Fatal Exposure - By Gail Barrett Page 0,84
understand what being in a gang really meant. And when they ordered him to execute that man, he chickened out.”
“The other gang member was your cousin?” Hell, no wonder he’d looked familiar. He’d resembled Terry Lewis, a woman Parker had known for years. They had the same oddly narrow face.
She shook her head. “I told you, I wasn’t a gang member. But I had to bail Dustin out. The gang would have killed him if he didn’t come through. And I’d practically raised him. He was my only family. I couldn’t let him die.”
“So you shot Allen Chambers,” Brynn said, her voice trembling. “And then you killed Tommy.”
The lieutenant curled her lips. “Allen Chambers was a heroin addict, a useless piece of humanity. And Tommy...” She shrugged. “He got in the way.”
Parker worked his jaw, struggling to control his own rage now. “He was my brother.”
The lieutenant spared him a look of disdain. “He would have died sooner or later. You know what the mortality rate is for drug addicts. I did him a favor, just like Chambers. I saved them both from an overdose.”
Parker stared at her in shock, her complete lack of remorse robbing him of words. He’d worked side by side with this woman for years. He’d respected her. He’d admired her moral rectitude. And she’d murdered his brother without a flicker of guilt.
“And then you tried to kill me,” Brynn cut in, sounding just as numb. “You tried to kill my friends.”
“That was your own fault. You never should have been there that day. And you took those photos.”
“Which you destroyed,” Parker said, drawing her attention back to him.
Terry Lewis sighed. “I told you. I didn’t have any choice. I had to protect Dustin. And there was no way I was going to prison for killing an addict. He was worthless. No one cared if he died. I did the world a favor by getting him off the streets.”
“A favor?” he scoffed. “Is that what you just did for Hoffman and those guards?”
“They had to go.” Her eyes burned. She leveled the gun, and his heart leaped into his throat. They didn’t stand a chance. The instant they moved, she was going to fire. And the noise wouldn’t alert the guards, not with a suppressor on the gun. He couldn’t even sacrifice himself to save Brynn.
“Don’t move,” she warned, as if guessing his thoughts.
He swallowed hard, knowing the only solution was to overpower her before she could murder Brynn. But she’d positioned them perfectly, making it impossible for him to move in time.
He met Brynn’s eyes. Her gaze flicked to the bed, then back. He frowned, not sure what she was signaling, but then he understood. The nurse call button. He’d draped it over the railing. She couldn’t reach it, but maybe he could.
Trying not to draw the lieutenant’s notice, he slid a glance at the cord. The control was dangling off the bed, out of her line of sight. But could he reach it without tipping her off?
“So why did you kill Hoffman?” he asked again, needing to distract her. “What was the colonel’s role in this?” Praying she wouldn’t notice, he inched his hand toward the edge of the bed.
“Hoffman.” She grimaced. “Talk about a waste of humanity. He was a sleazy little pervert who didn’t deserve to live.”
“So you knew what he was like?” He reached the cord and tugged.
She nodded. “I found some photos he kept in his desk. Really nasty stuff. And after that...”
“You blackmailed him.”
“We had an agreement. I kept quiet about his twisted hobby, and he did favors for me. But he screwed up in the end. He needed to get rid of Brynn, but he was too squeamish to do it himself. He put Markus Jenkins on her trail, but you found her first. And when it seemed you’d joined forces and weren’t going to bring her in, we decided you both had to go. But Markus Jenkins failed to kill you, too. And now it’s up to me.”
“But why kill us?” Brynn asked, the desperation in her voice gutting his heart. “Why not let us go? We didn’t know you were involved. We never would have connected it to you.”
“Parker would have.” She waved the gun at him, and he froze, thinking she’d seen him move. But she continued speaking, and he seized the remote control. “Once he joined up with you, I knew he’d figure it out.”
“Still—”
“Look.” Her voice hardened. “It doesn’t matter. I have my