Page 64 of Grissom
Moreno had a handful of her hair wrapped around his fist, keeping her head tipped back and her chin up. She had to be drugged as spacey as she looked. Her green eyes were fixed on nothing but dead air over her head. He’d flex-cuffed her hands behind her back. She was no longer the gutsy woman Grissom had, just hours earlier, worked with to keep his wife from killing his youngest son. This Tuesday was either too weak to fight back or she’d given up.
“Tuesday,” Grissom called out, needing her eyes on him. Needing her to know he was there. That she wasn’t alone. “I’m here, love. I’ve come to take you home.”
Moreno snarled something, but Grissom only had eyes and ears for the woman he adored.
She didn’t respond, damn it. Didn’t even blink that she’d heard him.
Panic whispered,“Loser.”
“What the fuck did you give her?” Grissom shrieked, his patience unraveling, despite Alex’s stern warning minutes earlier.
“Why should I tell you?” Moreno bellowed. “You guys aren’t cops. There’s no way I’m leaving without this bitch, so get outta the way. Frederick Lamb’s widow’s my ticket outta here, and yous guys are gonna get her killed if you don’t let me pass. You think I won’t end her?”
“No way that’ll happen,” Maverick declared from behind Grissom.
Grissom hadn’t realized he’d bypassed his teammate and gotten as close to Moreno as he was. His pistols were still up, both trained on Sal’s ugly face, but the jerk kept dodging behind Tuesday, making a solid headshot impossible. There’d be no chance of a body shot either, not with Moreno jerking her back and forth like he was.Where the hell is Alex?
“Tuesday. Love. Look at me.” Grissom tried again, desperate to get through to her. “Luke’s in the hospital, sweetheart. Kelsey, Judy, China, and Persia are watching over him until you get back. He’s going to be okay, so is Tanner. He’s with Rory and Ember at their house, with Tyler. My boys need you, Tuesday. Everyone’s waiting for you to come home.”
Not even a blink, damn it.
“What’d you do to her?” Grissom bellowed. “If you hurt her, I’ll—!”
“I ain’t the one who shot her!” Moreno bellowed back, shaking Tuesday like a limp ragdoll again. “That crazy ex-wife of yours did! She wanted this bitch dead, but all I want is what’s mine, the money Lamb owes me. We had a deal, him and me, but he went and got himself killed. I’m supposed to be a billionaire, not chasing that wife of yours.”
“Pam McCoy hired you?” Maverick asked.
Grissom knew what he was doing, asking pertinent questions, unraveling the mysteries behind this disastrous day, and gathering intel while he could. Before Alex ended Moreno. Giving Alex time to get in position.
“Your ex-wife? Hire me?” Disbelief contorted Moreno’s ugly face. “I wish! I coulda used the cash, but that bitch said she was dead-assed broke, sos I been tracking this one” —he jerked Tuesday’s head back farther still— “since she got back from Costa Rica. Mrs. Lamb here’s the one with cash. Almost lost her when she went to the Hamptons. Don’t know how she got away from me, but that’s when I seen your wife casing Jeff Lamb’s place like I was. Figured maybe she knew something I didn’t sos I bought her a couple drinks and—”
“You and Pam McCoy decided to kidnap Miss Smart and force her to marry you?” Maverick barked. “Why? So you two could live happily ever after you killed her?”
Moreno’s shoulder lifted inside his bulky jacket. “We was going to let her live. Honest. All I want’s what’s coming to me, and to get that, this bitch has to marry me, soon as yous guys—”
Tuesday’s head fell back on her shoulders, and—CRACK! Her sneak attack happened so fast and was so unexpected, Grissom nearly blinked and missed the back of her skull smashing Moreno’s ugly face.
“You bitching whore!” he shrieked, blood gushing down his chin and neck. Both hands went for his nose. Big mistake. That was all the world’s top sniper needed to—
BOOM!
One shot.
Came out of nowhere.
Echoed like a cannon under the low ceiling.
Moreno’s beady eyes blinked at the sudden impact of the nine-millimeter round Alex had just sent through his cranium. Blood, bone shards, and brain matter whooshed into the air behind him. His fingers stiffened. His body jerked. Rivulets of red streamed out of his mouth. More trickled from the hole between his eyes. His revolver clattered to the floor and he dropped to the ground.
Without Moreno holding her upright, Tuesday’s knees buckled. Grissom dived for her, catching her before she landed on Moreno. Hurriedly, Grissom holstered his pistols, then tipped her forward and sliced the flex-cuffs with the blade from his boot sheath.
Maverick stepped between Grissom and Moreno, securing the dead man’s revolver.
Alex had a finger in his ear, cursing at some poor soul to send a “son-of-a-bitchin’ ambulance!”
Grissom’s need to hug Tuesday was squelched the moment she fell limp against his chest. Tiny beads of sweat dotted her forehead. Her arms were clammy, and her coloring was pale. Too pale. Her poor feet were bare and bloody. Worse, the dark red stain on her hip.
He tipped her into the crook of his arm to get a better look, desperately searching beneath her shirt for that wound. Too quickly, his fingertips connected with a sodden streak above her hip bone. Moreno hadn’t done anything to stop the bleeding. Not so much as a fuckin’ Band-Aid.
