Settling an Old Score - Delores Fossen Page 0,62

his boot holster. He was still reaching for it when the next blast roared through the room.

She froze, her feet seemingly frozen in place, but that didn’t stop the horrible thoughts from racing through her head. “Eli,” she managed to say. Ashlyn would have gone to him, but Kellan stepped in front of her again.

“You don’t need to see this,” Kellan said, spiking her fear even more.

Until she realized Eli was fine. Well, he hadn’t been shot, anyway. He was on his feet, his backup weapon now in his hand, and he had it pointed at Remy.

Remy wasn’t fine.

The man was no longer holding his gun. That was good. He was on the floor, his hands pressed to his chest, and Ashlyn had no trouble seeing the blood. It was seeping through his fingers and spilling down the side of his shirt.

“I had to shoot him,” Kellan muttered, and it sounded as if he was talking to himself. He went closer and kicked Remy’s gun to the other side of the room. “Remy didn’t give me a choice about that.”

No, he hadn’t. Remy’s choices had started when he’d taken Dominick hostage and then had come here to the house. Despite Eli trying to reason with him, he’d fired three shots, any of which could have hurt or killed. He had to be stopped, and thankfully Kellan had done it.

“I want to be with Marta,” Remy said, his words choppy with his rough breaths. “I want to be buried next to her.”

Eli certainly didn’t give him any assurances that would happen, and she wondered if Gus would even allow it. Not after everything that Remy had done.

“I’ll call for an ambulance.” Eli holstered his backup, picked up his gun and then took out his phone to do that, but he also glanced over at Ashlyn. “Is Cora okay?” he asked.

She managed a nod, not trusting her voice. Ashlyn wasn’t certain she could speak yet. Not sure she could move to Eli, either, even though that’s what she wanted to do. She wanted to hold him, to feel for herself that he was safe. But Eli still had to wrap this up.

“Check on the car and make sure that fire didn’t kick back up,” Kellan instructed Gunnar.

While Eli continued to hold his gun on Remy, Kellan went to the man, stooped down and pressed his hands over Remy’s. Probably to try to slow down the flow of blood. Ashlyn figured that wouldn’t help, not with the amount of blood that Remy had already lost.

“Did you hire those guns who tried to kill Ashlyn and Eli?” Kellan asked him.

Remy opened his mouth, maybe to answer, but that’s when she heard the rattling sound that came from Remy’s throat.

And she watched as Remy died.

Kellan cursed again, probably because a confession would have tied up everything into a neat little bow, but they still might be able to get confirmation from Waite—who was still in custody. Eli had said they could hang charges of accessory to attempted murder over him to get him to talk.

Ashlyn turned to go into the bedroom so she could check on Gloria and Cora, but she’d only made it a step when she felt someone take hold of her shoulder. At first she thought it was Eli, but the grip was too hard. Hard enough to leave bruises. And the person spun her around, knocking her weapon from her hand and dragging her back against his chest.

Dominick put a gun to her head.

* * *

ELI’S HEART SLAMMED so hard against his chest that it felt as if he’d cracked a rib. Hell. This couldn’t be happening. Not now, after everything they’d just been through.

He dropped down behind the side of the sofa and automatically brought up his gun, taking aim at Dominick. So did Kellan after he took cover behind the end table. But both he and his brother knew that neither of them had a clean shot. Just as they hadn’t with Remy when he’d dragged Dominick from the car and into the house. That’s because Dominick was now using Ashlyn as a human shield.

Eli couldn’t help but see Ashlyn’s face and the shock and terror that was on it. He hated that once again she was in danger. As bad as the other attacks had been—and they had been bad—at least the gunmen hadn’t managed to get their hands on her. Now Dominick had managed that.

And he’d done it right in front of two armed lawmen.

Eli wanted to