Ocean Beach (46 page)

She watched his face as he processed this. Dustin’s hands on her leg loosened and she could feel him swaying next to her.

“Your brother stole my life. I’m not leaving until I take something that matters to him,” Amherst said. “As far as I can tell, you’re it.”

Talk about not doing your homework. She would have laughed except for the way Amherst’s eyes had dilated and the matter-of-fact tone he was still using to discuss his plans to end her life. She sensed Avery and Deirdre inching closer to each other. Dustin fell on his butt. Nicole held her breath while she waited for him to cry, but he simply put his hands around her leg and started to pull himself up again.

“I hate to break it to you,” she said, trying to keep her
voice even. “But my brother really doesn’t give a shit about me.” This was the first time that admitting this came as a relief rather than an embarrassment.

“That’s true.” Avery spoke for the first time. “Her brother bankrupted her just like he did everybody else. And she practically raised him.”

“It’s a good thing you won’t be having children, then,” Amherst said in that spooky conversational tone. “Given what a crappy job you did with Dyer.”

Nicole’s mouth was so dry with fear that she could barely form words. Her life wasn’t exactly full of Hallmark moments, but she wasn’t ready to die. Nor was she about to let Dustin, Avery, and Deirdre die with her. “I can promise you he won’t lose a second of sleep over my death.”

“So you say,” Amherst replied, waving the gun menacingly.

“No, it’s the truth,” Nicole said. “You don’t want to commit murder for nothing, do you?”

Before Amherst could answer, the back door flew open and Kyra barreled into the living room, her attention completely focused on Dustin, who was teetering next to Nicole’s leg. “Troy said you need to go night-night, little man,” she cooed, already bending down and reaching toward her child.

“Hold it right there.” Amherst brought her up short with a wave of the gun. “Step away from that baby.”

Kyra straightened and took in the frightening tableau. Nicole’s phone buzzed loudly from her pocket.

“Whose phone is that?” Amherst asked, his air of calm disintegrating.

No one answered and he waved the gun around again, growing more agitated. Kyra raised her hands in a sign of
surrender and took a step back, but her eyes remained on Dustin. Her face was white with fear.

There was another loud buzz. This time Amherst looked right at Nicole. “Show me that phone.”

She pulled it out of her pocket, stealing a glance at the screen as she did so. It was Giraldi.

“Throw it away from you,” Amherst said.

Nicole tried to push the answer button as she tossed the phone toward the closest sofa. She missed the sofa and it skidded across the tile floor. She had no idea if she’d succeeded in answering or whether Giraldi would be able to hear and understand what was going on, if she had.

Dustin took a step toward his mother and fell. Kyra moved to pick him up.

“No,” Amherst said. “Don’t move.”

Nicole was still trying to come up with a plan that didn’t involve all of them dying, but she couldn’t get her thoughts under control.

“It’s me you want,” she finally said. “Just let everybody else go. They’re all Malcolm’s victims too. They haven’t done anything to you.” If her eyes hadn’t been so glued to the gun and so dry from fright, she might have rolled them. She sounded like a character in one of those television police dramas. Except there was no guarantee of a happy ending before the closing credits.

Nikki was pretty certain that things couldn’t get any worse when she heard footsteps in the foyer. Careful not to move her head, she cut her eyes in that direction and saw Madeline, with Max holding on to her arm for support, shuffling into the living room.

Nikki couldn’t believe how long it took Maddie to grasp what was going on. She watched her take in the assembled
group, saw her notice the presence of one of the volunteer gardeners, and then take in Dustin’s excitement at Max’s arrival. It was only then that she noticed the gun. Her eyes grew wide.

“Well,” Amherst said, the creepy monotone replaced by a snide sort of glee. “It looks like the gang’s all here.”

“What’s going on?” Max asked, letting go of Madeline’s arm and taking a step toward Dustin.

The little boy said, “Gax!” and clapped his hands.

“Stop right there,” Amherst said. “Nobody moves.” His eyes darted between Nicole and the baby and Max.

“What’s going on here?” Max asked again.

“He’s trying to decide who to shoot!” Nicole raised her voice in hopes that Giraldi was listening. “He came here to shoot
me,
but now he has so many potential targets he’s not sure how many of us he wants to kill!”

“Stop shouting,” Amherst said, raising his own voice for the first time.

Nicole could practically feel all of their brains racing, but it seemed she wasn’t the only one who had no idea what to do. This was when the cavalry was supposed to rush in. Or someone created a diversion so that the gun could be wrestled away from the madman. But they all just stood there frozen, waiting for him to decide whom to kill first.

All of them except Dustin.

“Gax! Gax!” He windmilled his arms like he always did to build momentum and took a drunken step forward. Then he took another one. He waved his arms again and took two more steps. Nicole could not believe the child had chosen this time and place to start walking.

Amherst’s gaze was drawn to the baby. His gun arm followed.

Nicole felt Avery move next to her and the gun swung her way. “Stop!” Amherst shouted, swinging the gun between Avery and Dustin. “Don’t move!”

Too many things happened then for Nicole to register them or the order in which they took place. Amherst squeezed the trigger at the same moment that Deirdre shoved Avery out of the way.

The smoking gun swung back toward the baby.

Nicole closed her eyes and launched herself at Amherst as Max moved and yelled, “Dustin! No!”

The gun went off again.

Nikki kicked and clawed at Amherst, operating on instinct and adrenaline as she tried to knock the gun out of Amherst’s hands.

