thinks, you deserve to die. And how much sweeter it will be at my hand.” She laughed as Ellie struggled to scoot back. “Look at you. Miss High and Mighty, crawling over the ground like a pig at my mercy. I’ll remember this pathetic sight always.”
“Get away from her, Hildegarde.” Eric’s drawn pistol didn’t waver from his wife’s back.
Hildegarde’s head snapped around to him. “Or you’ll what? Shoot me? You don’t have the guts. You’ve never had the guts. If it weren’t for me, you’d still be filing paperwork back in Berlin. You could never do anything on your own. You don’t know how.”
Eric’s hand shook as red shot up his neck. “Last warning.”
Without turning back, Hildegarde pulled the trigger.
Bam!
Ellie fell back, limp as a ragdoll. Kat screamed.
Hildegarde’s white teeth gnashed like a wild cat’s at Eric’s gun still pointed at her. “You don’t have the guts—”
Bam.
A bright red spot spread from a hole in Hildegarde’s chest. Her mouth slacked open, dark eyes widening as the gun tumbled from her fingers. She dropped to her silk-stockinged knees and crumpled to the ground on top of her gun as crimson stained across her cream blouse. Two final gasps escaped her lips, and she lay still, staring up at the ceiling.
With a cry, Kat dropped to Ellie’s side and pulled her head onto her lap. Blood oozed across the girl’s shirt, making it impossible to tell where she’d been hit. Kat rubbed her sister’s face. “Ellie. Ellie, can you hear me? Wake up!” Tears spilled down her cheeks as she looked to Barrett. “She’s not moving.”
Horror drenched Eric’s face. His eyes ricocheted from Ellie to his wife. “What have I done?”
Eric stumbled to his wife and fell to his knees at her side. The Luger slid from his hand. He pressed shaking hands over the gaping hole, knitting his fingers together as if to form a patch, but the blood trickled through them and dribbled down his wrists to stain his uniform cuffs. “The blood . . . There’s so much of it.” He pressed down into the wound. “It won’t stop. Too much.”
Barrett held his arms out and shifted in front of the women. His pulse careened. “She’s gone, Schlegel. Let her go.”
“I can’t stop . . . There’s so much.” Eric raised his crimson-coated hands before his face. The color drained from his cheeks as the pulse at his neck surged. His pale lips trembled together until the clacking of his teeth filled the silence. “What have I done?”
Gut roiling, Barrett grabbed at words, any words, to bide him time. He needed to get Kat and Ellie away from the madman. “Keep calm, now, Schlegel. I’m sure you didn’t mean it.”
“But I did. I meant to scare her, to cut off those slandering words.” Eric raked his gory hands through his hair, staining the blond strands. His eyes, whites shining like billiard balls, slashed down to his wife’s body. “She’s made me a monster.”
“You made yourself the monster!” Kat shrieked, tears flowing down her cheeks in angry torrents. “Curse your blackened soul!”
Barrett shot her a silencing glare. They needed to keep Eric calm before he waved that gun around and blasted off another victim’s head. He took a deep breath past the rush of blood in his ears and turned his attention back to Eric. “You only meant to protect Ellie.”
“Little good that did.” His voice broke on a sob. “My Eleanor. What have I done to you, Ellie, liebling?”
Pushing to his feet, Eric staggered over to Ellie and dropped beside her. He took her hand and gently stroked the back of it, leaving red streaks on the pale skin. Eric’s gun lay several feet away, but Barrett dared not leave Kat for one second. Any move, any twitch, and he’d slam a fist into that Nazi’s face and crack it right off his neck.
“On your feet, Schlegel.”
“What have I done?” Tears streamed down Eric’s face as he stared at Ellie without blinking. Slowly, he shook his head. His eyes jerked to Kat. “No, no. Not what I’ve done. What you’ve done.”
“I’m not the one with blood on my hands. Don’t you touch her!” Kat snatched Ellie’s hand from his. Her lips curled up like a wolf’s at full moon. “No one is to blame but you. I came here to save my sister from your clutches, and now she bleeds out before my very eyes because of you. You’ve done this. You and you alone.”