Abby gripped Cassie’s arms. “What did she mean?”
“I’m not exactly sure.” Cassie tried to pry Abby’s fingers from her arms. “You need to let me handle this.”
“No. You know something. What is it?” Abby’s voice rose, her eyes wild. “If Linda isn’t my mother, who is? You know, don’t you? Did Linda kill my mother? Is that it? Linda killed my mother and raised me as her own? I should’ve known. I should’ve fucking known.” Abby spun away, burying her face in her hands. “No wonder she hated my father and me.”
Shots rang out from inside the house.
Cassie grabbed Abby, dragged her to the other side of her vehicle and pushed her to the ground. “Stay down. I’m going to see if I can disarm her.”
Abby’s fingers clutched at Cassie’s arm. “No. Don’t go in there. She’s crazy. She’ll kill you.”
Cassie removed Abby’s hand from her arm. “She’s not going to kill me.” At least Cassie hoped she wouldn’t. “We can’t help her until the gun is out of her hands. If you want to help me, do so by staying low and out of range. I need to worry about Linda. I can’t do that if I’m worried about you.”
Abby’s eyes filled. “But if she shoots you…”
“I’ll be okay.”
“You’re the only person I can talk to. My only friend. Please,” she begged, “don’t die.”
Cassie squeezed Abby’s hands. “I’m not going to die. But I need you to promise to stay here.”
Another shot rang out.
Cassie ducked instinctively. “Promise,” she commanded.
Abby nodded. “I promise.”
Cassie didn’t waste any more time. She left Abby behind her SUV, circled the house and entered through the kitchen door in the back.
Moving silently through the corridors, she followed the sound of glass breaking and loud curses. Another shot was fired, followed by two more.
Cassie hunkered down, moving carefully through the house toward the front living room.
She paused near the entrance, dropped low and peeked around the corner.
Linda Matson stood in the middle of the room, waving a handgun at the portrait hanging over the fireplace mantel. “One happy fucking family,” she bit out. She aimed the gun at the portrait and pulled the trigger. “It’s a lie. A big, fat, fucking lie!”
The woman’s back was to Cassie.
As she raised her arm to aim at the portrait again, Cassie moved quickly and silently into the room and hit Linda from behind, sending her sprawling forward. The gun flew from her fingers and skidded to a corner, spinning to a stop.
Before Linda could get up, Cassie flung herself onto the woman and pinned her to the ground.
“Get off me!” Linda bucked with surprising strength, rolling Cassie to one side.
Cassie lurched to her feet at the same time as Linda. Neither woman was armed. If Cassie was going to take her down, she would have to use her hand-to-hand combat training and pray she remembered enough to subdue a woman on a crazed adrenaline rush.
Though her heart pounded like a jackhammer in her chest, Cassie schooled her voice into a soft, soothing tone. “Linda, I didn’t come in here to hurt you.”
“The hell you didn’t. You knocked me down.” Her gaze shot to the handgun in the far corner.
“I only did that to take the gun away before you hurt yourself or someone else.”
“It’s my gun. You have no right to come into my house and take my gun away from me,” she yelled. “If I want to fire my gun in my house, that’s my business. If I want to shoot that stupid lying portrait, I will, and no one can stop me.”
“What’s wrong, Linda?” Cassie hoped that getting Linda to open up would help her calm down. “Why are you angry?”
She pointed to the portrait. “He did this to me. I wanted my baby. My Abigail. That’s all. She was so small. So sweet and…too early.” Tears welled in the woman’s eyes. “He wasn’t even here when she came. I had her alone. I couldn’t call. The phone line was down, and he wasn’t here!” Tears streamed down her cheeks.