Page 92 of What We May Be

“How do you know you wouldn’t be happier without her?”

“You don’t have to kill her to make that happen,” Trevor spoke up from a few feet away. “We’ll leave.”

Wallace whipped around, lowering his knife arm. “And you’ll stay away?”

“If that’s what Annie wants.” He took the same path as Annie, keeping Wallace distracted while Sean snuck from one pillar to the next, inching closer. “She’s my family too. I’m on your team. I just want her to be happy.”

Annie extended a hand toward Wallace. “Hand me the weapons and let’s work this out.”

His hand shook around the knife, and he started to reach to Annie, to hand it over, but then the wail of police sirens pierced the air and chaos erupted. Annie surged forward, Trevor pushed her out of the way, and Wallace gripped Charlie by the hair once more, spinning them to face off against Trevor and Annie. Standing behind her, Wallace pressed the knife’s blade against Charlie’s throat.

The sirens instantly died. Sean, who was now behind her and Wallace, must have radioed them to hold.

Annie stepped in front of Trevor. “Wally, please, don’t do this.”

“Do you love me?”

“Of course I do.”

“More than you love her?” He jerked Charlie’s neck farther back, the sharpened edge of the knife skating over her skin.

Annie hesitated, and Charlie winced. It was the honest but wrong response.

“I didn’t think so,” Wallace said. “But you will when she’s not here to confuse you, to put others in your path. Don’t you see? She’s Lady Macbeth. And I won’t let her ruin your life anymore.”

“Wally, please,” Annie begged, straining against Trevor’s arm around her waist.

“You’ll see, Annabelle. You’ll be better off without her too. Me, you, and Trevor.Our family will be better off without her. It’s what Cal would’ve wanted.” His words took on a hysterical edge. The end was near. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let her ruin your life anymore.”

Wallace pressed the knife harder against her throat. The fear of imminent death chilled Charlie to the bone. But then Trevor’s eyes shot over her shoulder. When they came back to Charlie, they were hard and focused. He blinked twice in quick succession. Reading his message, she leaned forward and took the sting of the knife’s blade for a split second before ramming her head back into Wallace’s face.

Wallace stumbled, his hold loosening as the knife clattered to the ground. Charlie ripped free, falling forward into Trevor’s arms at the same time Sean captured Wallace from behind. He kicked the knife out of Wallace’s reach and took him down, knees to the ground. Disarming him, he tossed the gun aside with the knife and cuffed Wallace’s wrists behind his back.

“I did it for you,” he cried woefully to Annie. “Shakespeare was your favorite. I just wanted you to see me.”

Annie ripped out of Charlie’s and Trevor’s arms. “Not like this, you didn’t.” Her voice was powerful, confident, and spitting nails. “I love my sister. All my family. And as for Shakespeare, you do not get to use the silent voices of wronged women, fictional or not, to make your fucking point.” She started to turn, then paused and loomed over Wallace again, unleashing all the temper they’d inherited from their mother. “And I owe my sister for my happiness. She introduced me to the man of my dreams, and this baby in my belly will be named Charlie if it’s the last fucking thing I do.”

Charlie didn’t think it was possible to be more in awe of a person than she was of her sister right then, and she held on tight, telling her so, when Annie charged into her and Trevor’s arms. “You are the bravest woman I know.”

“Right back atcha, sis.”

“You okay?” Sean asked as he jerked Wallace up by his cuffed wrists.

“It’s over now,” Charlie said as Trevor used a fishing knife to cut through the ropes around her wrists. She swiped at her neck, coming away with a faint smear of blood. “Just a nick.”

Sean nodded, then led Wallace over to one of the pillars where two officers waited.

Bindings gone, she cradled her broken arm against her chest and relaxed into Trevor’s and Annie’s hold. The lingering knot in Charlie’s gut finally let up when Sean joined them, his arms wrapped around them.

Her family safe.

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