!” Devlin bellowed. “Now!”
“If a killer gets injured,” Faith said, her cool voice a sharp contrast to Devlin’s roar, “that’s something that just can’t be—”
“She didn’t do it!” Hugh shouted. His hold eased, just enough for Julianna to suck in a desperate breath. “She stabbed the bastard—twice, but then she went down. Avery and I were already planning to kill him that night. We couldn’t let him ruin our plans. And when we walked in and the guy was bleeding every fucking where, we knew it was our perfect chance.”
Julianna stopped clawing at him as shock settled over her. She…hadn’t killed Jeremy?
“He was already weak from blood loss. I held him down, and Avery drove the knife into him.”
Avery lunged forward. “Shut up!”
Devlin grabbed her and pushed her back down. “You two…you were running a con. One that involved the step-daughter.”
Hugh laughed. “Not just a con, buddy. The con. I got close to Heather. Avery got in good with the boss man. Only she wasn’t supposed to fuck him! We learned all his secrets, learned just how he was skimming and cheating the company, then we took that money. We funneled it into our own account.”
But something had gone wrong. “He found out,” Julianna managed to gasp out, “that you and Avery were sleeping together. He…”
“He said he was going to tell Heather,” Hugh finished, speaking fast and wildly now. “The transfer wasn’t finished. We couldn’t risk everything blowing up on us—we had to stop the bastard! And then we thought that maybe he knew what we were really doing…that he was coming for us.” He backed up a few more steps, dragging Julianna with him once more. “It’s the law of the business world, right?” He grunted. “Kill or fucking be killed.”
“No,” Faith said softly. “That’s not the business world.”
Hugh shoved the gun barrel deeper into Julianna’s temple. “You can’t kill an innocent victim. You won’t shoot her. And the bodyguard over there…he’s so in love with her that he can’t stand the idea of hurting her. Can’t even let her get a damn bruise without him flipping out!”
So in love with her.
No, that was wrong.
Devlin wanted her, but he didn’t love her.
He didn’t.
But…
Julianna looked at him. Devlin was lowering his weapon. “Don’t shoot, Faith,” Devlin ordered. “Offer the bastard some kind of deal, but don’t shoot.”
“See what I mean?” Hugh’s breath blew over Julianna’s ear. “He knows that if anyone fires at me, my finger will be squeezing this trigger, and you’ll be dead. He can’t let that happen. He needs you too much.”
No, I need him. “Do you love me?” Julianna asked Devlin. She wanted to know, before the next moments passed. Before there was no turning back. No time to think of what could have been.
He put the gun down on the desk. “Yes.”
That was nice. That was…good. “Thank you.”
“Julianna—”
She lifted her right wrist, swinging fast with that cast, and she slammed it back into Hugh’s face. She prepared herself for the blast of gunfire, sure that he’d fire but not willing to take the chance that he’d turn that weapon on Devlin again. But there wasn’t a blast. Hugh swore and his fingers clawed at her throat as he staggered back. So she hit him again with her cast. Harder. She felt something smash—maybe the cast, maybe a bone—she didn’t really care. She hit him again—
Devlin’s arms wrapped around her and he pulled her back, pushing her behind his body even as he drove his fist toward Hugh.
She didn’t flinch away from the violence. She did grab the gun Devlin had left on the desk. She lifted it up, aimed it—
“Freeze,” Faith said. She had her gun inches away from Hugh’s face.
And Julianna had hers aimed at Hugh’s heart.
Hugh froze.
Julianna’s fingers trembled on the gun. Hugh and Avery—a sobbing Avery who was now huddled on the floor near the desk—they’d tried to destroy her life. They’d nearly killed Carly. They’d attacked Julianna again and again. She’d been charged with murder while they stood back and waited for her to spend the rest of her life in jail.
In that moment, she wanted to pull the trigger more than she wanted anything else.
“Baby.” Devlin stepped in front of her gun. “Baby, you’re going to be free now.”
“Carly…” Julianna whispered.
“She’s a fighter, just like you. She’s going to make it.”
He couldn’t know that.
“I know what you want to do. You think I don’t want to take out that bastard, too?” He wrapped his fingers around the gun. “But you can’t do that. Not you.” His voice dropped and he softly promised, “I’ll do it for you.”
What? She sucked in a sharp breath. “No, Dev—”
“You think I won’t? He tried to kill you. He hurt you. I will make him suffer. I will make him pay. I will—”
She yanked the gun back and dropped it on the desk. Then she was grabbing Devlin and holding him tight. “No, not you! That’s not you!” Devlin was good. Devlin was strong. Devlin was hers. “I love you,” she told him, frantic. “I need you. I need you with me. Don’t…Just…be with me.” Don’t shoot him. Don’t go to jail for me. Don’t suffer for me.
She kissed him. Desperate, near breaking.
Be with me.
Stay…always, with me.
She could taste her own tears in that kiss.
There were other voices then. The thunder of more footsteps. When Julianna slowly pulled away from Devlin and opened her eyes, she saw a line of cops filling the office. Hugh was cuffed and on his knees. Avery was talking fast, shouting, “It was all Hugh! He did it all!”
“Right,” Faith drawled, sounding highly doubtful. “I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it at the station. Though you might want to think about getting a lawyer…”
“But—”
“You have the right to remain silent,” Faith began.
