Secret Weapon Spouse - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,69

same gentle, slightly Southern drawl she remembered. He had another weapon stuck in the waistband of his jeans. This one had a silencer on it and she knew it was what she’d heard just moments before.

“You shot Brian?”

“Actually, he tried to shoot me,” Presley said. “You don’t believe me.” He stepped closer. “I love Caroline. But I think you know that.”

Surprisingly, she believed him. She did know. “So this is just about money.”

“Just about money?” He laughed. “You and I both know people have killed for less.”

“Do you really think you can get away with this?”

“For Caroline’s sake and our baby’s, I sure hope so.”

Brian stirred on the floor, groaning as he worked his way into a sitting position, his back against the wall.

Presley hadn’t pointed her gun at her. But although he held it pointed downward, it wouldn’t take much for him to raise it and fire at either her or Brian.

“I have proof what Brian was up to.” Presley patted the breast pocket of his jacket.

Brian swore. “He’s lying. He’s a con man. His name is Presley Wells. He’s here to clean out my accounts.”

Presley let out a humorless laugh. “I would be too late for that. The accounts have already been emptied. I would imagine Caroline’s trust fund is also empty. Caroline thought she got away with your PDA clean but you were on to us, weren’t you?”

“What is going on?” Samantha demanded, looking from one man to the other but all the time worrying about where Alex was. And what he would do next.

“Brian discovered who I really was and came to me with a deal,” Presley said. “A scam to bilk his father out of more money. Brian said he had an investment that was too good to pass up, but risky. His father would never go for it. Unless it looked like it came from me. C.B. liked me. Of course C.B. wouldn’t go for it unless Brian gave his stamp of approval.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Brian said rubbing the side of his head where Presley must have hit him. Samantha couldn’t tell if Brian was really hurt or just biding his time, waiting for Presley to let his guard down.

“If all this is true, then why didn’t you go to C.B. with it?” she asked Presley.

This time his laugh was sincere. “Brian would have told him the truth about my…background and then who do you think C.B. would have believed? So I went along with it, pretending I was in it for the money.”

“Like this isn’t about money,” Brian piped up. “You think anyone is going to believe your story? Your word against mine. There is no evidence that I was in on any of this.”

Presley smiled and shook his head. “No, you made sure you’d covered your tracks. But the only reason I went along with your so-called deal was that I’d discovered you’d been siphoning off Caroline’s trust fund account. I couldn’t prove it. Until tonight. I found what I needed to put the nail in your coffin. I found proof that you made an attempt to pay a hired killer to get rid of me.” He patted the papers in his pocket.

Brian, Samantha noticed, looked worried. “There isn’t any…” His voice trailed off as if he’d just remembered something he’d overlooked.

Samantha jumped at the sound of a loud boom just outside the office door as if the door had been rammed by something heavy.

“No!” Samantha cried as she saw Brian launch himself at Presley. Presley raised her gun as if to fire, but it was knocked from his hand as a man came barreling into the room.

She caught only a glimpse of the man but she recognized his size and shape. The man who’d been following her and Alex? The hired assassin who’d tried to kill them in Tennessee?

“You think you can double-cross me?” the big man bellowed at Brian. “Are you crazy?”

Brian grabbed her fallen gun and pointed it at the man and yelled, “You’re fired!”

Two explosions boomed in the office. Two quick shots. Brian’s shot went wild, burrowing into the wall over the big man’s head. Samantha wrested the other gun from Presley and fired. Hitting the big man in the leg.

But he didn’t go down.

“Drop your gun! FBI!” she yelled, the gun aimed at the big man. “Drop your gun!”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alex. He had something in his hands. A fire extinguisher.

The big man hadn’t seen Alex but her biggest fear