Page 113 of Fatal Vision
He’d do it all over again—be a human shield—if it saved Shelby.
That night—the one when he’d saved the mother and son—he’d try to talk to the gunman, draw him out and get him to lower his weapon. To surrender peacefully.
The SEALs had trained him to be a killer, but to respect life and never kill when unnecessary. For a brief instant, he almost allowed that training to kick in.
Zeb, Connor, Denbe, and Jocelyn joined the party, fanning out, guns drawn.
“Why did you do it?” Shelby asked. “What was it about that mission that turned you into a serial killer?”
“You left my brother an invalid.”
TrackMap, as always, was right.
“Lt. Moore,” Shelby said. “He’s yourbrother?”
Ingram’s hand tightened on the gun. “He gave everything to his country and your mission all but killed him. It would have been better if he had died. He’s a shell of the man he used to be.”
Shelby looked pained. “I’m sorry, Theo. None of us wanted that. He was a hero.”
Theo’s whole body shook with rage. “You were in charge, Shelby. I read the reports. If you’d done your job and subdued Quan, my brother would still be here. Really here.”
Shelby’s throat moved as she swallowed. “That may be true, but you had no right to take the lives of those men because of that. It wasn’t their fault.”
“Justice needed to be served.”
Sadness touched Shelby’s face. “So you appointed yourself judge, jury, and executioner?”
“Someone had to.”
“This isn’t the Wild West, Theo.”
“Maybe it should be.”
Her chin lifted and she squeezed the butt of the gun tight with both hands. “By my count, there are five weapons trained on you at this moment besides mine, Agent Ingram. You so much as blink and you won’t be walking out of here. You’ll be carried out on a gurney.”
Agent Ingram. Distancing language. She knew what had to be done and wasn’t afraid to do it.
A faint, sad smile crossed her lips.
Because, like Colton, she respected life, maybe more so than others, but she was never going to let Theo Ingram hurt another human being. She deserved to take revenge on him, the man who had shot her. The man she had trusted and believed was helping her with her case. Her career.
But revenge wasn’t in Shelby’s blood. She believed in justice with all her heart, but she would never shoot Theo out of retribution. An eye for an eye wasn’t her style.
Good thing it was Colton’s.
He pulled the trigger.
The shot boomed through the broken house, Ingram’s hand exploding and his gun flying into the air. He screamed and was knocked backward by another round that hit him in the shoulder.
This one from Shelby.
He stumbled and fell over a chair. Shelby stayed right with him, her gun ready to fire again, her leg not slowing her down in the least.
As he writhed on the floor in pain, Shelby bent over and placed her gun—which Colton realized looked suspiciously like Jon’s—right in Theo’s shoulder wound. She gave a push and the man cried out. “That was for Sabrina, you asshole.”
Ingram screamed obscenities, and Colton made a note that maybe Shelbydidhave a little bit of an eye for an eye mentality.
And then she kicked Ingram in the ribs. With her bad leg, no less.
