“Put it this way … the deputy has made his final arrest, and poor Mrs. Bates won’t be defending anyone ever again. She chose the wrong person to represent when she chose you over me.”
“Elizabeth … I don’t understand. I love you. I tried to protect you—”
“From whom? My mother?” Elizabeth screamed at her. “She’s the only one who understands me. You certainly didn’t … I hated it when she made me stay with you …” Sneering laughter came from her lips. “You were even stupid enough to pay for my moving expenses to Ohio for that lame-ass job Mom wanted me to take. I couldn’t wait to move out of that apartment … If I had to live there one more day, I would have—”
Elizabeth sprang at her suddenly, and Alanna quit trying to reason with her when she saw what lucidity Elizabeth had left was gone. She had let Elizabeth get too close to her. There was no way she would be able to outrun her.
Just then, she saw one of the Porters’ signs and turned in the direction of their property.
Please let it be true! she screamed in her head.Please let it be true that one of the Porters is watching.
If Elizabeth was about to kill her, she wanted a witness to what had happened to her and Matthew, if he didn’t survive either.
She had only gone ten steps before she ran headlong into a male chest.
“What the fuck are you doing—”
“She’s going to kill me,” Alanna managed to wheeze out. “I work for the Co—”
“I know who you are.”
A deranged scream came toward them, and Alanna turned to look, seeing Elizabeth charging toward them with the large knife raised.
The man shoved her aside to raise the gun in his hand, firing a shot off in the same motion. Blood came gushing out of Elizabeth’s chest as she was knocked backward to the ground.
Alanna took off running in the direction she had just come from.
“Where in the fuck are you going?”
“I have to help Matthew. They’re going to kill him!” she screeched out, not stopping. She had to help Matthew, praying the man with the gun would follow her.
Hearing his footfalls and snapping branches, she ran faster.
Please let Matthew be all right. Please …
She ran over the rise and saw Matthew getting off the fake deputy, who lay unmoving.
“What in the fuck did you do to him?”
Alanna stopped running when she heard the fear in Owen’s voice and saw it on his face.
Matthew’s back was turned to her, so he hadn’t seen her coming to a stop a few feet away.
“I did to him exactly what I’m going to do to you.”
She was still frozen in place when she saw Silas, Isaac, and Moses running up the driveway to encircle Owen.
Silas nodded at the man on the ground. “He’s the one who ran the school bus off the road. We found Deputy MacNeil’s car with the deputy and Diamond inside. The deputy was killed, and Diamond’s being worked on at the hospital. They think she’ll make it.”
Thank God. Alanna started crying at hearing the woman wasn’t dead.
“The road is blocked with everyone trying to get past where the emergency vehicles are trying to reach the bus. Jody, Jacob, and Ezra are with Fynn at the hospital. I think he’s got a broken arm. Greer’s nephew wasn’t hurt. A little girl was pinned under the bus when it went down. She died.” Silas’ face was filled with hatred as he stared at Owen, who was just staring back at them. Owen might be a terror where women were concerned, but with men, he showed himself to be the coward he was.
“I was only trying to protect Alanna from Elizabeth.”
“How did you know Elizabeth was here?” Matthew fired off the question without giving Owen a chance to talk. Then a spark of fire hit Owen in his chest.
“Where’s your ankle monitor? You’re supposed to be restricted to the hotel room your lawyer got for you. Where’s all your big talk about what you were going to do to Alanna when you found her?”