Софи Келли - Paws Аnd Effect

Hope took out her gun as John had directed.

“Toss it over here,” he instructed. “If you throw it too far or too short, like I said before, I’ll have to shoot Kathleen.”

“I thought you said you weren’t going to shoot us,” I said. My stomach clenched but I tried very hard not to let him hear the panic I was feeling.

John nodded. “Good point, Kathleen. I did say that. Shooting you would mess up my plan, but I will do it if I have to.” He gestured at Hope with the gun. “Throw it, and remember, accuracy counts.”

Hope lobbed her gun in his direction and it landed on the ground at his feet.

John crouched to pick it up and tucked it in his waistband. I couldn’t help hoping it would somehow discharge and shoot him in the foot. “Now toss me your cell phones.”

I looked at Hope. “Do it,” she said.

I threw my phone underhand at John. He caught it in midair. “Nice,” he said to me. Hope tossed her phone over as well. It landed once again at his feet. John picked it up and put both phones in his pocket. “We’re going to take a little walk.” He looked at me. “Back the way you came.”

That meant back in the direction of Wisteria Hill. Back in the direction of help.

“You too, Detective,” I heard John say.

We trudged through the trees as the rain came down, soaking through my jacket. My shoes and jeans were already wet. I promised myself a warm pair of socks and a huge cup of hot coffee when we got out of this. I wasn’t going to think about the possibility that we wouldn’t get out of this.

“Why did you kill her?” I heard Hope ask behind me.

I turned and looked back over my shoulder. Hope had stopped walking and was looking at John.

“You think I don’t know you’re trying to stall,” he said. “Wherever you went to school, you should ask for your money back.”

“If you’re going to kill me I’d at least like to know why I’m going to die,” I said.

“You think I want to do this?” he asked.

“No, you probably don’t.” My hands were shaking and I stuffed them in my pockets so he wouldn’t see. “And I know you didn’t want to kill Dani. You loved her.”

“Yes, I did,” John said. He lifted the gun so it was in line with my midsection. “Walk.”

We continued in silence for a while, John directing me when he thought I was trying to veer from the path. We were headed back to Wisteria Hill but I had no idea why.

“She didn’t see that you were the best person for her,” Hope said. “Not the other two. You.”

“I loved her.” John’s voice was low and filled with emotion. “Why couldn’t she see how good we could have been together?”

“I know,” Hope said.

I slowed my pace a little so she could close the gap between us, hoping John wouldn’t notice.

“No, you don’t,” he said.

“Marcus doesn’t see how good we could have been together,” Hope said.

I looked back at her but she wouldn’t meet my gaze. John had stopped walking. Hope and I did as well. “You and Marcus?” he asked. “Stop screwing with me.”

“I’m not.” Hope’s voice was laced with something. Longing? Pain? I wasn’t sure. She started moving again and so did I.

“Did you tell him?” John said suddenly.

“Not in so many words,” she said. “But . . .” She let the end of the sentence trail away.

“But what?”

I heard Hope sigh behind me. “It doesn’t matter,” she said flatly.

“But what?” John asked even more insistently.

“But he should be able to see that I’m the one who loves him the best. How can he not see that?”

“She was the same way.” He meant Dani, I knew. “Travis heard her talking to someone on the phone about coming here to see Marcus. I knew what it meant. She’d been secretive for a while. I knew she was going to try to get back together with him.”

“You told her how you felt,” Hope said.

I couldn’t hear their footsteps, I realized. I took a chance on turning around again.

Hope was facing John, hood pushed back, rain dripping from her hair. “We have history,” Hope said. “Why doesn’t that mean anything?”

“She said I didn’t really know who she was at all.” John gestured again with the gun.

Hope moved closer to him, taking a tiny step as she nodded at his words. She was going to rush him, I realized. I wasn’t a police officer but I knew he’d shoot her before she ever got the chance to get his gun. Hope was strong and fit, but John was bigger.

“I knew her better than anyone. Who helped her pass organic chemistry? Who cleaned up the mess when she screwed Marcus? You know what she did? She told me to get out of her life and then she just walked away. I just . . . I was just trying to catch up with her. I didn’t mean to hit her.” He gestured with his gun hand again and his voice got louder in the silence of the rain-soaked woods. “It was her fault. She just should have loved me.

I looked at Hope and thought of Owen. She had the same coiled energy as he did, ready and watchful in the backyard before he launched himself on a squirrel or a bird. I had no way to stop her. At least I could help distract John.

“Love isn’t an obligation,” I said. “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. Lao Tzu said that.”

John took several steps closer to me so he was less than an arm’s length away from Hope. “Want me to shoot her?” he asked. His eyes never left my face but I knew he was directing the question at Hope.

“It won’t change anything,” she said.

My heart pounded in my ears and my chest was so tight I couldn’t breathe. The gun was level with my head. If John decided to pull the trigger anyway I was dead. Then, finally, he lowered his arm.

And Hope made her move.

John had seen it coming. Somehow he’d seen it coming. The hand holding the gun arced sideways and caught her on the side of her head. She staggered and he kicked her right leg out from under her. Her arms flailed in the air as she tried to get her balance but her foot caught in a protruding tree root and she went down. I lunged to catch her but I was too late.

I bent over Hope. Her eyes were closed and there was blood in her hair on the right side of her head. I felt for a pulse, grateful to feel her heart pounding even faster than mine. I reached in my pocket, pulled out a couple of Kleenex and pressed them against the gash on Hope’s head.

“Get her up,” John ordered.

“She’s unconscious,” I said, not looking at him. I was so angry I was afraid I’d do something stupid and get us both shot. Every minute longer was another minute I could use to figure a way out of this.

“Then carry her or drag her. I don’t care.” He spit out each word.

My anger boiled over. “Neither one of those is going to happen,” I snapped. If he hadn’t had the gun I would have hit him. “So either you wait until she comes to or shoot us, because those are the only two choices you have. And if you shoot a police officer they will hunt you down like a rabid dog until someone puts a bullet in your head.” I was breathing hard and I could feel flecks of spit on my lips.

Hope’s eyes fluttered and opened. “Way to build a rapport, Kathleen,” she rasped.

Rain had soaked the tissues pressed to her head. I took my hand away. It didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore but the skin was already swelling and darkening.

I helped Hope sit up slowly. Her eyes rolled and for a moment I thought she was going to pass out again.

“Move,” John barked.

“Wait,” I retorted.

“I’m all right,” Hope said. “Give me a hand.”

I helped her get to her feet. She grimaced as she put weight down on that right foot. “Let me look,” I said. I bent down and rolled up the bottom of her jeans. Her ankle was already swelling. I probed carefully with my fingers and Hope sucked in a sharp breath.