Sandra Brown: Lethal

“What the hell ? Where’s Coburn?”

“He sent me instead. He said you wouldn’t shoot me.”

“He said wrong.” Shit! Doral hadn’t counted on having to kill Honor while face-to-face. “Move away from the car and raise your hands where I can see them. What kind of trick is Coburn trying to pull?”

“He doesn’t need tricks, Doral. He doesn’t even need me any longer. He’s nailed you, thanks to Eddie.”

“What’s Eddie got to do with this?”

“Everything. Coburn found the evidence he had collected.”

Doral’s mouth went dry. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you do. That’s why you killed him.”

“Are you wearing a wire?”

“No! Coburn has already got what he came for. He doesn’t care what happens to me or Emily now. But I care. I want my daughter.”

Doral gripped his pistol tighter. “I told you to get away from the car.”

She stepped from behind the cover of the open door, hands raised. “I won’t do anything, Doral. I’m leaving you to the legal system. Or to Coburn. I don’t care. All I care about is Emily.” Her voice cracked on her daughter’s name. “She loves you. How could you do this to her?”

“You’d be surprised what a person can do.”

“Is she…?”

“She’s fine.”

“She’s not moving.”

“You’ve got only your friend Coburn to blame for this. All this.”

“Why is Emily so still?”

“ Where is Coburn ?”

“Is she dead ?” Honor screamed hysterically.

“Where’s-”

“You’ve already killed her, haven’t you?”

Her screeching roused Emily. She stirred, then lifted her head and murmured, “Mommy?”

“Emily!” she shouted and extended her arms.

Doral began backing away toward his car. “Sorry, Honor. Coburn screwed the pooch.”

“ Emily !”

Hearing her mother, Emily started squirming against him.

“Emily, be still,” he hissed. “It’s Uncle Doral.”

“I want my mommy!” she wailed and began thumping him with her small fists and kicking at his thighs.

Honor continued shouting her name. Emily screamed in his ear.

He released her. She slid to the pavement, then ran toward the car, directly into the bright headlights.

Doral aimed his pistol at Honor’s chest.

Before he could get off a shot, something smacked him in the back of his head hard enough to make his ears ring.

Simultaneously the car’s headlights went out, their twin beams replaced by two bright purple circles on a field of black.

He blinked wildly, trying to restore his vision, even as he realized what Coburn’s strategy had been. Blind him, rattle him, deafen him, and then attack from behind. He spun around in time to catch the full brunt of Coburn’s impetus as he launched himself over the hood of Doral’s car, landing on him like a sack of cement and forcing him down onto the pavement on his back.

“Federal agent!” he shouted.

Coburn’s impact had knocked the wind out of Doral, but he’d been fighting all his life. Instinct kicked in along with a surge of adrenaline. He whipped his gun hand up.

A gunshot rang out.

Coburn backed off Doral.

There wasn’t much blood, actually, because Coburn had fired point-blank into the man’s chest. In death, he didn’t look all that sinister, only bewildered, as though wondering how someone as clever as he could have been done in by a soccer ball. Doral had stalked prey. His target was always in front of him. He hadn’t thought to check his back.

“You should have learned from your brother. I don’t negotiate,” Coburn whispered.

He patted down the body and found Doral’s cell phone. He feared it would conveniently disappear when the police investigated, so he slipped it into his pocket before standing up and walking quickly to the car where Honor was sitting in the driver’s seat, clutching Emily to her, rocking back and forth, crooning to her.

“Is she okay?”

“Limp as a dishrag and already asleep again. He must’ve given her something. Is he…”

“In hell.”

“He refused to surrender?”

“Something like that.” He paused, then said, “You did good.”

She smiled shakily. “I was scared.”

“So was I.”

“I don’t believe that. You aren’t afraid of anything.”

“First time for everything.” His words telegraphed a much more meaningful message than he would allow himself to say. But Honor seemed to understand both the message and why he wouldn’t say anything more. They shared a long look, then he said briskly, “You get Emily to a doctor and have her checked out.”

He lifted Emily from her and gently placed her in the backseat.

“What are you going to do?” Honor asked.

“Call this in to Hamilton. He’ll want the skinny. He’ll want me to wait here till agents arrive. Then-”

“Lee Coburn?”

The quiet voice, coming from behind him, surprised them both. Honor looked beyond him and registered puzzlement. Coburn turned.

The woman was completely expressionless when she pulled the trigger.

Coburn grabbed his middle and sank to the pavement.

Honor screamed.

Coburn heard Emily react to the commotion, asking groggily where Elmo was.

But the sounds seemed to come to him from the pinpoint of light at the end of a very long tunnel. He struggled to remain conscious, but it was a hell of a fight.

He’d been shot twice before. Once in the shoulder and once in the calf. This was different. This was bad. He’d seen allies and foes alike get gut-shot, and most of them died. A small-caliber bullet could make you just as dead as a big one.

He worked his way into a half sitting position but kept his palm clamped over the pumping hole in his belly. He braced his back against the side of the car and tried to bring into focus the ordinary-looking woman who had shot him.

She was ordering Honor at gunpoint to stay put inside the car. Already she had disarmed him. He could see his pistol lying on the pavement a short distance away, but it might just as well have been a mile. Fred’s.357 was under the driver’s seat of the car, but Honor couldn’t get to it without getting shot, too.

She was sobbing, asking the woman, “Why, why?”

“Because of Tom,” she replied.

So. Tom VanAllen’s wife. Widow . At least he wouldn’t die without knowing why. But for a woman who’d just committed a crime of vengeance, she seemed remarkably cold-blooded. She didn’t even appear angry, and Coburn wondered why not.

“If Tom hadn’t gone to those train tracks to meet Coburn,” she said, “he would still be alive.”

She blamed him for her husband’s death tonight. Last night , Coburn corrected himself. The eastern sky had taken on the blush of predawn. He wondered if he would live to see the sun break the horizon. Watching one more sunrise would be nice.

He just hated that he would bleed out with Honor watching. And what if Emily woke up and saw blood gushing out of him? She would be afraid, when up to this point he’d done everything within his power to protect her and guard her against fear.

He’d dragged Honor and her through enough shit already. Strangely enough, he thought both of them liked him. A little bit, anyway. And now he was going to put them through one more trauma, and he wouldn’t even be around to apologize for it.

He’d always thought that when his number came up, it would be way overdue, and that he would be okay with it. But, Jesus, this sucked.

Lousy timing. He’d just learned what it was like to make love to a woman. Not just satisfy a hard-on, but really soak up the person that belonged to the body. Fat lot of good it would do him to know the difference, now that he had gone and got shot.