Page 115 of Night Hawk
“You’ll have them bring the car right up to the porch, leave it running, and the three of us will slide in and drive off.”
“You don’t really think they’ll let you leave, do you?” A cough worked itself up Toni’s throat, but she did her best to minimize it and not scare Rachel even more.
“Of course they will.” Ursula tightened her hold on Rachel’s shoulders. “Or this one will die.”
Rachel whimpered.
“She’s lying, Rachel,” Toni said in her most soothing tone. “You aren’t going to die, and I’ll make sure you’re reunited with your mother. Did you know she’s my sister? That makes me your aunt. And we’ll have the best time getting to know each other.”
“Oh, do shut up,” Ursula said. “Now, slowly open the window and call out to your fellow officer to get my car. Keys are inside.”
“Always planning for a swift getaway, are you?” Toni asked, stalling while she figured a way out of this. “Only people who break the law need to do that.”
“Please. After all these years, you can’t insult me.”
“You mean because you’ve been a criminal for so long?” Toni noticed movement behind the arch, but didn’t let on and needed to stall. “I don’t get it. Why start the fire to kill the girls?”
“I had no one left to manage them. I need to start over. This child would be my beginning again like I’d hoped with Lisa.”
“Then,youtook Lisa?” Toni tried not to sound surprised.
Ursula stroked Rachel’s hair. “She was a beauty like this one. When Nolan told me about her, I knew I needed to have her. So I put Sharkey in charge. He was infatuated with me and did whatever I asked. Luckily, Lisa played right into our hands. Came out to look at the ocean, and he snatched her up. I took Sharkey on as my lover as a reward.”
Through the arch, Toni saw Clay moving her way. He signaled for her to keep talking, and she had to work hard not to let on that he was creeping up behind Ursula.
“And you’ve had her all these years,” Toni said.
“Not me. The fool Hibbard. He fell for her. He wanted her in his life and kept her pure, kept her with him until she was old enough to bear a child.”
“So which one of you tried to kill Clay Byrd and me at the school?”
She frowned. “One of my stupid guards. He fell for one of the girls and wanted to take her out of the business. No way I could allow that. She convinced him to leave you notes to come to the school. Hoped you’d find her there. But I got wind of it, of course, and moved them. Can’t pull anything over on me. The fire and snake were my little surprise for you.”
Toni opened her mouth to say Ursula didn’t know about the initials Rachel left behind, but Toni didn’t want Ursula to get angry at Rachel, so she clamped her mouth closed.
“He was just like Hibbard, except I let Hibbard live because of his connections and what he could do to increase my business,” Ursula continued. “They should both have known there’s no room in this business for sentimentality. We don’t need relationships.”
“So that’s how you could so callously leave Jason behind,” Toni said, seeing Clay inch closer.
Ursula’s face turned to an iron mask. “I didn’t have a choice. Fritz forced my hand. But make no mistake. I saw the boy from the day after I left until you all arrested him. And I had Zach until you took him from me.”
“And Jason is going to spend most of his life in prison, if we have anything to say about it. You’ll be right behind him, but you’ll never be released.”
Ursula sat forward, her chest rising and falling as her face contorted with anger, just the reaction Toni was hoping for as it took her mind off the fact that Toni wasn’t listening to her command. Her hand with the gun lowered a fraction, and she launched into a tirade about how unfair law enforcement officers were and how Jason didn’t deserve to be where he was and Zach shouldn’t have died. She seemed not to remember she was holding Rachel anymore.
Toni gave Clay an almost imperceptible nod.
He took the last steps and grabbed Ursula’s arm. He raised it to the ceiling and wrenched the gun from her hand then poked her gun in her back. “Don’t move.”
Toni dropped to her knees and held out her arms. “Come here, Rachel.”
The child bolted across the room and flung herself into Toni’s arms. Toni held her fast. “I got your notes. The ones with your initials. That was very brave of you.”
“I wanted to leave. She was being mean, telling Daddy I had to go to work. I know what work means. I didn’t want to.”
Toni met Clay’s gaze over Rachel’s shoulder. “I promise she’s going to prison, and you’ll never have to worry about that kind of work ever again.”
Clay stood outside the house, the area lit up with flames and the twirling lights of emergency vehicles. He watched as Trent’s deputies put Ursula and her two goons into patrol cars. Thankfully, Trent hadn’t been hit by the guard’s bullet, and had secured both guards in a patrol car, and was directing the activity. A fire crew was fighting the fire that was quickly engulfing the structure, battling it back from the thick trees in the area and medics were checking out the girls.
