Page 157 of One Last Chance

Axel nodded and then fell into slow step with him as they traveled down the boardwalk, the river roiling beneath them.

“Dillon was a good man. He just . . . he struggled. He never got over me remarrying. And his stepmom and he never got along.” Wilson glanced at Axel. “I suppose he told you all this?”

Axel shook his head. “No. Not . . . really.”

Wilson had stopped on the boardwalk. Turned to look at the river, the dusk shrouding it, the night starting to darken, a pale moon rising in the east.

Music rose from the band shell, Oaken greeting a cheering crowd.

“We were close. We did a lot of fishing and hunting . . .” He put his hands is his jacket. “I tried to help him.”

“I’m sure you did.”

“He didn’t deserve to die.” Wilson met his eyes. “He was . . . broken.”

“He tried to kill me.”

“Because you tried to kill him.”

The fist in Axel’s chest returned. Tightened. “Uh . . . you do know that he hunted me down—with Flynn—right? Wilson, your son was a serial killer.”

“He was misunderstood.” Wilson pulled his hand from his pocket and stepped back, just out of reach of Axel. “Everyone calls you a hero. You should have saved my son.”

He held a gun, a .44 magnum, a bear pistol. It would stop an angry bear.

Do worse to Axel.

Axel held up a hand. “Hey?—”

“Hey!”

He stiffened, and Wilson looked past Axel toward the voice.

It was enough for Axel to shove him away, to turn, to warn?—

Flynn.

What—

She sprinted down the boardwalk toward him and Wilson, her red hair aflame against the backdrop of the bonfire, her expression fierce. “Get away from him!”

Who was she?—

“Wilson, I saidback away.”

Oh.But even as Axel turned back, she flew past him, on her way to chase down Wilson, who’d taken off running.

“Flynn! He has a gun!” But maybe she knew that.

Or didn’t—he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to let her find out. He took off after her, running hard. “Flynn!”

She’d come back. And he wanted to hope it was forhim, but?—

He easily ran her down, grabbed her around the waist, and pulled her up, even as Wilson disappeared into the darkness.

She elbowed him, but he hung on.

“Calm down!”

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