Page 106 of The Last Dance You Saved
“Get your hands off her!” I shoved myself to my feet and stepped forward, but Adam caught me, twisting my wrist and making my eyes water.
“Open the safe,” he said, voice dark and threatening. “Give me the diamonds, and we’ll leave Fallon alone.”
“Don’t you dare speak for me,” Theresa spat out.
He glanced over to where Theresa had shoved Fallon into the chair behind the desk.
I scanned the office, cataloging the contents, wondering what the hell I could use as a weapon, wishing once again I had a goddamn gun. Instead, I had a pocket knife that was miles away in a desk drawer and knives in the kitchen that might as well be as far away as the ranch. My gaze landed on the screwdriver sitting on the desk that I’d used to fix the roller wheel on the desk chair.
“The diamonds can’t get my brother out of jail, but maybe I’ll take a piece of Rafe’s daughter for every year my brother was sentenced to serve.” Theresa cocked the gun that was pressed into Fallon’s temple, and my breath evaporated.
My gaze caught Fallon’s, and I shot a glance to the screwdriver sitting on the edge of the desk in front of her. She looked down and saw it before her gaze flew to Adam as he squeezed my wrist until I gasped with pain.
“Stop procrastinating, Sadie, and open the goddamn safe.” A part of me thought maybe he was rushing me in order to stop his partner from hurting Fallon.
I nodded just as a shuffle drew our attention back to the desk. Fallon had misunderstood me, and she’d gone for my phone sitting next to my bag. Theresa smacked her with the butt of the gun, and it sent the rolling chair into the wall. Fallon cried out, and my hands fisted.
The bile in my stomach ate up my esophagus, making my voice crack as I said, “I need the rolling alarm code as well as my fingerprint to open the safe. The number is in my text messages.”
Adam stalked over to my phone and came back to me, shoving it into my face to unlock it. He swiped through the messages, found the text with the passcode, and then pocketed it before drawing out a small gun. It took me several seconds to recognize it as the Liliput I’d had back at the ranch. More chills ran up my spine as I realized he had to have been there after I’d left it behind on Sunday.
Adam saw my gaze fixated on the weapon, and he laughed, dark and scathing. “Rafe doesn’t know his childhood home as well as I do. Everyone was scrambling, looking for us in the hills and down in Mexico, when we were right there inside the house the entire time.”
“You know about the secret passages!” Fallon blurted.
My mind blanked. God…he’d been at the ranch this whole time? There were secret passages there that Fallon had known about? He could have done anything to Rafe and Lauren! Jesus. Were they even okay? When was the last time Fallon had talked to them? I couldn’t pull the answer, and it made my legs wobble and my heart scream.
“You weren’t in Mexico,” I said, shaking my head.
“Easy enough to pay someone to take some cash out for you. Now quit stalling,” Adam said, pointing his gun at me. “Open the safe.”
I forced my feet to move, and I’d just opened the outer door of the cabinet where the safe was hidden when he closed the distance between us. He shoved the gun into my neck, pressed himself into me so I felt him everywhere, and whispered in my ear, “Don’t try to outsmart me, Sadie. Theresa was wrong about one thing. Hurlys know how to get vengeance. We just don’t splash it around like the Puzos. Tommy got a piece of it from Beatrice, Lauren got her hands on the ranch, and I’ll savor what I get from you. Theresa has been a tool, and her usefulness has drawn to a close. Give me the jewels, I’ll leave Fallon here unharmed, and you and I can take a ride.”
I fought the tremor of disgust that wound through me.
“What the fuck are you two whispering about?” Theresa demanded, whirling her gun away from Fallon and taking a step toward us.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Fallon’s hand snake the screwdriver from the desk while Theresa was turned away. The smart girl had used the phone as a distraction in order to give her time to get the tool. Now, I just had to be as smart and brave as she was—as my little, tiny niece had once been.
“Just a promise,” Adam told Theresa, catching my eye. “A promise of payback.”
I placed my finger on the safe’s scanner, and Adam leaned over me to type in the code. When we heard the lock disengage, he shoved me aside.
My heart pounded against my rib cage with a bruising viciousness as I slowly eased away from him, trying to get closer to Fallon and the desk.
“Stop moving!” Theresa groused, pointing the gun at me as she asked, “Are they there?”
He pulled out the velvet bag with the jewelry in it, smiling large and wide when he looked inside and saw the jewelry. He draped the string around his wrist as he shot me a look of hateful promise. “You know what happens to liars, Sadie? Extra punishment.”
He turned back to the safe and grabbed the deposit bag I’d shoved in there last night when I’d been too tired to drop it at the bank. With most people using a card nowadays, I didn’t have to make the run so often, but it had built up while I’d been gone, and the bag was full.
“Looks like Sadie has given us an extra present.” He flung the bag at Theresa. As she lifted a hand to catch it, the other one with the gun drifted downward, and Adam used the distraction to shoot her in the chest with the Liliput.
A deep mahogany spread across the vivid red of her tank. Shock stretched over her face, followed by rage. The money bag fell to the floor, the pistol in her hand lowered, and Fallon stabbed her arm with the screwdriver. Theresa screamed in fury, but the gun tumbled to the floor. I lunged for it, but a second shot from Adam’s weapon had me freezing before I could reach it.
“Don’t anyone move another muscle,” he said in a deadly calm.
Theresa put her hands to her chest, trying to staunch the blood. Her voice was sharp and brittle with pain and anger as she stumbled toward Adam. “You shitbag, two-timing—”
