When the Bough Breaks (Rose Gardner Investigations #6) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,96

only want to help you.”

“I asked you to come alone,” she said, her eyes wild, “and you brought those men.”

Her gun jabbed hard enough into my belly to leave a bruise. “Vera, I’m beggin’ you. Please don’t hurt my baby.”

“Then them men better get their asses out in plain sight.” Her voice rose as she called out, “You’re startin’ to piss me off. I’ll shoot her. Don’t think I won’t.”

The truck’s rear door opened and Dermot slowly got out, lifting his hands up in the air. “It’s just me, Vera, so don’t do anything hasty.”

“You’re a liar!” she shouted, her fingers digging deeper into my arm. “I seen a couple of guys in the trees!” She jammed the tip of her gun into my belly, her finger on the trigger.

I told myself to calm down. I could usually reason things out when I was in danger, but I was so consumed with protecting my baby, I couldn’t think straight. My instinct was to call out to Dermot, but he wasn’t a stupid man. He’d know how to handle this.

Wouldn’t he?

“Johnson, Murphy,” Dermot called out in a conversational tone. “Come on out so our hostess won’t be so jumpy.”

Two men emerged from the trees close to the dirt road, both holding shotguns. Dermot had told me his men would wait by the county road, but I wasn’t surprised he’d had them hiding in the woods. He’d probably thought it a sensible precaution.

“That’s right,” Vera said, “come closer and drop your guns on the ground.”

The men shuffled closer, about twenty feet away, but they kept their weapons trained on Vera.

“Throw down the guns!” Vera shouted, jabbing my stomach again.

I cried out in pain.

One of the men lifted his gun to eye level, and Vera dropped her hold on my arm and lunged behind me as a gunshot went off.

I resisted the urged to scream. I was fairly sure the bullet had whizzed past only a few feet beside me and lodged into a tree behind us.

Vera was behind me and grabbed my left arm while thrusting the gun under my chin. “I should kill her for that!”

“Drop the guns!” Dermot sounded pissed as he stepped in front of his men. “Drop the damn guns!”

They tossed their guns to the ground.

“Now move up closer to this guy in front,” Vera said, the gun barrel jamming into the skin under my chin, but I realized her hand was shaking.

“Do what she says!” Dermot shouted, then leveled his gaze on us. “Vera,” he said, softening his tone. “I apologize for my men’s hasty actions, but you have to understand that you’re pointin’ a gun at the Lady in Black and threatenin’ her baby. They’re a little defensive of her.”

“So tell them to back off!”

“No one’s armed, Vera,” Dermot said in his perfectly reasonable tone. “You’re in control, so let Lady go and we’ll all go on about our day.”

“You’re not gonna let me go, and we all know it!” she shouted.

Dermot took a step forward. “I’m a man of my word, Vera. I swear to you, if you leave Lady unharmed, we’ll let you walk away. Free and clear.”

“They will.” Could I safely push her arm away so that she’d shoot in the air if the gun went off? I shifted my weight as though to gauge the possibility.

“What are you doin’?” she asked, pressing the gun to my belly again.

I froze. “I’m due to deliver any day. My back hurts. I’m shiftin’ my weight.”

“Well, stay still!” she hissed in my ear.

I stopped moving.

“What now, Vera?” Dermot asked. “Tell us what you want to do.”

“I’m thinking!” she shouted, sounding like she was close to crying.

“Vera,” I said softly. “Dermot’s right. He’s a man of his word. You tell him what you want, and he’ll make sure it happens. I guarantee it.”

“You were supposed to come alone,” Vera said into my ear. “Why didn’t you come alone?”

“Did you really think I would?” I asked.

“No,” she said, sounding resigned.

Everything happened in slow motion after that.

One of Dermot’s men reached behind his back, pulling out a gun.

Vera pulled the gun away from me, pointing it at him and pulling the trigger.

Then, before I could even think to stop her, the gun went off, again and again, in rapid fire.

The sound was deafening, startling my baby. They jumped in my belly and began to move around in protest.

The men fell and leapt to the ground, Dermot too, and I had no idea if she’d shot them or if they