Devlin’s fingers curled under her chin, and he slowly turned Julianna’s head back toward him. “How about we get the hell out of here?”
There would be questions. Dozens of them from the cops. She’d have to do interviews, interrogations. Things weren’t over. Not yet.
But…
I’m not scared anymore. The fear was finally gone. Julianna stared up at him. “Where are we going to go?”
“Any damn place you want,” he promised her. “Any place.” Then he kissed her again.
She didn’t feel the throbbing in her wrist. Didn’t hear the rumble of voices anymore. Didn’t worry about the specter of her past and the ghost of her dead husband.
She only felt Devlin. His touch. His kiss.
His strength. A strength that would never hurt her. Only protect her.
He loved her.
And she…she would do anything for him. Even give up vengeance.
And start dreaming of a future once again.
Epilogue
Devlin hurried down the hospital corridor, two hot cups of coffee cradled in his hands. Julianna had been sitting at her sister’s bedside for hours, and he wanted to get back to her. Carly was going to pull through, he was sure of it, and then they could all start healing together.
A nearby elevator dinged and the doors opened. He walked past that elevator and—
“Devlin.”
He glanced back. Faith Chestang had just stepped from the elevator. Her badge gleamed from its position on her hip.
“I came here to find you,” she said, heading toward him. “You and Julianna.”
“Julianna’s in her sister’s room.” Just seeing the detective put him on alert. He didn’t want anyone coming after Julianna—or Carly.
“There are a few things I think you both should know…”
Hell. “Do we need a lawyer?” Devlin asked bluntly.
She smiled. “Not this time. I’ve got the killers, and they aren’t getting away.”
They’d better not.
“Those mysterious files that they kept talking about…Ethan Barclay confessed to me that he destroyed the files. He said he didn’t realize what they were, but I’m guessing they held some blackmail info on him. He didn’t want anyone accessing that material, so he made sure the flash drive was no doubt obliterated.”
“No doubt,” Devlin murmured.
“I don’t quite understand the connection between Julianna and Ethan…”
He didn’t speak.
“But judging by the way he went batshit when she was brought to the hospital, I’d say the connection has to be tied to Julianna’s sister, Carly.”
Devlin shrugged. “The coffee’s hot. If you want to come in and talk with us both—”
“Would you have killed him?” Faith asked.
He’d wondered when she would ask him that.
“Because I heard what you said to Julianna. She wanted to shoot Hugh. Can’t say that I blame her, but you—you offered to do it. Offered to do the crime and the time, all for her.”
He smiled at her. “Maybe I was just trying to get her to drop the gun,” he murmured. “Maybe I knew just what she’d do.”
Faith’s head cocked as she studied him. “And how the hell would you know that? I wasn’t even sure what she’d do, and I’ve seen plenty of perps and victims in my time. That woman was at the edge. For a minute there, I was even afraid she might shoot you.”
He’d never been afraid of that. “I trusted her.”
“You probably shouldn’t have,” she muttered.
His smile grew. “You ever been in love, Faith?” It was a trick question. He knew all about Faith’s secret affair with one of the most powerful men in D.C.
She just stared at him.
“Think about what you’d do to protect the person you love. You believe I was bluffing? That I was just telling Julianna all that to get her to drop the gun?” He laughed. “I love her. And I would do anything for her.” He turned away and headed down the hall.
“Even kill?” She called after him. “Because that is some twisted shit.”
Maybe he was twisted. Maybe he was damaged inside. Maybe
he had more of his parents in him than he wanted to admit.
But the truth was…when it came to Julianna, there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do. If she’d told him to shoot Hugh Bounty…
That guy would have been in a body bag.
He turned the corner of that hospital corridor and saw Julianna. She saw him and a wide grin swept across her face. “Carly’s awake!” A bright smile lit her face and tears glinted in her eyes. “She’s going to make it!” She threw her arms around him and held tight.
Devlin kept a careful grip on the coffee, not letting so much as a drop spill on her.
After all, Julianna was what mattered to him.
And protecting her…loving her…that was the job he wanted for the rest of his life.
###
Turn the page for a sneak peek at Cynthia Eden’s brand new dark & sexy romantic suspense series from Avon Romance…
BOOK 1: BROKEN
The first novel in New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Eden’s sizzling LOST series introduces the Last Option Search Team, an elite unit that must protect the only surviving victim of a serial killer.
Ex-SEAL and LOST founder Gabe Spencer is accustomed to the unusual in his job. But when knockout Eve Gray steps into his office, he’s rattled. For the mysterious woman is a dead ringer for the heiress thought to be the latest prey of the serial killer who goes by the name Lady Killer.
When Eve awoke in an Atlanta hospital, her past was a blank slate. Then she recognized her own face in the newspaper and vowed to learn the truth. Determined to confront the nightmares hidden in her mind, she never expects to find a partner in Gabe.
As Gabe and Eve work together, their explosive attraction becomes irresistible. Gabe knows that his desire for Eve is growing too strong, bordering on a dangerous obsession, but nothing pulls him away from her. And when another Eve lookalike disappears, Gabe vows to protect Eve at all costs. While Eve may have forgotten the killer in her past, it’s clear he hasn’t forgotten her.