Page 63 of Cold Case Discovery

“Am I clear now? You can either fight and die right here or you can get on your feet and move.”

Chloe held Jack’s pained gaze. She couldn’t let him die here. She couldn’t. But they couldn’t go deeper into this cave. Not with his wound, not with her mother’s plans clear. Jen wanted it too much, when it would be so easy to just shoot them right now.

Clearly she had something deeper in the cave where she thought she could kill them and get away with it. Chloe would die before she gave her mother that.

It had to end right now. “Sounds like it’s easier for you if we move. So maybe we choose to die right here.”

“Do you think I won’t shoot you both?”

Chloe knew she would. Knew this wasn’t looking good. But if they walked any farther, it would be over. And maybe no one would ever find them. Another Hudson mystery.

No. She wouldn’t let that happen. “If you’re going to kill us, I’d much prefer you get caught.”

Fury stamped all over her mother’s features. It reminded Chloe too much of a childhood she’d spent a lot of time blocking out. Her therapist had told her not remembering a lot was abad sign, and now Chloe fully understood what she meant by that. She’d blocked outthis. That violence. That total lack of empathy for another human being.

Chloe didn’t want to leave Jack’s side, but she forced herself to stand. To face her mother. “And if you’re going to kill us anyway, I might as wellfight.” She took a few steps forward, bracing herself for pain, for a gunshot wound to stop her in her tracks.

But instead, there was a voice.

“Drop your weapons.”

Chloe whirled around, and nearly wept right then. Carlyle stood next to her brother, Zeke, both with guns trained on Jen and Courtney.

But Chloe also knew her mother. So she dove immediately into her mother’s legs, hoping to knock her off her feet so she wouldn’t have a chance to shootanyone. It worked. Jen tumbled down on top of Chloe, but not before another gunshot went off.

Hopefully Carlyle’s or Zeke’s. Please, God. She scrambled out from her mother’s weight. Jen kicked, clawed, pulled, but Chloe could fight too. She managed to get the gun from her mother, to wrestle her into submission.

Zeke came over to her and knelt on the other side of Jen, pulling out a zip-tie and using it to bind her hands together. Chloe looked over at Courtney. She was in the same position as Jen now, so Zeke must have gotten her first.

Chloe pushed to her feet. They needed to get Jack to the hospital. A gunshot wound to his shoulder wasn’t good, but if they could get him...

He was lying completely prone on the floor now. More blood. Not just on his shoulder, but lower. Carlyle had something pressed to his abdomen. He’d been shot again.No, no, no.

She scrambled over to him. Repeating his name. Maybe crying. She didn’t know. But he was pale, and he wasn’t moving or responding to her in any way andoh God.

“He’s breathing, Chloe,” Carlyle said sharply. “So put something on that shoulder.”

Chloe looked around for something, even as tears clouded her vision. But then chaos erupted around them. Just absolute chaos. Screaming. Yelling. Pounding footsteps. But she just concentrated on Jack’s breathing. Because he was breathing. She felt like as long as she stayed here, her hand on his chest, his heart, she couldwillhim to keep breathing. As long as he was breathing...

Someone pulled her off, and she fought them. If they pulled her away... If...

“Let the medics help,” Zeke said, firm and authoritative in her ear as he banded her arms at her sides to stop her from fighting him.

Carlyle stepped in front of her, blocking her view of Jack. Jack. Who’d been shot twice.Twice. Because of her.

“They’re going to take him to the hospital. He’s going to be okay,” Carlyle said.

“How do you know?” Chloe demanded.

And Carlyle didn’t answer. Because the truth was, he might not be. And she would always have to live with that.

Zeke’s grip on her loosened. She would have crumpled then and there, but Carlyle held her up by an arm. Medics were working to find a way to get Jack out of the small crevice of the entrance.

A couple of cops had Jen and Courtney cuffed, face down on the cave ground. They screamed and argued and fought, but they weren’t going to be a problem anymore. They were going to go to prison. For murder. Multiple murders.

It should have been a relief, but nothing would feel like relief until she knew Jack would be okay.

They had to stand in this awful cave while the medics got Jack out, while the police got Jen and Courtney out. Chloe would have hyperventilated if not for Carlyle rubbing a supportive hand up and down her back.

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