Page 123 of Fortune's Control
“That’s bullshit.” Davis cocked his gun and trained it on Lilah. “Who else is here? My partner, I’ll bet. What are you? Bait to flush us outside or a distraction while he waits for backup? I know you hick types. A bunch of dumb fools thinking they know better. I’ve interviewed plenty of smarter criminals than you.”
Jack’s jaw ticked, but he offeredno further reaction.
“You killed our friend. Isn’t that enough? Put the gun down and go. No one will stop you. Frankly, we don’t care where, as long as it’s out of this town. I’ll wave you goodbye.”
Jack risked another step forward, and the old floor creaked, betraying his presence.
“What the--” Davis didn’t get to finish.
Jack squeezed the trigger, and red bloomed on the detective’s cream shirt. He let out a gargled noise and fell to his knees, dropping the revolver.
Lilah screamed as I leaped at Nelson. He rolled off her and onto me as we battled for his knife.
“I’m not an easy victim like the young woman you target.”
The muscles in his arm drew the knife closer to my chest. I covered his hand with my own and smiled.
The knife twisted and turned, so the blade’s tip angled closer to his shoulder. I strained, pushing as he fought against me, and the knife sank into his flesh with one last stroke.
Nelson screamed and fell back as Jack’s boot landed on the guy’s side. He yelped as another kick landed on his chest.
“You stabbed me.” He touched the knife as if he meant to remove it, but then gave up. Tears and snot streamed down his face. “You killed my brother. He was my only family.”
Wounded and without his brother to help, he shrank into himself, revealing the weak coward he’d always been.
“You’re lucky the police are here, or you’d be dead, too.” I whistled a second time. “This way, the victim’s families get some justice.”
Moore, along with several deputies, swarmed into the cabin, and another kind of chaos took over.
Lilah flung herself into my arms, and I gripped her, afraid to let go. “Are you okay?”
She clung to me and let out a sharp, ragged breath. “I knew you would come.”
I stroked her hair, desperate to search her body for any scratch or wound, no matter how minor. “Always. I’ll always come for you.”
43-Shane
Lilah gripped my mother’s old quilt against her as we watched two deputies escort Nelson Davis into an ambulance. She pulled it over her shoulders, despite June’s heat, as the door slammed shut behind him.
“Is that it? Is it over?”
“It’s over,” I said.
Lilah repeated my words, and I couldn’t tell which of us spoke with more relief.
“Aiden. They killed him.” Her lip quivered as she wiped a cheek. “He tried to protect me, and they killed him for it.”
“He’s alive.” Her mouth fell open. “The bullet hit his shoulder, and he might have a concussion, but that’s it.” I showed the location on my body before placing my arm over her. Lilah settled against me as a covered body exited the cabin.
“Oh, thank goodness. We need to see him, Shane. I want to see him.”
“We will. Soon.”
Jack came up next to us. “It’ll be ruled self-defense.” He wracked both hands through his overgrown hair, sending it into a wild tangle, and undercutting his matter-of-fact delivery. “With our three statements, and the detective corroborating what he first witnessed, it’s straightforward.”
Detective Moore approached us, using his body to block Lilah’s view of his former partner being loaded into a second ambulance. “He confessed to two more incidents, believing it’dinvite leniency for some damn reason.” He raised his brows, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Birmingham and Savannah?” Lilah guessed.
