Page 68 of The Engagement Party

Find it. Find it.

Mitch’s weight pinned her down. She could hear Ruthie yelling and saw someone slump over and fall. Alex, maybe?

Desperation scratched and clawed at Sierra. She struggled and shimmied, trying to get a better view of the room. Her hair had escaped its ponytail to hang in front of her face. Mitch’s chest trapped her, pressing her into the couch in a move that likely was meant to protect her but left him exposed.

“Stop moving.” Mitch whispered the order into her ear.

She ignored him as she wiggled around and shifted. She needed to find that knife before Dylan did. Once he figured out they’d broken the zip ties he’d shoot again, and Mitch provided an easy target.

“Nooo!”

Sierra heard the wail and a grating sound that might be Dylan’s laugh. The sick bastard loved this. Enjoyed seeing them scurry and beg.

“What did you do?” Cassie yelled the question.

Mitch lifted off Sierra. His knee pressed into the couch cushion for leverage before he stood. The dip caused Sierra to roll. Something hard dug into her hip bone. Had to be the knife.

She sat up in the middle of the unrestrained chaos. Alex rocked back and forth in his seat with a grimace on his face. Cassie hovered, unable to touch him but trying to comfort him.

Will looked frozen and Mitch was on the move, heading toward Dylan and that damn gun. Sierra didn’t hesitate. She aimed and hoped all those years of playing darts while her dad drank in the bar would pay off.

The knife soared across the room, narrowly missing Mitch’s head. The blade grazed Dylan’s cheek. He flinched and ducked but not in time. When he stood up again blood trickled from a slice on his skin.

His eyes filled with rage as he let out a battle cry. A guttural roar that sent everyone jumping and running. They headed for those confiscated household weapons.

Sierra couldn’t move. She saw Dylan’s jaw clench. Watched him raise the gun.

“Sierra, no.” Mitch pivoted and flew toward her, ignoring his own peril.

“Move!” Ruthie yelled.

A series of thunderous bangs exploded around Sierra. Mitch tackled her, rolling them to the floor as she covered her ears and closed her eyes. Bullets shattered a crystal lamp and knocked pictures off the wall. Sierra heard an oddpfftnoise and opened her eyes to see a hole in the cushion above her head.

Footsteps. Crashes. Not the sounds she expected to hear right before death.

As quickly as the banging started it stopped. An acrid smell filled the room. Sierra did a quick pat-down of Mitch.

He groaned as he rolled off her. “I’m not hit.”

She scanned the once beautiful room now plunged into disarray. Nothing left but a mass of shredded couch cushions and broken glass thanks to Dylan’s shooting. Ruthie stood with her skirt hitched up on one side and her hand holding the material in an awkward position because of the stretched-out tie still binding her wrists. She blinked but didn’t try to uncover or grab her gun.

Sierra swallowed as she forced her mind to reboot. Then she saw the blood on Alex’s oxford shirt. It soaked the area around his biceps. Cassie pressed her body and a blanket against him, but her hands hadn’t been freed.

Sierra tricked her mind into believing it was a superficial wound. Bloody but not serious. “Are you okay?”

But Mitch was the one to answer. “Where’s Dylan?”

They all looked around. Will slowly stood up. Mitch got off the floor and reached to pull Sierra up. The room was awash with nervous energy and careful shifting but no talking. Saying something could conjure Dylan up again, but not knowing where he lurked struck her as even scarier.

The table with the cell phones had gotten knocked over in themelee. Sierra righted it. She stared at the two sets of keys on the floor—one for the buildings on the island and the other for the rental car across the water.

She peeked around the breakfast bar. Her knees buckled as she walked. She grabbed on to the counter to keep from falling and felt Mitch’s hand at her back. They both searched and he retrieved her knife.

Seconds, minutes, hours passed. She wasn’t sure which, but probably more like a minute or two. She glanced into the family room and saw the four others still locked in a haze of panic and confusion.

Sierra said the words that made a shudder run through her, stealing the last of her confidence. “Dylan is gone.”

Chapter Fifty-One

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