“Fan out,” Killian ordered.
Hyper focused, Hadley searched the crowd. Her heart pounded.Where are you?
Then she saw a man in a blue suit with a bald head run into the house.
“I saw him.” Hadley broke into a sprint. “He’s gone inside the house.”
She ran through the doorway and gave chase.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
Hadley sprinted through the house. All the elegant rooms were empty.
Where did he go?
Then she heard girlish screams. She turned, following the sound, and sprinted down a wide hallway, her heels clicking fast.
She came out in a large room, and saw a bald man brandishing a gun at three young girls. They were the flower girls from the ceremony. They all wore white dresses, with wreaths of flowers in their hair.
No.No.
“Let them go.” Hadley raised her weapon, aiming at the man’s head.
He turned and she controlled her reaction. He was younger than she’d expected, but she saw now that he had no hair because of terrible scarring.
His head and half his face were covered in burn scars. One eye socket was empty, and the other had a shrewd brown eye.
“Stay back.” His voice was raspy. “I have no problem shooting them.”
“They aren’t what you’re after, Westley.”
“No, they aren’t.” He swung his weapon toward Hadley. “Killing Bennett’s whore would be much more satisfying.” There was venom in his voice.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“The ghost of past sins.” His voice was so scratchy that he had to have had some sort of throat trauma.
“You shoot, and I’ll shoot,” she said.
“Hmm, guess we have a standoff.”
Suddenly, he moved. He grabbed one of the little girls. She shrieked and he shoved her at her friends.
Dammit. Hadley leaped in front of them to shield them.
Westley took off through a doorway. The girls were crying hysterically.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. Go.” Hadley gave them a nudge. “Go in the opposite direction. Get outside.”
The trio took off with stumbling steps, their dresses flaring around them.
Hadley sprinted after Westley. “Hex, can you see him?”
“I got a glimpse of him, Hadley. He’s heading deeper into the house.”
Where the hell was he going?She raced through a doorway, crossed a sitting room, and into another hallway.
“Oh, hell,” Hex said. “Hadley, Killian spoke to Kitty. She told Westley that Bennett was with the caterers.”