Page 86 of Whiskey and Whispers
Winnie wiped her cheek with the back of her hand while the other still pointed the gun at her head.
“I didn’t want to do it, but I had to.”
“Winnie, you don’t want to shoot yourself. A man isn’t worth dying over. Put down the gun. Shooting yourself isn’t going tosolve anything. I think, truly, you wish you hadn’t shot Tyler as well. I think you regret it.”
Blood still roared in Cat’s ears and her heart slammed against her ribs, but she forced herself to at least sound calm even if she didn’t feel it. She didn’t want to make any sudden movements, spooking Winnie into pulling the trigger.
She hadn’t been around her friend group for ten years, but she simply couldn’t believe that Winnie was a cold-blooded killer.
That’s probably what Tyler thought, too. Get real here.
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” Winnie sobbed, more tears flowing down her now-red face. “I only wanted to scare him. I just wanted him to know how much I loved him.”
Okay, that was a pretty screwed up way to do it, but this wasn’t the moment to point it out.
The sudden sound of the doorbell caught both Cat and Winnie off guard, and for a split second, Cat thought the woman might pull the trigger by accident. Luckily, she didn’t appear all that adept with a handgun, and it almost slipped out of her fingers before she caught it.
The doorbell rang again, along with a sharp knock.
“This is the sheriff,” a loud voice came through the wooden door. “Please open the door. Once again, this is the sheriff.”
Cat didn’t have a clue why Finn was here, but she was glad that he was. Later, once she’d survived, she’d have to tell him that she hadn’t been in any danger until he arrived. Five minutes later, and she would have been driving to Tate’s place completely unaware that Winnie carried a gun in her purse.
“Don’t turn around,” Winnie hissed. “And don’t make a noise. He’ll leave eventually.”
“He knows we’re in here,” Cat whispered. “Our cars are out front. He’s not going to just leave. You need to put down the gun and talk to him. Let him help you.”
“He’ll help me into a prison cell. Now shut up while I think. I can’t think with you talking.”
More knocking, much like angry banging than anything.
“This is the sheriff. Open the door now.”
Winnie’s wavering arm swung widely away from herself and to the right, before a blast from the gun deafened Cat’s ears.
“No one moves,” Winie yelled, the gun still pointed at the door. Had the bullet gone through and hit Finn? “Stay out there or I’ll shoot again.”
Tate, I love you. Mom, I love you. Shit, I don’t want this to be the end.
Cat was smack dab in the middle of a standoff with the police.
And she was the hostage.
Adrenaline racing, Tate was ready to claw his way into that house to get Cat away from what appeared to be a crazed Winnie with a gun. If there was any question as to whether she was Tyler’s killer, there wasn’t now.
The how and why could be figured out later. Right now, the imperative was to get Cat out alive and get the gun away from Winnie. The woman he loved was trapped with a killer.
“I’ll go around the back,” Tate said, his mind whirling with possibilities. “The back door might still be unlocked from the house tour. If not, I’ll try some windows.”
“And get yourself killed,” Finn replied, gritting his teeth. “Winnie isn’t afraid to pull the trigger. Luckily, she’s a lousy shot. She hit the door frame and not me. We might not be so fortunate next time.”
“So what’s your plan, because I’m not going to sit here while Winnie’s in there threatening to shoot Cat.”
Neither Tate nor Finn had expected any of this. While there had been a chance that Winnie was the killer, he hadn’t expected a showdown upon their arrival.
“I’m going to try and negotiate with her,” Finn replied. “Hopefully, I can talk her into surrendering.”
“She just tried to shoot you,” Tate pointed out. “I don’t think she wants to be taken alive.”
