Page 131 of The Woman Who Couldn't Scream
Kateri fought back, angry enough to punch Lilith in the face but too aware of Lilith’s desperation to do it. Lilith dragged her across the room.
Kateri saw a flash of movement behind Lilith. Someone—a man—stepped through the doorway and slammed his rifle butt into Lilith’s head.
Lilith dropped like a rock… leaving Kateri facing John Terrance and the rifle that was pointed right at her.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Time froze. Kateri froze. And what had been terror when she faced Lilith’s pistol cooled and hardened to become something more, something stronger. Courage, maybe, in its rawest and most foolish form.
She eased back a step. “John Terrance. I knew you weren’t dead.”
John Terrance grinned, all triumph and dingy teeth. “You aren’t that lucky.”
“Obviously not.” Her walking stick was leaning against the wall. Her service pistol hung on her belt holster. She didn’t dare reach for either one.
He wanted to kill her. He intended to kill her. Options were limited. She needed time. “How did you get in?” she asked.
“Back door was unlocked. Practically an invitation.”
Great. Lilith had used her key to get in and like the damned idiot she was, she had failed to lock the door behind her.
Kateri glanced at Lilith’s unmoving figure and the giant lump forming on the side of her head. “You hurt my sister, may have killed her.”
He poked his mud-splashed boot at Lilith. “Might have. What do you care? I couldn’t believe it when I came in the door and you two darlin’s were havin’ a catfight. Nothing like a couple of women wrestlers to get my juices flowing.” He dropped one hand below his belt and cupped his junk. “I always wanted to fuck a sheriff.”
“Any sheriff?” Since all the previous Virtue Falls sheriffs had been male.
“I prefer female, but sure. Any sheriff.”
Or any knothole in a tree.Maybe being shot by a deer rifle wasn’t such a bad fate. She shifted back another step toward her staff. “Ihopedyou had died.”
“I’ll bet you did.” He leaned toward her, skinny, sunburned, his faded blue eyes alight with malice. “I’m all infected on my backside. I can’t survive this. Iamgoing to die. What do I care what happens next? As long as I get revenge for my boy, for myself.”
Crap. This was a suicide mission. He didn’t have anything to lose.
“I don’t know who killed your boy,” she said.
“Bullshit. You ran the ballistics on the bullet.”
“The gun’s not registered.”
“Bullshit. Bullshit!” John Terrance went from coldly pleased to hotly furious in an instant. “You… you’re lying. You know who killed my boy.Youkilled my boy!”
“I was bleeding on the floor of the Oceanview Café!”
“One of your officers…”
“No!” She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye.
Lilith was crawling away.
So she wasn’t dead. Thank God. She might be the worst sister in the whole world, but Kateri didn’t wish death on her. Kateri moved to the side, away from her walking stick, drawing Terrance’s attention from Lilith’s slow escape. “The shot that killed your son was from an unregistered handgun.”
Lilith scraped the button of her cuff across the linoleum.
John Terrance half-turned. The rifle dipped and wavered.
Kateri said, “But I won’t lie to you, Terrance. I don’t give a shit who killed your son. As long as he’s dead.” She screamed a war cry and attacked.
