Page 85 of Real Good Love
The sight before me doesn’t make any sense. “Did you call the cops, Emmy? Rusty has Julianne, Nicole, and Timmons inside.”
Her mouth drops open into a littleO. “You don’t say?”
A shot is fired in the cabin, and Julianne’s muffled voice goes quiet.
Instead of fear, the only feeling inside me is the familiar coldness I honed as a marine.
Emmy smiles, but it’s not a smile like I’ve ever seen before. “Who do you think he shot?” She blinks, and the smile dies. “You’re gonna be next, Logan, if you don’t put that gun on the ground like I said.”
One thing you learn real fast in battle is that not having a gun means you’re dead.
Emmy swings the gun back to Memphis. “You have three seconds before I shoot her, and it’ll be all your fault that she dies. At this range, there’s no way I can miss.”
Knowing she was captain of the girl’s trap-shooting team in high school, I don’t doubt her aim for a second. And nothing except the loss of someone else’s life could convince me to put my gun down.
I crouch and lay it in the leaves at my feet.
“Do I look like an idiot? Kick it toward me.”
I follow her directions, but start talking. “Whatever Rusty made you do, you can tell Cody and Timmons, and I’m sure they’ll understand it was all under duress.”
Emmy laughs. “Timmons is already dead. And now you’re all gonna join him because I’m not going down for this. Can you imagine what my parents would say?”
“Why’d you do it, Emmy?” This question comes from Memphis. “The meth? I know you’ve been using your supplier’s trucks to ship it out of town, and you planted it in Logan’s shop and set the explosion as a distraction.”
Emmy narrows her eyes on Memphis, making me wish the woman would shut up, because the look on Emmy’s face says her patience is gone.
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you? Big-city reporter, coming down here and getting into things that are none of your business. What makes you think I have anything to do with it?”
Memphis, who I have to admit has a pair of brass balls, sounds bored as she replies. “I followed the money. And you’ve been hemorrhaging it for over a year. Your CPA sold you out, Emmy. Don’t ever stop paying your accountant. They know all the dirty secrets. What are your parents going to think when they find out you spent every dollar the restaurant made and more? It’s embezzlement when you don’t own it.”
“Fucking Ashcroft. He’ll pay. I’ve got more dirt on him than he’ll survive.” Emmy’s tone drips acid as she talks about the CPA.
The door to the cabin slams, and Rusty comes around the side of the building, gun in hand.
“Ain’t this quite the little party. Too bad they’ll never find your bodies.”
“Whose idea was it?” Memphis asks, apparently not able to resist her reporter’s nature.
“The meth?” Rusty shrugs. “Mine. And since Emmy didn’t have a problem keeping Timmons too busy fucking her tight little cunt to investigate a damn thing, we could’ve kept this going forever.” He shakes his head. “But no. Y’all had to get nosy.”
The pieces fall together.
“You stole from your family and sold meth to make the money back.” My tone is low, but Emmy’s attention swings back to me.
“I knew you were more than just a pretty face and a hard body, Logan. It’s too bad you didn’t fall in line. I really would’ve liked to marry you. I wouldn’t have spent nearly so much money on that house if I hadn’t been making it perfect for us.”
“The hell you say,” Rusty interjects. “You said you were over him. That house was gonna be for you and me. You’re just a cheating bitch like the rest of them, aren’t you? I bet you liked fucking Timmons too.”
Rusty raises his gun at Emmy, but Emmy’s quicker on the trigger. The percussion from the shot is deafening at close range.
I grab Memphis’s arm and drag her to the ground before diving for my gun. But Emmy has already turned, and the barrel of her revolver presses against my forehead as my hand reaches metal.
“No one calls me a bitch,” Emmy says, her tone conversational. “Especially not Rusty Mills.”
“Oh really, because I have no fucking problem calling you a bitch.”
Something inside me dies when I hear Banner’s voice ring out from beyond the cabin, and the barrel lifts from my head as Emmy turns toward her.
