then turned the knife in her hand and drove it into Clint’s thigh.
Surprise was on her side. He released her to grab his leg.
She fell to her knees coughing and choking, trying to get air.
Tate rushed forward, gun drawn, but Clint pulled the knife free, and grabbed Kelly by the shoulders. He pulled her in front of him just as a shot rang out.
Tate froze, gun in the air.
Liz didn’t know who fired, but Tate didn’t have a wound, so she turned to Clint and Kelly, who had her back to Tate as Clint held her facing him. His eyes went wide as he stared down at Kelly.
Clint’s hands fell away from her shoulders to his sides. He dropped on his ass, then fell back, blood spreading across his abdomen, turning his white button-down bright red. He clutched at his stomach and gasped for breath.
Kelly stood over him with her gun pointed at his chest. “You ruined my life!” She fired the gun over and over until it made only a clicking sound.
Along with Liz, Tate stood there watching shocked and frozen as the bullets slammed into Clint’s body one after the other, more blood spreading over his entire torso.
Kelly kept pulling the trigger though the gun was out of bullets, her eyes wide and desolate.
Liz stood and reached for the gun, taking it from Kelly’s hand, though Kelly didn’t stop staring down at Clint.
“He ruined my life.”
Before Liz registered what she intended, Kelly stepped over Clint, planted her foot on the lower slat of the railing, and pitched herself over it.
Liz dropped the gun and tried to grab her. At the last second, Liz wrapped her fingers around Kelly’s hand, sending Kelly’s legs toppling over her head until Kelly swung facing the lake.
Tate grabbed Liz’s waist before Kelly’s weight pulled her over the railing.
“Let me go!” The desperation and anguish in Kelly’s reckless words broke Liz’s heart.
“Don’t let him win,” she begged. “Hold on. I’ll pull you up.” She tried to reach down with her other hand but Kelly kicked her legs and fought to get free.
Drake suddenly appeared beside her and made a grab for Kelly, but Kelly reached up and pried Liz’s fingers away and fell.
Drake missed Kelly by half a second.
Liz, hands held out to Kelly, stared as Kelly dropped and hit the rocks and dark rushing water. “No!”
Without Kelly’s weight holding her over the railing, Tate’s weight and grip pulled her back and she fell on top of him on the bridge.
He let out a bellowing moan filled with pain and went limp beneath her. She rolled off him, saw the blood pooling under his head as his eyes rolled back and closed, and her heart stopped.
“Tate!” She held his gray face. “Tate!”
But he didn’t move. Didn’t blink. And she feared she’d lost him forever.
Drake sank down on one knee beside her and put his hand on her back. “Cops and paramedics are here. Move back so they can help him.”
She didn’t want to let him go. She wanted to hold on to him for the rest of her life.
Kelly slipped away from her. She wouldn’t let Tate do the same.
She leaned down to his ear. “Don’t you leave me, Tate McGrath. You’re supposed to marry me. You promised. And I’m holding you to it.”
Tate pressed his cheek to hers before he went limp again, giving her hope that he’d heard her.
Drake helped her move back and out of the way of the paramedics who quickly replaced the gauze pad at the back of Tate’s head. They rolled him onto a backboard and strapped him in, not wasting any time carrying him to the ambulance waiting in the parking area.
Liz barely got a chance to kiss him goodbye before they took him away.
Drake held Adria against his side. Liz sat at his feet, back against the railing and the rushing water that swallowed Kelly and took her away.
Detective Valdez squatted beside her. “You okay?”
Numb. Wishing the image of Kelly falling out of her hands didn’t replay in a loop in her mind. She didn’t know how to answer, so stayed silent on that subject and said, “I want to go to the hospital with Tate.”
“Soon. I need your statement.”
“It’s like I predicted and you probably have on video.” She glanced over at the camera that she knew about and Clint didn’t attached to a nearby tree. When she and Tate planned for what might happen while they were at the police station reporting the sex