Page 154 of Call Back

“Colt’s already sent the text. My father thinks I’m in danger, so if it’s going to work, the trap has been set. We just have to wait. Together. Now, please. Give me the gun.”

Her shoulders slumped as she handed the gun to me, and then she collapsed into my shoulder.

“Colt,” I called out, unsure I could hold her up.

He gave me a look of hesitation, so I said, “She was never going to hurt me.”

Belinda dropped to her knees as Colt took two steps in my direction.

A gunshot went off, ricocheting off the concrete as Rowena shouted, “Everyone stay where they are. Magnolia, toss the gun on the ground, or Kent will shoot Colt.”

Colt looked furious. “Don’t do it, Maggie. I’m sick to death of taking orders.”

Pure evil filled Kent’s eyes. I believed him capable of killing Colt, if for no other reason than because he was bored. But if I tossed the gun, we would be completely unarmed—at least as far as Rowena and Kent were concerned. But maybe that could be to our advantage.

I tossed the gun to the ground, and it bounced, skittering close to Colt.

“Don’t even think of picking that up, Mr. Austin,” Rowena said. “Or Magnolia’s forfeiture of the gun will have been for naught.” Smiling, she lifted her own gun and pointed it at me. “And if I’m going to shoot someone, I have someone else in mind. Like Magnolia said, you already sent the text.”

“No!” Colt shouted.

Several gunshots went off. I automatically dropped to the floor, and my upper arm began to burn as if on fire.

Kent had fallen to the ground, and Colt leaped toward Rowena, tackling her from the side.

I looked down at my bicep in disbelief, watching blood ooze from the wound on my bare skin.

“Maggie?” Colt called out in panic. “Maggie!”

“I’m okay.”

I glanced around, looking for Bill, but he was gone.

“Magnolia!” Belinda gushed as she helped me to a sitting position against the wall. “Colt, she’s been shot.”

“I’m okay,” I said, but my peripheral vision was getting dark.

“We have to get out of here. Now,” Colt said in a tight voice. “Rowena and her goon are dead.” He paused. “And the gold is gone.”

“Bill must have taken it. What are we going to do?” Belinda asked, looking back at Colt. “We have to call the police.”

“No, wait.” Colt gently touched my arm and lowered his voice, but it sounded strained. “It’s superficial, Mags. It just grazed you.” Colt shrugged out of his jacket and then started unbuttoning his shirt before he gave up and ripped off the buttons. “Belinda, don’t let her blood drip on the floor. Keep it on her dress.” He quickly rolled up the shirt, lifted my arm, and wrapped the shirt around it several times before knotting it.

Pain shot through my arm, and I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out.

“Who shot them?” Belinda asked in disbelief. “Bill didn’t even have a gun.”

“I have an idea and we’re not sticking around to find out. Belinda, get your gun off the floor. We can’t leave any trace that we were here.”

She did as he asked while he picked his jacket up off the floor and slipped it on.

“Maggie, look at me,” he said, squatting in front of me. “We have to go. No police, okay?”

“I trust you.” I lifted my gaze from my arm up to his naked chest peeking through his jacket, then up to his face. “I lied.”

He squinted. “You lied about what? You don’t trust me?”

“Your chest. I told you I didn’t want to see it. I lied.”

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