A body landed on top of Nicole, knocking the air out of her. There was a deafening crack and a flash of heat as the gun fired a third time. Amherst went limp beneath her.

When she regained her senses, Maddie heard the wail of sirens in the distance and the sound of her own harsh breathing in her ears. Panic got her up off Nicole and onto her feet. She had to find Kyra and Dustin.

The front door burst open and Giraldi and Troy raced in.

“Don’t let anybody else in until the police or the ambulance get here!” Giraldi barked over his shoulder as he moved quickly into the living room, his gun drawn. He strode toward Kyra, who was kneeling in the pool of blood that surrounded Max.

“Help me!” Kyra shouted. “I can’t tell if Max is breathing or not. Dustin’s trapped underneath him.”

Maddie’s heart seized up as Giraldi lifted Max’s limp body off the little boy so that Kyra could reach her son. Maddie’s heart began to beat again when Dustin’s chubby arms reached for his mother and he began to wail. Breathing in a ragged sigh of relief, she took in the rest of the scene.

“Max has a pulse, but it’s faint,” Giraldi said as the sirens drew closer.

Deirdre sat up, clutching her arm, her face twisted in pain. Avery knelt protectively beside her. “Deirdre’s shot,” Avery said. Then, almost to herself, “She stepped in front of a bullet for me.”

Giraldi crossed the room and knelt down next to Nikki, who lay crumpled on the floor. His manner was cool and professional, but his eyes flashed with relief when she raised her head and opened her eyes.

“Don’t move,” he said to her. “I can’t tell if that’s your blood or Amherst’s. Just stay still until the paramedics get here.”

“But I’m right on top of him,” Nicole said, a note of hysteria in her voice.

Giraldi took Amherst’s wrist between his fingers and felt for a pulse. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “He’s not feeling a thing.”

Nicole scrambled up off the floor like someone shot from a cannon. “I’m not lying here on top of a dead guy.”

The sirens sounded outside then cut off in midscreech. Two paramedics and a policeman rushed in through the front door. Giraldi flashed his badge.

“We’ve got one confirmed dead,” he said, pointing to Amherst. “The lady took a bullet in the arm.” He nodded toward Deirdre. “This is Max,” he continued. “He’s ninety. And he’s lost a lot of blood.”

The paramedics knelt around Max. Gently they turned him onto his back. His shirt was saturated with blood. His eyes remained closed.

“Is he breathing?” Maddie asked, praying that he was.

“Barely,” Giraldi said as one paramedic worked to stabilize the old man. The other checked Dustin for injury, finally determining that the blood on the child belonged to Max, then moved to examine Deirdre.

“Gax!” The little boy shrieked as Max was carried out on the stretcher and placed in the ambulance. Deirdre was strapped in beside him.

Maddie’s throat clogged with fear as Giraldi piled them into the minivan and followed the ambulance to the hospital. Troy and Anthony followed behind them.

Maddie looked back at The Millicent as they turned off Meridian onto Third and she wondered whether Max would be back. Or whether he’d even make it to the hospital.

They huddled together in the hospital waiting room for what felt like an eternity while the surgeons struggled to remove the bullet that had lodged in Max’s chest.

They spoke little, staring at one another blankly as they waited for word. When the doctor finally came out to look for Max’s family, it took all of their persuasive powers and Giraldi’s badge to convince him that they were the closest thing to family that Max had.

“He lost a lot of blood and we think one of his lungs may have been compromised. He hasn’t regained consciousness.” The young doctor’s eyes were weary. “It’s possible he never will.”

The hours passed slowly while they waited for Max to come out of recovery. Still numb, they tried to piece together what had happened.

“I don’t understand where Amherst came from. Or why he would bring a gun and go after Nicole,” Kyra said, cradling Dustin in her arms.

Nicole swallowed thickly. Her hands shook as she thought of how close they’d all come to death. How completely her fault it was. “Joe tried to tell me how squirrelly Amherst was, but I…I was so desperate to believe he was a potential matchmaking client that I refused to listen.” She looked at the others whose lives she’d put at risk. “I had this weird encounter with him at his house where he tried to pick my brain about where the unrecovered money Malcolm stole was, but I didn’t know that his family had lost everything to Malcolm.

“I wrote him off as a client after that, but when he kept calling and texting and wanting to get together, I figured if I didn’t answer he’d just give up and disappear.”

Giraldi’s arm was strong and solid around her, but he didn’t interrupt. He hadn’t yet said “I told you so,” and she didn’t think he ever would.

“I hate to say it, but your visit to the Land of Denial almost got people killed,” Avery said with a glance at Deirdre and Dustin.

“I lived there for a while myself,” Maddie said. “And it’s not a good place.”

“I’m so sorry,” Nicole said, though she knew the words were nowhere near enough. “Losing his family home today must have pushed him over the edge. I…” She felt the tears well in her eyes. Her voice broke. “I never meant to put you all in danger. I didn’t realize…”

Giraldi pulled her tighter to him while she cried.

“So how did Deirdre get shot?” Andrew asked.

“She pushed me out of the way,” Avery said. “I still can’t believe she took a bullet for me.”

“And then Dustin started walking toward Max,” Maddie continued. “And Amherst pointed the gun at Dustin.” She closed her eyes tightly for a moment. “Max threw himself on top of Dustin. He saved his life. Oh God, I hope Max isn’t going to die.”

Kyra slipped an arm around her mother’s shoulders.

“I suspect he’d consider it a worthwhile exchange,” Giraldi said quietly. “He loves that boy. And he never had a chance to save his own son.”